[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=523bXlK5t34[/youtube]

This is from Chapter 2 Knowing and Seeing:

…The natural world, on the other hand, is one of infinite varieties and complexities, a multidimensional world which contains no straight lines or completely regular shapes, where things do not happen in sequences, but all together; a world where—as modern physics tells us—even empty space is curved. It is clear that our abstract system of conceptual thinking can never describe or understand this reality completely. In thinking about the world we are faced with the same kind of problem as the cartographer who tries to cover the curved face of the Earth with a sequence of plane maps. We can only expect an approximate representation of reality from such a procedure, and all rational knowledge is therefore necessarily limited.

The realm of rational knowledge is, of course, the realm of science which measures and quantifies, classifies and analyses. The limitations of any knowledge obtained by these methods have become increasingly apparent in modern science, and in particular in modern physics which has taught us, in the words of Werner Heisenberg, ‘that every word or concept, clear as it may seem to be, has only a limited range of applicability.’

For most of us it is very difficult to be constantly aware of the limitations and of the relativity of conceptual knowledge. Because our representation of reality is so much easier to grasp than reality itself, we tend to confuse the two and to take our concepts and symbols for reality. It is one of the main aims of Eastern mysticism to rid us of this confusion. Zen Buddhists say that a finger is needed to point at the moon, but that we should not trouble ourselves with the finger once the moon is recognized; the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu wrote:

Fishing baskets are employed to catch fish; but when the fish are got, the men forget the baskets; snares are employed to catch hares; but when the hares are got, men forget the snares. Words are employed to convey ideas; but when the ideas are grasped, men forget the words.

In the West, the semanticist Alfred Korzybski made exactly the same point with his powerful slogan, ‘The map is not the territory.’

What the Eastern mystics are concerned with is a direct experience of reality which transcends not only intellectual thinking but also sensory perception. In the words of the Upanishads,

What is soundless, touchless, formless, imperishable,
Likewise tasteless, constant, odourless,
Without beginning, without end, higher than the great, stable—
By discerning That, one is liberated from the mouth of death.

Knowledge which comes from such an experience is called ‘absolute knowledge’ by Buddhists because it does not rely on the discriminations, abstractions and classifications of the intellect which, as we have seen, are always relative and approximate. It is, so we are told by Buddhists, the direct experience of undifferentiated, undivided, indeterminate ‘such-ness’. Complete apprehension of this suchness is not only the core of Eastern mysticism, but is the central characteristic of all mystical experience.

The Eastern mystics repeatedly insist on the fact that the ultimate reality can never be an object of reasoning or of demonstrable knowledge. It can never be adequately described by words, because it lies beyond the realms of the senses and of the intellect from which our words and concepts are derived. The Upanishads say about it:

There the eye goes not,
Speech goes not, nor the mind.
We know not, we understand not
How one would teach it.

Lao Tzu, who calls this reality the Tao, states the same fact in the opening line of the Tao Te Ching: ‘The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao.’ The fact—obvious from any reading of the newspapers—that humanity has not become much wiser over the past two thousand years, in spite of a prodigious increase in rational knowledge, is ample evidence of the impossibility of communicating absolute knowledge by words. As Chuang Tzu said, ‘If it could be talked about, everybody would have told their brother.’

Absolute knowledge is thus an entirely non-intellectual experience of reality, an experience arising in a non-ordinary state of consciousness which may be called a ‘meditative’ or mystical state. That such a state exists has not only been testified by numerous mystics in the East and West but is also indicated by psychological research. In the words of William James:

Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.

Although physicists are mainly concerned with rational knowledge and mystics with intuitive knowledge, both types of knowledge occur in both fields. This becomes apparent when we examine how knowledge is obtained and how it is expressed, both in physics and Eastern mysticism. …

What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it look like? As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respond with the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set of unexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization?

For more videos, visit www.globalonenessproject.org

Diesem Beitrag von Andreas Janson aus der Mailinglist des Landesverbandes Berlin der Piratenpartei braucht man eigentlich nichts mehr hinzuzufügen. Sehr viele gute Feststellungen und Ideen zu Verwertung und Lizensierung von Musik im digitalen Zeitalter. Word!

Hallo,

ich als Musiker möchte auch mal meinen Senf dazugeben.

Bitte, bitte, bitte tretet nicht für eine weitere Zwangsabgabe ein. Davon profitiert der kleine Künstler (=99% der Kulturschaffenden) eh nicht. Wir sollten unsere Zeit nicht damit vergeuden, ein hoffnungslos kaputtes System zu reparieren oder überholte Ideen in die Informationsgesellschaft hineinzutragen.

