Podcast 207

If nothing changes. If nothing changes…nothing changes. Does it feel, sometimes, as if things seem like they are about the change, but they don’t? Sometimes there are long periods of ‘stasis’. Some interpret this as a positive, but it can be negative. While the media thrives on making viewers and listeners think huge changes are right around the corner; Prosperity is just ahead, War is about to break out, Disease threatens us all, then…nothing. With the jobs numbers last week, the the ongoing situation with slow or no economic growth, the slow down in the foreign affairs situation, the political pundits talking about a wave election for republicans one week, and no wave the next, Mitt Romney making noises again, and Hillary Clinton talking about running, it sure feels like 2008, or 1999? The world is on the verge of great era. Advances in manufacturing, communications, robotics, autonomous agents, software, medical science, even physics may be forming the building blocks of a world those of us born in the 20th century will not recognize. But getting there means huge changes, and getting through those changes will not be easy. We are living through a low ‘stasis’ point. Our leaders, republican and democrat, do not know what to do. We don’t know what to do. Everyone seems to be looking to someone else to solve problems, and yet problems never seem to get solved. The language remains the same; systemic problems in the labor force, a collapse – or boom – on wall street, republicans are against democrats and so on. A change agent is coming. Call it a black swan event, singularity, or whatever you want. We can’t know what and when it will be, but a catalyst that begins a period of upheaval and change is inevitable. Take what you hear on the day to day news with a grain of salt, and look for that catalyst. Sponsored by Baklund R&D

Podcast 204

Is Life A Holo Deck? A new experiment being conducted by Fermilab may prove the theory space and time are in fact 2 dimensional. Might this suggest reality is a computer? With a finite memory? What if we really are on a Holo Deck? The first reaction to a statement like that is to say, “Everything is already decided!” I take the other tack. What if we can influence our reality locally, and in the rest of the world by our actions. Developments in the Ukraine, Iraq, recession in Europe, Japan and below par growth in the US, it does feel like the world is hurtling toward a negative outcome, at least in the short term. Yet, as with a hundred years ago, we are on the edge of a brand new age predicated on the technology we have watched evolve over the last fifty years. Are we going to be able to make this transition? As the election in the US looms, how much of our path is determined by decisions already made, how much impact do we have on the future? Is it a World War I scenario? Is it an Interwar Scenario? Find out how a story about the fabric of reality, a visit by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, gel into some ideas about people getting involved and influencing these outcomes. Manifesting doesn’t necessarily mean thinking about it, and then it happens. Sometimes you have to do a little work. If life is a computer, we ought to be able to hack it. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast 203

Being Right. An email sparks some thoughts about the political discourse in The United States. Should a person who puts themselves out in the public eye as a commentator always be right, as in ‘correct’? Should everything they say be required to be proven ‘correct’ at a later date? Should a major league ball player leave the game if he fails to make an important catch? What does it mean to take a risk? What lessons have been learned in almost twenty years of talk radio? Political figures, writers, musicians, actors, comedians, and especially talk and podcast hosts take risks and put themselves ‘out there’ everyday. Should a person decline to use their talents because they are afraid of being ‘wrong’? Moreover, does the country gain from the increasing practice of demonizing and trying to destroy people who say things others disagree with, or are ‘shocked’ by? How has talk radio, and cable television (which has stolen the talk radio format) turned the body politic into tribes that demand their point of view, and only their point of view, be heard. Why radio and TV managers are suddenly terrified by opinions. How podcasting is changing this. And, a pitch for contributions to the Bob Davis Podcasts for the Podcast Van. Sponsored by Baklund R & D.