Wisdom> Science> Tech> Spiritual Computing

Both the classical and the romantic thinker (with a nod to Robert M. Pirsig) in me were stirred as I learned about the concept of Spiritual Computing. Outlined at the Nokia HQ in Helsinki in a speech by Craig Warren Smith in June 2006, the Spiricomp concept combines technological innovation, cognition and spiritual tradition - particularly spiritual epistemology. Acknowledging a need and the benefits for spirituality that leads to happiness is at the core of this perspective on technology, and it manages to discuss it without fanaticism or dogmas. To distill this for you, below are four points from spiritualcomputing.com, but an MP3 of the talk from the Nokia HQ is available in it's entirety also (with great references to Finnish "sisu"!).

Technical innovation:

Spiritual computing links three interdisciplinary fields represented in corporate and academic technology laboratories. One is social computing, referring to online social interactions. Spiritual principles may hold the key to creating self-organized communities that win the loyalty and trust of users. Some social computing sites such as Flickr and Digg demonstrate how knowledge or even wisdom could rise to the surface as millions of users interact. Another key arena is affective computing, referring to ways in which computers can convey or respond to human emotion. A third area is neuroscience.

Marketing:

In the United States, 83 percent of adults now consider themselves “spiritual.” This figure is rising in tandem with a steady increase in the percentage of Americans who are dissatisfied with organized religion. Other data show that spirituality increases with maturity, suggesting that as advanced societies age, this proportion will grow even higher. This shift is reflected in the transformation of the health care industry. Wellness, incorporating alternative/complementary health, mental health and mind/body therapies, add up to a $270 billion a year activity in the US alone, steadily rising 10 percent per year.

Management:

Following outsourcing, supply chains have become “ecosystems” and “business webs.” A company’s stakeholders now include both nonprofit as well as for-profit stakeholders, forcing managers to shape commercial strategies in ways that are consistent with the public interest.

Ethics:

The core question is ”How can technology bring out the best in users and avoid the worst?” This is a question may be best illuminated through interaction with spiritual leaders. As technologists seek methods to make beneficial outcomes possible, spiritual traditions may offer helpful clues.

This is very promising. Among the most influential people in the world, work dominates life, and technology dominates work - and all these trends are increasing. It may well be very beneficial to tap into the traditions that have created relative happiness to people across centuries, without dictation. If you have a problem with the by-definition-fuzzy concept of the spirit (as I at times do), you can maybe substitute the word "spiritual" with the word "meaningful" or "fulfilling" - that may illuminate the idea for you better.

Wisdom> Sounds> Spiritual Computing

Both the classical and the romantic thinker (with a nod to Robert M. Pirsig) in me were stirred as I learned about the concept of Spiritual Computing. Outlined at the Nokia HQ in Helsinki in a speech by Craig Warren Smith in June 2006, the Spiricomp concept combines technological innovation, cognition and spiritual tradition - particularly spiritual epistemology. Acknowledging a need and the benefits for spirituality that leads to happiness is at the core of this perspective on technology, and it manages to discuss it without fanaticism or dogmas. To distill this for you, below are four points from spiritualcomputing.com, but an MP3 of the talk from the Nokia HQ is available in it's entirety also (with great references to Finnish "sisu"!).

Technical innovation:

Spiritual computing links three interdisciplinary fields represented in corporate and academic technology laboratories. One is social computing, referring to online social interactions. Spiritual principles may hold the key to creating self-organized communities that win the loyalty and trust of users. Some social computing sites such as Flickr and Digg demonstrate how knowledge or even wisdom could rise to the surface as millions of users interact. Another key arena is affective computing, referring to ways in which computers can convey or respond to human emotion. A third area is neuroscience.

Marketing:

In the United States, 83 percent of adults now consider themselves “spiritual.” This figure is rising in tandem with a steady increase in the percentage of Americans who are dissatisfied with organized religion. Other data show that spirituality increases with maturity, suggesting that as advanced societies age, this proportion will grow even higher. This shift is reflected in the transformation of the health care industry. Wellness, incorporating alternative/complementary health, mental health and mind/body therapies, add up to a $270 billion a year activity in the US alone, steadily rising 10 percent per year.

Management:

Following outsourcing, supply chains have become “ecosystems” and “business webs.” A company’s stakeholders now include both nonprofit as well as for-profit stakeholders, forcing managers to shape commercial strategies in ways that are consistent with the public interest.

