Aaron, I've been generally using the contest guidelines' "Evaluation Criteria" to rate essays, rather than making up my own. So I've been using a 1-6 scale (roughly 2/3) for "relevancy", which is mostly made up of the questions that they listed:

- Is it positive rather than pessimistic/dystopian?

- Is it the best state that humanity can realistically achieve?

- Is there a clear plan for getting us there?

- Does it give an idea of who implements this plan?

- Does it speak of specific technology that we can use, and include the problems and benefits of said technology?

- Does it focus on FQXi's general category of thinking/problem-solving, bringing in math, cosmology, complexity, emergence, and/or physics in some meaningful and novel way?

Then I give another 3 points (roughly 1/3) for "Quality". Which basically consists of whether or not this is something better, more original, and more novel than something I'd find in Scientific American, while also being directed at a broader audience than an academic paper. (In other words, if something is too hard to understand on one end, or too simple to understand and similar to your average blog post on LessWrong.com, I give it a 0 for Quality.)

Then I've got one point left (since the weirdos who made the rating system haven't considered the fact that you can't get whole number ratings when using thirds) to play with, and I usually use it for relevant innovation, since that's kind of a crucial element in problem solving. If I've read something similar before, in a variety of places, and/or it doesn't really answer the question of where we want to go and how we might want to get there most effectively, then it's automatically going to need to be rated lower than an essay that is novel and highly relevant.

6 days later

Hi Turil,

Your essay was a great read. I am still spinning a bit, but the germ of novel is appearing that goes into all the passion and heartbreak of the earth looking for its mate.

Looks like you have a new book.. Dragonfly

Wishing you all the best,

another geeky bicyclist,

Don Limuti

    Hi Don. Thanks for the comment, and appreciation!

    And yes, my new book is out, and it has some large themes in common with my essay here. The third part of the book (of three parts: past, present, and future) deals with what I see as a possible future for us, as we Earthlings expand out into more dimensions.

    And Yay! for bicycling!

    Turil,

    The time grows short, so I am revisiting and rating. You say in your response, "First, I have to say, I wasn't always optimistic. Not in the least. But having researched patterns of growth for nearly a decade now, in addition to being a teacher, who saw the ways human children naturally grow, I've come to the conclusion that there must be something in the laws of nature/physics that makes things flow in a certain way, expanding into more and more "dimensions" (in the sense of directions that things can move)"

    I have taught, done aerospace and business. Teacher usually tends to make you more hopeful, perhaps. My solution in my essay relates to the capacity of the brain, as Einstein mentioned, to transcend.

    Have you had a chance to read my essay?

    Jim

      Thanks for explaining, Turil, and for reviewing my own essay. I'll be rating yours (and all the others on my review list) some time between now and May 30. All the best, and bye for now, - Mike

      Hello Turil ~

      "All matter "gives off" information, or perhaps, is information itself, if we consider information to be some kind of indication of a pattern of variability in the state of something. Whether you're an atom or an Adam, you are naturally going to propagate information on some level as you emit radiation, gravitation, and nuclear forces...."

      Wow !!! In my opinion that's superb.

      Although I've long held precisely that position myself, I've not yet met anyone else who also does. I like that ! Nice to meet you, Turil !!!

      Of course we not only 'give off' 'information' - at all levels of being - but we also 'give off' real solid bits of ourselves all the time too, & nature has arranged it so that we have evolved the capacity to shape & mould some of these bits of 'detritus' (!!!) into eggs & sperms which when combined & under the right conditions, will turn into a brand new one of us !!!!

      I'm just trying to put back into your own excellent 'give-off equation' the fact that we not only replicate information but ourselves too.

      I would love you to read & rate my essay "How Should Humanity Steer the Future ?" by Margriet Anne O'Regan - as in it I focus on the 'reproductive' component of our circumstance of living & being in this unbelievably fascinating universe of ours.

      As 'information' is also one of my most favourite subjects I entered last Fall's FQXi essay competition with an essay called 'INFORMATION AT LAST !' - by Margriet Anne O'Regan - in which I suggest that 'pattern' is 'information' - & that it is not in point of demonstrable fact any amount of 'bits' & 'bytes', which latter are merely 'counting' aids & that computers can't really 'think' because all they are is glorified, automated abacuses !! They can count well enough, but not think - & most certainly not 'understand'.

      You might be interested in that other essay too.

      I loved your 'Planetary Procreation'

      Thank you

      Margriet

        Margriet, thanks for your comments! It's always nice to hear from someone who looks at the universe from a similar perspective.

        And I somehow missed your essay! I will read it as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for suggesting it.

