TEDx Goodenough College: Collapse of Complex Society: Learning From History

Check out my TEDx talk on ‘Collapse of Complex Society: Can We Learn From History?‘ at the Goodenough College, London. Watch it at TEDx event website or directly at YouTube.

The talk relates two great sociopolitical entities: Roman Empire and European Union thanks to the concepts of “complexity” and “energy”. To fulfill a promise of showing Roman history “in 20 seconds”, I first introduce the two concepts on the example of transition from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society. Then I present Joseph Tainter’s view on the collapse of Roman Empire (collapse as an economizing process) to juxtapose Roman Empire with the European Union and show substantial structural differences between them. Comparing past historical misery of the partitioned Poland to its current standing in the EU we can reach some optimistic conclusion.

Check out all TEDx Goodenough College videos at tedxgoodenoughcollege.com.

“Why the West Rules” – a milestone in Philosophy of History!

Ian Morris in his book “Why the West rules – for now” (2010) created something remarkable: an index of social advancement which allows us to compare societies from the past, present times and – possibly – future. The index consists of four variables: energy capture, war making capacity, organization and information technology. Apart from usefulness of the index in prognostics, he fulfilled something that other academics have not even dreamt of.

To put this thought bluntly, he accomplished something which I myself vaguely considered as a goal towards which one should tend in academic career, while studying philosophy of history.

Time to redefine the goals.

If you are least a bit interested in history, you must read this. Forget Hegel, forget the others. Morris is empirical, adequate and modest.

First of all, listen to him explaining the Grand Work on Youtube… in only 3 minutes !

If you are inclined to know more, download the detailed methodological account covering significant amounts of the book content here (PDF).

Jared Diamond said about this book:

“Here you have three books wrapped into one: an exciting novel that happens to be true; an entertaining but thorough historical account of everything important that happened to any important people in the last ten millennia; and an educated guess about what will happen in the future. Read, learn, and enjoy!”

I totally agree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q_yub6zqqM

“Philosoverse” – philosophers and poetry

Some students of the Philosophy Department at London School of Economics seem to have poetic inclinations. “Philosoverse” – a recent publication by LSE contains poetic contributions exploring various aspects of philosophers’  lives and biographies.  As the editors put it:

Philosophy and poetry are disciplines with well-deserved reputations as superlative modes of expression. Philosophy is admired for its concise and logical argumentation, poetry for its metaphor and emotional evocation. But historically and conceptually they aren’t all that far apart. Both aspire to a level more fundamental than that of our daily lives – expressing and exposing what is hidden beneath the surface of everyday concerns.

Plato made no secret of his aversion to verse, but there is a long tradition of thinkers … who have combined the subtle cadence of poetry with the intellectual heft of rational argument. The desire to merge the poetic medium with the pursuit of philosophical investigation is what gave birth to Philosoverse.

For Your enjoyment, the whole publication is available online here. Check out my contribution and footnotes about Rene Descartes.

Network Medievalism. Welcome to the New Middle Ages!

Welcome to the New Middle Ages! Casimir Pulaski Foundation has just published my policy paper that sketches a framework for an integral theory of social change called “network neomedievalism”.

DOWNLOAD the English version of the paper.

The paper (available also in Polish) is based on an article published previously in Polish Pressje Quarterly (No XX, 2010). Apart from the concise elaboration of the original theses,  the paper suggests an application of the theory to understand current international standing of Poland.

Islamic Experience on Russell Square

 

Arabic notation of "Gregory" (written down by a Muslim artist) juxtaposed with the telling eyes of Virgin Mary. In Muslim tradition Miriam is a mother of Isa (Jesus), an important prophet.

LONDON, a city where people preach on the streets. While I was returning from a supermarket, a leaflet advertising Islamic fair was presented to me. “Meet your neighbours” – says the leaflet. “Free admission” – has it. Well, despite not promising the free meal it convinced me. Why not to have Islamic experience?

In the middle of the Russel Square garden they raised a white tent. Just by the entrance a desk with a booklet “Islam – a brief tour” – (about Muslim contribution to the world culture) and a variety of leaflets containing essays on Muslim contribution to the natural sciences. They are filled with Quranic fragments covering the importance of medicine, biology and chemistry. I collect them all.

Ah – another one – the light blue title page featuring the reflexes of the sunlight tries to attract the attention of the reader. “Who is Allah?” – asks the white font. Let’s see. As I read all five columns of the leaflets, the image of a magnificent, peaceful, truth-loving God emerges, which is almost indistinguishable from what I was taught about Christianity. One of the sections, entitled “What does Allah look like” (sic!) speaks about the lack of any need to picture Him and concludes that the exact details are known “to Allah alone”. Then I read about God as “all-knowing Creator”. Seems familiar. Just a few months ago I read the 800-pages long masterpiece of Toynbee, who claimed Islam merged some tenets of Judaism and early Christianity (monophysitism). There must be serious amount of truth in this statement…

Suddenly, a kind boy in a fluorescent cloth approaches me. On my uttering I am interested in their culture he disappears behind the paper wall featuring Islamic exhibition just to return with a bag filled with reading materials and… a copy of Quran. He then adds that – should I be interested – their fair is also present near the tube station, where the suicide bombings took place some time ago. They also offer Quran for free in that place – to show the TRUE and not the WICKED face of their religion. Why not to place another Holy Book on my bedside table? I thankfully accept the gift.

