Fearlessly Questioning the Fearless Questioner

This Friday night, +Joey Giangola - host of +Fearlessly Questioning joins us to talk about what he's doing with his corner of the internet, some of his techniques, and why he does what he does.

You can catch the next episode of his show here:  http://goo.gl/XYKX1a


#planeswalking  primer:  http://goo.gl/XYKX1a

"Why do some items go viral while others remain unseen, unread, and un-shared forever?

Wednesday October 15th 10:02 am MDT, 9:02 am PDT, 11:02 am CDT, 12:02 am EDT, 5:02 pm BST

Why is Minecraft such a huge success? Is Minecraft a "Meme?" What can we learn from s study of the success of Minecraft?

This week's #CodeBreakers are:

+Ammon Johns 
+Grizwald Grim 
and
+DENNIS N. DUCE 

Mobile: http://goo.gl/JErXH3 YouTube: http://goo.gl/JErXH3 Google+: http://goo.gl/FkvGLh Intelign.com: 
Dennis Duce's Blog: http://goo.gl/Qh0luj

Join our team of #CodeBreakers  each week as we open up various Meme's and show you why they went viral or died on the vine.

Meet the #CodeBreakers :
(In alphabetical order)

+Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales 
Super Power -> 

+Ammon Johns 
Super Power-> Insight, Strategy, Vision

+Christopher Vogelmann 
Super Power ->

+Craig Calvert 
Super Power ->  Psychometrics, Memetics

+DENNIS N. DUCE 
Super Power -> Engagement, Creativity, Speed Cubing, and Misspelling Everything 
G+: http://goo.gl/G6Nrj5

+Eric Enge 
Super Power -> 

+Grizwald Grim 
Super Power ->  Modesty, Humility, and Narcissism

+Mani Saint-Victor 
Super Power -> Neuroscience

+Michael Sutton 
Super Power ->  

+Nicholas Cardot 
Super Power -> Psychological Warfare; Programming; Resistance to Threes. :)

+Stephanie Sims 
Super Power -> 
+The Analyst 
#TheAnalyst  
Super Power -> Behind The Scenes Analysis 

Week Two: The Brace Yourself Meme "Live From Pubcon"
Mobile: http://goo.gl/oYluzj
YouTube: http://goo.gl/oYluzj
Google+: http://goo.gl/xGmdNO 
Dennis Duce's Blog: http://goo.gl/6IkSh0

#ThePandemicCode     #CodeBreakers    #

"Why do some items go viral while others remain unseen, unread, and un-shared forever?

Wednesday October 15th 10:02 am MDT, 9:02 am PDT, 11:02 am CDT, 12:02 am EDT, 5:02 pm BST

Why is Minecraft such a huge success? Is Minecraft a "Meme?" What can we learn from s study of the success of Minecraft?

This week's #CodeBreakers are:

+Ammon Johns 
+Grizwald Grim 
and
+DENNIS N. DUCE 

Mobile: http://goo.gl/JErXH3 YouTube: http://goo.gl/JErXH3 Google+: http://goo.gl/FkvGLh Intelign.com: 
Dennis Duce's Blog: http://goo.gl/Qh0luj

Join our team of #CodeBreakers  each week as we open up various Meme's and show you why they went viral or died on the vine.

Meet the #CodeBreakers :
(In alphabetical order)

+Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales 
Super Power -> 

+Ammon Johns 
Super Power-> Insight, Strategy, Vision

+Christopher Vogelmann 
Super Power ->

+Craig Calvert 
Super Power ->  Psychometrics, Memetics

+DENNIS N. DUCE 
Super Power -> Engagement, Creativity, Speed Cubing, and Misspelling Everything 
G+: http://goo.gl/G6Nrj5

+Eric Enge 
Super Power -> 

+Grizwald Grim 
Super Power ->  Modesty, Humility, and Narcissism

+Mani Saint-Victor 
Super Power -> Neuroscience

+Michael Sutton 
Super Power ->  

+Nicholas Cardot 
Super Power -> Psychological Warfare; Programming; Resistance to Threes. :)

+Stephanie Sims 
Super Power -> 
+The Analyst 
#TheAnalyst  
Super Power -> Behind The Scenes Analysis 

Week Two: The Brace Yourself Meme "Live From Pubcon"
Mobile: http://goo.gl/oYluzj
YouTube: http://goo.gl/oYluzj
Google+: http://goo.gl/xGmdNO 
Dennis Duce's Blog: http://goo.gl/6IkSh0

#ThePandemicCode     #CodeBreakers    #

Fearlessly Questioning the Fearless Questioner

This Friday night, +Joey Giangola - host of +Fearlessly Questioning joins us to talk about what he's doing with his corner of the internet, some of his techniques, and why he does what he does.

You can catch the next episode of his show here:  http://goo.gl/XYKX1a


#planeswalking  primer:  http://goo.gl/XYKX1a

There Will Be Casualties

Some time ago, (in social media terms at least), somebody said something that resonated so strongly that it has lurked at the back of my mind ever since as an almost perfect encapsulation of not only our current trajectory, but of all past and future ones too.  There will be casualties, +Owen Ellis said to me.  And he was right.  There will be.

With every change, every adaptation, every evolution from one form or stage or platform to another, there are casualties.

