Wenn wir eine vernünftigere Gesellschaft für uns alle wollen, dann führt kein Weg daran vorbei, selbst diese Werte zu leben.
Das ist eine Erkenntnis, an der ich gerade persönlich stehe und mir bewusst wird. Wenn ich Menschen helfen möchte, dann muss ich wissen wie und es ist auch schwierig Menschen zu helfen, weil jeder Mensch anders ist, andere Bedürfnisse, Wünsche, Träume etc. hat.
Vor kurzem habe ich einen Menschen auf der Straße gefragt, ob er Hilfe möchte. Er hat abgelehnt und meinte, Zigaretten würde er nehmen (nicht wortwörtlich, aber in der Art). Ich hab ihm einen Schlafplatz angeboten, aber er hat abgelehnt. Er meinte, dass er sein eigener Chef sei und keine Hilfe brauche.
Das hat mich zum Nachdenken gebracht und ich bin zurück zu mir gegangen.
Dann ist mir dieses Video eingefallen:
Ich bin nochmal zu ihm hin gegangen, hab ihn gefragt, welche Zigaretten er haben möchte und hab ihm eine Packung Zigaretten gebracht. Dann hat er sich gefreut.
Menschen kann man vielleicht also wirklich nur helfen, in dem man ihnen gibt, was sie wollen. Und das ist der springende Punkt. Ich kann nicht herumlaufen und Menschen fragen ob sie Hilfe möchten. Manche werden mich komisch anschauen, manche werden denken, was das für ein Typ ist und andere werden mich ignorieren.
Was will ich?
Wenn ich Menschen helfen möchte, dann muss ich wissen wie genau. Und ich muss damit aufhören, es allen recht machen zu wollen. Das ist unauthentisch.
Wenn ich in einer vernünftigeren Gesellschaft leben möchte, dann muss ich versuchen vernünftiger zu sein – was mir in den letzten 3 Jahren zum großen Teil nicht gelungen ist, weil ich Menschen verletzt hab und nicht 100% ehrlich war.
Es steht mir nicht frei, auch nur irgendjemandem zu sagen, was er oder sie zu tun oder zu lassen hat.
Ich kann mich auf mich konzentrieren und an meinen Projekten arbeiten.
Hilfe heißt, sich Fähigkeiten anzueignen und sie zum Wohle der Menschheit anzuwenden.
There may be situations and periods in life that are difficult and stressful, as I reported in the last article.
But there is also the possibility of moving forward and not standing still.
“Utopia looms on the horizon. I take two steps towards it and it moves two steps away. I take another ten steps toward it, and the horizon recedes ten steps. No matter how far I go, I will never reach him. What then is the meaning of utopia? Quite simply: to ensure that we move forward.”
This is probably the most important point of all. Nothing is static - neither personal life nor society. Everything changes at any time, even when it doesn't seem like it.
Just as I got my email problem under control, I also solved the Friendica problem.
So it's working again now, messages on kontakt@tromsite.de and kontakt@aarontrom.de to send. At the same time, I created PGP keys so that I can finally send and receive encrypted messages. The corresponding keys can be found on the respective contact pages tromsite.de and aarontrom.de – nice 🙂
What's next?
The TROM train has been rolling for a long time and work is continuing on it. The Web pages keep things going, improve things and, above all, learn. Knowledge is probably the most important resource you can have - both to share your knowledge with others and to solve things better, faster, more efficiently and cleaner.
If I understood NixOS, the TROM services could probably be much more developed and powerful. For the trading free directory there is an incredibly clever one Shape generator, which not only looks and works really well, but also encrypts the data by default. This could be the technical basis for the rider.”Submit" become. Then a smart interface and the directory would be technically elegant. This is the task of turning the train that has been rolling for a long time into a high-speed train that can really have a big impact 🙂
Many people have probably come to the point that they have done too much and that's exactly what I had to see now.
The reason for this was more or less Friendica, which didn't work properly for me anymore (messages/posts are no longer forwarded), so I now have to make restrictions!
To try as many services as on trom.tf offering may be a cool idea, but it's also a full-time job so not feasible for me right now...
Even if tools like yunohostTo make it easier to manage such services, all you have to do is have a problem with one of the services that you can't solve yourself, and you're offering a non-functional service that others may use, want to use, or even depend on.
That is why it is so important that these services are stable and secure, backups are made, etc.
