Pier 10
Ok, so are you all enjoying live-reading the story of your lives yet?
I'm really getting to the good mystery stuff in mine...whoever wrote this was pretty damn brilliant.
The adventure has been unfolding in pretty incredible ways since my lil mini-breakdown last week.
(now remember I'm not really Darlene, I just get to 'play' her in this life.)
So here's a brief recap (go back in my journal if you'd like the whole scoop): Last Tuesday, Darlene read an article on Disney's AdverGaming plans which triggered a mini-breakdown in her. Long buried guilt and waves of frustration flood her in association with a dream she had years ago. She feels hugely personally responsible by her non-action, in a way that she feels she cannot adequately convey to anyone. To her this dream was a message, one she had never acted on properly. Overwhelmed, she cries, sobs, and begs the universe,God,whatever...to help her know 'how to do this'. To guide her in the next step.
That evening,unsure of what to do with her frustrated energy, she decides to go running at the gym. Halfway through her run, the treadmill stops unexpectedly. Will not restart. She is forced to switch to another treadmill across the way. Absentmindedly she flips through a magazine that someone left there, until she falls upon an article called "The Next Way to Give" detailing a thinktank network set up by ebay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Awestruck...she goes home and logs in and starts reading around.
It seems to be exactly where she needs to be.(!)
SO...she joins omidyar.net and writes her intro page:
"Seems like I might be in the right place. Hopefully it's the right time.:)
Six years ago I had a dream so powerfully inspiring that it changed my life, setting me on a mission to understand and help manifest the concepts within it. Keep in mind that Six years ago I did not use computers,the internet,or email at all, but the dream showed me web portals and avatars, so it was Quite bizarre for me.
In this dream I was glancing amusedly through a horoscope section of a magazine when suddenly I found myself reading what seemed to be very direct,specific and personal instructions. I was to "reread my science books" and to figure out why _____ and _____ + ____ do what they do. (At that point the instructions were no longer just text but became mysterious moving diagrams showing spherical particles that somehow became superimposed and holographic as the text 'narrated'.) I was to find out what would happen if everyone did something specific at the same time. (again mysterious diagram)
It then went on to show what would be possible with this understanding......strangely it was ideas of a brick and mortar commercial space (both a social space and marketplace) to be launched in tandem with a huge immersive '3D web portal', graphically as beautiful and detailed as any of the best computer games I had ever glimpsed! Both these concepts were seen in elaborate detail and they were rich with novelty that I can elaborate on, but the important theme they shared was an emphasis on a 'new collaborative movement for a better world and inspiring the masses to participate'. Called Pier 10, they were set up in such a way that 10% of profits (including entry fees) were distributed to a network of charities and due to the volume of traffic this was a continually inspiring amount in itself. Secondly, they were both interspersed with interactive and informative activities and displays that were designed to inspire individuals about their positive roles and the feasibility of the goal of the movement.
When I woke, I was dumbfounded by the vividness of all I had just seen and I tried to write down as much as I could. Over the next years I read anything I could get my hands on that seemed to relate to these ideas. And as I filtered through them, certain topics amplified:
ENTANGLEMENT seems to be what the diagrams were describing. (what Einstein termed 'Spooky action at a distance')
EMPATHY (Pierre mentions a "Reaching down into the very source code of humanity and changing a few critical lines" and I want to yell YES YES!I think there has to be a vision...so compelling...that it thwarts the natural tendency to selfishness...rewiring the pleasure-centers of the brain to connect to benevolent action strongly...a new vision of the self...as part of a benevolent organism....)
THE TIPPING POINT ( scale-free networks, hubs, etc as described in books like Linked, Emergence, Sync)
THE GLOBAL BRAIN and greater problem solving capabilities
SYMBIOSIS in evolution (I am especially fond of Lynn Margulis' works in this area)
VIRTUAL WORLDS as microcosms which affect the macrocosm
MEMORY PALACES and shared memories as empathy tools
GIVING (10%) a voluntary vow to connect oneself to charitable causes as a tool for continuous empathy action
Serendipity sped things along as it tends to do.... I am a visual artist, and have been exploring the ideas in my mixed media materials as I've gone along, creating works which in their abstract way articulate more than I feel able to in words. (Feel free to visit my works online at darlenecharneco.com ) Yet I have always felt that when the time was right, I would need to work amongst a team of people devoted to bringing this particular dreamvision to reality for the benefit of humanity and not just for corporate profit. I don't feel this dream was for 'me', it was just a glimpse at something that would evolve...but a strong feeling I had was that it was necessary to make sure it evolved as a 'benevolent and symbiotic organism'. For this I am willing and ready to work.
I had peeked at the virtual worlds in the making over the years...could see the direction..yet never felt they were coming that close to the dreamvision until I explored SecondLife.com this past year and it blew my mind with its potential. I think this is it. It seems a wonderful platform to experiment within and I would like to begin doing so with the help of others.
I landed at omidyar.net as a result of another nudge of serendipity....and I am eager to look around, join some groups, start the Pier10 workspaces and join you all in brainstorming for a better world!"
(she pastes the Memory Palace entries from LJ into new posts there as well)
She begins reading threads and joining discussion groups...and soon makes contact with Tom Munnecke who wants to develop an island on SecondLife. Email leads to phone call and the adventure continues as she is literally sucked into a wormhole.
