Peace sells, but who’s buying?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 28/09/2009
The billboards are all over the city. Media coverage is global. It is the rage. Everyone is talking peace. The idea is sold with ease and is accepted with delight. But has anyone actually made a sale?
Thinking is violent. With every thought the synaptic nerve fires off a myriad of mind blowing charges. The devastating percussion blasts give off destructive thuds on a molecular level as the war machine begins to turn.
Digging deep I dive into my cranial hardrive. I pull countless lists and menus of information and knowledge to the forefront of my mind. I did not realize that I was capable of so much violence. The more thoughts I have the more I stock my armaments to destroy and violate. An endless supply of fuel!
Death, genocide, torture… hahaha, I revel in my power. Cruelty is my friend. I am becoming drunk with power as I squash the weak. The momentum is growing as I consider my vast and dark vocabulary. Satan reigns as I unknowingly serve him through my own selfishness! The inertia is great and now I must find a way to translate this great power to a more practical and physical realm. Who needs peace with such power to revel in. I create my own peace. In my own way.
Peace should… what is this word that has crept into my vocabulary, my thoughts. Peace. I know this word. As strange as it seems. My cursor has involuntarily pulled up another menu. Love, tenderness… my thoughts are slowing. Create and nurture. What is going on? My breathing slows as I stop to contemplate and meditate this new and wondrous concept. I can hear my heart for the first time as it pounds against my ribcage. Peace. Inner peace. Positive thought. Introspective meditation. The whirlwind of madness is slowly losing momentum and now I just coast. Soaring in peaceful thought and the silence of my mind I come to realize my senses and feel the cool breeze on my face and the smell of salt from the ocean… WOW!
As I roll to a stop I come out of my meditation and realize that my thoughts were of affection. Love. Thinking does not have to be violent.
It need be slow and clear. Not blurred by the fast moving pace of emotion and culture. It can be rejuvenating and calming if disciplined enough to overcome and stand firm against the incessant tide of outside influence.
Thought and knowledge in of itself is not violent. It is the disposition of the human character and subject to our environment and sense of spirituality.
We all long to be peaceful. We just need ignore our own sense of self and realize there is more than just the material, the present. Thought in its very nature is a physical happening but at the same time is beyond and more.
Here is a thought. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Short term effects aren’t guaranteed, but I do believe that this is a worthy long term investment. This line of thinking brings a knowledge that we can bring peace through the spiritual manifesting itself in a physical form.
(this post was written to me, not by me. hope it inspires you as much as it means to me)
What is truer than the truth?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 20/09/2009
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ANSWER: The Story.
Isabel Allende asks this question as she begins her inspiring TED Talk on Tales of Passion. Paraphrasing a Jewish proverb, Allende believes that the stories we tell about ourselves and our lives often reveal as much (or more) about us as hard-evidenced facts.
We are all storytellers who, individually and collectively, lead storied lives. Storied lives that are lived before they are ever told. We understand the past in terms of our stories, just as we seek to understand the future in stories. We take our stories with us as we journey through our lives and our worlds, often finding a hidden presence of our stories in others.
I think there is something strangely satisfying and community-affirming when I find my own story told through the story of another. One such instance recently occurred in my laundry room, a rather serendipitous moment in which a creatively-enlightened man shared this quote with me (by critic Barbara Hardy, 1968): “we dream in narrative, day-dream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative…”
In Qualitative Research: Challenging the orthodoxies in standard academic discourse(s), Kouritzin, Norman and Piquemal (2009) remind us that we are living in stories all the time and we are continually attending to the stories of others. As such, they seek research that represents story as an important and legitimate research methodology. Rather ironically and in spite of the pervasive prevalence of stories in our lives, the scientific method has weakened confidence in the validity of story, perceiving storytelling to have irrational and inconsequential worth for critically-esteemed academic research. This impoverished belief in the worth of our stories frustrates me.
From my perspective, scientific principles are stories, logically told to a humanity that dangerously assumes science is the absolute truth. Instead of trying to close down understanding, it is important to be always and already questioning, with the hope of opening-up fixed meanings to a multiplicity of possibilities and wide-ranging insights that integrate storied knowing (listening to people and learning from their experiences). For the stuff of our existence includes a totality (not a dichotomy) of atoms, molecules, chemical reactions, relationships, desires, hopes and stories.
