I would like to reflect on the past year as well as look forward and align the direction and efforts of The Zemerge Project. I’ve been involved in several ways to move the project forward which includes the creation of the ‘Emergent Reality’ videos to spur interest in related subjects, the attempt to create a simple flash simulation called Alpha Zemerge that demonstrates the basic ideas behind the project, and networking with like minded and interested individuals and organizations to grow awareness and establish a user base that one day may contribute in the development and progression of the project.
I’ve had the privilege of receiving constructive comments and feedback and I greatly appreciate it so please don’t stop! I’ve communicated with like minded organizations and individuals like the members of The Zeitgeist Movement, or the creators of RBEFoundation, The New Z-Land Project, or the ipowerproject. I’ve even had individuals promote a new concept word that was introduced in the ‘Emergent Reality’ videos – ‘Memehive’, thank you Jackie! A notable highlight was receiving an email back from Neil deGrasse Tyson, an extraordinary and well known astrophysicist that had a positive outlook on this project.
Some things I have in mind for the future is the creation of a Zemerge Wiki site, where anyone will be able to contribute and grow the knowledge base with anything related to the project. I will also continue to create the ‘Emergent Reality’ videos and I have several episode ideas that I’m currently working with, if there is anyone out there interested in contributing in either the visual aspect or narration/script aspect to making these videos higher quality to what I am able to produce then I would love to hear from you.
I’ve also considered that one day I might return to the academia world to work on a masters degree if given the opportunity to do research and development related to this project – I have a Bachelor of Mathematics Honours in Computer Science and I currently work as a web developer, if pursuing this attempt does move the project forward through new opportunities and more exposure them I must strongly consider it. If anyone knows of any academics that might be interested in the development in this project, I would greatly appreciate their contacts or at least forwarding them information about the project, the more individuals we can reach the more opportunities can be created, and with enough interest collaborative pursuits will develop.
As more content is created and more interest is generated I will attempt to have a physical presence with either having setup informational booths at related conventions or having lectures or talks regarding the project. It is important to have something to show for, either a prototype of some system that demonstrates feasibility, this might be some time away but the time will come when we have something.
The Alpha Zemerge flash project that I’ve started has been on hold, I still have the intention to finish it but for now I am focusing on other areas of growth – again its purpose will be to demonstrate how simulations with conjunction with genetic algorithms can yield social decision making optimizations. As for the proposed Beta Zemerge projects I have several ideas listed below, these projects would be open-sourced and developed by anyone interested, and will be available for use by everyone. These projects employ the Zemerge method of using simulations and genetic algorithms all differently in their own way to achieve continually optimizing decision assisting tools, some ideas for these projects include the following:
Food Growing/Distribution:
This would be an online system where communities could mass organize food production and distribution by themselves becoming more independent and self sufficient. Imagine a system where all the local available resources were gathered including land, tools, and expertise/experience needed for food production. Food consumption could be captured for this local population as well with the current local food productions. The objective of this system would be to generate a rule-set that dictates which land produces which type of food and by whom and with which tools and by what method, the capturing feedback information would include how effective each production was and how the consumption looked like for the latest timeframe, individual feedback and preferences could include what types of food you would like to see more. With all these variables and input a Zemerge type solution would generate an ever improving rule-set for the community to grow its food, with conjunction to the genetic algorithms these rule-sets would slightly mutate and mix within the simulations to try out various scenarios to derive continuous optimal food production.
Health Assistant:
This would be an online system where individuals would enter their current state of health along with relevant environmental or behavior variables that may affect ones health. Over time this would generate snapshots into the well being of the users of this system along with all the variables that may have an affect on these users health. Simulations can then be generated based on the correlations calculated between the variables and the health conditions. So if an individual would have a health complication they could go into the system and check a calculated recommendation based how others have coped with the complication and what changes in the relevant variables affected the complication. The system would advise users what steps could be taken to improve their health based on the collective data gathered on all individuals of the past. Simulations could be performed to test various mass variable changes to the population and tested to see what changes in the variables could improve everyone’s health using the system, with the conjunction of genetic algorithms these variables would slightly mutate and mix within the simulations to try out various scenarios to derive continuous optimal health improvement without the current incentives to generate profit that big-pharma is well accustomed to.