Wir vertreiben unsere Alben seit 2006 unter einer CC-Lizenz. Was ich seit dem gelernt haben:

• Es geht nicht nur um die Künstler sondern auch um den einfachen und günstigen Zugang zu Kunst.
• Privates kopieren darf _nie_ strafbar sein.
• Privates kopieren muss kostenlos möglich sein.
• Fans kaufen trotzdem noch CDs (nicht umsonst war das meistverkaufte Album auf Amazon 2009 ein Creative-Commons-Album)
• Künstler haben eh nie nennenswert an CDs verdient – nur die Verwertungsgesellschaften. Selbst die ganz großen Bands kriegen pro verkaufter CD nur ein paar Cent.
• Künstler verdienen mehr an CDs, wenn sie Labels / Verwertungsgesellschaften umgehen
• Merchandise etc ist eine weitere gute Einnahmequelle
• Die GEMA verhindert Kunst. In ihrer jetzigen Form gehört sie abgeschafft, da sie kleinen Künstlern nur Steine in den Weg legt und Geld an die oberen 1% umverteilt, ohne dass man etwas dagegen tun kann.
• Der Künstler sollte selbst entscheiden können, inwiefern er kommerzielles Kopieren zulässt.
• Kommerzielle Verwendung unserer Musik hat sich zu unserer lukrativsten Einnahmequelle entwickelt.
• Jamendo ist eine hervorragende, lukrative Alternative zur GEMA.
• Jegliche Kultur-Zwangsabgaben gehören abgeschafft, da sie den Markt verzerren (meist zu Gunsten einiger Weniger). Bei Theatern u.ä. würde ich noch mit mir reden lassen, aber Leermedienabgaben, GEZ, GEMA, Kulturflatrate etc gehen gar nicht und sind nicht im Interesse der meisten Kulturschaffenden
• Sehr, sehr Künstler leben noch im letzten Jahrhundert, zumindest was ihr Wissen über und ihre Einstellung zu geistigem Eigentum anbelangt

Was meiner Meinung nach gemacht werden müsste, um einen Interessensausgleich zwischen Urhebern und Konsumenten zu schaffen und dem Großteil der Künstler beste Voraussetzungen zu bieten, tatsächlich einmal Geld mit ihrer Musik zu verdienen (Achtung, manches wiederholt sich):

• Privatkopien uneingeschränkt zulassen
• Kopierschutzmechanismen verbieten
• Kulturpauschalen abschaffen
• GEMA-Gebühren nur für die öffentliche Darbietung von Songs GEMA-pflichtiger Künstler
• den Markt machen lassen

Wenn das alles so wäre, hätten wir beste Wachstumschancen. Keiner mehr, der die Verbreitung unserer Musik behindert. Wir könnten mehr Konzerte kriegen (das größte Problem der meisten Bands!) und damit auch mehr Geld verdienen. Die kommerzielle Verwendung unserer Musik würden wir uns weiterhin bezahlen lassen. Es gibt ja immer mehr richtig gute Lizensierungsportale. Nicht zuletzt würden wir nicht mehr in Strukturen gezwungen werden, die uns als Kreativen schaden.

Der brennendste Punkt von den oben genannten ist vielleicht der mit der GEMA. Würde man das durchsetzen, würden die Clubs vermehrt CC-Bands anfragen, da sie dann bei Konzerten keine GEMA-Gebühren zahlen müssten. Und wenn die Bands erst merken, dass sie unter CC mehr Konzerte kriegen (= mehr Spaß, mehr Geld), dann kommt der Rest schon von alleine. Wenn erstmal die Hälfte der Bands ihre Songs unter CC rausbringen, kann keiner mehr ernsthaft behaupten, die GEMA wäre zum Wohl der Künstler. Daraus ergäben sich die Legalisierung der Privatkopie und die Abschaffung von Kulturpauschalen von selbst, zumindest in meinem Kopf ;).

Zum Abschluss noch ein wichtiger Gedanke: Das Internet ist architektonisch einfach nicht als zentraler Verwaltungsapparat gedacht. Und da das Internet nun mal das Jetzt und die Zukunft ist, sollte ein zukunftsgerichtetes Urheberrecht diesen Umstand auch berücksichtigen, Anstatt dem Internet was überzustülpen, was ihm nicht passt, sollten wir dessen Vorteile nutzen: dezentrale, kostengünstige Verteilung von Inhalten, ein super langer Long Tail (=hohe Vielfalt), Nutzerinteraktionen, etc. Ihr kennt das Internet doch selbst am besten.

Nun ja. Genug gebrabbelt. Wünsche noch einen schönen Abend,
Andi

Die Piratenpartei, Deutschland.

Andi’s Band, Shearer.

A pair of economists have released a report arguing that file-sharing doesn’t stifle the creation of music, films, and books. On the contrary, they say, weaker copyright protection has benefited society.
Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard University and Koleman Strumpf of the University of Kansas recently published a working paper (that is, a complete draft of a work-in-progress study soliciting feedback) to Harvard Business School asserting the benefits of internet piracy.
While the study concedes that piracy may harm some business models, it says the technology hasn’t killed the incentives behind artists and entertainment companies to produce new works.
And that, the paper says, is the real point behind copyright.