How do you know what is truth? Do you agree with Freire’s personal testament: “I know with my entire body, with feelings, with passion, and also with reason” (Pedagogy of the Heart, 1997). I believe that we are transformed by our imaginations more than we are changed by intellectual ideals, political urgings or ethical convictions. Telling of the power of story, Arundhati Roy boldly exclaims:
“Our strategy should be not only to confront the empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.”
Your thoughts, your stories?
TL&T International Conference
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 12/08/2009
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A new and exciting conference is advancing upon the horizon… If you want to collaborate or discuss your ideas with me, know that I’m totally interested to hear from you!
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Technological Learning & Thinking: Culture, Design, Sustainability, Human Ingenuity
June 17-21, 2010
Vancouver, British Columbia
http://learningcommons.net
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CONFERENCE THEME:
Technological accomplishments characterize and transform cultures, and yet their relevance is undervalued and their place remains obscure in today’s learning institutions, in government policy, and in the public mind. With implications for culture, design, sustainability, and ingenuity, the conference and exposition explore how technological learning and thinking are celebrated, dismissed, taken for granted, or mystified. What mechanisms work for, or against, the integration of technological learning and thinking in democratic societies? What are their implications for culture, design, sustainability and ingenuity? What is the nature of technological learning and thinking?
CALL FOR PAPERS:
The conference organizing committee invites papers that address various dimensions or problems of technological learning and thinking. Scholarship is welcome from across the disciplines including Complexity Science, Design, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Education, History, Indigenous Studies, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology of Technology, and STS. The conference is designed to inspire conversation between the learning and teaching of technology and the cultural, environmental, and social study of technology.
CALL FOR PROJECTS:
In addition to academic papers, this conference features an exposition of student and professional projects that provide examples of culture, design, sustainability, and human ingenuity at work. The exposition will be held on the last two days (20-21 June 2010) of the conference in a large exhibit hall on the University of British Columbia campus. Projects are welcome from all ages: teachers and professors are especially encouraged to enlist their students in meeting the project challenges and timelines.
MORE INFO, PROPOSALS & REGISTRATION:
Feel welcome to email me with questions, ideas, etc. Visit the conference site for more specifics: http://learningcommons.net
Gaming & Robotics Camp For Youth
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 30/05/2009
- In: Gaming| Playing
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Research Study on Meta-Learning & Meta-Technology
How We Learn (technology across the lifespan)
- design and program robots using Lego Mindstorms NXT and Pico Cricket
- make computer games and virtual worlds
- create digital videos and photos
- be a technology researcher in a groundbreaking UBC study
ALL youth are welcome to apply and no previous experience is necessary. EXTREME FUN is a must!! Registration is complimentary for all selected participants. A delicious lunch and nutritious snacks will be provided daily.
CAMP DATES: July 20-24 -or- July 27-31 (9am-3pm)
Step 1: Download this application form
Step 2: Please email your completed application to rusnak@interchange.ubc.ca
DEADLINE: The final deadline for applications is Thursday, June 18. All participants will be notified of their acceptance status by Thursday, June 24. Please feel welcome to contact me with your questions or comments.
AGE 15+ We have an ADVANCED ROBOTICS camp that may interest you.
Please contact Fareed Teja or PJ Rusnak for more information.
Do we want machines making moral decisions?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 21/05/2009
What are you reading these days? I’m slowly turning the pages of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong by Wendell Wallach & Colin Allen (2009). An excerpt to share:
“Does humanity really want computers making morally important decisions? Many philosophers of technology have warned about humans abdicating responsibility to machines. Movies and magazines are filled with futuristic fantasies regarding the dangers of advanced forms of artificial intelligence. Emerging technologies are always easier to modify before they become entrenched. However it is not often possible to predict accurately the impact of a new technology on society until well after it has been widely adopted.
Some critics think, therefore, that we should err on the side of caution, and relinquish the development of potentially dangerous technologies. We believe, however, that market and political forces will prevail and will demand the benefits that these technologies can provide. Thus, it is incumbent upon anyone with a stake in this technology to address head-on the task of implementing moral decision making in computers, robots and virtual bots within computer networks.”
Eeeeeek! Introducing the emerging (and rapidly expanding) field of robot ethics, Wallach & Allen convincingly argue that as robots take on more and more responsibility, they must be programmed with moral responsibility and moral decision-making abilities. The authors think that even if moral agency for machines is a long way away, it is necessary to start building a functional kind of morality in which artificial moral agents possess basic ethical sensitivity (as robots are already engaged in high-risk situations, such as the PREDATOR DRONES and the more heavily armed REAPER DRONES now flying in Pakistan).
