Mind of Matt

Category: autarkism

  • Makers, take a rest!

    “Makers”. Last night (yes, whole night) I had the pleasure of reading Cory Doctorow’s “Makers” sci-fi novel. My first novel in 14 years that I finished. Ok, I skimmed at times. But still. The great thing with inspiring novels like this is, they can create intense emotional impressions, and from reflecting on these, you learn a lot. […]

  • What is all this autarky buzz about?

    You might have realized my increased interest in resilient communities and all the autarkic technology that they need. Why is this? Of course it is a viable (any my personal) answer to the current financial crisis and generally to the dangers of globalization. But it is also more. Here is a wild and quite unordered […]

  • Computer-enabled New Generalists

    “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook […]

  • Socialized hacking

    People’s all-time favorite spare time activity is socializing; either in reality (bars and clubs and homes) or in virtual reality (Facebook, MySpace, …). Now many nerds and geeks, like me, have a problem with that: it’s idle, nonsense activity, just about joking and being cool (if not drinking), but without any substance. It’s non-creative. Here’s […]

  • Reliability engineering for social security systems

    So-called single points of failure “are undesirable in any system whose goal is high availability”; so teaches Wikipedia. Now, systems for social security are, on the one hand, designed with this in mind: resources that need to be highly available in individual life, such as health care and nutrition, should not depend on the individual’s […]

  • Helping this world at system level?

    There is a disagreement in Christianity if the world can be helped at system level, and if yes, if a Christian is allowed to do so. First position: it’s forbidden Some people hold the opinion that the world cannot be really helped at the system level. Because man is, in essence, really bad. And even […]

  • All are living from nature

    Currently, I have the impression that I get drowned or defeated in economic competition, meaning this economic system is not the right one for me. So I thought about another one: In modern highly civilized societies, we’re several abstraction levels away from the nature level (“implementation level”), which is the level most people in history […]