Peace on Earth

By Eric Ton

Fall Term Homework

PDX HQS, Asylum District

Seasonal Themes

The stores switch to Mithraic themes after Halloween, focusing on Saturnalia mixed with Biblical themes, and by Biblical I mean to include the BC parts. I'm thinking to focus on 

• "ornaments" (polyhedra), roping in the New Years Ball (which I presume will be the usual n-frequency icosa-sphere, but I should double check), and 
  
  
• Peace on Earth with ample use of the peace sign decal.

One of the torches I carry, meaning content I consider worth passing on to coming Gs, is that of Waterman Polyhedra. 

Steve Waterman and I were early collaborators on his conception of a sequence of polyhedrons of growing complexity, meaning of increasing numbers of verts and edges, as one goes more and more outward, increasing the radius. All the verts are IVM (CCP) balls, let's assume a nucleated packing. 

We employ a convex hull finding algorithm to maximize its roundedness (minimize convexity) to pick up all verts less than or max radius from the nuclear ball.

The Peace on Earth = Promised Land meme will be familiar to some of my readers as it pops up in these blogs pretty consistently.

I'm starting to look back on 2025 already, grateful for friends and fellow faculty I've crossed paths with.

Time Slice

Making Models

I've been reviewing my Cultural Engineering notebook, featuring Zoltar the homunculus, the potentially any-gender, genderless, dude or guy, with the worldly models and/or ways of thinking realistically about stuff. 

I link to my Cultagory Theory video towards the end of that Jupyter Notebook (not playable through Github however) something to dive into next, if exploring my specific tunnel system. 

You'll find Zoltar playing his actively inferring role (observing, responding) vs-a-vs Operation Popup also, the art gallery Flextegrity manifested around this time (October) six years ago.

We link Zoltar's plastic spherical enclosure to the OmniDirectional Halo of Synergetics, likewise spherical and meant to model the modeling process itself, as one of brain-transceiving mind, a metaphor based in the experience of ideas coming to us, fully formed sometimes, perhaps in a dream (perhaps in a daydream).

When imagining a spherical shell, one is likewise conceptualizing the "two sides of the same surface" convex outer side, vs concave inner side. Convexity mirrors a wider world out there (outer space), whereas concavity concentrates inward towards a central focus (perhaps an atom, perhaps a self).

Bracketing one's sphere-of-relevance (one's shell) are the adjacent Twilight Zones (Bucky sometimes uses that term) of the "tantalizingly relevant" (just out of reach), and what in retrospect we might call "low hanging fruit" once they're grasped and incorporated -- it's an ongoing process.

A Driving Adventure in Cascadia

This Google Earth screenshot is of the high desert rolling hills eastern side of Wy’East (Mt. Hood), seen upper left as a white spot.

My route was from Terrebonne (lower center) north to The Dalles, by way of Smith Rock, Lone Pine Road, OR 26 W, Madras, Maupin, and Dufur, along OR 97 N then OR 197 N.

From The Dalles, the dog and I turned left and took US 84 W directly home to Harrison Street, Portland.

The small town of Dufur, with its own main road set off from OR 197, is an eddy of peace amidst the majestic swirl of steep hills, nevertheless farmed in many cases, with the tracks of farm equipment visible amidst the tall grasses.

I left Sydney in the Nissan while having delicious fresh-made cranberry bread slices, in a bakery with high capacity bread making going on. I sat at a large indoor wooden table looking through a view window across the street at the Dufur Market, with its own tables and hot food menu, amidst well-stocked grocery shelves.

The drive itself is a destination and a joy as long as you don’t mind a double yellow line amidst twisting climbs and drops, along with lengthy straight hauls on wide open plains. 

Season matters: I saw lots of signage about snow and chain up areas, which didn’t pertain in late October.

I enjoyed plenty of lonely open road with scarcely another vehicle visible, little need for passing, and with long intervals of natural silence at highway pull offs, where we’d stretch and take these pictures. The descent into Maupin, before Dufur coming north (or south I’m sure) is spectacular.

Sydney, just turned 14, was my back seat companion, mostly snoozing in old dog style. We started in Terrebonne that morning, making a stop at Smith Rock.

Multnomah Falls along the Oregon bank of the Columbia Gorge, is favorite stop for tourists, including day hikers and cyclers, but also short stopover people like me this time, eager for a great view amidst light refreshments, a souvenir merch gift.

We were coming west from The Dalles on US 84 W. I’ve since learned that during the height of the visiting season there might be some need to schedule in advance for valved access to available parking (?).

The above Google Earth picture shows the parking island design, with US 84 E and W parting widely to accommodate it. I can well imagine all the slots filling.

We had no problem slipping in and out. My camera battery was dead and my cellphone has a bum lens cover, so instead. I took the classic shot with my iPad from the parking island. Then we shoved on, with Portland less than an hour away.

Practicing Democracy

Although I'm in a rural area, internet coverage is provided, by wire (not satellites), so I'm in what amounts to my home office, in terms of devices. I even have the same Samsung monitor, which fits in the trunk of maxi taxi (changed her oil), not exactly a bizmo, but certainly at home on the freeway.