Yes, we need to examine, design and create more socially engaged robots and machines that are capable of telling right from wrong. However, if today’s ethical theories and human values are not adequate for living well in the world, then there will be subsequent challenges building artificial moral agents to think and act virtuously. For I believe the problem is not with our technology, the problem is with the people using/designing technology.
Despite all of the remarkable achievements of a technologically advanced society, humans are still a conflicting mix of genius/stupidity; love/self-hatred; peace/anger; wealth/poverty; modesty/narcissism; desire/delusion… I have yet to meet someone who has not suffered, who has no problems nor self-destructing habits, who has no worries. Historically speaking, religion has offered THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIGHT for contending with the evils of the human race, the problems of human suffering, and human death. Technology is now beginning to realize the dreams of theology, and I find this spiritually unnerving….
Can we build intelligent machines with a morality that surpasses our flawed human morality? If human-autonomy for robots is possible, should it be allowed? Else, do we want our robots to be forever relegated to a slave morality such that they will never make choices that are harmful to humanity nor threaten human dominion over the world?
Bethinged [bedingt]
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 21/05/2009
Depending on whose numbers you look at, gaming is now a 30 billion dollar industry that is rapidly growing and evolving worldwide. These emergent and pervasive games are not only major cultural forces and ontological worlds that we inhabit, they are also ethical phenomena that demand our ethical attention and our ethical scrutiny. Some questions that I am thinking about:
- What makes games ethical phenomena?
- Does the game design process present new ethical issues to be explored and developed?
- What kinds of ethical issues and moral responsibilities are raised by gaming technologies?
- How can we think about the relationships between games and the good life for individuals as well as for cultural quality more broadly?
Assuming that we come to know ourselves through our experiences, then what might your gaming experiences (or lack thereof) teach you about yourself? What might be revealed about your ethical being-in-the-world in-interaction-with the technological? How are you bethinged by technological things thinging (simultaneously dependent upon, indifferent to, immersed in and inhabited by technology)?
We are all members of one human family, sharing one fragile home within a vast infinity of technological possibilities. When you rewind back through gaming’s world history, what do you see? Fast forward to the future: will we look back with dignity or with indignity for what gaming technologies are, how they evolved and how we made them to be?
//PJ
New ways of Being with Technology: Beggar Robots
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 03/05/2009
- In: Being
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Increasingly, the marginalized and materially deprived are not allowed to ask for money in public spaces, and the well-off are remiss to give money to the homeless. However, what if the beggar is a robot?
The Beggar Robot project designed by Pavle & Sašo Sedlacek tests the hypothesis that the “haves” of society will show more sympathy to the “have-nots” if they communicate from a safe distance via a technological interface. Socially excluded people can rent the Beggar Robot for a day and exploit the possibilities of technology to beg for $$$ in the name of the poor.
The Beggar Robot 1.0 was first tested in 2006 in the biggest shopping center in Ljubljana, Slovenia (where they do not allow humans to beg, but excitedly and curiously welcomed the Beggar Robot). Beggar Robot 2.0 is now bringing robotic charity to public spaces in other countries, adapting to the local context and language using open source software. Built using scrap parts recycled from junkyards and second hand stores, the Beggar Robot bears a consciousness for a world dominated by the ideology of endless development. Will we start to see Beggar Robots of the Next Generation on every street corner in the future? What happens when the novelty wears off?
Ingredients for “Žicar/Beggar”
2 – 4 old computer boxes
Accumulator or Computer power supply (both can be included)
1 or 2 CD-rom units for hands
Small TV
Sensor of motion
DVD or WHS player
1.5 A voltage regulator 12/5 V=
Inverter 12V=/220V Hz 100W
Relay 220V Hz
Pulser 0-20 sec. and Relay 12V=
Amplifier for speakers (optional)
More info: http://www.sasosedlacek.com/anglesko/projects_beggar.htm
$6500 in 1909, 2009
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 20/03/2009
My car was getting difficult to drive, more specifically it was taking Herculean effort to turn the wheel. Thinking that the power steering fluid might be low, I drive to visit the trusty Mini-Mechanics (Mini is particular about its fluids, you can’t just use the Canadian Tire brand). Six hours and a **whopping** $6500 later…. and my wee car is whistling like new again. Power steering failure was diagnosed by the Mini-doctors, who only operate using brand new parts to repair the offending malfunction, refusing to patch the problem. Both the power steering rack and the power steering motor-pump are just shy of $2000 EACH and there were other apparently rusty parts that needed to be replaced in order to put my car back together. Hip hip hooooooray for warranty!!