Get the whole article at TheRegister.co.uk – you’ll find a copy of the working paper over there, too.

The mycelium infuses all landscapes, it holds soils together, it’s extremely tenacious. This holds up to 30,000 times its mass. They’re the grand molecular disassemblers of nature — the soil magicians. They generate the humus soils across the land masses of Earth. We have now discovered that there is a multi-directional transfer of nutrients between plants, mitigated by the mcyelium — so the mycelium is the mother that is giving nutrients from alder and birch trees to hemlocks, cedars and Douglas firs.

Since this is my/our project I would like to quote Joana Bértholo who ‘declared interdependence’ at the socialdesignblog:

The declaration of cultural revolutionaries for 2009 is an open experiment created, stated and set forth by art-ecology-education.org. It is a “putting in words of what is already in the air.”

The intention is viral, that is, the more these ideas are being read, spoken out, thought and discussed, the more their energy will manifest in our world and in our society. It counts with the participation of everyone with whom it resonates with. This participation can be manifold – you can choose to pass it along to people you know, publish it on your own blog or website, discuss it with friends, or you can even create your own Cultural Revolutionaries actions and share it on the project’s website.
You can also get involved by translating it into your language. So far, the declaration is already available in english (below), deutsch, español, français, chinese, português de portugal, italiano, svenska, and euskera.

DECLARATION OF CULTURAL REVOLUTIONARIES 2009

Cultural revolutionaries in 2009…

_live, act, work with and not against nature
_know that life is too complex to understand it intellectually
_build and support local, self-governed economies
_value and safe-guard diversity of all kind
_value interdependence, since they know that nothing is separate
_regard themselves as equal to all life forms
_protect and support life
_love and support children unconditionally
_work on themselves towards greater awareness
_know about ecological principles and integrate them into their lifes
_see music and dance as an integral part of their expression and communication
_live on an animate earth and regard it as sacred
_know how to grow their own food
_appreciate their sensory awareness
_celebrate life
_cooperate
_make the shift from thinking ‘either, or’ to thinking ‘as well, as’
_share their knowledge
_understand and integrate process as a way of being
_are not identified with their body, thoughts or emotions
_see the mind as a tool
_realize that there is no right or wrong
_are not identified with any social tag, their past or their future
_are aware that the very essence of who they are is life itself
_take responsibility for their emotions
_are aware of and value their relationships to their living and seemingly non-living surroundings
_value and integrate the wisdom of women
_value and integrate the wisdom of indigenous cultures
_value generalist knowledge
_are aware of change as one of the core principles of evolution
_work towards diversification and decentralization
_engage in and create bonds to the place where they live
_turn from dependent consumers to responsible producers
_are looking for ways so that their interests and talents may unfold
_have the courage to resist and disobey laws that render self-rule, self-provisioning, and self-sustenance illegal
_are informed about the current money system and identify it as a contemporary form of enslavement
_identify and boycott biological, cultural, social and philosophical monocultures
_boycott monopolies of any kind
_question everyone who promotes one solution
_value environmental and human ethics over profit maximization
_boycott corporations and banks operating for profit maximization
_reclaim land and forests as common good
_reclaim water as common good
_reclaim biodiversity and knowledge as common good
_are aware that they participate in the process of co-creation at all time
_allow life to unfold through them

Berlin, 03/2009, (cc) by art-ecology-education.org

Some CR09 artwork/interventions

“Especially in a time of radical flux  and … climate change, our relationship with… plants and our knowledge of those plants is perhaps the most  important collective heritage we have… That knowledge is ultimately what is going to sustain us.”

-Ken Ausbel, Co-Founder Bioneers Conference

Numen: The Nature of Plants will be 80 minute documentary film focusing on the healing power of plants and the natural world.  Numen, defined as the animating force in nature, brings together innovative thinkers to discuss how our disconnection from nature affects human and environmental health and the healing made possible by embracing our place in the wider web of life..  We hope to inspire viewers to think deeply about the source of their medicine and the impact of healthcare systems on their health and the earth.

Numen bridges the disparate worlds of plant conservation and human health, advocating for a re-awakening of traditional knowledge about plants and healing in order to conserve those plants, improve our health, and increase the resilience of our healthcare systems.
We are producing Numen for wide distribution, to raise questions and provoke dialogue about alternatives in medicine.  We plan on a theatrical release, television broadcast, and distribution as a DVD for home viewing.  The DVD will include tutorials on growing and harvesting medicinal herbs, preparing kitchen medicine, and on the growing field of ecological medicine. Together with the documentary, these tutorials will help viewers diversify their approach to health and wellness and become more knowledgeable consumers of plant-based medicines and allopathic healthcare.

Preview:
http://www.brookhollow.tv/numenpreview/videopage.html

© Phil Howard

Have a look and step behind the scenes! (There you’ll find a lot larger images, video, pdf…)