The weather: stormy rainy. My dwelling machine has been wobbling in the wind. But with breaks and sudden sunlight. Oregon is like that. Bhutan too: you get the whole range of weathers in like a 24 hour period. High variability in other words.

I tend to use the word "clique" a lot, you may have noticed. I find it a refreshing alternative to "cabal" and/or "conspiracy". Also, in listening to Quakers (Friends) I hear complaints about their cliquishness, but then I'd imagine that's a common pattern in any temple, meeting or church. Synagogue, mosque or whatever. The oldsters seem to all know each other whereas the newcomers may feel left out, even exploited at the end of the day.

Speaking of Quakers: their patterns are influential on my thinking more generally when I think of those experimental prototype communities, such as we'd briefly stage over the New Year days (Dec 28 - Jan 2 mas o meno) in a remote yet well-appointed retreat space, owned by Church of the Brethren. Quakers, Brethren, Mennonites have a lot in common and seem to exchange memes a lot.

By "their patterns" I'm referring to the Faith & Practice of unprogrammed friends, pastorless, who rotate through job descriptions / positions, as recruited by nominating committee, and overseen by oversight committee. However that's just a snapshot in time and using already dated terminology by some  reckonings. These were unpaid positions, volunteer, but also personal growth opportunities as it takes what they call "people skills" to operate a shared business.

"Wait", you might be thinking "why do you say business, I thought we were talking about a church?". One of the quaint things about Quakers is their religion is couched in the phraseology of the industrial revolutionists of Merry England, meaning their form of worship is cloaked in a vocabulary of running a business. Meeting for Business, run by clerk and minuted by the recording clerk, but not according to Robert's Rules, is what replaces the "board room" and/or "shareholders meeting" in a lot of ways.

I go into all this in my critique of USA-style democracy, to which much lip service is given, but which is not the practice of your everyday pleeb, who goes to work in some rat race hierarchical oligarchy most likely, be that civilian or military. Opportunities to practice democracy might come on weekends, through one's bridge club or pet walking shared event, a naked bike ride in Portland maybe, or golf on the links. I'm not forgetting the corner bar (or maybe it's mid-block, or in the sticks...).

In other words, why do we expect Americans to be any good at democracy when they get so little practice using it to run big business. Am I saying the American Quakers are any different?  Not really.  Their meetings (not called churches) are tiny nonprofits in the grand scheme of things, not at the center of any sprawling industrial base like in the science fiction novel The Iron Bridge, or in Quakernomics.

My brand of Quakers put a lot of emphasis on transparency, which partially accounts for my experiment: I abdicated my membership in favor of attender status, as newcomers also have (gaining membership is a process), but then upped my level of participation including by undertaking such "insider" roles as clearing others for membership.  

"Wait, you're saying a non-member might be part of, or even in charge of, a non-member's clearness process?" In principle, yes, although at the time I was simply nominated within Oversight to form a clearness committee per usual; I was not clerk of Oversight itself. My point though, was membership includes the willingness to publicly identify as a Friend, to be out there as a booster and advocate for the Religious Society (of Friends), with the understanding some Monthly Meeting has said member's membership on record. Members will be vouched for, in other words. But from this special status it needn't follow that members have secrets from nonmembers, process-wise. It's not like members are the most entitled.

Consider a case wherein a surrounding state or city is somewhat hostile towards and/or suspicious of Quakerism and it's a liability to claim membership in said Society, except maybe in exceptional cases. This was more how the religion got started, as an underground, as a network of religious people unwilling to accept the authority of a state religion and its mandates and edicts. Those stepping forward and claiming to be leaders in this movement risked jail time. Those days are long gone, but gives a sense of where the institution of membership arose, among those most willing to stick their necks out, as it were.

However, when it comes to recruiting practitioners to the Faith & Practice, it's better that they check it out top to bottom, serve on all committees, take part in all the processes a meeting requires, with the optional process of becoming a member being one of being "convinced" (that's the jargon) as in persuaded, that this organization has nothing up its sleeve, and how would you know that if you hadn't had the opportunity to witness its inner workings at the core level?  Quakerism is open source in the sense of transparent but also in the sense that branching and forking is always feasible (not that every mutation pans out).

Tron Ares (movie review)

Dreaming of a Civil War

:: sleepers and dreamers ::

Looking Back Two Months Later

Naturally my cohort, peers and faculty, took note of this concept further propagating, since two months ago at this time, around August 18th (15th to be exact), where the meetup happened in Alaska, an event with mnemonic value.

Chris Norland here (Portland his hometown) is skeptical that any such project could be anything other than a boondoggle. 

I'd already been sharing with the WILPF ladies (and a few men; like I'm a member, following in my mom's footsteps) regarding the GENI legacy, and coming from my World Game aware background.  

I'm continuing to fill in the picture for them, along those lines. The School of Tomorrow has long included all this in its ongoing, seasonally sectioned curriculum.

Today I'll be adding to my No Kings album, more in the role of photographer (with extra battery) than sign carrier (a sign would bog me down). I'll be curating others' signage though, per my usual practice, with an emphasis on "frogtifa" related paraphernalia.

We could always do with another No Kings Day, on into the future, a national day of remembrance that we're not planning to fall victim to lawless adhocracy and/or arbitrary rule by royal edict. Democracy is our game here, however badly played.

Express Your Patriotism