My new Quran is translated by Yusuf Ali. But wait a second. Had not some Muslim friend told me once that translating Quran is forbidden? I find an answer to this question on page 2: “[Quran] is beyond any translation to render all [its] richness of expression in another language. Yet, the Qur’an is primarily a book of guidance and must, therefore, be accessible to those who seek the truth contained in it. Whilst a translation cannot be an authoritative replacement of the original, it can make the meaning of its verses available to a non -Arabic speaking readership”. Good – now I understand why the book I hold in my hands is called “The Meaning of THE HOLY QUR’AN” and not just “Quran”. What we have here – I said to my spirit – is a trick to obey the spirit of the law without obeying its letter. But then – my spirit keeps nagging me – is “The Meaning of Qur’an” IN FACT a proper “Quran”? Well – yes. Well – no. It’s formally an interpretation, not Quran itself, but it serves as a proper Quran for millions of non-Arabic speaking people. I finally reach the conclusion that – philosophically speaking – the translation keeps Quranic syntax and approximated semantics, but denotation and proper semantics remain different (and incomparable). My spirit murmurs: “weird”.

After studying the exhibition featuring the whole biography of Muhammad (hmm… no single mention about violent part of His life) I had my name written in Arabic and I was introduced to five pillars of their faith. After I got particularly interested in the black irregular circle accompanying many religious names, I was told that EVERY time they mention Muhammad or other religious leaders, they add a phrase “peace and blessings be upon Him” next to their name. In historical religious texts, where these names appear thousands of times – they also obey this rule. And to make text readable they use a graphic font-circle that contains the whole phrase (written in small font calligraphic Arabic).

During the whole event dozens Muslim children were running around, caring mothers watching them. When I was leaving, my spirit told me – “it’s VERY INDICATIVE as to which culture will prevail in the post-Western Europe”.

ANYWAY:

“Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon Him)” = “Prophet Muhammad (@)“.

Welcome to the New Middle Ages!

I czytajcie “Pressje”.

Vicious Programmers: How to change Windows 7 Starter wallpaper?

Believe it or not - Windows wants You to stay with this wallpaper forever.

Some may laugh at this simple question -  every user of Windows knows that to change a wallpaper you just right click on the desktop to personalize it. But it is not the case with Windows 7 STARTER, they want you to admire Windows logo eternally.

Normally, I do not publish news about technicalities, but this one deserves it as it reveals the viciousness of Windows programmers, which affects an average user (means: me and – possibly -  You).

The whole thing relates to Windows 7 Starter, the limited version of Win 7 which is installed in popular netbooks – small notebooks used mainly for internet browsing and mobile working. As my circumstance forced me to get one, I believed I bought a proper, functional Windows.  And in  fact it truly IS functional and  sufficient – I believe – for netbooks. But there is no knowing why Windows decided that “simple” version of Win 7 should be deprived of a possibility of switching wallpapers and they locked it (the rumour has it that they even wanted to restrict the system to launch only three and no more applications simultaneously, certainly to make the user think of upgrading to higher versions…). The wallpaper is minimalistic and aesthetically correct, but in long term the light blue windows staring at You without any sense of humour can really become annoying.

Here is some advice on how to change Win 7 Starter wallpaper (from  a blogger who claimed to have found it here).  It worked in my and my friend’s case and it should elsewhere as it does away with a programmer’s cap. It is also easy to conduct, as it it requires only one change in the registry and a change of users’ permissions. And no additional installatons.

1. Open regedit (aka registry editor; you can access it from the Start menu by typing “regedit” in the search box…)
2. Go to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\” folder and click on it
3. On the right hand side find there are a bunch of entries. Find the key named “Wallpaper” and double click on it and put the path of the picture you want as your new wallpaper (example path is “C:\Users\Bob\Pictures\new_wallpaper.jpg”)
4. Right-click on the “Desktop” folder in regedit that you found in step 2 and click Permissions.
5. Click “Advanced”
6. Go to “Owner” tab, highlight your name in the box that says ‘Change owner to’ ( There are only two choices the other is Administrator )… once your user name is highlighted click “OK”
7. Click on “Advanced” again
8. Uncheck the button that reads “Include inheritable permissions from the object’s parent”… click “Remove” when prompted
9. Click “Add”
10. Type “Everyone” and click “OK”
11. Check Allow “Read Control” and click “OK”
12. Click “OK” again
13. Highlight “Everyone” and check to Allow “Read” and click “OK”
14. Restart Computer and enjoy new Wallpaper

Nota PO POLSKU: W przypadku polskiej wersji nazwy będą analogiczne: everyone=wszyscy; allow:”Read” = Zezwalaj:”Odczyt” etc.

The whole story with “eternal wallpaper” is yet another example of the programmers, who – in the pursuit for money – make users’ lifes difficult. At the end they lower the image of their brand and gain nothing.

It took me more than a few hours in the web to find a proper solution that would allow me to change the wallpaper directly in the system, without installing any additional applications.

Hope that thanks to this note at least You will save some time.

Polish Radio – my comments on the Community of Democracies

“You won’t teach the mountainmen who are illiterate that democracy is an inherent value in itself” – this and a  few other of my comments on the Community of Democracies in Krakow have been recently broadcast in “Diplomatic Bag” – a weekly program by the Polish Radio (External Service) aiming at English-speaking audience. You can listen to the program or download it here.