Future visioning for San Diego: some local examples -- know of any others?

We got to re-introducing ourselves on the sdishmael list, and Chet Fagin shared the following.

"future" (photo: carf)

[. . .] I live in San Diego with my wife and 2 year old daughter.
I joined the list mainly because I am concerned about where humanity is headed and about its long term survival. I wrote a piece earlier this year (inspired by Ishmael of course) called "Four Generations" which theorizes where we'll be 4 generations from now. I've referred to it as a "thinly veiled manifesto wrapped in a science fiction story". I consider it a work in progress so I'll be starting a blog soon to continue the conversation.
Meanwhile, if you're interested to read, you can download it here. I certainly welcome your feedback.

- Chet

My response (which began a short email and led to this post!):

Chet,
Thank you for sharing this!

"The more you do, the more your mind will shift, and the more you’ll discover."

That is a beautiful view. I've been following a general feeling of beauty / aesthetic sense / sense of what is right (sort of summed up by "carfreeness") where it leads me for many years now, and my mind shift continues to take me more interesting places.

I don't want to get wrapped up in commenting on your presentation--

I think it is more important to encourage everyone who can take it on to practice the kind of long visioning you model here (following the lead of The Long Now Foundation & Stephen Covey's 8th habit).

"Some things don't change at all" was my last attempt at the theme.

The breadth of your manifesto reminded me of Arth's The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems.

It is also nice for us to celebrate ourselves as local authors, enlivening and visioning our local future, instead of, say, always looking to the Bay Area, Cascadia, etc.

A local example of a well-published author practicing future visioning is Vernor Vinge's SD County-set Rainbows End, the entire text of which is online. (What a sentence! but I don't want to spend all night revising). I found his vision both life-changing--in how it affected my view of personal use of technology--and, regarding future transit and industry, conservative.

Hmm. And my two cents on your presentation (only since you wrote, "I certainly welcome your feedback."):

1. You give us an odd, unexplainable scenario right off the bat (a good device for encouraging us to read on), but, as far as I can tell in my quick read, it is never resolved or elaborated on!
   
2. Maybe differentiate the voices more--perhaps with more description interspersed with the dialog, since, for me, sometimes the voices ran together.

So, do any of you have more local future visioning projects to share? Literary, visual, or otherwise?

And, Larry, I love that you're helping keep this blog alive, and that you're finding pictures for your posts! So I scrounged up a photo for this post too.
Peace,

BarCamp San Diego 3; The evolving network and whole-system health

Saturday	Sunday

I had been thinking I needed to write a post-mortem for this blog--this site was intended to demo technology, and it has. I've moved on from obsessively hacking at it however. Recently I've just been posting at Colin's Forest Blog.

Well, Bar Camp this past weekend pushed me to post here again. Let me list the reasons:

• Bar Camp is intensely collaborative (a main intent of this--the SDTJDPH--web space).
• I met Jed Sundwall(T)--who's put up a google map of places to find & eat local food. I've added this map to our map channels. Jed helped get Jay Porter of the Linkery to show up at Bar Camp -- a main reason I decided to head out there for the weekend. Jed also has helped make a documentary on cilantro. And he gardens.
  
• I met Rachel -- who informed me about a group of San Diegans who, from what she told me, are quite serious in helping there be affordable, sustainable, land trust housing for community-minded San Diegans.
  
• I met Robin--a proclaimed non-techhie interested in social justice activism.
• The empowerthyself crew was there--from Santa Barbara, LA, and some other CA town.
• But our local indymedia/ hacklab wasn't really there--except through Rachel!
• Eric Bidwell(T) was there--updating us on his mayoral campaign.
• Ian Miller--another SDFNL participant (more active than I am) and California Rare Fruit Growers participant & gardener was there.
• There was interest in many of the sessions I posted to the board:
• Barcamp in the forest - well attended, appreciated
  
