Yesterday, at the Web and Beyond, Nodal points were part of a talk by Jyri Engestrom. The reference was to William Gibsons use of Nodal Points in his novel Idoru.
The main character Colin Laney has a talent for identifying nodal points.
In brief interpretation: Nodal points come boling up by pattern recognition and state the outcome of an intersaction of events . In Idoru Gibson describes Laney absorbing all kinds of information, even the seemingly irrelevant, and filter out the next main event. This can be the rise or fall of stocks, or the birth or death of a person or new development.
This talent of Laney is leased by different people to predict the possible future.
An important part of the "nodal points" item is chaos theory, of which the most well known example is "the butterfly effect". "When a butterfly flaps it's wings in china, the movements might be the cause of a storm in the United States". In other words, small, seemingly unrelated events might be the cause of something bigger and totally different.
I interpreted "Nodal Points" via "nodes". A node being an intersection or focal point from which new lines emerge.
Pattern recognition
An important part of our brain interprets "reality" via pattern recognition: a non-linear/parallel process overlaying the "new" on the "old" and finding the differences to process. Very likley around 80% we think we see are re-arranged images form memory. It is an economical process in the wiring of our brain that works around the limitations of our processing and storage systems and allows us to keep up with reality around us.
Another part of this wonderful system is the "associative paths subroutine". Our brain is capable of scanning connections to related issues in quite an effective way (taken: apart from how we use this system).
The "associative paths subroutine" in my opinion is one of the sources of creativity.
Al this processing is happening on a "subconscious" level. We are not "aware" of all this processe happening.
Nodal points revisited
Pattern recognition allows us to boil enormous amounts of data down to fields of importance / relevance. The more relevant, the more urgency it will gain. The less relevant, the less urgency.
When Nodal Points are focal points, lines converge and "explode" into a new possible realm. This can be a new insight or - in the case of Idoru - a prediction of possible future events.
To predict the future, there are a lot of patterns to evaluate: from individual and group behaviour patterns to economical, migrational, weather related, demographic and geographic to mention some.
Getting the most likely outcome, you use as much related data and overlay them. Hot-zones are the repetative patterns. Cold-zones the patterns that emerge case-specific. Emerging zones the patterns that seem to move to become repetative and will introduce a change or shift.
To recognize the event or series of events that lead to this change is what I believe the talent of Colin Laney is about in Idoru.
Nodal points in search technology
Based on statistic information regarding my pst searches and "what people with a similar field of interest searched for in the past" you can predict my possible next search and need for information. You can offer me very specific articles regarding the topics that relate to my needs. Taking the speech by Jyri Engestrom (founder of Jaiku, currently working at Google) it might be the next logical step by Google.
You do need the bookmarks people collected, however, to make the connections, since browsing behaviour as Google is tracking now is very "dirty" data.
It is very likely only a matter of time before Google will buy a social bookmarking party like Del.icio.us to be able to make these connections (if they did not do so already).
Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
The meaning of life
When I was about 16 years old, I started my internship for a medium sized company in a small village in Holland that produced electronics for coffee-machines. It was located next to a cabbage-processing factory, so the air was regularly pregnant with the scent of boiled cabbage.
My job was to test the electronics and separate the functional from the defect.
Being there, what hit me most was the defeatist attitude of people within this company and being sensitive, it affected me as well. I hated the taste of coffee and to my opinion people were wasting their time doing a crappy job they did not like instead of searching for a purposeful and meaningful existence.
Lying in bed one night it hit me. I saw an entire chain of senseless industries. People getting out of bed, starting their car, driving to work, producing something lacking any sort of worth at all, having minimal to no influence to their environment and then go home again.
Another day wasted doing something useless. The first association I had was "this is just all occupational therapy". Doing something, just anything, to feel useful.
Giving meaning to life
I boiled the entire train of thought down to one question: "what gives meaning to life?" It came down to two main values:
1: To have value/meaning/use to other people
I made the assumption that most people fear to be useless. In their jobs, in their relationships, and so on. To do useless work is de-motivating. To be neglected and rejected is painful. To be void of appreciation makes us sad. It kills us mentally and emotionally on the long run.
To have value, be appreciated, be seen, be recognized, be awarded inspires us, makes us happy, fills us with energy. To understand what value you are contributing to someone increases your efforts in general and makes you understand why you are valuable as a person.
I believe that this is due to our genetic programming. Our origin is that of a group-species. To be part of a group means safety, sex, grooming, protection and food. Not to be part means struggle and death.
It is not so strange we measure people by their jobs, social groups, references and social influence.
