Fodder
Introduction to Radically Rethinking Design
this document is part of the RRDW book material and is NOT ready yet, however if you are very eager please read and comment too.
Niels Peter Flint, June 2008
[video 9101 w=400][video 9098 w=400]
Blue text is NPF
Black boxes info from internet
Green text is caption
DEEP LIVING - the creatives and our planet:
Radical rethinking design and the world A collection of thoughts about the future of design [video 8959 w=400]
| Did you know? The growing world population:In the year 2006 during every minute 252 human beings are born, but only 105 deaths are counted. That means, in every minute the world population is augmenting 147 heads.(http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/pcwe, 17.11.2006) Victims of global warming:In 2001 the 11.000 citizens of Tuvalu - a tiny island country in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia - have decided to abandon their homeland. They are the first victims of rising sea levels. Lowland flooding and saltwater intrusion is affecting the drinking water and food production. Coastal erosion is eating away at the nine islands that make up the country. Donald F. Boesch from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, estimates that for each millimeter rise in sea level, the shoreline retreats an average of 1.5 meters. Thus if sea levels rise by 1 meter, coastlines will retreat by 1,500 meters, or nearly a mile. (http://www.truehealth.org/climnw05.html, 17.11.2006) Image. Coastal line of Denmark declining due to increased sealevels… New technologies: A blessing or a curse?Bill Joy, the developer of JavaScript and one of the men who made the internet possible, wrote in April 2000: “The 21st-century technologies - genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (called GNR) - are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses. Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely within the reach of individuals or small groups. They will not require large facilities or rare raw materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of them.” (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html, 15.11.2006) Climate change and world economyThe Stern report, published in October 2006 for the British government, says global warming could have a disastrous effect on the world’s economy, shrinking it by 20%. Tackling the problem now would require 1% of global gross domestic product, the report by the economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, states. According to him the climate change represents the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. Stern, a distinguished development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, is not a man given to hyperbole. Yet he says “our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th Century”.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096594.htm, 16.11.2006) The cultural creatives – a new class?Sociologist Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D., claim in their book “The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million people are changing the world” (Harmony Books, New York, 2000) that, in the US alone, there are over 50 million people “who care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about authenticity, self actualization, spirituality and self-expression. Surprisingly, they are both inner-directed and socially concerned; they’re activists, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than other Americans.” They estimate there are 80 to 90 million adults in Western Europe with a similar mindset. (http://www.culturalcreatives.org/book.html, 11.12.2006) Professional creatives without conscience?On the other hand we have the class of the professional creatives, led by Richard Florida, one of the leading social scientist in the US. He is the author of the book ‘The rise of the Creative Class’. The role of design for environmental issues or the survival of the planet does not play a significant role for Florida, who writes: “What is needed is a new Creative Compact – a Creative Economy analog to the great social compact of the 1930s, 40s and 50s which expanded and accelerated the Industrial Economy and led to the great golden-age of prosperity.” In other words: For the followers of Richard Florida money rules and human beings, first of all of course the citizens of the United States of America, should use their creativity to enjoy a comfortable life.(http://www.creativeglass.org?rfcgdb?articles?creative_compact.pdf, 30.12.2006) |
[video 8954 w=400] Looking at our planet’s current state of destruction, one cannot help but wonder: What are millions of creatives thinking and doing? 
Imagine! The sun is rising. Through the shades the light is drifting in. Soft music is filling the room. Amber is slowly waking up. Her favorite morning sounds are coming from the MP3-system, hooked up to her NTD (NETTODO)-personal music selector: It is Zeo in action. Finally Amber wakes up and sees Zeo, her NTD-Personal Dream Avatar (PDA). He is telling her to take it easy. There are no urgent appointments until lunchtime. Amber is once again charmed by the rich voice and the amazing shapes on the screen of the PDA. 
