Samuel Freilich's Blog – March 2010 Archive (19)

Water Day 2020 was a day of recreation worldwide as billions gathered at rivers, lakes, beaches, and oases. Public celebrations of all sorts, with speeches and ceremony honoring the efforts of local water stewards and scientists. It's amazing to see people swimming in bodies of water expected to dry up years ago, or those considered unfit for humans last decade. Some are taking swimming lessons for the first time due to the occasion, those more experienced are lining up for races or other… Continue

The good news about water scarcity is that water isn't that scarce. Human use of water systems has far more to do with the water cycle and ecosystems than the use of non-renewable energy resources. Yes, there are ways to use energy to make marginal water systems more useful, and adding technology to retrieve water more easily and avoid dying of ch***ra makes for a good investment. But for the most part it's about having access to healthy water systems at all. The problem is mostly one of… Continue

Powering any device with a single source of energy will be even more of a losing proposition in the future than it is now. Rather, power grids should be powered by renewable energy best suited to local conditions, and the power should be distributed to devices. Not a very exciting answer. But it's simply the truth that there's very little overlap between "objects best-suited to work as consumer electronics" and "objects best-suited to generate electricity from natural sources of power". Sure,… Continue

Of all the major problems the world faces in the next decade, power seems to be the one least likely to be solved by radical new technology. Note that this is not a bad thing. We have great technologies for generating power from wind, water, and sunlight, with potential for significant (but incremental) technological improvement. More complex power sources, too: Geothermal heat, salinity gradients, nuclear fission (including fast breeder reactors and so on), maybe fusion. But seriously, if… Continue

While doing the Quest for this week, I chose Tokyo for the "place I've been" to discuss. What's the biggest problem Tokyo faces? Power, I figured. I knew Japan imported almost all of their oil, and that Tokyo was a densely-populated city that uses a lot of electricity. I also knew that Japan's per capita energy consumption was much lower than that of the US. But it occurred to me that might be the wrong measure, so I set out to do a bit of research.



I did some back-of-the-envelope… Continue

One agent is trying to organize a project to pick out the best submissions for past missions. If you think this is an interesting idea and you'd be willing to help, comment to that effect on that discussion. (The organizer also wants to pick out worse posts, which I care less about, since I don't expect those with the worst posts care if other people think less of them on account of that.)

Here's an interesting off-grid power technology: A company called Bourne Energy has created an off grid floating turbine. Anchors across a stream, require little setup, can be carried on your back. More location-dependent than solar, but less time-dependent and more compact. The company evidently has a variety of designs for quick-setup power from moving water.… Continue

There's a lot more to sift through this week, but I've picked out a few highlights:

• The Makers Guild Wiki is up, go there for exciting brainstorming opportunities!
• Someone is running a tabletop RPG based on Evoke.
• People discuss the…

Continue

I was sorting through my mail today, thinking about how I might complete this particular mission, when I came across a newsletter from the Waltham Fields Community Farm. I'd never received mail from that organization before (it took me a while to remember that I'd gone to a benefit concert supporting them a few months ago), so it was a startling moment of synchronicity.



Unfortunately,… Continue

Those looking to understand the state of food security in the Greater Boston Area have a wealth of data available to them: The Greater Boston Food Bank conducts a detailed demographic survey every four years. Probably the most important finding from the 2008 survey is the overall numbers:



"394,300 unduplicated people receive food that was distributed to GBFB member agencies. This is a 23%… Continue

Agent Dragar adds to the speculation on Citizen X. Most of it makes sense, but he says one thing wildly in opposition to what we know: He notes that it might be tempting to fall into black-and-white statements that don't quite mesh with reality. For example:



"Where EVOKE desires transparency, Citizen X seeks… Continue

A while ago, I was doing a fair amount of reading on the global food system. I read Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, a rather remarkable case-study on plant biology, ecology, marketing, big business, and shock doctrine politics, with significant implications for global food… Continue

I met a strange traveler on the road today. Evidently, feeling unusually tired after a marathon blogging session, he had closed his eyes in 2010 and woken up in the WORLD OF THE FUTURE. After such a long nap, he was predictably quite hungry, so I invited him over for dinner. A bit of our conversation follows:



"This is delicious! What did you call that vegetable again? And where did you get these?"



"The… Continue

When mastering a new subject area or studying something complex, there's often no alternative to memorization: Using specific techniques to get vast quantities of information into persistent memory for fast recall (or at least quick relearning) later.



For memorizing tasks, I use a freeware program called Anki. The program is open-source, uses the effective spaced repetition techniques developed by Piotr Wozniak (the creator of… Continue

A few links worth spreading around:



First off, some Agents are starting Guilds that will act as communities of practice within the game. As an engineer, I'll gladly associate with the Makers Guild.



Would there be interest in starting a Hacker's Guild (for those whose building materials are of the more abstract, mathematical sort)? Or is there too much overlap between that and… Continue

I've improved my physical condition quite a bit over the last few years, so I expect by 2010 I'll be in great condition. If I need to get my hands dirty or cover lots of ground in a day, I'll be ready and able.



I'm still working on my foreign language skills, I've been studying Japanese since I studied away in Tokyo, so maybe I'll be in Tokyo when Alchemy makes his call. I loved the city and want to go back, among other reasons that would allow… Continue

A response to Evoke Agent Amanda Jeffery:



Of all the Evoke Powers, by far the most important and hardest to embody is Spark. Even if you're cooperative and courageous and creative and knowledgeable, with business savvy and communication skills and perseverance and perspective, you're still only one person. How can one change the world without the… Continue

Some of my social innovation heroes are the micro-trustees of The Awesome Foundation. I think their model is one that social innovators should look at very closely. Their approach is as follows:

1. Assemble a team of 10 micro-trustees willing to donate $100 each month (the Foundation has several chapters, but so far just in cities in the eastern US (as far as I can tell))

2. Take submissions for awesome project ideas that could use just a… Continue

Exhibit A suggests, among other social innovation tips: "Don’t fight culture (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead.)"



I would suggest that this phrasing is a little incorrect. Social innovation can in fact lead to cultural change. Rather, I would say:… Continue