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A while back ... quite a while back ... I started thinking about the Sustain Fund
as a way to encourage appropriate compassion and direct investment in
ventures that create opportunities for people in need of
rehabilitation, redemption. Investment matters, but it's not enough ...
in fact, I feel a need for direct action, direct involvement in these
ventures.
A while back ... quite a while back ... I started thinking about the Sustain Fund
as a way to encourage appropriate compassion and direct investment in
ventures that create opportunities for people in need of
rehabilitation, redemption. Investment matters, but it's not enough ...
in fact, I feel a need for direct action, direct involvement in these
ventures.
I injured my shoulder recently and immediately [with a
fraction of a second after I heard something rip and I knew I was going
to be in pain] started thinking MORE EARNESTLY about what I MUST do to
help rehabilitate people who are suffering, in pain and need patient
assistance. It would be easy for me to just go on business-as-usual in
my current situation, but I need to move much faster to help returning
injured soldiers who sacrificed for me, disabled people all over the
world who deserve an opportunity to contribute, imprisoned guys who
[like me] have made big mistakes and now need to find redemption.
If
I am genuine in my intentions to help others then I should be thinking
about a diverse array of opportunities ... well, lo and behold! there
already ~is~ a diverse array of opportunities and the range of
opportunities is growing ... but, perhaps the way to grow those
opportunities even faster is pour gas on the fire by getting involved
with collaborative projects like OpenSparc
... collaboration to build EDA tools and hardware as well as software
is big stuff. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, very
experienced in the multicore stuff ... not ~that many~ people are ...
yet. I need to be for the reasons presented below.
CAUTION:
These WILD ideas are intending to be provocative, not necessary
practical -- so dream, brainstorm and criticize ... thanks in advance
for your comments: I appreciate all skepticism, cynicism as the helpful
advice that it will be ... just don't immediately reject and stop
thinking.
1. UTILITY: Forget about servers, desktops,
palmpilots, gameboys, digital cameras, iPhones ... think about stuff
that is USEFUL to do the heavy lifting so we can focus on bigger,
tougher problems. Can we develop multicore capabilities to yield
radical information-intensive processing improvements for distributed
[industrial] automation and control systems? Think about networked
servers as intelligent controllers allow sensors/actuators embedded
directly in remote processes which reduces requirement for transport to
centralized processing facility AND should improve management /
coordination of inventories to better match needs/timing ... how far
can this go? Try this on for a wild-haired idea for the home, apartment
building, neighborhood or small town ... imagine a smart networked
composting toilet that manages the grinding/bacterial
decomposition/reuse of carbonaceous household wastestream into: a)
greywater for watering the lawn/garden and b) biogas that is burned in
home trigen (HVAC, power, H20 heater/chiller) ... if there are any
difficulties that cannot be handled by the smart device or the home
office, the utility company dispatches a service tech/plumber.
2.
PEACE: Next generation (i.e. orders of magnitude cheaper, more
powerful) global information servers for robust mobile networks ...
anger, hatred, suspicion, jealousy and frustration [in a global sense
AND a personal sense] are driven by lack of awareness, biased
communication, predjudice ... a more networked world is a less
frustrated, less suspicious world -- [fundamentalist, communist,
authoritarian] BULLIES LOSE in a networked world ... isolation will
lead to war that destroys the planet, perhaps the ONLY chance for our
species is to provide better networking to speed awareness,
communication and collaboration. For example, what would happen if,
instead of dropping leaflets into places like Iraq, Iran, North Korea
and Burma, we dropped web-enabled iPhones and used satellites and maybe
a few covert ops to sustain the delivery of decent broadband wireless
coverage. A networked world is not going to be an American world -- but
it will be a more humanitarian world with better religious freedom. Who
wins when people can't communicate -- is there ANY reason we want that
bully to win?
3. AGRICULTURE: Distributed networked energy
generation and remote control of intelligent robotic tractors.
Agriculture has harnessed the sun by covering ground with
solar-collecting plant material; now, it is time to harness the wind
and take better advantage of the rain that falls. Use wind to generate
hydrogen, to drain wet fields and store excess water for optimal
fertigation throughout the growing season, to power rechargable
batteries in low-impact robotic GPS controlled tractors. Remove
drudgery and tedium of being a tractor-jockey; higher returns will
generate larger need for agronomic, information, technical support
skills.
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