Zeo is her personal butler, her private dreamboytoy, she had especially designed for her needs when she became part of the NTD community. Now Zeo proposes to press reply for having “the local baker bring up fresh organic rolls to celebrate a new beautiful day.” Zeo pops up all the time with suggestions for Amber’s wellbeing and comfort. He is an animated character, an abstract being. Amber thinks of him as a kind of spirit. After having ordered the rolls a screen comes up and tells her how much money she has spent the last week. She does a bit of banking, enjoys the music, checks her schedule for the upcoming week until the rolls arrive, together with the flowers, Zeo has suggested. Amber has chosen to use the mix of private/business NTD-model which is allowing for as much personal use of her time as possible. For this reason her NTD is her portal to the net as well… Image: the garden – a collage – a dream…….. In my vision for the living-compound in the future, you design and create your own spaces. You can choose from a variety of modules, using sophisticated technologies and fully sustainable materials. Designers and architects will act as a kind of midwife who will help you to materialize the dreams and imaginations you might foster about your way of living. Designers and architects will be able to provide you with all the modern commodities, like Spa, garden and recycling facilities – but they might look completely different than they do today. Radical rethinking design: An introduction The world is full of stuff. THE big spenders on the planet can have everything they dream of, everything that makes life comfortable. THE big spenders cannot really want more and yet - they always want more. But is it NEEDED? Do electronic gadgets, bigger and faster cars, intelligent houses etc., do these things make us HAPPY?? <!– D(["mb"," 
We will continue to create, we cannot stop. Creating is part of our human genes. Creation is probably a part of the evolutionary process. Imagine ancient Rome fx. or Cuzco in Peru. These cities must have looked completely different: no plastic bags, no chimneys spitting out black toxic and ugly smoke, not a single parked car…..there might have been other disturbing issues such as smells or sounds or other kinds of “pollution” we are not aware of today. But generally - I think - it must have been very pleasant and harmonious to walk around in Rome 2000 years ago. The aesthetics, the materials, the whole life probably worked better together…and today… \n \nAt this point into my long announced book I would like to make a statement: I firmly believe there are no definite truths available in today’s world, there is only one truth: \nEternity exists; everything else is open for discussion. \n All life on Earth is going through eternal cycles. Things do not simply disappear. We have to understand what we are doing; we have to understand that we cannot simply throw garbage in the ground. It will come back to haunt us, an eternal nightmare. Eternity shows itself when we look at well known facts of reality with an open mind. You see yourself reflected in eternity looking in two mirrors, which are hanged exactly opposite each other. Or you can see infinity in the root of the number 2 or in the number Phi, complex numbers which elude an exact definition. ",1] ); //–> We will continue to create, we cannot stop. Creating is part of our human genes. Creation is probably a part of the evolutionary process. Imagine ancient Rome fx. or Cuzco in Peru. These cities must have looked completely different: no plastic bags, no chimneys spitting out black toxic and ugly smoke, not a single parked car…..there might have been other disturbing issues such as smells or sounds or other kinds of “pollution” we are not aware of today. But generally - I think - it must have been very pleasant and harmonious to walk around in Rome 2000 years ago. The aesthetics, the materials, the whole life probably worked better all together…and today???…At this point into my long announced book I would like to make a statement: I firmly believe there are no definite truths available in today’s world, but there is something which we could call a common denominator for life: Eternity - everything else is open for discussion. All life on Earth is going through eternal cycles. Things do not simply disappear. We have to understand what we are doing; we have to understand that we cannot simply throw garbage around. It will come back to haunt us, an “eternal nightmare”. Eternity shows itself when we look at well known facts of reality with an open mind. You see yourself fx. reflected in eternity looking in two mirrors, which are hanged exactly opposite each other. When I grew up in Denmark my father, a professor for journalism, used to expose me and my sister to various sources of information. He did not tell us what to think, he expected us to draw our own conclusions. In this spirit I am writing this book: I present my point of view which is based largely on intuition. What I am stating is my own, personal opinion, influenced by 20 years of work in the field of developing sustainable concepts and designs. So, please, take my opinion as what it is: An opinion. Although I am presenting my point of view in a very explicit and passionate way, I would also like to enable you to make up your own picture by providing various sources of and links to information. At this point I, or better we, should mention that Kornelia Santoro, a German journalist and writer, helped to bring this book to life. She edited the text, contributed to the research and added in this way her own tint to the material. For the book we visited numerous websites and we gathered material from all over the world. To make reading easier for you we took the liberty to shorten the text we found on these websites. After each citation we added the link to the website and the date, when we downloaded the material. If you want to see the original text, please visit these websites. We did our best to present only material from trustworthy sources. But it is impossible for us to control everything. We present to you, what makes sense for us. It is up to you to draw your own conclusions. 