A bit of internet research finds that 100 years ago I could have bought 5.5 cars for $6500 or 1000 quarts of milk or 1000+ loaves of bread. However, at an average income of $637 per year (or $53 per month), I would most likely be walking.
Interesting statistics from one century ago:
- Total vehicle production in the U.S. is 4,192
- Top speed for new cars is 8 mph. Gasoline fuel efficiency is 35 mpg
- Total vehicle registration is 8,000. There are 10 miles of paved roads
- In 1900, 115 auto deaths – 96 lynchings
- Theft is a problem, even in the early days, so the Leach Motor Carriage has a removable steering lever – an early anti-theft device
- Avg. Income (US)……………………………………….. $637/year
- New Home (Median Price)………………………….. $2,225
- New Car (Avg. Cost)……………………………………. $1,168
- Milk (Qt)…………………………………………………….$0.07
- Bread (Loaf)………………………………………………. $0.04
I don’t have a pic of my Cooper, which is most certainly NOT red – that would clash with my hair 
, so here is a more interesting Mini XXL Luxury Limo for you to gaze upon, complete with a pool in the rear.
Virtually McLuhan: Theorizing Code and Digital Life
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 15/03/2009
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Problematizing interpretation was the lesson I learned last week while listening to Suzanne de Castell’s provocative talk, One Code To Rule Them All:
“When all that has been solid melts into code, how do we rethink and re-make scholarly praxis – theory, research and pedagogy – built from and for a literate universe? Quality becomes quantity, arts and sciences are re-fused, media fluidly converge, and even the ontology of the body, this ‘too solid flesh’ of Hamlet’s distracted imaginings, becomes molten, as virtuality.”
Suzanne is a lively and engaging speaker, calling out to resuscitate the pedagogy of play, and ensorcelling my thoughts with terms like ludic epistemology, digital hermeneutics, design-driven theorizing and the navigation of UNCERTAINTY.
The uncertainty principle abounds… Suzanne clearly shows how evidence-based research can be disabling, poking big holes in the elaborate fiction of the one truth from one rigid perspective, raising questions like: How does language prevent us from understanding? What does it mean to encode knowledge as a game? How does research serve to keep knowledge at bay? Foucault troubles our desire for certainty, calling this a rancorous will to knowledge that reveals no universal certainties except that all knowledge rests upon injustice as there is no right to truth, not even in the act of knowing. Foucault furthers argues that: “the instinct for knowledge is malicious (something murderous, opposed to the happiness of mankind),” as we are progressively and dangerously enslaved to the violence of reason and the quest for certainty: “knowledge now calls for experimentation on ourselves, calls us to the sacrifice of the subject of knowledge.” Adding the words of Nietzsche, in The Dawn, “Knowledge has in us been transformed into a passion which shrinks at no sacrifice and at bottom fears nothing but its own extinction.” Whoa!!!! It’s time to slow down, to be be still and to listen.
A recent conversation with Franc Feng about David Jardine’s Reflections on education, hermeneutics and ambiguity brings forth a research path that lies beyond the neutered quest for certainty, where ambiguity is not a mistake to be corrected or solved through exhaustive methodological effort, rather this path enlivens the possibility of generative inquiry that embraces the original difficulties of life with respectful attentiveness and a radical openness that does not foreclose. For we must preserve our space for listening to and dwelling in the rich interplay of textured human lifeworlds and inconsistent truths: knowlege becomes degenerative when we are so narrowly focussed on uncovering functional certainties. This desperate longing for foreclosure, this deep longing to mine data for fixed polished meanings, this longing for the last word where nothing else needs to be said, for things to be final once and for all… is ultimately (according to Jardine) a longing for unthinking, unknowing and unfulfillment: it is not a longing for life, it is a longing for death.
Change-4-Life VS Games-4-Change?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 13/03/2009
A slap in the video gamer’s face from the UK government’s Change 4 Life campaign targeted at video games causing premature death - gah!! This ad is 1) troublesome and short-sighted as representatives from the games industry were (obviously) not consulted, and 2) insincerely ironic in that the sponsors providing some of the campaign funds include Nestle, Coke, and Cadburys.
Education & The Future of Technology
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 01/03/2009
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A Must See Presentation: SHIFT HAPPENS!!
- There are 31 billion searches on Google every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 billion. To whom were these questions addressed B.G. (Before Google)?
- It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0 x 10^19) of unique information will be generated this year. This is more than the previous 5000 years.
- The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet.
- There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace. If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world.
- It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.