2: To be able to change / influence your environment
Somehow we need the sense of control upon our own life. I specifically say "sense". It is already soothing to know that you have the option to change something when required. When we have the feeling to be "stuck" we get uncomfortable. Rules and regulations can be experienced as limiting. But also peer pressure, social control and internalized rules and regulations.
The practical side to this
What you give is what you receive. What you are capable to receive is what you are capable to see and appreciate. The painful part is that if we have been experiencing a lack of appreciation, we very likely miss out on people who have loads of appreciation to share, even to us.
Survival
What we do can be seen from this model as either something we do to create a change, or to create value for others in order to be of value. We do it - I guess - as part of our survival system. If we are not able to create change, we get stuck in what is going wrong and we might die. If we are not of value to other people we might be cast out, lose a lot we hold for granted and as a result we might die. (According to our survival system.)
Creating meaning
The answer to "What is the meaning of (my) life?" is very divers. "Nothing" is one, since after your death everything will continue and: "What you make it" is another, since everything you value is valued by your own perception.
Using this model, life is about two main things:
My job was to test the electronics and separate the functional from the defect.
Being there, what hit me most was the defeatist attitude of people within this company and being sensitive, it affected me as well. I hated the taste of coffee and to my opinion people were wasting their time doing a crappy job they did not like instead of searching for a purposeful and meaningful existence.
Lying in bed one night it hit me. I saw an entire chain of senseless industries. People getting out of bed, starting their car, driving to work, producing something lacking any sort of worth at all, having minimal to no influence to their environment and then go home again.
Another day wasted doing something useless. The first association I had was "this is just all occupational therapy". Doing something, just anything, to feel useful.
Giving meaning to life
I boiled the entire train of thought down to one question: "what gives meaning to life?" It came down to two main values:
- To be valuable/meaningful/use to other people
- To be able to change / influence your environment
1: To have value/meaning/use to other people
I made the assumption that most people fear to be useless. In their jobs, in their relationships, and so on. To do useless work is de-motivating. To be neglected and rejected is painful. To be void of appreciation makes us sad. It kills us mentally and emotionally on the long run.
To have value, be appreciated, be seen, be recognized, be awarded inspires us, makes us happy, fills us with energy. To understand what value you are contributing to someone increases your efforts in general and makes you understand why you are valuable as a person.
I believe that this is due to our genetic programming. Our origin is that of a group-species. To be part of a group means safety, sex, grooming, protection and food. Not to be part means struggle and death.
It is not so strange we measure people by their jobs, social groups, references and social influence.
2: To be able to change / influence your environment
Somehow we need the sense of control upon our own life. I specifically say "sense". It is already soothing to know that you have the option to change something when required. When we have the feeling to be "stuck" we get uncomfortable. Rules and regulations can be experienced as limiting. But also peer pressure, social control and internalized rules and regulations.
The practical side to this
What you give is what you receive. What you are capable to receive is what you are capable to see and appreciate. The painful part is that if we have been experiencing a lack of appreciation, we very likely miss out on people who have loads of appreciation to share, even to us.
Survival
What we do can be seen from this model as either something we do to create a change, or to create value for others in order to be of value. We do it - I guess - as part of our survival system. If we are not able to create change, we get stuck in what is going wrong and we might die. If we are not of value to other people we might be cast out, lose a lot we hold for granted and as a result we might die. (According to our survival system.)
Creating meaning
The answer to "What is the meaning of (my) life?" is very divers. "Nothing" is one, since after your death everything will continue and: "What you make it" is another, since everything you value is valued by your own perception.
Using this model, life is about two main things:
- Being connected to others, sharing, being of value and making fun.
- Being able to change your personal situation either via your environment or by moving to other places and groups.
- Is it good for me now?
- Is it safe?
- Do I learn and grow from it?
- Can I add value here now?
- Am I appriciated (by the group) for who I am and what I have to offer now?
Friday, May 9, 2008
To like your own family
I just had a conversation with my girlfriend about family and "unresolved problems". Things you want to get out in the open and cleared between you and the others. We entered the scope of forgiving and forgiveness, the patterns we have copied, love and the main issue to be addressed.
Open for discussion?
What if your family does not want to address certain topics, because they are too painful, to embarrassing or just something the other finds irrelevant / a dead letter? It's hard. It can be a driving factor empowering you to break through barriers and boundaries, it can freeze you into paralysis regarding personal and other relationships, it can be a frustrating stopping factor in your self belief and your potential to grow as whatever you like to become. And so on, and so on.
Blame, forgiveness and the patterns we copied
What if the things we blame the others for doing are a mirror image of the things we do ourselves? Distorted maybe, but still with enough connections to see the resemblance from a distance. When blaming my mother for being emotionally closed, I should also look into my own live and see how I am expressing the exact same thing in my own life.