Image:big ugly houses and chaotic situations I guess the images speak for themselves… On the other hand it could look like this… Image:Various very nice places such as Nilaya, INdia, Bedz, UK, NMB bank, Holland, Gurken UK, solarcell boat, airship (find utopian), Renzo Piano in Brazil, What I am saying in this book is: The world could do with change, and we - the 150 million or more so-called creatives - basically have to unite and get our act together. It is our responsibility to help transform the old world into a new sustainable one – a world that understands and lives together with nature. Especially architects and designers face an ever growing responsibility: They define how housing and products look like. They define largely by their choice of materials, energy sources etc., how people are living and how heavy is their footprint on the environment now and how heavy it will be in the future. <!– D(["mb"," 
My point is – the world is getting more and more ugly and inefficient when it comes to resources. \n \n To satisfy our greed we are developing more and more ugliness around us – all for the sake of profit. \n \n We are developing technologies at a pace never seen before in history – and we have NO idea where the technology is taking us… \n \n At this stage we are driven by technology. We are allowing technology to steer us due to lack of direction. [9] \n \n We have little vision and few ideas about what we really want to do. Where do we want the world to go? There is a good chance, new technologies, one of them Artificial Intelligence, will take us over within the coming 20 to 30 years – UNLESS we get our act together and create the fundament for a relevant, creative, sustainable development, NOW.”,1] ); //–> 
The world is getting more and more ugly and inefficient when it comes to resources. To satisfy our greed we are developing more and more ugliness around us – all for the sake of profit. We are developing technologies at a pace never seen before in history – and we have NO idea where the technology is taking us…We are allowing technology to steer us due to lack of direction. We have little vision and few ideas about what we really want to do. Where do we want the world to go? There is a good chance, new technologies, one of them Artificial Intelligence, will take us over within the coming 20 to 30 years – UNLESS we get our act together and create the fundament for a relevant, creative, sustainable development, NOW. <!– D(["mb"," \n \n Currently we are steering our planet and ourselves towards a gloomy future. The planet cannot cope with more exploitation. We as humans probably can. But we should ask ourselves the question: Do we want to? However, right now it seems more exploitation is what we want. \n \n Humans today are living in an amazing situation: If wealth would be spread to all the people it would be possible to evolve PARADISE. Something close to what we are all striving for in our various religions. However we are doing the opposite. At the same time we are claiming that it is evolution and that it is unavoidable. “Humans are greedy”, “humans are only following their instincts”, “this is the way the world is, you cannot change it” – you hear phrases like these over and over again. Do they matter??? Are they true??? Well, GOD DAMNS IT…if you want them to be true they are. During the early 80s, when I was living in the Chezk Republic, everyone said the same as well. NO ONE believed the wall between east and west Europe would break down...and yes, it seemed COMPLETELY impossible, but in the end it was not. It actually happened. That is what we should remember. Whenever we consider things impossible - remember all the things that seemed not possible and yet happened. EVERYTHING is possible. \n \n The suicide bombers \n \n ",1] ); //–> We could create Paradise Humans today are living in an amazing situation: If wealth would be spread to all the people it would be possible to evolve something we could call PARADISE. Something close to what we are all striving for in our various religions. However we are doing the opposite. At the same time we are claiming that it is evolution and that it is unavoidable. “Humans are greedy”, “humans are only following their instincts”, “this is the way the world is, you cannot change it” – you hear phrases like these over and over again. Do they matter??? Are they true??? Well…if you want them to be true they are. During the early 80s, when I was living in the Chezk Republic, everyone accepted the Iron Curtain. NO ONE believed the wall between east and west Europe would break down. It seemed COMPLETELY impossible, but in the end it was not. It actually happened. That is what we should remember. Whenever we consider things impossible - remember all the things that seemed not possible and yet happened. EVERYTHING is possible. The suicide bombers Look at the world today: We have some suicide bombers from various fundamentalist groups blowing themselves up around the planet. Are they just sick symptoms of an even more sick development? Do we really not understand what they are about? Do we not – after all - profoundly understand their misery? I think, we do – otherwise we are blind. And I think we are all in the same boat. We just do not want to acknowledge it. Considering all the facts there is, at least for me, only one conclusion: We are all suicide bombers; we are all just a bunch of hypocrites who do not even dare to look at things in new ways. We communally accept the global destruction by not doing anything. We communally have decided to go to hell because we feel powerless. We communally have decided to find scapegoats for the misery of the world. Today’s Muslims are Hitler’s Jews, blamed for everything. We are repeating history. AND THE MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD SUPPORT IT. The global cruiser Mother Earth is full of “out of choice blindfolded passengers”. They are steered by a greedy staff run by immoral and ignorant captains – the ship is sinking since it has no more fuel and is choked by pollution. The ship has maybe 2 minutes more. The passengers are blindfolded, but they still sense and they instinctively know that things are not right. They are afraid to take any initiative though. Rules, regulations and laws have destroyed their creativity and their ability to understand what a human being is all about. Red stop-signs have killed their ability to use their intuition or to act according to their feelings. Imagine! Historians in the future might consider the most creative souls of this time as the real suicide bombers of the world! They might view us as the lazy creatives who did not really want anything but fame, glitter and money – in short a totally superfluous lifestyle…These breed of creatives – maybe we might even call them the “destructives” – live from their ability to make the world look different by introducing new and sometimes wonderful products, services and ideas. Unfortunately their commercial creations are in most cases seriously eco-problematical products. Dr. Richard Florida (www.creativeclass.org) has coined the expression the creative class and he considers these millions as the ruling class of the world. These people have the potential to change the world since they have access to all the tools needed to do so - namely the possibility of shaping matter. They have the possibility to manipulate public opinion and “transform” our way of thinking for good or for bad. However the cultural creatives mentioned at the beginning of this chapter are citizens concerned with the future of the planet. They are often the same kind of people – they are mostly middle class or upper class individuals from all over the planet. Unfortunately their point of view does not influence their creative output yet as much as is needed. If we, the creatives in this world, make a conscious choice to turn the ship around, we will have to reinvent ourselves and our ways of living. If we work together we can develop the most beautiful ship in the universe. This is the intention for writing this book. I would like to present ways, ideas and suggestions which make it possible for anybody to take action. I consider this book as the base for a platform, the base for a “Think tank”, which can initiate and enhance more radical solutions towards a sustainable future.