- By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.
How To Write an Abstract
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 13/02/2009
This smile is brought to you by Piled Higher & Deeper (PhD) comics.
Try it out & post your response!!
The Juxtaposition of Social Change and Gaming
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 28/01/2009
Times are changing in our technologically connected world and the way we think about games needs to change too. Games do much more than entertain us and research shows how games offer inherently engaging environments for learning complex concepts that are difficult to teach, like sustainable development and global interdependence.
I am most intrigued by the growing genre of serious games about real-world issues, games that encourage youth to become more responsible citizens, including: Becoming a World Hero (UNICEF), eLections: Your Adventures in Politics (Cable in the Classroom), Freedom HIV/AIDS mobile phone games (House of Learning), Climate Challenge (BBC), Re-Mission (HopeLab), Whack TB (Families USA Global Health Initiative), A Force More Powerful (International Center on Nonviolent Conflict), Play the News (Impact Games), Stop Whaling (GreenPeace UK), 3rd World Farmer (IT University of Copenhagen), McDonald’s (MolleIndustria), Karma Tycoon (Do Something Inc), Planet Green Game (Starbucks), PeaceMaker (Impact Games), Nuclear Weapons (The Nobel Peace Prize), Free Rice (United Nations WFP) and Fatworld (ITVS). I advocate that these games for change offer important opportunities to reach and engage youth with the social, cultural, technological and political issues effecting their lives and futures.
According to a large-scale quantitative study on Teens, Games & Civics (Pew Research Center, 2008), 97% of all American teens play some kind of video game: “Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.“
Not only is gaming ubiquitous in the social and leisure lives of youth, it also occupies an increasingly important role in civic and political life:
76% of gamers help others while gaming,
52% report game-play where they think about moral and ethical issues,
44% report playing games where they learn about a problem in society, and
40% report playing games where they learn about a social issue).
With certainty, the growing genre of games for change matters and the research questions are piling up:
- How do we learn about social justice by playing video games designed for change?
- What is the pedagogical potential for long-term thinking and deep conceptual understanding beyond the simulated game-play? What are the relationships between in-game experiences and real-world engagement?
- How might the popularity of gaming ignite interest in civic and moral leadership?
- Can communities of gamers playing together learn to change their attitudes and actions at both the individual and collective levels of society?
- How might gaming contribute to student success in school settings by making learning more responsive, meaningful and relevant?
Games for change is a new frontier of unknown opportunities as research is just beginning to understand how simulated learning experiences transfer to the real world. While the potential for games is breathtaking, a positive advocation is not complete without a serious reminder of the dark side lurking within diverse gaming experiences. We are circularly implicated as gaming plays an increasingly vital role in our lives: we make the gaming technologies that then shape who we are and how we exist in the world.
If the games we design and play have considerable effect upon our moral and social identities, then we have an enormous responsibility to create games that are valued for their contribution to the quality of life that is worth living. The current reality, however, is that gaming is a medium with distinctly political and/or economic agendas, and most games (including educational games) are created in the absence of any coherent theories of learning without a solid underlying body of research. As such, it is no surprize that the vast majority of the top-twenty selling video games contain heavily disturbing and violent content (Entertainment Software Association, 2008).
Games are not culturally benign and a major concern is the equitable representation of gender, race, class, religion and sexuality—and not the further dissemination of white, western culture. Access for all is another challenge for the serious games movement and no matter how meaningful games are, there is no magical built in guarantee that everybody will be included. Therefore, collaborative efforts between students, parents, educators, governments, social organizations and game developers are important to enable disenfranchised youth to participate in the learning opportunities afforded by digital networks and gaming technologies.
We need to be mindful of both industry developments and academic research, especially as gaming is evolving from a rather vexed history to a much sweeter spot within the field of education. Now is not the time for passive acceptance, it is the time for critical thinking and continuous questioning about the roles that games can and should play. My marked enthusiasm is not that I believe the world’s problems will be solved by simply playing games, but rather that game experiences stimulate new ways of thinking and open up questions for discussion about deep-rooted issues of social justice. For example, how might the future of education be shaped by playing games for change in the post-industrial school? What kinds of games will we need to play to learn and practice the social, organizational and technological skills required for participation in a globalized culture? How might massively multi-generational teams of students and experts join together to explore and solve real-world challenges by making social-change games?
