next steps
In the past six weeks:
- I’ve been quarantined for ReDS observation;
- my academic reputation has been griefed, still being sorted out;
- my primary computer was hacked and I’ve been limping along on my mobile;
- I finally added up how much I was spending on black-market produce, and was finally horrified into looking at the inherent ethical problems;
- I’ve lost a good friend and colleague in an argument about academic use of Sky (non-linear thinking enhancement drug which acts on the language centers).
But, I’ve found a new community of people dedicated to change, be it individual or global. I had a strong start in Superstruct before my motherboard was permalocked, and haven’t been able to participate very much at all. This made me really angry, but it also gave me time to reflect on projects I want to dedicate some real worker-bee time to.
1. Open Source Teachers projects
- I’m continuing my work in open-collaborative math education. In particular, I’m interested in wiki-created syllabi. (When I’m feeling saucy I call it wikucation.) The idea is that students should build on their existing knowledge, and the teacher is an expert who will help them do that without going astray. The textbook industry didn’t go without a fight, but I think that it’s fair to say we won.
- I didn’t get a chance to play in Augmented University, but I’m looking forward to learning the virtual ropes and seeing what is possible.
- Continued online education publishing. God gave me both math sense and comedic timing, so he’s getting youtube math lectures whether he wants them or not.
2. My Urban Homestead
- On the individual scale, I will be joining the ranks of people who are serious about urban food production. The point is not to feed the entire population off windowsills — the point is to get people like me, who have been disconnected from the food cycle our entire lives, to learn about the rhythms of food production. At best we help the cities to continue to live; at worst, we practice the skills we’ll need outside the city. I refuse to give up cities until it’s all over. (I’m really looking forward to being wired enough to get some info from Augmented University on these topics!)
- On the local scale, I hope to locate Portland community organizers and guerilla gardeners to help create food production on roughly an apartment-building scale. Some managers (amazingly) don’t recognize it is in their best interest to provide support for apartment farmers. We’ll work to change that.
- On the global scale, I’d like to document all of this. I have some ideas for online video reports on urban foraging and farming. This part is still pretty hazy, but I’m sure the intersection of ‘gardener SEHIs’ and ‘Buzz members’ is nonempty. We’ll get it together, assuming that enough people stay superstructing with me.
3. Parallel World Order
This is a new idea, so no bullet list. I believe that we should be thinking about how to reinvent certain extant world organizations in a more decentralized fashion. What about a International P2P Monetary Fund, like a beefed-up Kiva.org? Could we wiki a Universal Charter of Human Rights, in a way that is safe(r) for people in repressive countries to participate? I don’t know enough policy, and I’m out of the loop enough that I don’t know if there’s something already superstructed with these ideas in mind.
final thoughts
Even though my participation was limited in the second half of this experiment, Superstruct has changed my life. I am looking forward to continuing to build the future with you all. I will continue publishing my observations here and on twitter from either infrarad or infrarad2019, and I’ll notify you here of any new projects that get off the ground. You do the same, okay? When you need 10 minutes of mathematician teacher comedian public-speaker total-plant-novice fair-to-middlin’-cook brain time, my email is infrarad+superstruct followed by an at sign and a gmail and a com.
May the best of your past be the worst of your future.
-Tom