Of course, not everyone has to host everything themselves. The idea of the TROM services is to be an inspiration and provide truly trade-free services to other people. In the case of Friendica, for example, it is a real social network and not an advertising network like Facebook.
Therefore, I will definitely offer fewer services now, but more reliable and stable. When I think about the benefits NixOS and I might be able to switch my server to it at some point, it might become easier to provide more things again.
Friendica will continue for the time being, but will remain closed for further registrations. I apologize for any inconvenience and it really annoys me that I haven't been able to post anything lately about what's happened, because a lot has happened...
I can recommend both the Friendica instance social.trom.tf, as well as the Mastodon instance chaos.social, both of which run super reliably!
I had recently passed my medical-psychological examination (MPU), finally got my driver's license back in early August and would like to share some insights and experiences.
My story
First I have to tell you about my case so that you can better understand how my MPU came about and what consequences/consequences an MPU brings with it.
In 2015 I was driving under the influence of cannabis and was stopped at a police checkpoint and asked to take a drug test. A blood test found 2 ng/ml THC and 15 ng/ml COOH. The THC value indicates current consumption (how much cannabis I have consumed per day), the COOH value indicates the passive value, which allows conclusions to be drawn about past cannabis consumption.
Why cannabis?
Why people can use cannabis or other drugs various reasons have and what is considered normal in one culture may be violated and totally unacceptable in another culture.
“According to a study carried out in 2010 on the re-evaluation of various psychotropic substances, alcohol is the fourth most harmful drug among intoxicants for the individual, after crack, heroin and methamphetamine, measured in terms of addictive potential and health-damaging effects. Measured by the harm to others and thus also in the overall assessment, alcohol is rated as the most harmful substance.”
I realized early on that if 5-6 bottles of beer were drunk the night before, the consequences the next day could be quite unpleasant (headache, nausea + malaise), so it became more or less clear that my friends and I would rather consume cannabis than a lot of beer and that's how it happened.
Now, in hindsight, I can't condone the alcohol fetishism propelled by our culture (and indeed the alcohol industry), nor my reckless and very reckless use of cannabis, but I can safely say that current prohibition policies have not contributed at all to my Changing behavior rather, quite the opposite, has reinforced it because it's "cool" to break the law when you're young.
Studies confirm this thesis
"that the pursuit of a strict drug policy has little to no impact on consumption behavior". Rather, “Some of the countries with the strictest legislation had some of the highest drug use prevalence rates, while liberalizing countries had some of the lowest prevalence rates”
If there is no thoughtful handling of drugs, sex, morals + ethics, science + mathematics, social media + the Internet at school or in other living spaces, then young people will have a very hard time finding a way to responsibly To face problems and difficulties in life and to learn to solve conflicts and to take responsibility.
I didn't learn that in school, nor do other people who shape current world politics seem to have learned it.
Blaming a young person for their bad deeds (using cannabis) seems easy. It seems much more difficult to condemn a society that puts consumption-oriented values above everything else, celebrates alcohol consumption and negates a considered use of the earth's resources.
So I would rather like to make it clear that my cannabis use, with my current insight, was a reaction to my reality/living conditions at the time. As we discussed it in the MPU preparation course, the reasons for me were as follows:
Need: belonging and recognition
escape from reality
Boredom (monotony in the small village I grew up in)
Recognition of people (at school)
to suppress negative thoughts and feelings
Loneliness – desire for a girlfriend remained unfulfilled
to increase self-confidence
My father's Parkinson's disease
counteract stress
As we also discussed, I solved these problems with cannabis and not otherwise because I
was introverted (shy/reserved).
I was afraid to talk about my feelings
was dishonest with my parents
had a lack of self-confidence (because of blemishes, body)
and couldn't keep myself busy
But what really annoys me about this analysis is that it always shifts the blame onto the individual. It's your fault that you were afraid to talk about your feelings and therefore consumed cannabis, it's your fault that you couldn't occupy yourself and therefore wanted to kill your boredom with cannabis, it's your fault that you had a lack of body awareness and Confident because of your blemishes, so you were too shy to approach a girl and have your first experience.
But society is fine. The society in which the ideal of beauty is mirrored to you in advertising every day, with a perfect body and smooth skin, is normal. The society in which films show you how relationships work and which always end with a happy ending. The society in which you are taught to get a good school diploma, get a job and make a career is "success". The society in which everyone is busy, has no time and is always under stress. And the society that doesn't have deep conversations, that negates their problems and superficially fights their problems with alcohol - that's normal and accepted.