Our children look to us to teach and inspire them in meaningful ways, and it behooves us to seriously consider how playing games for change might help humanity move towards the goal of a more benevolent future for our planet earth home. Playing video games can create a socially-responsive space for learning as well as an authentic pedagogical place for developing the sustained engagement that will perhaps make today’s gamers the most socially conscious generation in history. Parents and teachers, I hope that you will play these meaningful games with your children: for fun and for change.
How do we learn PEACE?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 25/01/2009
Did you know there are well over 1,000,000 texts about peace… each read by an average of three people, including the author and the publisher? [source: joke!]
Who really wants to read about peace? From the reactions I receive about my interests in Peace & Gaming, peace is not generally valued as a cutting-edge or critical area of gaming research. Peace is just a lovely little old lady idea, merely a sweet or trivial topic of inquiry…
In my search for a more scientifically verifiable and rigorous approach to studying peace, I am enlivened by the work of world-renowned quantum physicist, Dr. John Hagelin (PhD from Harvard). Impressively, Hagelin’s work includes some of the most cited references in the physical sciences and his outstanding research contributions have earned him official recognition as a scientist in the tradition of Einstein. Dr. Hagelin is unique among scientists in being one of the first to apply advanced knowledge for the practical benefit of global human concerns.
According to Hagelin, permanent world peace is real and can be achieved by stimulating technologies from the science of consciousness. Yes, there is an actual science of peace because the field of consciousness is the field of unity, the field of bliss on a tangible, powerful physical level millions of times more powerful than a nuclear force… if we can just access it. Consciousness can access peace, as Hagelin believes, thus we need more peacemakers who develop their nervous systems to the point where they become lighthouses radiating peace. Together, these peaceful people will stimulate the unified field of peace, simultaneously strengthening and unifying the world’s diversity in happiness, prosperity and invincibility.
Dr. Hagelin sheds his light further: when individual awareness expands to become universal, it creates a ripple in that universal field just like it were a ripple in the electromagnetic field. When we stimulate the fundamental field of consciousness and unity, this ripple propagates in all directions at the speed of light. Research shows that to have a really powerful effect, you need these ripples rippling in close proximity to each other, thereby creating not a ripple, but a tidal wave of unity, peace and coherence. This coherence, unity and peace gets communicated through the field of consciousness and that’s why it is important to understand that consciousness is fundamentally a shared field that underlies and pervades us all.
Rather amazingly, the strength of numbers is such that it doesn’t take that many peaceful people to influence a difference. Hagelin’s research shows the that the radiated influence of peace in the environment grows roughly as the square of the number of people doing it together. This n2 (n-squared) effect amplifies the power to be enough to produce a demonstrable, repeatable, publishable effect upon crime rates, terrorism, even stopping warfare in war torn areas like the middle-east .
The Transcendental Meditation technique is described as a mental procedure that allows the mind to quiet itself and to practice of peace as a higher state of human consciousness. In October 2008, David Lynch (yes, the celebrated film-maker who is also a peace-maker and a long-time transcendental meditator) met with Israel president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem and secured his support for a large peace-creating group in Israel, to be composed of 500 Palestinians and Israelis who will practice the Transcendental Meditation program together. Hagelin’s research indicates that this group should be large enough to create a measurable influence of peace in the region .
Peace is a powerful technology, a quantum science that exists as a higher state of human consciousness. David Lynch explains this concept with the simple metaphor of how darkness goes away when the sun comes up. The sun doesn’t have to drive the darkness away, the sun just comes up and it glows. Similarly, once the unified field gets enlivened with a higher state of human consciousness, then negativity goes – it just goes…
How do we learn tolerance, diversity & acceptance?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 09/01/2009
- In: Becoming| Being
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Please do watch this video: Instruction Manual for Life. I think you will enjoy how it deals with issues involving tolerance for difference, diversity and acceptance. Quite a profound message conveyed through the simple metaphor of a cupboard.
Light your way, PJ
If we could see their faces…
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 08/01/2009
- In: Being| Gaming
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Several are emailing me with responses that the Raid Gaza game is disturbing, but at the same time there is an undeniably addicting ‘fun’ element to the gameplay. I also received an email from with photos taken from the West Bank and Gaza strip that weighs heavily on my heart.
CK writes: “PS don’t let anyone tell you these images are photoshopped, in some cases I know who took the pics and in any case most of the scenarios seen above have been daily occurances for decades. With, I might add, the US taxpayer picking up the tab.”
3 criminal soldiers standing beside each other to take a picture of their kill. Respect for human life?
On the way to school…
More war crimes – using human shields.
Flash game as a vehicle of social protest?