• Net philosophy / visioning / Sci-fi / Transhumanism -- Where do networked identities lead? What examples do you have already? Participants shared their past awareness-changing experiences with the net + future visions; well attended, appreciated.
• Morning Exercises - Integral Transformative Practice Kata: easy yoga, tai chi, qi gung at 8am brought out Jay, who did some qi gung while I followed my routine, as we looked out over the bit of canyon.
• There was a lot of interest in Carfree cities / Carfree living, but I wasn't sure how to best manage this and I tend to get a little crazy / emotionally involved. . .
• Meditation (Walking & Sitting) + what is it about? Peace? Creation vs. Reproduction? didn't get any takers. Nor did the Plant Walk. But it was nice to get out of the office­ building and do some sitting and relaxing.
• Permaculture: what is it? (hacking the landscape?) didn't draw a soul--though many of the first-day attendees mentioned interest in this, and both Jay and Jed wanted to look more into this concept. To be fair, I hardly touched a computer the whole weekend, so my presentations were nothing special, except where they benefited from a good round-robin type sharing--when I managed to set it up well with some good questions. No slideshows, photos, or video here. I was too busy enjoying being with people to want to look at a screen.
  
• Presentations I was able to get to and enjoyed:
• Jay Porter on the Pre-industral / slow-food vision behind the Linkery and what they've accomplished so far.
• Jeff's (Jeffrey Johnson of Pictearth) presentation on unmanned aerial vehicles + imaging.
• David Horn (and at raconteuring, [T] ) on location based services. LBSs use info about one's location, often through GPS, cell phone tower location, or manual entry. Some sites mentioned:
• Fire Eagle
• Bright Kite (see their post on Re-democratizing the third place)
• Dodgeball
  
• Twinkle
• Navizon
• Hacking the mind (I forgot who did this--but it had a good audience & good things came up)
• Andy Mesa - (T) on the iPhone
• iLiberty, iNdependence, iPownage -- all utilities for jailbreaking (allowing third-party apps) and unlocking (allow use with other mobile providers)
• He uses a prepaid plan with TMobile--$20 for unlimited data $20 for 1000 min / month (is this accurate?) + tmobile hotspot wifi access
• Phring (use iphone as phone over ip)
• A carfree discussion enthusiast-- and had many great stories to share on Portland
• He informed me that SD is on google transit. . . I guess it has been for a while. But it doesn't integrate with North County Transit.
  
• Richard Hilton on Lucid Dreaming
• Nikolaj Baer on python and pygame . . . & pyglet.
  
• He showed a quick demo where tilting his laptop would roll a circle (ball) around his screen and bounce against the sides of an n-gon. Different segments of the polygon made different tones when hit. Very simple code attaching into 2-d physics libraries (pymonk?), plus the alsa/timidity synth, cat-ing the tilt sensor device (had to add kernel module for that).
• He rode his bike the first day from PB. A long ride. Once upon a time he was a major gear(bike)head.
  
• People I met:
• Byron Cook - an extreme outdoors guy--S&R (search and rescue), ultra-endurance, the whole nine yards (but not primitive / origin skills & food growing). Mentioned golite if you don't want to take the time to sew up Jardine's stuff.
• Nathan Hubbard - (T) - blog - liked the philosophy session
  
• Jbruin(T) (Jennifer Van Grove) twitter maestra
  
• Patrick Crowley - (T) , barcamp organizer & green hummer creator.
• Brynn Marie Evans. She shook my hand. Asked if I used twitter. Clarity!
  
• Lisa Brewster - (T) her diet & technomad pages
• I saw Alex Kawas / emp(T).
  
• I saw Dan Tentler / viss(T) -- here's his more detailed post on BCSD3.
• nice: lightbending
• his bcsd3 photos
  
• A promoter of lovejourney.us (?) was there--we were both in the "hacking the mind" session. More interesting to me was a guy in that session who knew of nearly everything I had to add: Wilber, Cohen, wie.org, Theory U/ Otto Scharmer, etc. I neglected to talk further with that guy or find out who he is. [I'm guessing this was Sean Voisen.]
  
• Jay Bushman(T) - (creator of a twitter adaptation of Melville's "Benito Cereno" ) - was the guy up doing Qi Gung. . . He has a helpful post just up from a cool mag (looks like the mag articles get posted in their blog--nice).
  