| Richard Florida: The Creative ClassThe creative class is a group of people that social scientist Dr. Richard Florida, Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, believes are a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial cities in the USA.The “Creative Class” concept is controversial, as is Florida’s methodology. He breaks the Class into two broad sections, derived from standard SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) codes data sets:Creative Professionals: “Knowledge workers” and expanding to include financial planners, doctors and lawyers. Super-Creative Core: This comprises about twelve percent of all U.S. jobs. This group is deemed to contain a huge range of occupations (e.g. architecture, education, sports) with arts, design, and media workers making a small subset. The social theories advanced by Florida have sparked much debate and discussion. Florida’s work would propose that a new or emergent class, or demographic segment made up of knowledge workers, intellectuals and various types of artists is an ascendant economic force, representing either a major shift away from traditional agriculture- or industry-based economies, or a general restructuring into more complex economic hierarchies.The theses developed by Florida in various publications were drawn from - among other sources - US Census Bureau demographic data, focusing upon economic trends and shifts apparent in (at first) major US cities, with later work expanding the focus internationally.The creative class has been on the rise for at least four decades; with an economic shift towards technology, research and development, and the internet (and related fields) building within the overall postwar economies of many countries.The creative class is a class of workers whose job is to create meaningful new forms. The creative class is composed of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and architects, to name a few. Their designs are widely transferable and useful on a broad scale, as with products that are sold and used on a wide scale. Another sector of the creative class includes those positions which are knowledge intensive. These careers usually require a high degree of formal education. Examples of this sector are health professionals and business management. Their main job is to think and to create new standard approaches for fixing the problem at hand. Creativity is becoming more valued in today’s global society. Employers look at creativity as a channel for self expression and job satisfaction in their employees. 38.3 million Americans and 30% of the workforce in America identify themselves with the creative class. This number has increased more than 10% in the past twenty years. In short they are shaping a new culture for the America of the 21st century.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_class, 12.12.2006) |
THERE IS NO BEING JUDGMENTAL HERE: There is only LET US GET GOING… The end of our current civilization??? We need a serious discussion about where we want to go with this planet. Supposed we humans would manage to bring just a fraction of our nuclear weapons into action. Image:Smoky nuclear winters and mushroom clouds – drastic destruction The much scarier and much more complex scenario is the one that is already happening - the devastating effects of the misuse of our planet and its resources. Image:Smoggy winters and pollution in cities – gradual destruction The planet and maybe we as humans are in an advanced state of destruction: We can see now what our over-exploitation is and has been doing – there is no excuse for not doing anything – we all know it is happening. IMAGE:…MAYBE MOVIE…for web version…The world is made of contrasts. In India, the cycle-rickshaw is an economic necessity, of compact design influenced by congested inner-cities and availability of materials. It is meant for urban and rural dwellers that cannot afford fuel driven transport and is locally assembled as a small scale industry. In Germany on the contrary, the cycle-rickshaw is a new “old” better way of getting around. It is not solving vast problems right now. It is designed to be attractive for hip urban dwellers and made of hi-tech materials. This luxury rickshaw has an electric motor built in for steep hills etc. It is not a revolution but it shows that it actually is possible to do what many Europeans would have thought impossible just a few years ago.This new exciting German rickshaw would not be possible to use in the narrow, congested inner lanes of Indian cities. But it could inspire some rich Indians to do the same if they seriously want to be part of the solutions. The world consists of conflicting and contradictory situations and the rich, the decision makers, the designers etc. or should we in general call them “the role model-makers” could do a significant difference ALSO in India. But do they want to, do they care? 
Millions of “creatives” WORLWIDE can make a change by thinking holistically and exploring radically new, sustainable and innovative ways??? Here are some of the issues we are battling with and which I believe are the foundation for lots of the problems we have. It is not just about pollution or about technology as I have already mentioned. There are much more profound and yet very complex and less tangible issues which cause the problems. The hunt for meaning of life – coping with ETERNITY? In 2003 an Australian astronomer claimed to have completed the most accurate calculation ever of how many stars shine in the visible universe — some 70 sextillion, or 70 thousand million million million. Simon Driver of the Australian National University Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics said the number was more than every grain of sand on all the beaches and deserts on Earth. (http://www.redorbit.com/news/stories/1/2003/07/22/story004.html, 21.11.2006)
| Nanobots running wild? Bill Joy writes in his controversial article “Why the future doesn’t need us”: “Accustomed to living with almost routine scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology - pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before. Specifically, robots, engineered organisms, and nanobots share a dangerous amplifying factor: They can self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once - but one bot can become many, and quickly get out of control.(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html, retrieved 15.11.2006) |
Ancient civilizations understood the earth and eternal principles and developed HOLISTIC PHILOSOPHIES of dealing with the concepts of life and eternity. Science, too, is now proving that ETERNITY DOES EXIST. Eternity shows itself in many areas of our life; we just have to look a bit closer to find it. In Mathematics you find eternity in the root of number 2 or the number Phi, complex numbers, which elude an exact definition.