(see, thing is you all think I'm kidding).
I'm really getting to the good mystery stuff in mine...whoever wrote this was pretty damn brilliant.
The adventure has been unfolding in pretty incredible ways since my lil mini-breakdown last week.
(now remember I'm not really Darlene, I just get to 'play' her in this life.)
So here's a brief recap (go back in my journal if you'd like the whole scoop): Last Tuesday, Darlene read an article on Disney's AdverGaming plans which triggered a mini-breakdown in her. Long buried guilt and waves of frustration flood her in association with a dream she had years ago. She feels hugely personally responsible by her non-action, in a way that she feels she cannot adequately convey to anyone. To her this dream was a message, one she had never acted on properly. Overwhelmed, she cries, sobs, and begs the universe,God,whatever...to help her know 'how to do this'. To guide her in the next step.
That evening,unsure of what to do with her frustrated energy, she decides to go running at the gym. Halfway through her run, the treadmill stops unexpectedly. Will not restart. She is forced to switch to another treadmill across the way. Absentmindedly she flips through a magazine that someone left there, until she falls upon an article called "The Next Way to Give" detailing a thinktank network set up by ebay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Awestruck...she goes home and logs in and starts reading around.
It seems to be exactly where she needs to be.(!)
SO...she joins omidyar.net and writes her intro page:
"Seems like I might be in the right place. Hopefully it's the right time.:)
Six years ago I had a dream so powerfully inspiring that it changed my life, setting me on a mission to understand and help manifest the concepts within it. Keep in mind that Six years ago I did not use computers,the internet,or email at all, but the dream showed me web portals and avatars, so it was Quite bizarre for me.
In this dream I was glancing amusedly through a horoscope section of a magazine when suddenly I found myself reading what seemed to be very direct,specific and personal instructions. I was to "reread my science books" and to figure out why _____ and _____ + ____ do what they do. (At that point the instructions were no longer just text but became mysterious moving diagrams showing spherical particles that somehow became superimposed and holographic as the text 'narrated'.) I was to find out what would happen if everyone did something specific at the same time. (again mysterious diagram)
It then went on to show what would be possible with this understanding......strangely it was ideas of a brick and mortar commercial space (both a social space and marketplace) to be launched in tandem with a huge immersive '3D web portal', graphically as beautiful and detailed as any of the best computer games I had ever glimpsed! Both these concepts were seen in elaborate detail and they were rich with novelty that I can elaborate on, but the important theme they shared was an emphasis on a 'new collaborative movement for a better world and inspiring the masses to participate'. Called Pier 10, they were set up in such a way that 10% of profits (including entry fees) were distributed to a network of charities and due to the volume of traffic this was a continually inspiring amount in itself. Secondly, they were both interspersed with interactive and informative activities and displays that were designed to inspire individuals about their positive roles and the feasibility of the goal of the movement.
When I woke, I was dumbfounded by the vividness of all I had just seen and I tried to write down as much as I could. Over the next years I read anything I could get my hands on that seemed to relate to these ideas. And as I filtered through them, certain topics amplified:
ENTANGLEMENT seems to be what the diagrams were describing. (what Einstein termed 'Spooky action at a distance')
EMPATHY (Pierre mentions a "Reaching down into the very source code of humanity and changing a few critical lines" and I want to yell YES YES!I think there has to be a vision...so compelling...that it thwarts the natural tendency to selfishness...rewiring the pleasure-centers of the brain to connect to benevolent action strongly...a new vision of the self...as part of a benevolent organism....)
THE TIPPING POINT ( scale-free networks, hubs, etc as described in books like Linked, Emergence, Sync)
THE GLOBAL BRAIN and greater problem solving capabilities
SYMBIOSIS in evolution (I am especially fond of Lynn Margulis' works in this area)
VIRTUAL WORLDS as microcosms which affect the macrocosm
MEMORY PALACES and shared memories as empathy tools
GIVING (10%) a voluntary vow to connect oneself to charitable causes as a tool for continuous empathy action
Serendipity sped things along as it tends to do.... I am a visual artist, and have been exploring the ideas in my mixed media materials as I've gone along, creating works which in their abstract way articulate more than I feel able to in words. (Feel free to visit my works online at darlenecharneco.com ) Yet I have always felt that when the time was right, I would need to work amongst a team of people devoted to bringing this particular dreamvision to reality for the benefit of humanity and not just for corporate profit. I don't feel this dream was for 'me', it was just a glimpse at something that would evolve...but a strong feeling I had was that it was necessary to make sure it evolved as a 'benevolent and symbiotic organism'. For this I am willing and ready to work.
I had peeked at the virtual worlds in the making over the years...could see the direction..yet never felt they were coming that close to the dreamvision until I explored SecondLife.com this past year and it blew my mind with its potential. I think this is it. It seems a wonderful platform to experiment within and I would like to begin doing so with the help of others.
I landed at omidyar.net as a result of another nudge of serendipity....and I am eager to look around, join some groups, start the Pier10 workspaces and join you all in brainstorming for a better world!"
(she pastes the Memory Palace entries from LJ into new posts there as well)
She begins reading threads and joining discussion groups...and soon makes contact with Tom Munnecke who wants to develop an island on SecondLife. Email leads to phone call and the adventure continues as she is literally sucked into a wormhole.
(see, thing is you all think I'm kidding).