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 07/01/2009
ATTENTION: You now have 3 minutes to Raid Gaza:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/476393
With certainty, this new little flash game provokes many thoughts and questions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’ve played this game with my nine-year old daughter, and after several attempts, we have learned:
- The Israelis are winning this senseless struggle at a rate of 25 to 1.
- The Palestinians are firing rockets at Israeli settlements, pretty much at random, depicting the Arabs as crazed, senseless terrorists who are acting without reason, without “aim.”
- The screen layout with Gaza cramped against the shore and Israel with the wide open spaces and pastoral fields emphasises the basis of the original conflict – fighting for ownership of historically sacred land.
- The Israelis have access to a huge arsenal of high-tech weaponry as the US is an endless source of $$$ for Israel – why bother sending in any troops who might get killed and count against your score when you can just constantly bomb Gaza with missiles on the US dime?
- The insanity of using violent military action to solve conflict – you are given bonus points if your rocket destroys a hospital which emphasizes the sick, unconscionable reality of the real-life situation. For example, yesterday an Israeli rocket hit a Gaza school killing 40 people, and my understanding is that the school was targeted because the Hamas were launching rockets from the school.
In my opinion, the unpalatable horrors of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are strikingly communicated in this game in a very real way. The game play uses very dark humor: the winning strategy is to thoughtlessly build/spend, get aid and kill as fast as you can (meanwhile the background music plays a ‘classy bar loop’). Although over-simplified, biased and disturbing, Raid Gaza! is definitely successful at raising awareness and sending out a sharp and concise message (there are already 394 reviews and the game was just released one week ago). I think that adding political commentary to a flash game should happen more often as people not interested in war politics will be enticed to participate in the discussion. Browsing through the comments, I find a mixture of political commentary and lively debate, simple reviews of the game and the typical kinds of inanities that one might expect on a website that is likely to experience high traffic from teenage males (who like saying things just to get a rise out of others).
I think this game is targeted to reach out to an audience who would not normally discuss or pay attention to the details of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Although insensitive and one-sided, I wonder if people would be as likely to forward Raid Gaza! to their friends to play if the game was less disturbing? If you feel uncomfortable with the virtual game violence that is based upon actual conflict, perhaps that is the point?
What message do you think this game is trying to communicate? What might improve the game and it’s delivery? How might this game be use as a point of entry to encourage a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian political issues? Can this game be responsibly used in a classroom educational setting to learn about conflict/resolution?
FYI: a brief interview with the Raid Gaza! game creator:
http://www.nonvivant.com/2009/01/02/interview-creator-of-raid-gaza-flash-game/
Save Israel is another simple flash game that, unlike Raid Gaza, clearly takes the Israeli side: http://www.kongregate.com/games/amihanya/save-israel. You can save Israel by first alerting the city (click on it) and then blow up the impending rocket (click on it).
Peace, hope and healing for the Israelis & Palestinians…. PJ
Yearbook Yourself!
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 30/08/2008
Play more often to live more fully!! Here is fun set of photos I created using yearbookyourself.com. If you try this site, be sure to rotate your head perfectly straight or some of the pics will be misaligned. I’m smiling at my double chins, crooked glasses and wacky hair styles
Beetle Love
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 22/08/2008
So this is how they make baby Beetle cars
Beetle Sex
Gaming as a Medium for Social Change.
Posted by: pjrusnak on: 17/06/2008
- In: Being| Gaming
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Here are some examples of recently developed Serious Games that are freely available for you to play. I’m interested in your questions, comments and thoughts…
Pos or Not [www.posornot.com, released April 2008] is a viral online game that confronts the HIV/AIDS stigma. People from across the country – some of whom are living with HIV, some who are not – put their personal lives forward to challenge the stereotypes about who is affected by this disease. Based only on their photographs and personal information, players are asked if the individual is “Pos or Not.” By showing that you can’t tell people’s HIVstatus by the way they look or by their gender, age and interests, the game confronts stereotypes about who is affected by HIV/AIDS while providing information about how to prevent the spread of the disease. Pos or Not harnesses the viral nature of the internet to effect a positive change on the HIV/AIDS issue so I encourage you to play the game and pass it on to your family and friends. Thanks.
Play the News [www.playthenews.com, April 2008] is an engaging, community-driven experience: “imagine fantasy sports meets the evening news.” Play the News is a web-based platform that brings interactive gaming elements to the online news media industry changing the paradigm of news consumption from passive reading to active engagements. Impact Games, the developer of Play the News, also created the PeaceMaker game which simulates the Israeli and Palestinian conflict in the Middle East.
