Humanity Thrive!

Dedication: to Yui and Arthur.Preface:Socrates was, still is, and always will be my mentor. He wasforced to kill himself by drinking an arsenic potion because hetaught his students to question authority. But he taught themmore than this: he taught them to question

everything

. Muchof science was developed with induction: the derivation of general rules from examples. Deduction, however, is themethod of deriving conclusions from a set of suppositionsusing logical rules. This is the standard technique inmathematics. There's also proof by contradiction which some“math purists” will not accept. It's also standard in math. Godeldeveloped his supremely important Incompleteness Theoremusing ___ (please research and fill in the blank yourself).Typically, a deduction is arrived at by working backwards. It'sa technique seldom taught in schools – just as math is seldomtaught with inspiration. The motivation for a proof is theinspiration for a particular method – such as when to use theepsilon-delta approach in advanced calculus. If there's only onething you get from this book, I hope it's this: cherish your education; what you truly learn is more important than anygrade. Some educators think there's an “expiration date” onyour education;

never think this

. It's a demoralizing anduseless thought. That idea was created out of fear – the fear of lack of students to keep the business of universities going. Butthere's no need to “give in” to this fear; there will always bestudents in a society that values education. True education isthe imparting of enduring principles and ideas such as theSocratic method – the Socratic method will never die becausethere will always be a need for it – just as there will always bea need for induction, deduction, and the systems approach. Andyes, the systems approach is just as important as induction,deduction, and the Socratic method.1

Contents: p03, 1. The Four Perspectives of the Systems-ReliabilityApproach p08, 2. Subdivide Versus Holistic p11, 3. What Goes Around Comes Around p14, 4. The Ends Cannot Justify the Means p16, 5. Distributed Versus Centralized Infrastructure p18, 6. Explicit Tolerance p22, 7. The Purpose of Education p26, 8. Three Technologies That Can Save the World p30, 9. Two Types of Companies p32, 10. The Two Fundamental Values of Civilization p36, 11. Example Design: A Human Supporting Ecosystem p38, 12. Are We Alone? p53, 13. GP@home p59, 14. Physics p67, 15. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome p69, 16. The Importance of Love and Family p70, 17. The Discipline of Prayer p73, 18. Three Distributed Computing Projects p75, 19. The Year 2012 p78, 20. Holistic Gardening p80, 21. The Holistic Home p83, 22. Utopia-Town p86, Addendum 1: Old Chapter on Physics p91, Addendum 2: A Second Paper on Physics p96, Addendum 3: A Third Paper on Physics2

1. The Four Perspectives of the Systems-Reliability ApproachBoundaryWhat's inside the system, what's outside the system, andwhat're the major components of the system? In answeringthese questions, we address the system notion of boundary.Let’s examine the human system. What's inside the humansystem? Human beings, social organization (formal andinformal), and our infrastructure – are major sub-systems.What are inputs? Those are energy, resources, ecologies thatimpact our lives, and natural (non-living) systems that impactour lives. What things “flow” between major sub-systems?Those things are: resources, energy, information, feelings (can be thought of as commodities that are exchanged), “controlsignals”, and disinformation. What are outputs of the humansystem? Those are wastes, heat, information, culture (bothconstructive and destructive aspects), and things that affectnon-living systems and ecologies.Aside: what's war in systems terms? War is the allocation of resources, energy, information, feelings (such as aggression),control signals, and disinformation – all directed at one goal:domination. The “rational” idea behind war (as hoped bygovernments waging war) is that long-term gains shouldoutweigh any short-term malady. Please refer to the chapter below entitled: The Ends Cannot Justify the Means.So, the system notion of boundary is the view that identifies thesystem concerned: what is inside and out, what are major components, what flows between, and what flows in and out.3