And all too often they’re strewn behind us without our ever really noticing, as we charge headlong into the future while barely looking around.  I usually believe things will work out one way or the other.  That we’ll eventually get it right.

Because if we don’t, well, we’ll probably die a horrible death.  But even if we get it right, even if it happens tomorrow, if it happens right now, there will be casualties.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

In a cause and effect universe, the law of unintended consequences can be a bitch.  Whatever our intentions, our goals, our dreams, they are as nothing before the outcomes of our actions, and as our connectivity appears to increase, so too does the scope of those potential outcomes.

Our similarities to, and differences from, each other present their own problems.  On the one hand, our tendency toward unshakeable conviction that it is our opinions and approaches that are the right ones. 

Our own investment in our thoughts or ideas threatens the same vast sense of commonality that persuades us (illusory thought it might be) that all people of intelligence and good will must surely agree with us.

On the other, the differences that make us think we are forced into conflict with those who do not, whether for “their own good” (a terrifying concept) or our own need for validation, can blind us to that same commonality.

How much thought do we spare for the scattered casualties of our ideological conflicts? Of the bitter arguments over who is right or wrong or which approach is best and for who?  They happen all around us, on all levels of scale. Voices silenced, accounts or platforms abandoned.  Frustrated cries for aid or respite. Complaints, accusations, defences, attacks.  Casualties all.

In Defence Of Solipsism

It’s scarcely a surprise.  Solipsism isn’t something most people will own up to, at least partly because it’s almost certainly ultimately indefensible without recourse to pure stubbornness, but it’s essential principle is one that we’re emotionally wedded to, even if we seldom, or ever, think about it in those terms.

As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one’s own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist.

In our hearts and minds, (albeit usually with some exceptions, friends, loved ones, etc.), the existence and humanity of almost everybody else in the world is at best a little vague and abstract, and at worst…well…imaginary.  I’ve talked about it before (you may remember) because I suffer from a peculiar version of it myself, that I work at overcoming by being conscious of it.

But that baseline feeling that one is the only person that counts, the only person that is real, although largely papered over, nonetheless shows itself more often than we may realise. And that is why we barely notice the casualties.  Unless they are ours.

It’s why it’s easy to demonise our opposition.  To ignore or trivialise the realities of their hopes and dreams and fears and ambitions.  To pretend that no harm is done, and even to believe it.  To blame victims or victimise the blameless.

A Surfeit Of Choice

It’s well established that giving people more choices does not make them any happier than giving them few choices.  But we tend to view our choices from our own perspective only.  How do we benefit or suffer from them?  What are the implications in our own lives and experiences?

The casualties of our choices feature rarely in our decisions, again with some obvious exceptions.  And even in those exceptions, I suspect, it is how the affect on them will in turn affect us.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Whether you can see it and feel it or not. And the wider our range of choices, the more potential consequences there are.

Now I’m all for choice.  But I’m also for considering the consequences of those choices.  And the problem with the law of unintended consequences, is that they’re exactly that.  Unintended. They’re the consequences we don’t think of.  The casualties we’re blind to, or ignorant of.  How many have you left in your wake?

Flashback

Hard as it is to believe, I wasn’t always the paragon of tolerance and virtue and thoughtful response you see before you today.  Indeed, was a time in my past when I was considered a rather cruel and insensitive fellow.

(“Hold,” I imagine you cry. “Surely not?  You?”  To which I can only admit that it is true.  There was a time when I exulted in the cutting remark, the point scored, the opposing view crushed by the mocking rebuttal.  When I notched the metaphorical haft of my wit with the mementoes of mental battles and (putative) foes withered by my verbiage.)

And then one day I realised what a colossal waste of time it was.  How much of my energy I had put into proving myself better or smarter or quicker on the uptake or the backlash? To who?  For what?  It was a hollow and self-important farce. It was an arrogance as pointless as it was questionable, and there were casualties.

And I made a deliberate and conscious decision to change.  To be, (in my own estimation at least), a better person.  And I’ve never regretted it, even if it was hard work sometimes. Because the returns were far better than those empty and meaningless “victories.”

Acceptable Losses

The simple truth is that we cannot prevent the casualties.  We can deplore them, (if we notice), we can assign blame and responsibility. We can even accept responsibility (to whatever extent is applicable) if we’re courageous enough.  But we cannot prevent them.  Because every change, every belief, every assumption, leaves somebody behind.

There has been some talk recently, here and there, about our tendency to view life itself as some sort of war against the world and each other, and as unfortunate as it may seem, it is an analogy that is not without merit.

And all conflict must include the concept of acceptable losses.

The Inevitable Casualties

As we forge bravely ahead into an always uncertain future, as our selves and our behaviours change, and our societies and cultures and environments and assumptions adapt to that change, there will be casualties.

They are caused by changes for the better, and changes for the worse.  And there is no way to know who they will be, how they will suffer, or how many more will occur before we finally learn our lessons.

But accepting them shouldn’t mean ignoring them either.  And the least we can do is try and avoid unnecessary ones.

There will be casualties.  Let us try to limit them.



________________________________
A full text share with special thanks to +Owen Ellis for my new catchphrase. :D  #therewillbecasualities  

This week's topic will be bread and circuses, then and now.

Google responds with this:  
"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement.

which it apparently pulled from wikipedia. We'll start from there.