Tuesday, July 15, 2003

New Book on Synergy Peter Corning writes: Thirty years ago, Arthur Koestler wrote, "True innovation occurs when things are put together for the first time that had been separate." I believe the famed novelist and respected polymath was seeking to draw our attention to a phenomenon that is greatly underrated and vastly more important even than Koestler imagined. I call it nature’s magic. Grand theories are commonplace these days. It seems that new ideas must shout to be heard. So the claims for this book may sound like hyperbole as usual. The thesis, in brief, is that synergy -- a vaguely familiar term to many of us -- is actually one of the great governing principles of the natural world. It has been a wellspring of creativity in the evolution of the universe, and it has greatly influenced the overall trajectory of life on earth. It has played a decisive role in the emergence of humankind. It is vital to the workings of every modern society. And it is no exaggeration to say that our ultimate fate depends upon it. All this may sound like so much dust-jacket rhetoric, but the "Synergism Hypothesis" (as I call it) is a serious scientific theory that is fully consistent with Darwin's theory, and with the canons of the physical, biological and social sciences, not to mention the new science of complexity. The theory, in a nutshell, is that synergy is not only a ubiquitous effect in nature; it has also played a key causal role in the evolutionary process. It has been at once the fountainhead and the raison d’etre for the progressive increase in complexity over the broad span of evolutionary history. Far from being law-like and predictable, however, this trend has always involved an open-ended, creative, historically-constrained experiment in which economic criteria (broadly defined) have predominated. Complexity – in nature and human societies alike -- is not the product of some inexorable force, or mechanism, or “law”. It has been shaped by the immediate functional advantages -- the “payoffs” -- arising from various forms of synergy.  (07/15/03) GIFTegrity Specifications Synergic Economist Wayne F. Perg, Ph.D writes: My concept and understanding of the GIFTegrity is one of a radical move away from trade-oriented or materialistic sort of exchange. In the GIFTegrity there is no accounting, there are no prices, there is no barter (no tit for tat), and there is no medium of exchange! For me, it is the road to a post-monetary, post-barter economy. Barter and monetary economies both tie together giving and receiving. One cannot be done in the absence of the other. It is this "tying together" that is the ultimate source of "dead resources" and unemployment. The GIFTegrity frees giving from receiving and receiving from giving and will, as it is implemented, bring all resources to life and eliminate unemployment. The GIFTegrity does this by creating transparency, i.e., by creating good information on the SEPARATE giving and receiving actions of all members of the gifting tensegrity. Because there is no trading, only gifts given with no requirment of payment, there are no market prices and no accounting of trades. What there is is an open exchange of information on needs and resources available to fill those needs and ongoing individual negotiations around actions that will meet those needs. (07/15/03) A Powerful Wind is Blowing BBC Technology -- A big expansion in the amount of electricity generated from offshore wind power has been announced by the UK Government. Licences are being issued for thousands of turbines to be built off the British coast to generate as much energy as around six nuclear power stations. It will also make a major contribution to the government's targets for renewable energy and create up to 20,000 jobs. It is the biggest single step taken to increase the amount of electricity produced without polluting the atmosphere, BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch said. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced on Monday the leasing of large areas of the seabed in three areas of the country. Ms Hewitt said the move was widely supported by the public who agreed with the government that cleaner sources of energy were needed. "We have got the best wind resources in the whole of Europe and it is crazy that we are lagging behind countries like Germany and Spain and Denmark, when we have the great expertise in offshore developments that we built up with North Sea oil," she told the BBC. The move has been welcomed by environmental groups but some sites will face objections because of a possible impact on birds and wildlife. (07/15/03) The Coming Financial Reality Michael Hudson writes: The banking system's cost of obtaining funds is now almost as low as it was after World War II. But long-term rates for mortgages and credit cards have not fallen. So the lending margins of banks have widened, increasing their earnings. This is why we don't face a Japanese-style bank collapse. U.S. banks have managed to avoid bearing the brunt of the stock-market losses by passing their bad stock investments and bad debts on to their customers, the pension funds and mutual funds. Labor and its savings have borne the brunt of the post-2000 market downturn. It's the people who put their trust in banks and other financial managers that are on the short end of the stick.The rates that have responded most significantly to lower borrowing costs are short-term loans for financial speculation, above all for derivatives and related buying or selling of stocks and bonds on margin--enormous gambles on which way the dollar, the stock market and interest rates may go. This kind of lending does not help the economy invest more in fixed capital formation. It merely helps create a thriving and profitable new bank business. Like Japan, the U.S. economy has painted itself into a debt corner that is locking in low interest rates. These rates can't go up without causing widespread distress. This "lock-in" is a second effect of the Fed's policy. As interest rates have fallen, home owners and businesses have found their income able to support a larger debt pyramid. A thousand dollars per month can carry twice as high an interest-only loan at 5% as it can at 10%. Instead of using the decline in interest rates as an opportunity to pay down their debt, they have borrowed more. Mr. Greenspan has encouraged them to do this so that they can go out and spend more money, creating more profits for producers of the goods they buy. This is the first time in history an economic planner has advised people that they can live better and the economy can grow faster by running deeper into debt. This philosophy blatantly serves the commercial banks and other lenders and savers rather than keeping their self-interest in check as government financial policy would be doing in a better-run economy. (07/15/03) 5:36:23 AM

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