Ethics:

The core question is ”How can technology bring out the best in users and avoid the worst?” This is a question may be best illuminated through interaction with spiritual leaders. As technologists seek methods to make beneficial outcomes possible, spiritual traditions may offer helpful clues.

This is very promising. Among the most influential people in the world, work dominates life, and technology dominates work - and all these trends are increasing. It may well be very beneficial to tap into the traditions that have created relative happiness to people across centuries, without dictation. If you have a problem with the by-definition-fuzzy concept of the spirit (as I at times do), you can maybe substitute the word "spiritual" with the word "meaningful" or "fulfilling" - that may illuminate the idea for you better.

Log > Hard Rock Utah

Dreams of Utah

Sep 24, 2006 - 70 Photos

Here are photos from the trip, finally. The first ones are after the accident I described below, followed by massive rock formations, ghost towns and of course motorcycles. I also heard I managed to total Lissu (the bike), a bit of a surprise, given that we still did over 2,000 good miles with it after the accident. Sorry about that, Kalle.

Log> Lessons in scars & motorcycle maintenance

I just completed the best road trip of my life, and quite possibly one of the best vacations I've had. My friend Kalle and myself took off on two Kawasaki cruisers, 1500 and 800 cubes respectively, from Newark in the East Bay of Northern California on a cold Saturday morning at 6 am. We were headed to Utah and to the Four States corner, with the national parks of Arches, Bryce and Zion as our main goals.

California gave us its best from the beginning. Once the fast, uneven highway had been cleared, we were into the woods of Yosemite Valley, crossing over the Sierras via Tioga Pass. The winding roads were beautiful and the frequent fueling stops meant that we stayed more or less refreshed.

After about 250 miles, almost on the Nevadan border, as the roads changed from serpentine to rolling chicanes I leaned into a tightening right-hander, and like so often before, my right footpeg scratched the asphalt. Having ridden two tall Hondas before, I was constantly leaning too much for the low cruiser's liking, and this time the peg touched down quite hard. I straightened the bike which also took me wider in the curve - and at the same instant a large SUV emerged from behind the curve, in my eyes cutting the apex and thus placing me in the middle of its front fender. I braked and downshifted (a quick downshift has become a VFR-induced reaction I always do; maybe not good since it necessarily involves some coasting as I pull in the clutch) but hadn't straightened the bike enough and so the peg hit again, the rear started sliding and the diving nose threw me off the bike. I must have managed to reduce some speed, and I'm thinking I parted ways with the bike at around 35 mph. That was the recommended speed limit for the curve, so I may have approached it too fast (as an insurance disclaimer: within the speed limit, of course).

I landed on my left shoulder, hit the helmet on the left side, rolled over a few times and then slid on my knee. At one point I remember thinking I'd come to a stop, but I still rolled over once, hitting the back of my helmet in the asphalt before finding myself from the soft shoulder of the road. The kevlar enforcing on my brand-new riding jeans burned off in two spots, effectively saving my knee - the abrasion must have been intense. My hip and the side of the right leg got some abrasion damage and bruising too. These were the exact locations where knee and hip armors would have protected me - another lesson learned. My gloves were in shreds, but my hands and wrists intact. Holes had burned in my beautiful Furygan jacket on both shoulders and the abrasion damage had scraped off half of the thickness of the leather on the left side of my back. The safety equipment had paid off.

Another key point was that the driver of the SUV managed to swerve to its left, i.e. over to my lane. Had she turned away from my lane, she would've crushed me. She also turned her car immediately and came to check if I was ok, to find me staggering to my feet and to my triumph discover that despite the intense pain, both of my legs worked!

And that was just the first day of the trip. Next, I patched myself, we picked the bike up, waited for search and rescue, then the cops, then the highway patrol, then the tow truck. We were stuck in a small town called Lee Vining for the Saturday night. The following morning we took the bike apart as far as we could (you learn so much when you take things to bits! highly recommended!) and emptied the flooded engine (and the tank) and few times over. We drove 60 miles with a dripping engine, took a break, realized the bike ran okay, and decided to ride to Las Vegas straight away to lick our wounds and to get the bike fixed.

This is where I'll leave you now, and will return to the rest of the road trip with a lot of photos (including the Vulcan with half the bits on the right side held together by cable tiers - we didn't find a bike shop to service it). But after all this, life had started tasting pretty damn good, my friends.