Traces of Eternity The Golden SectionThe Golden Section is also known as the Golden Mean, Golden Ratio and Divine Proportion. It is a ratio or proportion defined by the number Phi ( = 1.618033988749895… ) It can be derived with a number of geometric constructions, each of which divides a line segment at the unique point where:the ratio of the whole line (A) to the large segment (B)is the same asthe ratio of the large segment (B) to the small segment (C).In other words, A is to B as B is to C. This occurs only where A is 1.618 … times B and B is 1.618 … times C.This ratio has been used by mankind for centuriesIts use may have started as early as with the Egyptians in the design of the pyramids,
It was used in the design of Notre Dame in Parisand continues today in many examples of art, architecture and design. (http://goldennumber.net/goldsect.htm, 03.12.2006) Holograms Holograms are another example for eternity. A hologram is a three-dimensional image that reproduces on a two-dimensional surface an object’s appearance…. Holograms are made by the process of holography, which exposes the objects and the recording material to a split beam of coherent light, typically from a laser. (http://www.archivists.org/glossary/term details.asp?DefinitionKey=2072, 20.11.2006) Although a hologram is a visual image of a physical object, it is quite different from a photograph. Each section of a hologram contains a complete image of the original object.(http://www.answers.com/topic/hologram, 20.11.2006) |
| Mandelbrot fractals The Mandelbrot set of fractals is another way to see eternity. Benoit Mandelbrot says: “I conceived, developed and applied in many areas a new geometry of nature, which finds order in chaotic shapes and processes. It grew without a name until 1975, when I coined a new word to denote it, fractal geometry, from the Latin word for irregular and broken up, fractus.” In the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1989 Mandelbrot summarized fractal geometry as a “workable geometric middle ground between the excessive geometric order of Euclid and the geometric chaos of general mathematics.”(http://www.bookrags.com/biography/benoit-b-mandelbrot, 19.11.2006) |
Scientists may have to look beyond the functional systems of order that were being used to understand the universe. They have to LOOK BEYOND ORDER TO “DISORDER” to get a better picture. <!– D(["mb"," \n “According to a computational study conducted by physicists at Washington University in St. Louis, one may create order by introducing disorder. While working on their model -- a network of interconnected pendulums, or "oscillators" - the researchers noticed that when driven by ordered forces the various pendulums behaved chaotically and swung out of sync like a group of intoxicated synchronized swimmers. This was unexpected --shouldn\'t synchronized forces yield synchronized pendulums? But then came the real surprise: When they introduced disorder -- forces were applied at random to each oscillator -- the system became ordered and synchronized.”[11] \n Image: \n Crazy pendulum oscillation paths (just the paths) maybe superimposed on chaotic traffic images or Brownian motion in heated particles pic – displaying random movement – slow mo movement path required to show chaos \n \n very large text \n Will disorder lead to Anarchy or is it a natural system of Cosmic Chaos containing always a method to the madness?…After all, Nature may seem chaotic. Further analysis shows, there is always an underlying system that makes the chaos possible.”,1] ); //–> “According to a computational study conducted by physicists at Washington University in St. Louis, one may create order by introducing disorder. While working on their model — a network of interconnected pendulums, or “oscillators” - the researchers noticed that when driven by ordered forces the various pendulums behaved chaotically and swung out of sync like a group of intoxicated synchronized swimmers. This was unexpected –shouldn’t synchronized forces yield synchronized pendulums? But then came the real surprise: When they introduced disorder — forces were applied at random to each oscillator — the system became ordered and synchronized.”(http://www.kurzweilAI.net/news/frame.html?main=/news.html?cat%3D1%26d%3D0, 19.11.2006)Image: Crazy pendulum oscillation paths (just the paths) maybe superimposed on chaotic traffic images or Brownian motion in heated particles pic – displaying random movement – slow mo movement path required to show chaos Will disorder lead to Anarchy or is it a natural system of Cosmic Chaos containing always a method to the madness?…After all, Nature may seem chaotic. Further analysis shows, there is always an underlying system that makes the chaos possible. <!– D(["mb","\n\nAnarchy versus cosmic chaos???\n\nSo can we live in total order and completely organized systems? Well, like Nature, we probably can but only if the system is a part of the chaotic cosmos. India, where I live part time, is a country where people live in this fantastic chaotic cosmos and where everything still seems to work – almost...