Saturday Links for the Week — February 23, 2008

Imagining a Better Way to Live: My Swedish friend Steve presents a Future State vision of a sustainable community-based society based on a gift economy. Inspiring stuff. Idealistic perhaps, but remember Einstein said “If an idea at first does not appear absurd, there is no hope for it.”

Is the US ‘Beyond Hope’?: Hope is the Obama theme, but Sara Robinson suggests the 7 preconditions for revolution are all in place. As I’ve argued, Americans have three choices: vote for the Democrats and be disappointed, vote for the Republicans and be abused, or realize that they are both hopeless and start working on creating a new community-based political system that actually responds to people’s needs. There are no economies of scale. The nation-state is long past dysfunctional and is now useless. Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link.

Humans as Invasive Species: A research study suggests the ecological impact of humans moving beyond our African natural birthplace have been much the same as that of other invasive species, like purple loosestrife and zebra mussels (invasive species which we have introduced, deliberately or accidentally, in our globetrotting) — extremely destructive. Thanks to Anant for the link.

What’s Sex Got to Do With It?: Daisy at Our Descent describes why ‘real’ sex matters to us, and why analyzing what ‘real’ sex is is so futile.

When Photography Conveys Meaning: Cassandra has opened up a fascinating conversation with NZ photographer Tony Bridge (example of his work above) on photography and art and why it’s important.

…and When Painting Conveys Meaning: The Painting Activist, Ashley Cecil, paints stunning representations of good work, and then donates part of the proceeds to relevant charities.

Is Second Life a Wasteland for Business?: Wired magazine shows it doesn’t understand Second Life, or social networking — or that social software will never be successfully exploited by commercial interests for profit. Thanks to Mark Matchen for the link.

A Great Depression of a Different Type: Barbara Ehrenreich says that the industrial revolution unleashed an epidemic of psychological depression that we have yet to recover from. Thanks to Jeremy Heigh for the link.

A Polyamorism Story: A dear reader sent me a link to a recent WaPo story about a polyamorism conference, focused on one couple’s effort to come to grips with only one of them being polyamorous. Favourite bit: Popular joke among polys: What’s the difference between swingers and polys? Answer: Swingers have sex, polys have conversations.

Have the Young Given Up on Making the World Better?: Dog Rushkoff laments that as older people refuse to accept responsibility for fucking up the planet, an increasing number of young people “refuse to engage in the notion that their actions might actually matter”. Thanks to Richard Oliver for the link.

Wacky Political Story of the Week: A judge who clearly does not understand how the Internet (or the US constitution) works ordered a site that published an illegally-leaked document shut down entirely.

Courses on Presencing: My friend Andrew Campbell is offering courses this summer on Presencing, based on the work of Scharmer and Jaworski that I’ve raved about on this blog. Beautiful site too.

To Do List Add-On to GMail: Both Jon Husband and Jerry Michalski are enthusing over an Outlook-type reminder and GTD applet for GMail/Gtalk and Skype called Remember the Milk.

Photos from Northern Voice 2008: My photos are up here. There are over 2000 other photos taken at the event on flickr here (the best ones of me are on pgs 26 and 47, though I’m still wading through them). Blogging about the event next week.