Yes, exactly…
The medical-psychological examination
So to get my driver's license back I had to do this MPU preparation course which was 3 sessions with other people who also lost their driver's license. There we discussed our crimes, consumer behavior and the motives behind them. We dealt with stress management strategies, discussed dangerous situations and created an emergency plan for them.
For this we were allowed to design posters in order to have a summary for ourselves, which we can then present to the psychologist, although I was not supposed to show it to the assessor from whom I had the MPU:
We also created a consumption curve, which I was also not supposed to show:
Basically, I put a lot of time and energy into something that was ultimately irrelevant to the examiner...
Well, it's also about reflecting on the phase, recognizing that you made mistakes and then (hopefully) no longer falling into old patterns.
Finally, we went through the questions that can be asked in an MPU and learned what to answer:
Question 1: Why are you here today?
Because I became conspicuous with cannabis behind the wheel and now I want to show that I have changed.
Question 2: Did you prepare yourself today?
Yes, I prepared myself with an MPU preparation course, which consisted of 3 sessions of 8 hours each.
Question 3: What did you learn in this course? taken away? What knowledge do you have withdrawn from the preparation course?
I have dealt with the offense and my consumer behavior. I have recognized my motives. I discussed coping strategies, recognized my dangerous situations and created an emergency plan for them.
Question 4: What would speak for you today? Why do you think that today you have a positive get appraisals?
Because I dealt with the whole thing and realized that my behavior was wrong. Because I consciously sought help. Because I've been abstinent since 2016. Because I've changed a lot in my life. I am prepared for dangerous situations and have sufficient motivation to stay abstinent in the future.
Why are you staying abstinent now? Consumption is not good for me, I meet my needs in a different way, consumption takes me away from my goals, etc.
Question 5: Now explain your case
Now explain my crime, when did I consume, why, how much, etc.
Question 6: Have you already used other drugs?
No.
Question 7: How did you feel before you started driving?
Tell the truth: fit to drive? Yes, that's what I thought at the moment, but today I know that I wasn't and that I was a danger to myself and others.
Question 8: How often have you driven a car under the influence of drugs without noticing it?
Telling the truth (in my case about 1-2 times a month from my 19th birthday)
Question 9: How did you evaluate the crime for yourself at the time?
What was I thinking? I was ashamed, embarrassed because I could never hurt anyone
Question 10: Have you already made any resolutions?
Yes, I had: No longer drive under the influence of drugs
Question 11: Consumption history
Show consumption history
Question 12: Motives What did you expect from consumption?
Motives + Vulnerabilities I used because I wanted approval, belonging, to increase self-confidence, to forget things, to escape from my reality, etc.
And why did I solve this with drugs? Because I was introspective, had low self-esteem, etc.
Question 13: Were there any negative consequences of consumption?
Yes, there was: for family, friends, for myself. My intellectual development suffered as a result, as did my relationships with other people.
Question 14: Was there criticism from other people?
no
Question 15: What is your consumption like today? Why am I sober now?
No more consumption. I'm abstinent because I can meet my needs in other ways, because I have goals in life and a lot of hobbies that I'm passionate about.
Question 16: How did one experience the cessation or end of use?
Change since consumption changed (best change I've had)
Question 17: Is there a risk of relapse?
Yes, there are always, but because I have changed so much in my life and have understood my dangerous situations, the probability is very small
Question 18: How would you deal with a risk of recidivism?
Stress management strategies and contingency plan:
Remove from the situation
Do breathing exercises, do stretching exercises
Analyzing the problem on a meta level, trying to find solutions, setting limits, getting help, etc.
Question 19: Have you endangered others with your behavior?
Yes definitely.
Question 20: How would you rate your own consumption?
abuse
Recognized stress management strategies:
recognized strategies:
autogenic training: power of imagination: body scan + mental journey e.g. to the beach
Affirmations (stand in front of the mirror and strengthen/discard beliefs)
progressive muscle relaxation (certain muscles or relaxation)
4, 2, 6 Breathing exercise: Inhale nose into abdomen for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, mouth for 6 seconds exhale
being in the moment by activating 5 senses, naming 5 things you can see around you, 4 things, you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can can taste
cognitive restructuring (booklet/diary)
How my MPU was
While we discussed these questions in the MPU preparation, they did not appear in the same order or wording on my MPU. Nevertheless, the preparatory course is necessary, otherwise you will fail directly.
