I always have freedom.
It's never about freedom itself, it is about the consequences of exercising freedom.

I guess in that sense, I feel most free here in my home in New Zealand.
My two trips to the USA have both frightened me, the degree of conformity and patriotism present.  Orders of magnitude beyond what is normal here.

Even here in Kaikoura, I do fear th consequences of some groups, mostly USA based, becoming aware of what I am saying and seeing it as a threat, and eliminating me.  It is a threat that does enter into my calculations, and is an influence, and I am still free to say anything, and all actions have consequences.

And there is definitely a sense in which one's sense of security influences one's choices.  The greater the sense of security, the greater the experiential degrees of freedom, though the reality is always that we are always free at some level, even if it is only to choose our interpetive schema.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

Between them they have the resources that could eliminate poverty, remove most disease, and solve the global warming problem.

It's probably a lot easier to get that message through to two individuals than to a government or intergovernmental agency.

From what I've read both are decent and disciplined individuals who are prepared to take calculated risks.  I'd love to have their attention for a day, and make my case.
I've already tried going to Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle, and got escorted off the premises by some very professional security guards.  It was the most probable outcome, and I thought there was a big enough possibility that I would make enough of an impression to get through, that it was worth the investment - which for me was a week or so my life and a few thousand dollars in travel and accomodation.

So yeah - I'd love to get to know those guys.
I've been within 20 ft of Bill 3 times, but haven't made it that last 20 ft.
One day - probably after it is no longer significant.

There are heaps of others I'd like to meet too - most of those I've met in this virtual environment being one set.

I would not be a judge in the legal system - the whole concept is anathema to me.

I do not believe that there ought to be any external judge of our behaviour.

I do believe that we need a couple of rules to allow people to live together peacefully.
1 Do not kill any self aware entity.
2 Do not restrict the freedom of any other self aware entity unless to preserve the life of another.

From that all else can be derived.
A responsibility to respect property comes from the use of that property as a tool in the survival or freedom of an individual.
A responsibility (duty of care) for the environment and all other living systems comes from their necessity in our own survival - if one starts to understand the intimate inter-relationships of all living systems.

So - for the most part - I would eliminate "the law" all-together.

No legal system can possibly given appropriate responses in all circumstances.  A responsible and aware individual will always make a better decision than "the law".

The problem is getting individuals to the state where they are "aware and responsible".

It is happening.
It is growing exponentially.
Is the rate of increase fast enough?

So - I'll be judge of my own choices, and let you be judge of your choices.

I like to be as capable as possible of independence, and at the same time acknowledge my dependence on everything and everyone that exists.

Solitary confinement is the worst punishment we have for people.

We are all inter-related and inter-dependent at so many different levels - with everything around us, sun, planet, ecologies, ........

I am thankful for:
Being above ground, breathing;
Having a wife and children and family;
Having a house, giving shelter and warmth;
Having food to eat;
Having water on tap to drink and wash in;
Having access to good medical facilities;
Having computers and communication;
Having a mind that is interested in how things work;
Having friends, family and community that support me;
Living in a time and place of relative peace and stability;
Having had so many experiences - boating, sailing, fishing, cycling, motorcycling, cars, trucks, diggers, tractors,  bull dozers, welders, lathes, engineering, flying, gliding, parachuting, tramping, hunting, farming, building, swimming, SCUBA and free diving, skiiing, training, teaching, loving, working on so many different teams, developing many software systems, building computers, learning new languages, traveling, having guests in our home, being a guest in other people's homes, so many different life experiences;
Having a workshop that allows me to fix or build most things I want to play with;
Having so many venues to express myself and interact with other people;
Living in a universe with so much possibility;
So much more !!!

Alive.
I am enjoying breathing - being above ground.
Possibility seems to be shimmering all around.
Interesting times!

Far too much to choose anything in particular.

With absolute 100% certainty - that I exist.
Everything else has a degree of uncertainty about it - including everything I "know" about who and what I am.

It seems I do have choice.
It seems that choice comes as a result of evolution by natural selection acting for some 4 billion years on this planet, and evolution of culture for the last 100,000 or so years leading to culture, and particularly in the last 10,000 years knowledge has been expanding exponentially.

The interesting thing about an exponential curve, where-ever you are on it, what is behind you looks flat, and what is in front of you looks very steep.

Exponential growth in knowledge, information and power has the potential to deliver us unimaginable wealth, security and choice; and it could go the other way - if we are not actively responsible.

I am into culturing optimism - conscious, realistic optimism.

I am sure that once we get past this stage of using threat and sensationalism to drive media sales and wield political and economic power, humanity has a great future.

My body loves me when I give it enough sleep (which isn't often enough).

As to my consciousness, it often tries to put my higher awareness to sleep (to get it's own way) - so in that respect - I need to stay awake.

Yeah.

I'd love to be known a the guy who had an idea that it was possible for every person on the planet to live indefinitely long lives, empowered by technologies that guaranteed food, water, shelter, transport, and education while working in harmony with natural ecosystems; then actually worked with a great team of people to bring that thought into reality.