\n\nComing from, what is probably, one of the most regulated and systematically organized and designed countries Denmark, one could think that it would be more or less impossible to adapt to "the Indian way". \n\nImage:\n typical cliché Indian traffic chaos, cows, cycles, cars, trucks, buses, people, dogs AND Image of some Western Highway with lots of wide grey concrete road and only two cars on it",1] ); //–> Anarchy versus cosmic chaos??? So can we live in total order and completely organized systems? Well, like Nature, we probably can but only if the system is a part of the chaotic cosmos. India, where I live part time, is a country where people live in this fantastic chaotic cosmos and where everything still seems to work – almost…Coming from, what is probably, one of the most regulated and systematically organized and designed countries Denmark, one could think that it would be more or less impossible to adapt to “the Indian way”. It is like a wildflower field – it is beautiful, but maybe you cannot find exactly what you are looking for. But then you find something else that satisfies your needs. Nature as it is “for real” is this treasure chamber of possibilities or “fruits for thought” – you can find anything. If you want, you can always survive as long as you are NOT constrained by recipes, regulations and extreme ideas about how things are or rather how you think they should be…because who knows what things really are. Image:typical cliché Indian traffic chaos, cows, cycles, cars, trucks, buses, people, dogs AND Image of some Western Highway with lots of wide grey concrete road and only two cars on it <!– D(["mb","\n\nBut then it is sometimes like being in my backpack – or maybe like inside many women\'s handbags.... everything is there, it just takes creative thinking and intuition to find anything. It is like a wildflower field – it is beautiful, but maybe you cannot exactly find what you are looking for. But then you find something else that satisfies your needs. \n\nNature as it is "for real" is this treasure chamber of possibilities or "fruits for thought" – you can find anything. If you want, you can always survive as long as you are NOT constrained by recipes, regulations and extreme ideas about how things are or rather how you think they should be...because who knows what things really are. \n\nImage (text):\nLess Rules - More (aware) FUN \n\n
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Hedonism - or lust for life
\n \n Xxx In my humble opinion: The willingness in the US to drug so-called hyperactive children with Ritalin, an amphetamine, to make them behave in a way acceptable for society is much more worrying than the consumption of anti-depressants. Instead of looking at the reason for hyperactivity which can be largely caused by food-additives like antioxidants and colors, they give pills to the kids. Not just any pills, heavy drugs which cause addiction quickly. And I believe that in ",1] ); //–>Image (text):Less Rules - More (aware) FUN
Hedonism - or lust for life
Another fact, which could make us all think, is the large number of people who can only support life with the help of anti-depressants or another kind of addiction to legal and illegal drugs. All over the world various “happy pills” are readily available. In the United States and all the other countries of the developed world most of the people live life with a level of comfort never attained before. However the daily consumption of anti-depressants and other psycho-active drugs – even for children - is considered normal in this country. The pharmaceutical-industry is making trillions and there is no real need to solve the problems in other ways – or is there? Are we not on the way to fulfill Aldous Huxley’s prophecies in his book ”Brave new world”? In “Brave New World” people were genetically designed to have no emotions and they would rarely feel sadness. Any mild feeling of sadness was cured with “Soma”. The drug culture he described “is rare and sporadic because of the genetically modified humans”. Is this a solution to our increasing problems of being unhappy – redesign our human genes so that we can become happy forever ever…
Hedonism - or “the natural lust for life”
Have your ever experienced how terrible it is not to be able to enjoy…especially life itself? We have never been richer and yet seen more misery. NOW what is the reason for that? Well, I guess, that is worth writing a couple of thousands books about. Already the market is flooded with thousands of titles starting with how to…how to make life more exciting, how to make yourself happier …We all know them - they are available in every supermarket in paperback versions. <!– D(["mb"," \n \n Image: \n Above paragraph can be put as text in a picture of an imaginary book. The cover is folded back and says – How to be Happy – and one of the inside pages is open to reveal the above paragraph (a book within a book) \n \n Is the real issue here that we simply do not dare to enjoy??? \n \n Do we just keep thinking life is only about money and jobs? Well, part of the time, it certainly is. Yet - when we do not enjoy job and partners and business etc., what for the hassle?? Everything becomes so terribly banal and yet so totally complicated… \n \n At this point we should remember that everything we put into existence, every smile, and every act of creativity but also every moment of depression, everything has importance as soon as it is given life by us human beings. Architects and designers should be at the cutting edge of exploring what life is all about. They give shape to the life of the masses, they decide for millions of people which materials they use and how their homes are heated and which kind of snacks they are eating, etc. If architects and designers, midwifes for our lifestyle, if these creative souls cannot find meaning and joy in their life, who else can? For sure not the masses of blind-folded passengers mentioned before. And equally sure the robots \nand other machines powered by Artificial Intelligence will not be able to give us the answer. It is up to us to explore what makes us human beings human beings. And it is up to us to explore what makes us really, truly happy, what gives us real satisfaction and not only a short glimpse of contentment.",1] ); //–> Image:Above paragraph can be put as text in a picture of an imaginary book. The cover is folded back and says – How to be Happy – and one of the inside pages is open to reveal the above paragraph (a book within a book) Is the real issue here that we simply do not dare to enjoy??? Do we just keep thinking life is only about money and jobs? Well, part of