Alternative Currencies/Economies:
There are numerous ways individuals can barter without using the traditional currencies based of fractional reserve banking. There are currently many alternatives including time banking, local currencies, online P2P currencies like bitcoins, and there are many other different ways we could facilitate this function, in ways we haven’t even invented yet. We could create a series of simulations that test out the long term feasibility, effectiveness and stability of different bartering/economic systems, real world feedback on the dynamics of these systems would make sure the simulations are on the right track. The rules of bartering and economic engines could be tried out and tested within these simulations, successful techniques or the rules would become more prevalent and could be verified in real world cases. The genetic algorithms would then slightly mutate and mix the rules within these economic simulations to test out various scenarios to derive continuous optimal bartering/economic system development.
Educational Systems:
Figuring out the most effective ways to educate individuals in not always an easy task. This system would be setup to test out various techniques and approaches used in education, figuring out what approaches work the best in what scenarios. Teaching techniques can vary in all shapes and forms, even something entertaining and self rewarding can sometimes be considered educational if done properly. A system like this would track the various techniques of education and treat them as the rules, then the effectiveness of these techniques could be captured by gaining feedback from individuals of how well they absorbed and applied their education. Techniques could be varied and mixed as the genetic algorithms would mutate and mix the different rules that construct the teaching techniques. Over time this would yield continuous optimal teaching systems tailored for specific demographic groups with specific educational goals.
TZM Awareness Spreading Tool:
Imagine if all TZM chapters had an online tool where each chapter could share their endeavours and attempts to spread messages related to increasing the movement’s presence and awareness. Chapters try out various different undertakings such as having informational booths, organizing community events, movie screenings, flyers and handouts, charity projects, and so on. What if we could measure how successful each of these endeavours were – for example by recording the increased traffic to local chapter website or local chapter involvement level – and report these metrics back to the system so other chapters could learn what works the best and what is ineffective. By treating the semantics of these endeavours as sets of rules we could then apply genetic algorithms to steer the movements collective endeavours towards the objective goal which is reaching a critical mass awareness point for real change to happen.
Alternative Energy Generation and Management:
There are variety of ways we can harvest and generate energy, some ways are more efficient and effective, and others are not sustainable and environmentally degenerative, so how can we objectively and consistently compare the different methods? and how can we improve and invent new ways to harvest and generate energy? and more importantly, how can we use energy more efficiently given the multitude of applications we use energy for? What if there was a online system where energy generation techniques could be catalogued and evaluated against each other, and what if this system could also provide the optimal way to use energy given an application. Anyone with an idea and a method could provide the necessary instructions to develop alternative energy generation techniques. As well, anyone that can capture the efficiency usage of an application of using energy could enter their results. Given all this feedback we could objectively compare the statistics of energy capture and usage efficiency. We could then develop simulations of that could test out different scenarios in energy capture and usage, we could then apply genetic algorithms to steer decision making of what energy capture techniques should be employed while which ones should be explored and further tested thus continuously developing and improving energy generation and energy management.
These are just couple ideas of projects that could be developed by the open source community and be used by everyone for the advancement of social organization and humanity in general, but there are so many other potential ideas out there and so much possibilities I am excited what we will think of and what we will be able to accomplish once we work together to tackle the big issues that affect out collective future. I welcome anyone with ideas to contribute and expand our knowledge-base with the upcoming Zemerge Wiki site.
I invite everyone to a short questionnaire that would provide useful feedback, get to know who is out there and what your interests are related to the project, and help generate a Q&A section of the site for future individuals who have further questions regarding this project.
Contributing to this project gives me a personal satisfaction and a passionate drive to strive forward step by step everyday knowing that one day this project can create open-source tangible tools for all of us that assist us in the decision process of social organization, or at least inspire the next generation of technological and social pioneers to continue to expand and build upon the human journey we are all on! – there is an interesting point Iain Stewart made in his documentary “How Earth Made Us”, he said that one day our collective legacy might be reduced to a small plastic layer in the sedimentary rock around the planet unless we change our ways and become a sustainable species, that is why I will continue to contribute and nurture this project while I exist on this rock – and I hope you can join me!