Maybe we are more alike than I like. If this is the case, I am and will be making similar mistakes as she does, hurting other people in similar ways I think I have been hurt by her. So adding things up: who am I to blame when I am doing "the same" as she did?
One of the parts of forgiving is to acknowledge that I make mistakes to. One of the parts of "blame" is "I am right/perfect/flawless and you were wrong". But I am human. My own software is far from optimal. Who am I to blame you or my mother when I am "wrong" at times as well?
Forgiving your peers
Forgive & forget? Maybe or maybe not. Let go of things in the past? I definately think so. The biggest "what is in it for ME?" with forgiveness is "to drop the load". Every issue you carry with you is like a stone in your backpack. The more you carry, the more it limits you.
Bindings & love
Why do we keep returning? What binds us as a family? Even when things went ugly in the past? Is it plight that we visit our mum and dad, brother, sister? Unresolved issues? And why do we start certain discussions about things in the past? Because we want to be right? Or is there also love involved? It depends, I guess.
Let's take binding and love. When I asked my girlfriend regarding reasons her sister visited her birthday: "Why do you go to your sisters birthday?" She said: "Because she is my sister... ..because I love her." I asked: "Could it be that she is doing the same, for the same reasons?"
Why repair?
Why would I try to repair my family? What tools would I use? What is my driving factor? What can be solved? Which part is about righteousness? Which part about getting things my way? What am I trying to repair here?
Maybe "reparation" is not up to me when anyone else in my family does not see or recognize the problems I see. What if an important part of my efforts to repair my family are based on efforts to repair myself? Might that change my agenda for discussion?
Clearing a family situation
Clearing a family situation might be a very tricky thing when my own motivations are in the dark. What will I clear up? What will become clear after such a conversation? Is my pain resolved or did it only become stronger?
I strongly believe that it is important to talk, communicate, share, understand, investigate, find out. And maybe the result will be clarification in the story you have made up in the past.
Open for discussion?
What if your family does not want to address certain topics, because they are too painful, to embarrassing or just something the other finds irrelevant / a dead letter? It's hard. It can be a driving factor empowering you to break through barriers and boundaries, it can freeze you into paralysis regarding personal and other relationships, it can be a frustrating stopping factor in your self belief and your potential to grow as whatever you like to become. And so on, and so on.
Blame, forgiveness and the patterns we copied
What if the things we blame the others for doing are a mirror image of the things we do ourselves? Distorted maybe, but still with enough connections to see the resemblance from a distance. When blaming my mother for being emotionally closed, I should also look into my own live and see how I am expressing the exact same thing in my own life.
Maybe we are more alike than I like. If this is the case, I am and will be making similar mistakes as she does, hurting other people in similar ways I think I have been hurt by her. So adding things up: who am I to blame when I am doing "the same" as she did?
One of the parts of forgiving is to acknowledge that I make mistakes to. One of the parts of "blame" is "I am right/perfect/flawless and you were wrong". But I am human. My own software is far from optimal. Who am I to blame you or my mother when I am "wrong" at times as well?
Forgiving your peers
Forgive & forget? Maybe or maybe not. Let go of things in the past? I definately think so. The biggest "what is in it for ME?" with forgiveness is "to drop the load". Every issue you carry with you is like a stone in your backpack. The more you carry, the more it limits you.
Bindings & love
Why do we keep returning? What binds us as a family? Even when things went ugly in the past? Is it plight that we visit our mum and dad, brother, sister? Unresolved issues? And why do we start certain discussions about things in the past? Because we want to be right? Or is there also love involved? It depends, I guess.
Let's take binding and love. When I asked my girlfriend regarding reasons her sister visited her birthday: "Why do you go to your sisters birthday?" She said: "Because she is my sister... ..because I love her." I asked: "Could it be that she is doing the same, for the same reasons?"
Why repair?
Why would I try to repair my family? What tools would I use? What is my driving factor? What can be solved? Which part is about righteousness? Which part about getting things my way? What am I trying to repair here?
Maybe "reparation" is not up to me when anyone else in my family does not see or recognize the problems I see. What if an important part of my efforts to repair my family are based on efforts to repair myself? Might that change my agenda for discussion?
Clearing a family situation
Clearing a family situation might be a very tricky thing when my own motivations are in the dark. What will I clear up? What will become clear after such a conversation? Is my pain resolved or did it only become stronger?
I strongly believe that it is important to talk, communicate, share, understand, investigate, find out. And maybe the result will be clarification in the story you have made up in the past.
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