the time, it certainly is. Yet - when we do not enjoy job and partners and business etc., what do we get out of it?? Everything becomes so terribly banal and yet so totally complicated… At this point we should remember that everything we put into existence, every smile, and every act of creativity but also every moment of depression, everything has importance as soon as it is given life by us human beings. Architects and designers should be at the cutting edge of exploring what life is all about. They give shape to the life of the masses, they decide for millions of people which materials they use and how their homes are heated and which kind of snacks they are eating, etc. If the millions of creatives - being midwifes for our lifestyle - cannot find meaning and joy in their life, how can the masses of blind-folded passengers come to terms with reality? How can anyone expect from them to find proper solutions for the current challenges? Equally sure the robots and other machines powered by Artificial Intelligence will not be able to give us the answers. It is up to us to explore what we human beings are for, where we are going. And it is up to us to explore what makes us really, truly happy, what gives us real satisfaction and not only a short glimpse of contentment. <!– D(["mb"," \n \n So enjoy life – be a true hedonist – a conscious holistic one….not to forget \n \n Image: \n images of Suburban Sprawl or Architectural cookie cutter kind of housing projects. \n \n Is it possible to live life in a way that enhances our sense of holistic wellbeing? YES. We can and must start developing ways which will make us feel better, perform better and act better. Let us do business in new and more exciting ways. \n \n Unless (in large font) \n \n we dare not to? \n \n HOW (in huge letters at top of page and the rest of text continues in smaller font) \n do we enjoy life and everything around us in a sustainable and yet ultimately enjoyable way.... \n ",1] ); //–> So enjoy life – be a true hedonist – a conscious holistic one….not to forget Image:images of Suburban Sprawl or Architectural cookie cutter kind of housing projects. Is it possible to live life in a way that enhances our sense of holistic wellbeing? YES. We can and must start developing ways which will make us feel better, perform better and act better. Let us do business in new and more exciting ways. Unless we dare not to? HOW do we enjoy life and everything around us in a sustainable and yet ultimately enjoyable way…. image:The road to take is called Hedonistic responsibility.
The Conscious Holistic Hedonist - new role models of the western world….
The world needs new role models. The capitalist role models – Donald Trump, Oil-rich Arab royalty and all the other flamboyant billionaires - do not seem to care about how and where they get their wealth from. These traditional role models lack vision and understanding of what the world really needs. They inspire people to climb ladders of prosperity by becoming just as exploitative and irresponsible as them.Some of them start to wake up and realize it is time to do something. Maybe their motives are pure; maybe they see it as a clever investment. Virgin CEO Richard Branson made headlines in September 2006, when he pledged 3 billion US Dollars to fight climate change.
| 3 billion US Dollars for climateAt the Clinton Global Initiative, Branson announced he was investing “100 percent of all future proceeds to the Virgin Group from our transportation interest, both our trains and airline businesses, into tackling global warming.” This 3 billion US Dollars donation exceeds the total amount of commitments from last year’s conference ($2.5 billion).Mr. Branson said the idea had grown out of a visit to his London home a few months ago by former Vice President Al Gore, who is on a prolonged worldwide speaking tour to promote “An Inconvenient Truth,” his documentary and book about global warming. “You are in a position maybe to make a difference,” Mr. Branson said Mr. Gore had told him. “If you can make a giant step forward, other people will follow.”(http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/21/richard-branson-pledges-3-billion-to-fight-global-warming/, 03.12.2006) |
Image:Turn right here for a better life (roadsign to next page) There is a growing group of individuals who live a life where “quality-time” has the highest priority along with environmentally and spiritually conscious living. Some may be rich – some may be, relatively speaking, poor. But they spend money on what they consider is relevant to their life; they enjoy it and do it in a conscious way. They are the”Conscious Holistic Hedonists” or CHHs. As true cosmopolitans they demand authentic and “real” experiences. Time is the most valuable thing for them – “quality time”. They do business, projects and much more fx. on-line. They live life where it is best. They are a good example of how we could live in future - considering that internet spreads all over the planet to even the most remote places. The “CHHs” demand a high quality lifestyle and a new approach from companies - one that contributes to a prosperous economy while simultaneously providing for sustainable development in the future. They demand solutions that have character and are contemporary, yet classic, eclectic, yet personalized. The experiences should give a sense of harmony with stories and meaning – sustainable meaning, easy digestible for our planet. They value most, what makes them feel good and their decisions are based on intuition rather than logic thinking. There are many of them already, luckily, but there need to be a lot more. Read more about intuition in Chapter 2 of the book. In relation to lust for life ….There is another topic which many will see as a complete contradiction to the hedonist one – I call it:
Cyclic thinking……………natural death…or the final trip
