Mindful, Engaged, Committed, Robust
“This is a civilization that is going down, not because it hasn’t got the knowledge that would save it, but because nobody will use the knowledge.” — Idries Shah
What kind of civilization would be optimal for life and human flourishing?
From the universal to the deeply personal.
Cospolon is a broad-minded and ultra-curious community eager to delve into any domain.
Start with a universal perspective, narrowing in on civil society and personal insights, and search for ways to improve ourselves within our unique communities while contributing to developing a sustainable global culture—cherishing life, good health, and diversity.
“Polis One”—The first book in a series about our two hundred thousand years journey to a new civilization.
Globe Hackers have an up-to-date understanding of our world and a long-term view of human potential. We are visionaries focused on solutions. We are curious, open, and grounded. We affirm the value of life and defend life.
Before you think this project is all about computers, read this definition of "hacking" in the Urban Dictionary.
The life of a genuine hacker is episodic rather than planned. Hackers create “hacks.” A hack can be anything from a practical joke to a brilliant new computer program. (VisiCalc was a great hack. Its imitators are not hacks.) But whatever it is, a good hack must be aesthetically perfect. If it's a joke, it must be a complete one. If you turn someone's dorm room upside-down, it's not enough to epoxy the furniture to the ceiling. It would be best if you also epoxied the pieces of paper to the desk. Brian Harvey University of California, Berkeley
Let's discuss living a fascinating life and learning all we can while we're fortunate to live here. We must redefine freedom, power, health, security, and identity in the context of a community bounded by natural, real, universal constraints.
“When I was very young, and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would scratch this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age, I was assured greater age would calm my fever, and now that I am fifty-eight, perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms, and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, once a bum, always a bum. I fear this disease is incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself...A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” John Steinbeck
This Is Not A Blip
“Nudge on, noble cowards. “No widely applicable economic models have been developed specifically for the upcoming era,” the researchers warned. But the situation is not desperate; unhappiness can be the beginning of promise. If there is some hope, it lies in the imagination in describing a future that does not fall back on the terms of the past. This means setting out new vistas for the expression of human desire and potential without recourse to the exhausted binaries of markets and state, individual and government, freedom and control. It means a new model of development, a new vision of the civic and economic constitution that avoids the cancers of modernization and growth. This is, unreservedly, a radical project. But before the struggle for equality comes the struggle for vocabulary. Before treatment of the global disease can begin in earnest, we must own up to liberalism’s failures. We must first say: this is not a blip, and nothing in our intellectual knapsack today will do for the journey ahead.”
Never get comfortable while standing firmly on the shoulders of giants.
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Many things make our planet unique, and one thing, regardless of our human differences, connects us all — our oceans.
Sailing is a humbling, exhilarating, and challenging experience. It has been a significant exploration mode since ancient times, opening opportunities for trade, expansion, and conquest. The sea holds a romance and history that defines the human spirit.
Exploration, independence, adventure, and power, both natural and human, combined with an indomitable spirit, have been the foundation of human progress across domains throughout history. Nothing embodies these qualities more than the seafaring person.
Anyone in love with the sea is horrified by what is happening to our oceans today. We must unite to maintain the health of our natural ecosystems so that they can sustain a wealth and diversity of life for generations to come. To say nothing of the natural services ocean life provides to terrestrial life.
What can we trust? Why is the 'information ecology' so damaged, and what would it take to make it honest and helpful? We must develop a culture that values information integrity. We must begin to act in the world sensibly with a firm understanding of reality. It is also a central concern in what many call the "meaning crisis" because what is meaningful is connected to what is real.
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"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metonymic phrase critiquing superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD — and is commonly used in cultural contexts, particularly political ones.
In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace — by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses).
Juvenal, who originated the phrase, used it to decry ordinary people's selfishness and neglect of broader concerns. The phrase implies a population's erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority.