Fred,

Until this becomes something other than the kindergarten level world that it is, we will not be able to go much beyond the present functionality. However that does not meant that change is not possible and occurring. We do have mass communication now with the Internet, not in the sense of passive listening to radio or watching of television but of everything that we can do in the way of social media and cell phone technology in terms of a mass communication and connectedness. Thus we can have an Arab Spring that leads into the Occupy movements and that have basically spread around the world. At least for much of the world. We are starting to see a 'push back' from the masses that is changing what our 'rulers' feel that they can get away with. Think about the fees that banks were going to charge for use of debit cards after the government limited what they could charge on a per transaction basis. They tried to make up this lost income but the people would not have it and the big banks backed down.

There were going to be laws passed that would have shut down web sites upon just the accusation of copyright violation which could happen because of a user, not because of the site. This could be used to shut down our site when some board member posts something pushing the boundaries of copyright law and someone objected. There was push back from many Internet giants like Google and Facebook and others and those laws suddenly lost many of their major supporters. The battle for change is not by any means over. As the old saying goes, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. There is much yet that must happen before the repressive forces are vanquished. Things have only begun to move in this way. But there are at least some signs of movement and awakening of the 99%. We must still get big money out of politics as the driving force. As Randy has told us, it was done in Canada. We have to do it here also so that Wall Street, big banks and big corporations do not control our future to maximize their profits and the further polarization of wealth and income between the 99% and the 1%. The 1% must effectively realize that their wealth arises from the efforts of the 99%.

And none of this gets into the questions of population and fixing the environment. That must all be done as well. Then there is the question of food supply and disease. The four horsemen are saddled up, booted and spurred; ready to ride. There are many threads leading into this nexus in our future. How we come out on the other side is very much an open question. As Tom said, we must learn to live gracefully with uncertainty. But as we here learn more about metaphysics and the nature of our reality as a VR within CS, I have been trying to steer towards a matching awareness of what is going on in our VR and what MBT can tell us about how we should engage with it and deal with it.

Ted

Dear MoveOn member,

The FDA is on the brink of approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. This would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States.

The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised—don't we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we'll never know.

More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.

That's why I created a petition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on SignOn.org, which says:

Commissioner Hamburg, we urge the FDA to require the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. We have a right to know about the food we eat and what we feed our families, but under current FDA regulations, we don't have that ability when it comes to genetically engineered foods.

Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:

http://signon.org/sign/tell-the-fda-that-we?

Thanks!

–Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg

Some good news, actually....

Netherlands: Scientists grow meat for 'test-tube burger'
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... ube-burger


Dutch scientists have succeeded in growing meat in a laboratory, which they hope to turn into the world's first "test-tube hamburger" later this year.

A team from Maastricht University extracted stem cells from cows and grew them in containers to produce strips of muscle tissue, the Guardian reported.

It took longer to get here than I expected. In 20 years, if we still exist as a civilization, we will look back on the era of animal-based meat production as a truly barbaric time. Within five years, commercially available meat should be available to suit every taste, mimic any form, and even exist in forms not presently thought of.

Yeah. Once they get that figured out they can grow me a new liver from my own material.
Love
Bette

I think quantum replicators is going to be a realty one day. That is probably when this realty is really going to become fractal. Not to mention a great way to balance out nature with simulated food supply's. I did not know they were doing that with stem cells, Sounds like step one. That is good to hear. Fred searching for truth