Death rituals - cyclical thinking and doing: If we as humans cannot figure out or understand our own cycles, how can we understand the cycles of products and materials? At the moment eternal cycles are not respected by the biggest part of the designers. I claim we should consider the lifeline of a material during 1000 years to come. Remember, pollution is the wrong substance in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you eat 5 kilograms of organic carrots a day, after some months you will die from a Vitamin E and A overdose. Any kind of exaggeration or negligence kills. If products are not designed in the right way, they are polluting. Read more about lifecycles of materials in an extra chapter of the book. It is equally important to relate to death as it is to relate to life. Latent fear of death in the heads of the captains of the world has caused a lot of the challenges we face today. Why do we want to preserve our bodies and put further strain on the environment through toxic metal coffins or tons of materials used for embalming? We could just bury our bodies in bio-degradable coffins in forests and plant a new tree on top. Later in the book we will explore a number of projects related to death.Death is after all the ONLY and I state the ONLY thing we as humans know for sure that we have in common….and yet a topic that we are very much afraid of talking about especially in the west. Could this fear of death be part of the reason why we are developing or using the world in the way we do…can we solve problems by getting a more relaxed relation to DEATH? Later in this book, in the chapter LUST FOR DEATH, you can read a bit more and get inspiration …..Did know:That most Christians in US and EU BURRIED IN COFFINS WHICH ARE FAR FROM EASY FOR THE EARTH TO DEGRADE…. The Flint Eternity Model – LIFELINES With the Flint Eternity Model, directly drawn from the universal sign for infinity, I try to explore possibilities for devising materials, products and product service systems which can live or cycle more or less endlessly. One side of the two circles I call the technosphere, the other I call the biosphere. In a separate chapter of the book I will explain this model in detail. <!– D(["mb"," \n \n Now let me take you on a test-run to show you what I am talking about: In the biosphere the seed grows into a plant, the plant grows into a tree, timber is harvested, and remains turn to compost which will nurture other seeds. In the technosphere timber is used in furniture production, which by itself can be as innocent as the seed. The use of furniture can be done in an equally non-polluting way as the growth of the plant. At the end of life non-poisonous furniture can return easily to the soil and in this way flow back into the biosphere. In this way I try to show how we can find creative and innovative solutions to make flows or rather lifelines for materials, products and services – \ninventing entirely new ways of consumption based on how to cascade materials in eternal cycles... \n \n I will look briefly on materials such as hemp and other natural fibres, plastics and some other selected ones – what they can do for us and us for them for us to use them. \n \n These are some of the topics you can read about in this book. There are no answers, as stated many times - just a lot of questions and some proposals and eventually also some hints of solutions. \n \n ",1] ); //–> Now let me take you on a short test-run to show you what I am talking about: In the biosphere the seed grows into a plant, the plant grows into a tree, timber is harvested, and remains turn to compost which will nurture other seeds. In the technosphere timber is used in furniture production, which by itself can be as innocent as the seed. The use of furniture can be done in an equally non-polluting way as the growth of the plant. At the end of life non-poisonous furniture can return easily to the soil and in this way flow back into the biosphere. In this way I try to show how we can find creative and innovative solutions to make flows or rather lifelines for materials, products and services – inventing entirely new ways of consumption based on how to cascade materials in eternal cycles…We will look briefly on materials such as hemp and other natural fibres, plastics and some other selected ones – what they can do for us and us for them for us to use them.These are some of the topics you can read about in this book. There are no answers, as stated many times - just a lot of questions and some proposals and eventually also some hints of solutions.The human civilization can eradicate itself any time right now. But we also could take a conscious decision to explore new ground: How could we create paradise on the planet we inhabit? Whether we do it or rather, whether we dare to do it, the coming years will show. During the past 20 years I have been putting together this material. My hope is you will be inspired to see new, prosperous and sustainable solutions. NPF last revised May 21, 2006, May 22, 2006, July 26, 2006 Revised by Kornelia Santoro (Kornelia) October 27, 2006Revised by Kornelia October 30, 2006Revised by Kornelia October 31, 2006Revised by Kornelia November 20, 2006Revised by Kornelia November 21, 2006Revised by Niels and Kornelia November 24, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 3, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 4, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 8, 2006Revised by Niels and Kornelia December 9, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 10, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 11, 2006Partly revised by Niels December 11, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 12, 2006Revised by Kornelia December 30,2006Revised by Kornelia January 4, 2007Revised by Kornelia January 4, 2007
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