        Jim, I think if you have fun teaching, it probably is guaranteed to make you more optimistic!

        And I started to read you essay, but I think I got overwhelmed at the time (because I see that I haven't rated it yet), and must have stopped reading. I'll take another look at it!

        Turil,

        Anyone for tea?

        Thanks for any enjoyable experience built around the same fundamental truth I try to expose in mine but exploring aspects that really couldn't be more different. I find in a way that to be the most convincing proof of the absolute connectivity and harmonious oneness of everything. We also both include a touch of humour with our original approaches.

        If your groups look like reaching 'old' England look me up. I already have a small community support network giving professional input to enable non commercial projects. I't's proven very productive, for example producing youth sport facilities and event.

        I hope you may enjoy reading my slightly allegorical tale as much as I enjoyed reading yours. I've taken a positive and direct route in showing that current science, a disparate and disconnected jumble of ill fitting puzzle pieces, is in fact all one harmonious whole. Removing the spookyness from QM and unifying with relativity is the 'leap'. See the 'classroom experiment' in the end notes; how to teach 10 year olds how nature really works!

        But well done for yours. Clearly worth top mark on any scale. Very best wishes.

        More tea?

        Peter

        6 days later

        Hi Turil,

        Thanks for your essay. I enjoyed the style of writing and the colourful metaphors. I think I agree with some of the ideas that I took from reading your essay. That encouraging the learning and self-fulfilment of individual people should be a primary focus of how steer he future. Information, in its many physical and abstract forms, is important. When we start considering life a manifestation of information, we might even say that creation of information is possibly what we should value most and our purpose.

        I do think that taking a "hands-off" approach to how humanity steers the future is probably quite risky. There are a lot of incentives in our current society that are looking like they are going to steer humanity off a cliff. I also think that, given the number of people that there are, there is a scarcity of resources. This is something that needs to be dealt with through an effective and just economic system.

        I'm also interested in your ideas for a non-profit organisation. I've been interested in trying to start up something of a learning exchange. Would you mind sharing some more of your thoughts on this idea?

        Cheers,

        Toby

          Toby, it's not so much a hands off approach, it's a stop messing everything up approach. :-) We've been trying to "manage" life artificially, trying to force everyone to go against their better nature, which harms us all, and gets in the way of healthy growth. The evidence points to us naturally, instinctively, having a motivation to thrive and evolve, but we've been second guessing ourselves due to us giving up control of our lives and handing it over to profiteers and their government puppets. So the way forward absolutely has to be for us to stop letting them steer us, and instead allow our genetic auto pilot to take over and guide us towards more diversity, more adaptability, and more healthy growth.

          Is that clearer? We don't try to make guesses as to where and how we steer, we let the laws of nature steer us, since that offers the best possible outcome we can imagine for our selves, our species, and our planet.

          So my primary focus that I'm proposing, is for us to ask ourselves what we most want to have and do in life, and then to share that information with everyone we can. That way we will have the best quality information about where we want to steer, and we'll naturally move towards that. This is the only way to create a healthy economy (resource flow system, aka, nervous system and circulatory system) where we can all get what we need to do what we need to do, to be our best possible selves.

          As for the community spaces I'm looking to help nurture, my short term goal is to find someone to donate a plot of farmable land with maybe a farmhouse and barn on it to the cause, so that a group of artists, scientists, and educators in residence can move in and work with the community to find solutions to serving the basic needs of the people, freely (see my triangular map for achieving global health, the 011 element in the organizations level). Once that is running nicely, then I'd like to help support a growing global network of these specific community resource centers for even more effective problem solving.

          I don't have a huge preference for where that first place might be, but I'm in New England (specifically, I'm near coastal Maine, right now).

          6 days later

          Hi Turil,

          Thanks for your essay. I enjoyed the style of writing and the colourful metaphors. I think I agree with some of the ideas that I took from reading your essay. That encouraging the learning and self-fulfilment of individual people should be a primary focus of how steer the future. Information, in its many physical and abstract forms, is important. When we start considering life a manifestation of information, we might even say that creation of information is possibly what we should value most and our purpose.

          I do think that taking a "hands-off" approach to how humanity steers the future is probably quite risky. There are a lot of incentives in our current society that are looking like they are going to steer humanity off of a cliff. I also think that, given the number of people that there are, there is a scarcity of resources. This is something that needs to be dealt with through an effective and just economic system.

          I'm also interested in your ideas for a non-profit organisation. I've been interested in trying to start up something of a learning exchange. Would you mind sharing some more of your thoughts on this idea?

          Cheers,

          Toby