[Well that's about 6 hours of Internetting. What's left to explore?]

I'm in the dark about many things at this event. Twitter in particular. . . Here's the

• pre-BCSD tweme (#barcampsd)
  
• in-process BCSD tweme (#bcsd) (it's shorter--that's all)
• and one more (#bcsd3)
• And here's an account used by bcsd organizers to announce stuff.
  

#Nom = food (not sure why. Natural Organic Matter??)

[I'm hoplessly lost in netland--back to now taking a look at some other people who I noticed and only now have their names/online ids:]

• Garret Lisi - blog - (T) He has his own wikipedia page. . . and is currently famous for a unifying theory (physics). His girlfriend, CrystalJean(T), mentioned Michael E. Arth during part of my attempt to guide a carfree cities & living discussion. . . here's the tweet about Arth visiting!
• Hike the geek san diego
• an international network of rational adventurers . . . creating, living, and sharing the good life (origin in San Diego 1996!)
  
• Enrique Gutierrez -- nrek(T)
  
• sociosophy
• Well, I'm not sure who Enrique was. . . I think I confused him with Dante Lanznaster.
  
• Glenn Zucman (artboy CSLUB art prof) artboyusa(T)
  
• Woody(T) helped us all.
  
• June's handshaking session. . . physical human handshaking, and I pestered her about a didactic Western European prescriptive approach. Joonspoon(T). Gaelic?

[Alright. The Internetting is petering out. . . I'm up to 12 hours at this point. Nearly. . .
The free connection failed. . . as a result I got out and got some exercise, and was compelled to walk to campus this morning. So now this is the second day of fiddling with this post. What's left?]

A lot more can be said. The contrasts between this gathering and the Feral Visions Against Civilization 2007 in location and feel. . . I could address that.

I camped in the canyon. . . the scrap of canyon left.

Here's the bird's eye view of the location. University City--very Le Corbusian. I thought the bird's eye view would bring it out, but street view may be better. Looking south toward the building:
Every office monolith surrounded by an asphalt sea or harboring a parking tower. A new monolith and tower combo was nearly completed in the adjacent lot. The garage lights are on all night.

Overall, what was going on at barcamp?

Here's one vague way to look at it: The physical and social technologies there are developing the wiring and self-organization of a global organism. And there should be some new, emergent qualities of this network of consciousness/spirit/interest/motivation.

Notable is the intrinsic motivation apparent in this type of gathering.

Participants are not paid to be there. It is an economy based on curiosity, interest, and ability to inspire rather than potential for $$ profit or fear of some force.

Twitter in particular and the sessions organized around it show how this group is figuring out the wiring, flow, and organization of the sending of signals throughout this networked entity.

Some were attempting to address the overwhelming amount of tweets and other content coming in.

Others are exercising the location-sensing capability of mobile devices--and considering what this makes possible.

The iceberg of data-flows below the surface of an in-person encounter: I become aware of someone's presence. Looking into the twittering of the conference--or just the list of registrants--I find connections to data flows and can explore more contact.

I notice the compelling connection with the networked entity--as, for example, in the sending and receiving of tweets on a mobile device.

To click a link and see a recent short statement of another's focus of attention--that is easy to digest--is compelling.

Contact.

Newness.

Expanding awareness?

It is easy to follow what is closest to our current state and stretches us just a little? Creating the background familiarity enables deeper, more changing communication later on?

In considering who I might twitter-follow--Thich Nhat Hanh?--I found the mindfulness chimes of innertwitter. Ken Wilber has an account, but no tweets.

But twittering is participative?

There's no johnheron twitter account. . .

Barcamp seethes. They are creating.

An element of creation is withdrawal for reflection.

The balance between jumping in the flow of barcamp,

between compulsively exploring the new links/flows/personalities/patterns/concepts/realms,

and withdrawing to care for body and independent perspective.

The jumping of attention & immediate reaction & creation vs. single-pointed mind or expansive all-awareness.