The MPU consists of 3 parts: the interview with the psychologist, a reaction test + a urine sample.
My MPU went well overall, I passed the reaction and urine test with certainty, during the interview it depends on the expert what the result is. (ultimately he gave me a positive report)
Other things I had to do?
Apart from the MPU itself and the preparatory course for it, I still had to do a 12-month abstinence certificate. This involves either urinating into a cup on a toilet in the presence of a doctor (6 times in 12 months) or removing 2-inch hair twice.
Both can be perceived/interpreted by a person as a violation of dignity, both can only be a trifle for a person. In any case, I felt extremely stupid, was a bit ashamed and also embarrassed to pee into a cup 7 times (6 times for the proof of abstinence and 1 time for the MPU) under medical supervision.
There are also costs for applying for a driver's license, for a first aid course and for transport costs. For example, my MPU was due to coincide with the period that I have a practical phase in Ireland, which is why I had to fly from Ireland to Germany, cancel a booked return flight as the MPU took longer than I thought, and a had to book a new flight the next day. I also had to apply for my certificate of good conduct for around 20 €, which then leads to the following list:
€814 for the medical-psychological report
147 € for the driving license application
€690 for proof of abstinence for 12 months
739 € for the MPU preparation course
€50 for the first aid course
140 € costs for flight Ireland-Germany and back
20 € Application for a certificate of good conduct
= 2600 €
2600 € are the costs measured in money. On top of that, it took so much time to take care of everything, prepare for MPU, justify yourself to family and friends, deal with yourself etc.
Conclusion
So that you understand me correctly:
I recognize my mistake and see driving under the heavy influence of cannabis as problematic. However, the measures are those against me and so many other young people who use cannabis occasionally and just above the limit of 1 ng/ml THC in the blood (I had a limit of 1ng/ml), extraordinarily excessive.
In other words, it's cracking down on sparrows, while there's a generous tolerance limit of 0.5 per mille for the biggest risk factor in road traffic - alcohol:
Alcohol is the greatest risk factor on the road, both in terms of the frequency and severity of accidents. Every year more than a million people die worldwide as a result of traffic accidents, so about 4,000 per day. In 2001, for example, almost 65,000 traffic accidents in which alcohol played a role were registered in Germany alone. 909 people lost their lives.
The consequences of alcohol accidents are exceptionally severe. For every 1000 traffic accidents involving personal injury, there are an average of 16 fatalities, compared to 27 fatalities in alcohol-related accidents.
According to the statistics of the Association of Liability Insurers, every fourth serious traffic accident in Germany can be traced back to the influence of alcohol, despite numerous prevention efforts and information campaigns and controls. Only a fraction of all driving under the influence of alcohol is discovered and penalized by traffic controls.
While driving under cannabis, one study concluded the following:
According to this, after correcting for age, gender, origin and alcohol consumption, there is no increased risk of a traffic accident after cannabis consumption compared to the control group without cannabis consumption.
The question that remains is who will benefit from the current situation? The state, the companies or both?
The companies that offer MPU preparatory courses for a lot of money, certainly. By the way, my course leader was living in Ibiza at the time we had the MPU prep sessions, which surprised me a bit at first...
The state, which receives the taxes from it, of course also benefits from it.
The appraisers, who are extremely well paid for their work, too.
Solve the cause or the symptoms?
Drugs are a sensitive topic in our society. Some have never tried any, some have almost everything. I am of the opinion that we should not demonize drugs, but should find a conscious and considered way of dealing with them and, above all, give young people a safe framework in which they do not have to be ashamed of what they are doing.
A sane, enlightened society would use substances that also medical benefits can have, don't demonize it, but deal with it in a reflective manner.
Cannabis is in Germany already recognized as a drug and is apparently well on the way to finally being legalized. It's about time, too, because there are far more important issues to take care of...
"Humans are causing the largest global extinction of species since the dinosaurs disappeared."
I went to Fediverse yesterday for one contribution one people which I think is so good that I used it with the help of deep translated into German. Here he is:
Today I want to talk to you about why I am the way I am. And by that I mean why I'm so interested in experience design; for the experiences people have with things. Why I get frustrated with things that don't work, don't work well, or aren't easy to use. Why mediocrity pisses me off so much.
