by the meltingpot: Our architects on futuristic tech by harnessing the knowledge of the fifth dimension: : The Preamble.

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Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

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My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

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Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Our architects on futuristic tech by harnessing the knowledge of the fifth dimension: : The Preamble.

1) The very first cursory glance at the title of the post would instantly inform everybody that we are on a completely untrodden path.The anxiety inherent in taking such a path and the surreal ambience of talking 'fifth dimension' make my heart skips its beat like it would 'burst' at any moment.

2) One of the purposes of this preamble is to let it serve as a 'therapeutic potion' for my heart when I would be struggling to produce the 'Main Story' on Saturday.

3) For the 'Main Story',we are going to integrate three 'Yaangs' to let them coalesce into a single coherent story.I would try to be as concise as possible.I would also try to let the diagrams speak for themselves.

4) We need to speak of the context.Every legacy left behind by our architects should be intepreted in two distinct context.One is Manipur-specific narrative and the other,the Asia-wide one.For example when they say "Nongpok Thong Haangni",it could mean--(a)Manipur would start pivoting towards the East and (b) There would be Asia-wide re-awakening.

5) Continuing with (4),we must not shy away from making a bold,even a grandiose,assertion--our architects are aiming for an Asian-wide adoption of 'Paaphal-Yaang-Wa' trinity.

6) What is the need of (5)? Are they saying that we should also start donning the robes of the universally hated preachers?

7) In trying to answer the above question we need to understand the context.First,the architects themselves.They do not belong to any particular 'stream' of people.On the contrary,they are the result of a 'consensus' arrived at a geographical point,called Imphal valley.(With a little digression,it is appropriate for us to remember here at this moment that 'Imphal' means the continuous collision of theses and anti-theses).Second,the 'consensus' takes note of the geo-political perils of the Silk Road vis a vis the West,the vast plains of China vis vis the restless Mongols,the untamed seas vis a vis the psychotic islanders(particularly,Japanese).Third,the 'consensus',understanding the coming upheavals resulting from the above geo-political perils,agrees on the imperative of creating the right condition for enabling some stories to 'hibernate' in some isolated(thus,shielding from the expected upheavals) place like Imphal valley.Fourth,the 'consensus' takes up the arduous task of 'locking up' the stories and equally arduous task of designing the 'hints' to enable the future generation to 'unlock' them at the appropriate time.Understanding the context reveals to us that the 'stories' themselves are the 'consensus' itself.Thus,the question of preaching does not arise at all.(The story of 'Kangla-sha' clearly points to the historic emergence of the 'consensus').

8) Installing the above point as the backdrop,we can now pin-point the Asia-wide dilemma--should we jump up to the 'scientific way of life' leaving the 'borrowed stories' behind? (Here,we are not talking about religion per se).This dilemma presents itself in the form of existential Asian anxiety--not only that,it manifests itself in the mental state of inferiority complex in competing in the global stage.

9) The above problem should be remedied by the Asian re-awakening as envisaged by our architects.

10) All said and done,what is the degree of probability of our architects' dreams coming to fruition?

11) This question should be answered by the 'Main story',planned to be published this Saturday.But this preamble should also shine a brief light on the likely identity of the answer.Common sense tells us that any 'story' coming out a hilly terrain which is mostly identified by the Golden Triangle have zero chance of adoption by any society.But,let us try to race ahead up to that point of time when the state-of-the-arts labs around the globe find out the feasibility of creating futuristic tech by pursuing the vision of the fifth dimension as envisaged bu our architects.At that point of time,there should be huge demand for all the conceivable information regarding our architects and their vision.That might serve as the proverbial inflection point as well.

11) It is the time to wrap up this preamble and step into the next level of building up the 'Main Story'.When it materializes in this four dimensional world,we should have the chance to see what would happen to their vision of the fifth dimension and its likely impact in this existential world.

by the meltingpot

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