COMMON LAW COPYRIGHT DECLARED PLACED IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN FOR NON-COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION
The following is an excerpt from a book that I entered in the 1990 Turner Tomorrow Award Contest for fiction oriented toward global solutions. My book did not win the contest but a very good book did called Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn (who also wrote The Story of B, another great book). You can find the "No-Win Scenario Solution" [BELOW]
Although Adam had no real job to speak of he didn't have any problems paying his expenses. He may not have had money for anything else but at least he had a roof over his head and food to eat most of the time. Adam was known around the Big Apple (New York City) as one of the most technologically savvy while at the same time one of the most non-employable individuals. He had more experience but less traditional education than the people who worked for the companies he applied for. No college degree.
Adam worked mostly as a computer consultant. Companies would hire him on a temporary basis to either solve problems when they came up or produce some type of computer output in an emergency situation. He used to enjoy telling the MBA's how to use their computers or show them where they were making errors. Some had as much as 7 years of additional schooling and they still didn't know, or could not figure out, how to select a printer or download a document from the file-server. He also enjoyed getting paid more for the time that he worked than these over-educated-pencil-pushers. The MBA's were proof positive that intelligence is definately relative.
Adam had a dream of building his own computer. Because of Adam's limited financial resources he would have to develop his computer as creatively as possible. Adam figured that if he played his cards right and was able to talk to the right people he could do anything he desired. Adam was used to creating win-win situations. It was a means of giving at least 2 parties something that they would not obtain under normal conditions. He offered consulting and training to companies that they could not normally afford in exchange for access to the use of high-tech equipment that Adam could never afford.
Creating something from nothing was something that Adam had become quite accomplished at. In times of crucial need his powers of creativity reached tremendous levels. One time Adam had only one dollar to his name and no food in the house. That dollar had to last him for an entire week until his next paycheck. Thinking at first that he would probably have to go hungry he just wondered around the neighborhood to see what each deli had to offer and if any ideas might come to him. He ended up buying a bag of rice with that dollar that fed him easily for the entire week. The nutritional value of rice is not that high but it sustained Adam until he could get his money and buy more vitamins and food. The seemingly worthless dollar had fed him for a week.
Adam's older buddy Bucky Fuller (no longer on the physical plane) had said something about what needed to happen in the world was a physical design science revolution that would facilitate the ability of humanity to continually do more and more with less and less such that we would create a world that depletes neither the world's resources nor its people. Bucky said that if we properly manage our resources then we would all be the equivalent of BILLIONAIRES! In his book Laws of Success, Napoleon Hill points out the value and power of positive thinking emphasizing that anything that the mind can conceive, if you believe, you will achieve.
While still in high school Adam's calculus teacher, seeing how unmotivated Adam was with the progression of the class, wanted to do something to challenge Adam's analytical ability. With Adam always telling people that "anything is possible" and having people ask him to prove it the teacher finally said, "Yes, I would like to see you prove that myself. In fact that is your special assignment for the weekend, prove mathematically that anything is possible." As Adam was leaving the class the teacher said that he would probably win the Nobel Prize if he could do it.
Scientists were always trying to prove theories with equations but there were not too many philosophers out there doing the same thing. Adam was not accustomed to accepting challenges but this one seemed to have particular practical use. He also thought that if Bucky were alive today he would be really proud of Adam for doing it.
So when Adam got home that night he sat down at his Mac and began to play with the equation capabilities of his page-layout program. Knowing that something is true and explaining to others why it is true (at least in your opinion) are 2 different things. Adam's task now was to bring something from the relatively abstract realm, a concept, into the physical realm of reality in order to demonstrate it to others.
Adam needed to break down the problem into separate elements but his mind went blank so he reached over to his boombox, an old term for an old portable stereo music player, and put in an equally ancient Kitaro CD. He leaned back with his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. As the high plucked notes of the electronic harp danced on the movie screen of his mind numbers and letters representing mathematical variables began to take their place. An equal sign floated in and anchored itself in the center. The letters A, I and P swirled around and came to rest at the left of the equal sign.
A voice began to speak with gentle authority in rhythm with the music that he was hearing. "Anything is possible if you can get others interested in your plans and activities who in turn interest others and others interest others and so on until you reach the critical mass necessary to accomplish your goals. If this process is not happening fast enough then add incentives to increase the rate in which this duplication process occurs. Apply the same principle to financial and technological resources. Anything is possible. Where there is a will there is a way. By thinking it terms of solutions instead of problems you find that progress occurs very rapidly and that anything is truly possible. As long as there are worthy intentions there will always be solutions."
Adam then saw himself appear to the right of the equal sign wearing his favorite bicycle messenger outfit. He looked around as if to be thinking. His facial expressions showed that a thought was coming to him. He smiled and suddenly he became twins, 2 of him side by side. He shook hands with himself and the 2 became 4. The 4 became 16. 16 became 256. 256 became more than he could count but they kept multiplying till it seemed like millions of little heads bobbing around. Tools and other useful gadgets started floating around. One thousand dollar bills burst into the air springing forth like an oil geyser.
A numerical representation of the vision gradually took its place to the right of the decimal.
AIP = [(2U)
D
]
R
The voice began again...
"AIP = [(2U)D]R where U represents you or your assets, multiplied by 2 because in order to have an exponential progression you need to multiply by more than 1 so you duplicate yourself. An exponential progression is necessary to adequately utilize the concept of leverage. Leverage is what will enable you to do more and more with less and less. There is a famous saying that goes, 'If I had a lever long enough and a place upon which to set a fulcrum I could lift the world.' D represents the duplication factor that you increase to raise the amount of people and/or assets that you have access to in order to accomplish your goals. R represents the rate or speed that you increase the duplication process so that you reach your goals within the necessary amount of time. This equation applies to each step of the process. If you don't have enough money to pay for people or assets then you apply it to money. If certain technology does not currently exist then you do what is necessary to develop that technology or accelerate its development."
But what if the time comes for the irresistable force to meet the immovable object? The solution is to understand that there are no absolutes except in concept or hypothesis form only. The only thing that we have to fear is the concept of fear itself. If fear is the absense of understanding then perhaps the disease of fear may be ameliorated by allowing other possibilities to enter into the consciousness so as to evolve a higher level of awareness.
Adam had just simply created a visual representation of a principle that many people believed in.
After Adam printed out his equation on his old but effective LaserWriter he walked around the corner into the bistro where his teacher was playing saxophone. He referred to it as a jass band as opposed to a jazz band having something to do with that type of music originating in St. Louis. Adam walked right up to the stage and stuffed the paper with the equation on it into the bell of the sax. Needless to say the teacher was surprized at the sudden alteration of his melodious tone. After finishing the song the teacher took out the paper and read it. He was so thrilled at the unique approach that he ran off the stage and bought Adam dinner at a different restaurant forgetting that he had comp dinners at the bistro.
After that short little trip through memory lane Adam's attention was again focused on the job before him. He was now motivated to the point where he knew that he could produce Humanity's Window to the World no matter what it took.