Is it a first world thing? An expression of consumer-oriented standards?
I do not believe that.
I think it goes a little deeper than that.
The way I see it, each of us only has a tiny amount of time in this world and then we die. No white winged angels in heaven, no coals of hell, no Elysium, no Tartarus, no Valhalla, no summerland, no fields of Aaru, no coming back as butterflies or cockroaches. Nada.
That's all there is.
This short life.
And we spend part of this life - certainly at the beginning, but very likely also towards the end - being unaware of ourselves and generally pissing our pants. So we have this tiny window of time where we are self-aware. A tiny window of time, shorter than the blink of an eye, in which we can do something, create something, affect other people's lives and make a difference in the world.
And if you see things that way, how valuable is your time on earth becoming?
In fact, it is the most precious thing there is.
So will it kill me if something that could take 10 seconds takes 10 minutes instead? Maybe not immediately - maybe if it's a medical device or an airplane control panel - but yes, it's killing me because I'm wasting what I have the least of: my time here on earth. My life.
If it were just that, it would be bad enough, but it's more than that. Take for example an app that gives you information about local buses: Surely it's not a matter of life and death if the app is difficult to use or not works reliably, right?
Well, it could be a matter of life and death.
Let's say I'm on my way to my daughter's 5th birthday party and I miss my bus because the app isn't working. I end up missing the sight of my daughter blowing out her candles - a very important event in her life and mine. So maybe it's a matter of life.
And maybe it's a matter of death.
What if I'm on my way to visit my dying grandmother and I miss my bus because of this app? I can't be with her in her final moments and tell her I love her one last time.
We must be clear that a bus information app is not a bus information app: it is an object that affects and changes people's lives: either for good or for bad.
It's the object that allows you to see your daughter blow out the candles on her birthday cake, or the object that keeps you from telling someone you love them for the last time.
Objects are valuable not because of what they are, but because of what they enable us to do.
And as people who make objects, we have a great responsibility. A responsibility not to take for granted the limited time each of us has in this world. A responsibility to make this time as beautiful, as comfortable, as painless, as empowering, and as enjoyable as possible through the experiences we have.
That KISS principle (English Keep it simple, stupid) demands to strive for the simplest possible solution to a problem27. January 2022
I love the KISS principle and here are a few thoughts on it:
From a to B:
I don't need a car, I take the train, bike or walk.
Health:
Most health tips/guides are bullshit or try to overprice you (homeopathy, vegetarianism, veganism, fruganism, paleoism, etc.). From everything I know, the “healthiest” thing is to eat a variety of foods, lots of fruit, vegetables + legumes and exercise from time to time (doesn’t even have to be a lot). I rarely if ever eat meat.
Not smoking + drinking no/little alcohol are probably the best health tips.
Property:
As little as possible, as much as necessary – in other words, minimalism.
Relationships:
positive relationships. Helping each other, fun, playing games, openness, tolerance and no expectations.
Hobbies:
Depending on your mood and circumstances. For example: juggling, slacklining, jogging, wakeboarding, hiking, swimming, cycling, bouldering etc.
Lifelong learning. Important tools are TROM messages and VideoNeat. At the moment I'm learning better how to deal with Linux and about computer science.
Life enjoyment
I love lying in the sun and chilling, doing sports (wakeboarding, slacklining, inline skating, swimming, hiking etc.) and trying new things 😀
Keep working on trade free directory and projects. After the training, it's not yet certain: I can imagine working for an organization like Doctors Without Borders or something like that, otherwise maybe another training - we'll see.
That's it. If I think of more, I'll add to the list.
Keep it simple, stupid - Make it as simple as possible.
In every human being there is an Einstein, a Marie Curie or an Isaac Newton - but many are not aware of this. The difference is mainly in the environment in which you grew up and in which you live.
Every day I rack my brains about how we as a society can solve the ever-worsening global problems and I think about how we can deal with them in the smartest way possible.
Making trading obsolete may sound simplistic and too good to be true - but in fact it is a highly complex problem that is far from easy to solve.
There could be thousands of solutions and some of them could be so simple that in the future it's not even a thing to think about - but I just don't see that most people are even aware of the problem.
As complex as the world may seem, it is so absurdly simple when, as an extraterrestrial, you look at what we humans do: we trade - and to a completely exaggerated extent.