Vinyl Game [www.vinylgame.com, May 2008] is a socially responsible response by the European PVC industry’s commitment to sustainability. In Vinyl Game you have to manage the PVC life cycle from the production to the waste management. Your objective is to create a profitable and sustainable business by the year 2010. Go for it!
Activism NYC [www.comeoutandplay.org/2008_reactivism.php, June 2008] is a street game in which teams race through the history of riots, protests, and activism in New York City testing their puzzle-solving skills in site throughout the city where echoes of the fight for justice and peace still ring. By visiting historic sites and searching for clues to the events that happened there, players will reactivate forgotten histories to engage social issues and struggles that were important then and continue to have resonance today. Activated by text messages from Re:Activism Central, the teams engage in site-specific challenges that reveal the details of each event and the strategies behind organizing street-based actions.
ICED – I Can End Deportation [www.icedgame.com, Feb 2008] puts you in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights. These laws affect all immigrants: legal residents, those fleeing persecution, students and undocumented people. The game’s purpose is to reframe the immigration debate from a discussion that looks at immigrants as criminals, to one that looks and creates awareness around immigration as an issue that violates human rights and denies due process of all immigrants – legal and undocumented.
Hurricane Katrina Hero [Global Kids Youth, July 2008] is a flash-based game in which the player assumes the role of a high school girl from New Orleans who has moved out of the city. The game is set in a dream she’s having about being in the Hurricane Katrina disaster trying to rescue her mother. The player moves through five different neighborhoods over the course of the first five days of the disaster. The player must learn about the disaster from residents, help distribute resources from the community, and rescue people trapped in their attics. The purpose of the game is to try and affect public misconceptions about Hurricane Katrina and the stereotypes that the residents were only victims or criminals. Also, the game is trying to renew attention to the disaster, because though the public has moved on to other stories, the struggle to rebuild continues for many New Orleans residents. Additionally, our game highlights tow of the most important actions in any disaster: effective communication and utilization of local resources.
Deliver the Net [www.nothingbutnets.net] is a new game created by the UN to commemorate World Malaria Day (April 25). The challenge is to race against the sun and hand out as many insecticide-treated bed nets as you can to African families. The more nets delivered (before the mosquitoes come out) equals the more lives saved. When you sign up to play the game and confirm your email, a life-saving bed net will be sent on your behalf. The NET-O-METER shows that over 2 million nets have been sent to date.
What Would You Do [by UNICEF] is an interactive game that explores real life situations with regards to HIV/AIDS. Created by UNICEF Voices of Youth, this game is now available in Swahili.
Water Alert! (by UNICEF] is an educational resource on water, environment and sanitation where young people are engaged in an adventure of strategy and survival. The goal is to ensure that the people in this drought-challenged village, who are facing the threat of a flood, have water that is safe to drink and a clean and healthy school environment.
Food Force [www.food-force.com, April 2005] one of my favorite games, is an educational action game that teaches kids about the problem of global hunger and the importance of humanitarian aid work. Developed by the United Nation’s World Food Program, Food Force has been downloaded by over four million players, a number that rivals chart-busting commercial hits like Halo or GTA.
Free Rice [www.freerice.com, Oct. 2007] is an online internet game that donates 20 grains of rice to the WFP for every word that is correctly defined. Since the game’s release date, October 2007, the site has raised enough rice to feed over 1.5 million people for a day. The game has been embraced by young and old people, proving to be an excellent tool for teaching both vocabulary and the value of helping others in need. Free Rice has been a viral phenomenon and boasts numerous Facebook fan sites, including one page with over 63,000 members. Sign up, play and help feed the needy.
Real Lives [www.educationalsimulations.com, released July 2007] is a simulation of life, from birth to death in any country of the world. Through statistically accurate events, Real Lives brings to life different cultures, political systems, economic opportunities, personal decisions, health issues, family issues, schooling, jobs, religions, geography, war, peace, and more. As you make decisions for your character and experience the consequences of those decisions you learn about the world and gain an increased appreciation of your own life cirumstances and those of other people. Real Lives’ purpose is to offer an experience of what life is like for people in other countries. The intended impact is increased understanding of the life circumstances of others.
There are many more games, such as Darfur is Dying (mtvU), World Without Oil, Ayati – The Cost of Life, A Planet Green Game (Starbucks), A Force More Powerful, 3rd World Farmer, and Becoming a World Hero. Further, the future is bright with new developments that seek to harness the power of video games in the service of humanistic principles.
Bye for now, PJ!