I'm done exploring this

I'll let this go.

Bringing consciousness into matter

The Aurobindian view on what is occurring?

My challenge is

reconciling the somewhat body-destructive behavior of working with the computer/mobile devices all day with how compelling it can be to do so.

It may come down to seeking connection and not having healthier sources close at hand.

I can't ignore the barcampers--

Some of them handle the tech well, and are thriving & healthy.

I find the outdoor gatherings more healthful and nourishing. More body, life, ecosystem awareness there.

Both styles of community are converging. Green anarchists, permaculturists, & others use the tech the barcampers mature. Barcampers seek personal, social, and ecosystem health.

--

Garret Lisi's Science Hostel + Ongoing barcamp in the forest . . .

We may be challenged by a large amount of differentiation. We have lives & landscapes of dis-integration that we're learning to consciously re-integrate-- using & incorporating evolving capabilities.

As a result we have what can be overwhelming gatherings, bingeing, drinking from a fire hydrant.

I can learn to drink what I can handle as well as to integrate in moderation more of the elements I usually lack into an ongoing life.

I can spend more time in the state of no lack/great awareness/great care.

Peace.

Visions of the Future: about the 1/31 Foundation for Change gathering

[This was written for the foundation4change discussion board.]

John, thanks for hosting Salon Pro Cambio last night.

For those who weren't there, these questions were handed out at the gathering:

• Imagine two people living in San Diego 25 years from now. One of them says, "I can't believe the world was like that 25 years ago." What are they talking about?
• Which presidential candidate, if elected, would bring about the greatest change for good in the world? What change do you hope that will be?
• Which candidate would bring about the greatest change for the bad if elected? What change do you fear that will be?
• When was the first time you crossed the U.S.-Mexico border? When was the last time you crossed the border? What do you feel when you cross the border?
• Do you consider yourself part of a movement? If so, which one? What is a social "movement" anyway? How can you know one when you see one?

Marnie and I did get around to addressing the first question.

I had already done something similar to this for the Car Busters Post-Petroleum Writing Contest of 2005: "Some things don't change at all."

The main idea from that I'd carry forward to this conversation is:

"I can't believe that people 25 years ago didn't live and work in the same neighborhood--I can't believe they used cars (or even public transit) as part of their daily lives."

(I believe that community land trusts--which do involve waiting lists and exclusion of people that way--are a part of this vision, as a way to remove land from being (1) seen as investment income and (2) a slave to "highest and best use". Could cities become composed entirely of community land trusts?).

There are increasing numbers of people outside the carfree movement who are coming to believe that carfree living is a central solution to many environmental and social problems. As only a few examples of new(er)comers to this focus, we have:

• My Other Car is a Bright Green City
• The Masdar Initiative: video at AutoblogGreen, google, more
• Michael E. Arth, New Pedestrianism [1999]
  
• Walkscore.com
• City Repair [not new--1996], and The Depave project of City Repair
• And many others worldwide--[here are some of the American-initiated projects: APM: 1990, EcoCity Berkeley: pre-1987, Carfree.com: 1996, Carbusters: 1998]
  

I think where the foundation for change discussion is headed though is: "I can't believe there was a border 25 years ago", along the lines of the vision of the Organic Collective and Delete the Border.

As for the questions on presidential politics, how about this:

"I can't believe that 25 years ago some people still thought US presidential politics mattered."

Although, more realistically, I would look for reforms such as those called for by George Monbiot in Manifesto for a New World Order (a world parliament, for one) and by Michael E. Arth.

I found something in Yes! magazine (Winter 07-08) to be encouraging:

"The leadership of ordinary people" is what is needed now.

and

"The best antidote to the fear, helplessness, and isolation that drives people into apathy is community and joy." Gelder, Pibel. 19.

Regarding the border, I haven't crossed it for a while. But I recently was in the Pine Creek Wilderness (PCW) for a week. And many border crossers pass through there. I've been eating some cans of chipotle tuna some of them left behind. PCW is a very interesting place--it contains one of the few wilderness pedestrian trail networks in the US that is used primarily for making a living rather than for recreation, and it is perhaps the future location of a section of an historic continental migration trail.