And if you want to try to understand where the problems are coming from, you can't avoid trading.
Example: climate change
A problem caused by? Trading of course...
The fact that people are compelled and incentivized to act at any cost, otherwise they cannot survive in this system, creates a huge consumer demand that leads to people making new cell phones every week - the same ones but in different versions. Millions of cars every year - same cars, different colors. All kinds of useless shit just to trade this for that.
To make all this stuff, humans have to use energy. And a cheap way is to take dead biological matter out of the earth's crust and burn it. Humans are pretty good at that, and it puts a lot of emissions into the atmosphere. Not to mention the forests that are cut down, the loss of biodiversity and the waste that is created to produce more shit that can then be traded.
Of course, humans now have the option to use renewable energy instead of dead animals and plants, so they don't have to blow those bad molecules up in the air. But for one thing, large corporations (groups of people) depend on the dead biomass trade, which are quite powerful and cannot be brushed aside just like the jobs created by this industry, and so on. And secondly, even if we were to do that now, there would be a huge problem in terms of other types of pollution (hello batteries!?!) coming as a cost to our crazy consuming society because of their trade structure.
This problem will never be solved even if it is solved. The immense plastic pollution, nuclear weapons and the possibility of a third world war, the loss of biodiversity, the threat of an asteroid impact on Earth and the fact that people are not even remotely prepared for the eternal chemicals and so much pollution and waste.... these are growing problems that will eclipse the problem of climate change in the future.
That's why it's so important that we understand that the structure of our society is the problem. The fact that some people still believe that everyone on planet earth has to pay a price to be allowed to live on this planet. Humanity has turned their own kind into ruthless and mindless monsters who only want to trade this for that.
And no renewable energy will change the nature of this game.
That's why it's so important to be aware and to question the whole world and not just accept things the way others are showing us - even if you're forced to play the game for a while.
“the world makes much more sense if you realize that the majority of people has no clue what they are actually doing“
When I think about the war in Ukraine, about the tech billionaires Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, about ideas like that Web3 with cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFT's, then I wonder if people are even remotely aware of what they are doing and why. What effects does that have – for other people and the environment.
I will never buy stocks, invest money, buy NFT's, invest in houses or anything else. I'm more or less forced to play the game for a while, have a bank account and a room that I pay rent for, yes - but that's about it.
Just as a brain can ruthlessly strive for power and influence (like the brains of Bezos, Musk, etc.), a brain can also strive for scientific knowledge, progress, and sanity. I try to align my brain with the latter.
That's why I personally find it so important to have my personal space on the Internet - an (actually) free space without borders, without surveillance and without restrictions.
Because what many may not fully understand is that computers and the "digital" itself are an extension of us humans and a very, very powerful tool because we can use them to change reality. People communicate via the Internet, information can be exchanged and ideas can spread around the world at breakneck speed. There are so many incredible people involved with this website alone that have developed the software, the servers, the laptop with the keyboard, the screen and everything else.
We inform ourselves about the world via the Internet, are shaped by it and in turn shape the world with this shape. That's why there's no way around making this tool as sensible as possible, so that human values become more sensible... which has become so difficult in times of fake news, Snapchat and TikTok, where mostly meaningless videos are shared.
Still, there is tremendous potential that the developers behind the Internet have probably seen as well. With the internet you can learn almost anything. you can make your own search engine have that you have control over, your own Facebook have where you can make sure you don't get ads - you can even have your own Instagram have and also help to develop it so that it becomes even cooler.
The Internet gives you access to scientific articles and, theoretically, the knowledge of all mankind, and that is why it is extremely important that the Internet must be free and not censored.
Let’s create our own reality
You can sort of create your own reality.
It is also the case that one does not see the world, but understands it. And the more information you have about the world, the better you can decide what is relevant and what is not.
Here's a perfect example: people might think that Google Chrome is just a fast and efficient browser. But what happens behind what you see as a user of the product makes the browser quite dangerous.
That's why I'm focused on the internet and working to create a digital place that's trade-free. And with that Trade as the cause of most problems-approach we have a pretty good idea of what we as humans want to do here and in which direction we want to steer human behavior.
