Urban Survivalists

Just watched this TED talk and was very impressed with it. Wanted to drop a quick note to those of you who read.

The basic idea is that the web did amazing things for associated documents–links and such–and now we should do the same thing with data–linked and correlated databases. This is a phenomenally great and, at the same time, obvious idea. The video Tim references in the video is just jaw-dropping and really gives you insight into just how amazing linking data can be.

So what does all the data collection and storage have to do with sustainability?  Well, lets think about it conceptually a little. If a single data base held enough information to save life, wouldn’t it be worth investing in. Many data bases proposed could actually do this. By allowing a systematic approach to accessing and correlating all data, the world population could all of the sudden figure out critical times to do surgery before the point of no return is reached, see how a specific civilization is advancing with time, and how that civilization rates against others. Being able to make determinations like this will allow us to learn how to advance ourselves faster more accurately and ultimately optimize the world. It provides a means of knowing what works and what doesn’t so that the entire world can stop wasting their time on things that don’t work.

Being able to determine what systems are successful in human development is key to making a sustainable world.  This systematization of data and the ability to have the average human access it suddenly allows for people to find out what sustainable systems are actually working. Then we can focus on those systems and expand the good ones. In fact, we could ultimately make the world run more efficiently.

That’s it for now

P&S

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