I'd love to cross the border in the wilderness, or by walking through the spaces in the pylons on the beach, and not go where all the cars go through and where pedestrians are funneled like cattle.

As for movements, I consider myself part of the carfree movement. I have followed this movement to where it has led me--to learning about Buddhism and meditation, among other things, and to wanting to help people to make their neighborhoods places worth staying in. I think movements just have individuals who self-identify as being part of a movement. And it was a significant moment when I went from non-identification to identification with the movement (see the bottom of this page). Please note I aim to be open to moving beyond/ transcending all my earlier statements and identifications.

--------

Near the end of the gathering, Zach put the question in the air of whether the mixer should be more or less formal in the future. Here's some ideas.

Next time, perhaps have a go-around for each attendee who wants to to briefly share a vision or a project.

If it's a huge group, a volunteer can time things and tell people when some interval has passed -- 15 or 30 seconds or whatever amount of time seems reasonable.

If people have trouble speaking, or even if they don't, they could first pair up with a partner they haven't talked to and share in small groups. Later, people could share what they heard from their partner, as above (this makes us practice listening).

Two more personal notes:

• "Salon" and "Mixer" seem a bit too snooty for me, but I suppose it fits with the Urban Solace vibe, and the need of the foundation to bring in donors--not just to be a gathering place for eccentric activists.
• I didn't get around to meet everyone. I didn't feel a great need to get around and network with every person. A go-around would have helped me at least get a message out and hear messages I wouldn't otherwise get. Maybe in the future I will focus more on getting the word out about the things I work on.

Contributor Guidelines and Vision

Here is a list of those who have been invited to contribute.

Our overall goal is to create a quality source of content devoted to caring for the commons in the San Diego / Tijuana region. We want posting here and reading here to help us grow in our understanding of the space we share and how to care for it. Any posting guidelines will be secondary to that underlying goal, so don't adhere too narrowly to the following.

• Frequency: Try to post at least once a month, even if you think you have nothing to say--we want to hear from you. Try not to post more than once per week, but if you need to add some supporting posts (links, calendars, maps), then you do.
• Links: This blog does not have a list of links to other sites on its main page. Instead, each contributor can create a page of links. Create a post with the links you want to share and link to this page in your profile (if you'd like help doing this, let me know). Tag this post 'links'. Then it will appear on our links page.
• Vision: Perhaps write a statement of vision, either as a post (this could be your introductory post), or put it in your profile. You could tag this post 'vision' and 'introduction'.
• Titles: Perhaps use a unique title (one others probably will not use) for your posts. For example, instead of "Links", write "LocalpowerSD's Links".
• Turn-taking: consider taking turns posting among people who come from different viewpoints. I'm not sure how to make this work in practice, but if we have only women posting, we should take time to encourage men to post. If we have only San Diego residents posting, let's encourage Tijuana residents to post (and perhaps correspondents about good things happening in other cities). Homeowners only? Find renters, homeless. A brainstorm of some other categories not to get stuck in follows. I'm sure you can add to the list: Age groups (under 20, over 50), suburban/urban, native/not, monolingual/multilingual, children/child-free, professions, incomes, institutional education level.
• A feed of your own: To help your readers to subscribe to your posts only, follow the feed customization How-To. You can also use the feed you create that way to display your posts on another website. In other words, you can post to this blog and then resyndicate your posts to your own website--displaying there only your own content while also showing you are connected to this forum.
• Comment notification: Currently, contributors do not receive notification when someone comments on their posts! Unless the contributor (1) clicks on the title of her post to go to the single-page view, and (2) scrolls to the bottom of the page and clicks on the last link on the left: "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)". That may be too much of a hassle, so I'll email contributors who receive comments to their posts unless they don't want me to. Ask Blogger to allow contributors to receive email when people comment on their posts.

In general, if you're unsure what to do here, consider whether your post or your action contributes to caring for the commons. Should this blog succeed, what that means will probably be questioned at some point!