Attack the world with solutions
If we want a better world for all of us then we need to attack the world with solutions to the main problem of trade and one of them could be Arch Linux:
Arch Linux is an extension for me since I use the trade-free operating system on my laptop. My server is an extension of mine which I use to trade free DRUM Services which in turn other people are free to use so that they can be an extension of them.
As we try more and more to be an extension of other people, then we can grow together as humanity and realize that cooperation is so much more powerful than rivalry, competition and selfish pursuit.
I remember a video of Jacque Fresco (a very interesting personality) in which he said that in the future the word "love" will be replaced by "extensionality" I think I agree.
If you do good deeds, help others, and try to be the best version of yourself, then you're an extension of other people, so you're lovable, and everything else will fall into place.
An interesting video about it:
Redefining relevance
In the “offline world” it is taboo to talk about porn, watch violent videos or what is happening in the Philippines. Yet those are the things that make a human being and when you realize that the internet is full of porn and violent videos maybe that loses its appeal and you start to dig deeper and start asking yourself questions about human behavior, what is money, what is “ Morality” and “ethical behavior” (or what is meant by them) and you will realize that these are human constructs that can and must be questioned. That they are not real and can be altered. Why shouldn't we question everything?
Democracy, free market economy, money, companies, states, governments, school, closing time, 7-day week, holidays, vacation and so on are all human constructs that have manifested themselves socially, but are not laws of nature and of course also upheld by the trading system be obtained.
That's why we don't have to accept them.
When Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and other corporations offer you something, think carefully about what they want from you and whether it's just complete bullshit and they're just playing the trading game.
And so I try not to live according to these constructs, but to find my own rhythm of life and to live according to it. I'm more or less forced to play the trading game too (for a while at least), but we can all do a little bit for a post-trading society - one step at a time.
Also known as NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula is a large star-forming region in the constellation of Orion, located about 1,400 light-years from Earth. It is part of the Orion molecular cloud complex, which includes such famous nebulae as the Horsehead Nebula and the Orion Nebula. This image focuses on the dark, dusty heart of the nebula, which contains a star cluster that is mostly invisible. Nearby (but not visible in this image) is the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion's belt. Alnitak's radiation ionizes the Flame Nebula's hydrogen gas. As the gas cools from its higher-energy state to a lower-energy state, it emits energy in the form of light, causing the visible glow behind the churning dust wisps.
NASA, ESA, and N. Da Rio (University of Virginia); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
This is a composite view of X-rays and warm ionized gas near the galactic center. Added a graphic of a translucent vertical white fan to show the suspected axis of a minijet from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. The orange features are made of glowing hydrogen gas. Such a feature at the tip of the jet is interpreted as a hydrogen cloud hit by the outflowing jet. The jet scatters the cloud in tendrils that flow north. X-ray observations of superheated gas can be seen in green and blue colors further down near the black hole. This data indicates that the black hole occasionally accretes stars or clouds of gas and ejects some of the superheated material along its spin axis. NASA, ESA, and Gerald Cecil (UNC-Chapel Hill); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Spiral arms of galaxy NGC 3318 lazily stretch across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Located in the constellation of Vela, this spiral galaxy is about 115 light-years from Earth.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, European Southern Observatory (ESO), R.J. Foley; Acknowledgment: R. Colombari
Galaxy NGC 5907's beautiful spiral arms are not visible in this Hubble image because we're looking at them edge-on, like the rim of a plate. For this reason, NGC 5907 is also known as the "Knife Edge" galaxy.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. de Jong; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
This astronomical portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows majestic spiral galaxy UGC 11537 viewed from the side. Hubble's wide-angle camera 3 has captured the tightly coiled spiral arms winding around the heart of UGC 11537 at infrared and visible wavelengths, revealing both the bright bands of stars and dark dust clouds rippling through the galaxy. UGC 11537 is located 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Aquila, near the plane of the Milky Way. The close proximity to the Milky Way's star band means that foreground stars from our own galaxy have wormed their way into the image - the two prominent stars in front of UGC 11537 are invaders from the Milky Way's interior. Surrounding these bright foreground stars are diffraction peaks, imaging artifacts caused by the interaction of starlight with Hubble's internal structure. This image is from a series of observations designed to help astronomers pinpoint supermassive black holes in distant galaxies. The combination of Hubble's sharp observations and data from ground-based telescopes has allowed astronomers to create detailed models of the mass of the stars in these galaxies, which in turn is helping to constrain the mass of supermassive black holes. ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Seth