I'd love to have that written into the history records of humanity - and to be able to look back on it in half a million years and say - yep - I did that - not quite sure even now how I managed to survive some of the idiotic things I did in my youth, and I did survive, and we did do it.

Hasn't been a war since 2012.  Half a million years of peace and prosperity, and every reason to consider it will continue for another few hundred billion years to come.

What a ride!
What a future yet to come!
So much to live for!
So much to do!
So many people to meet - every one aware of their own potential to greatness.

I'd really like to be famous for that.

A way to effectively communicate to others the reality that I see about the history of humanity, the power inherent in every human being and the sorts of futures that are possible.

A way of communicating to people that reason and intuition are two aspects of the same process of the operation of brain, and that it is not a matter of one aspect winning over another, but of bringing both together to give the full power of the human mind.

A way to communicate that it is possible quickly build a political and technological future for humanity that delivers wealth, diversity and ecological sustainability for all - no exceptions.

To me Enlightenment is not an end point, it is the acceptance of being on an infinite road.
For me, enlightenment means accepting that knowledge is infinite, not simply infinite in one domension, but infinite in an infinite number of dimensions.

Every time one transcends a paradigm, one finds a new infinite dimensionality to what is possible, and it doesn't take long before thing start to show up that hint that there is yet another paradigm available that will resolve the contradictions in the current paradigm.

Another aspect of enlightenment is how we treat others.  Part of enlightenment is accepting that we are all interconnected in more ways than we can imagine.  Our future depends on most of us becoming aware of two great needs.
The need for us to ensure that no human goes without the essentials of life, and all individuals have the freedom to determine their own destiny.
The need for us to each be guardians of the natural world of which we are part.

No set of rules can ever work in all cases.  Every individual needs to learn to trust their own intuitions, and be responsibile for their own behaviour, towards each other and the environment that supports us all.

For me enlightenment also means understanding the broad brush strokes of how we got to be here - the big bang - ultra hot, cooling as it expands giving the simple atoms of hydrogen and helium, then the first stars, that soon burned out and exploded giving the heavier elements of which most of our bodies are made.
The processes of plate tectonics and evolution by natural selection, interspersed with large magnitude disasters, have led from simple molecules to complex organic systems - including our bodies.   The evolution of behaviours, leading from grunts to simple language, to complex language and complex culture, to the birth of self awareness by a declaration in language.  The slow growth of our understanding, from our birth into a world of right and wrong, and then by individual transcendence, into paradigms that allow for infinite diversity, and peaceful coexistence.

This is the first step on a path to enlightenment, that beyond that initial transcendence can diversify into infinitely diverse trails.

The chair I am sitting in.
It is a recliner/rocker that is over 20 years old, and for the last few years has probably had me in it an average 10 hours a day (I work from it).

It's mechanism has finally got to the point that it needs forcing from time to time, and the fabric has torn away in several places.   I have agreement to replace it soon, as my birthday present.

Looking for to the new chair arriving next Thursday.

A help file for a touch screen scale interface at one of my client's factories.  I made some changes to the system today, updated the help file, then noticed that some of the spelling and grammar that had been there for years was not very good - so spent half an hour proof reading and correcting the entire thing - it's only a fairly simple system - just over 300K of source code that I've written, plus a few libraries from other folks.
It talks to the Warehouse Management System, the back end financials (NAVISION) and my main Fish Receiving system, which does the crew payments, catch planning, quota budgetting, payments, reporting, quota trading etc.

A new way of looking at things that opens possibilities of positive outcomes for all.

Like last week, having the realisation that having minimum legal sizes and minimum mesh sizes in fisheries actually selects for smaller and slower growing fish.  So while they provide some protection in the short term, in the longer term they guarantee the demise of fisheries.   Having had that realisation, I started thinking about how to reverse that, and select for larger faster growing fish.

Combined with that the realisation that with most fish species, older fish continue to grow with age, and exhibit different food organism and food size preferences.  Thus by reducing the distribution of sizes in a population, we actually further reduce the productivity of the system by making potential food organisms unavailable (there are not fish are big enough to eat them).

It seems to me that it is possible to have management that combats both of these negatives, and it is a bit more complicated than extisting strategies.

What is needed is some mechanism that fishes selected "cohorts" (age classes) in particular areas; so that over a range of areas, all sizes are actually caught.

For species that can be easily selected, like abalone and crayfish, then locking up and area for two years, then opening it to fishing with a maximum legal size, and increasing the maximum legal size slightly faster than then average growth rate, so that slow growing individuals are caught selectively.   After a couple of years, reintroduce a minimum legal size, then increase it, and repeat this process over time, perhaps ending up catching three or four "slices" or "Cohorts" of fish.  To work effectively- this requires fine scale real time management - not a lot of time, but some.
At a more high tech level, one could use "draughting gates" built into the "neck" of a trawl, to select the sizes of fish required, releasing the other immediately back to the environment.
Alternatively one could do selective breeding onshore, and release the juvenile to the wild to grow on - which may well work for species like abalone.

How much time do you have to read?
See www.solnx.org for a fullish list.
I would like the attention of media and politicians to focus on issues of global significance:
No one dying of hunger or exposure!
Directed efforts to develop eco-friendly technologies - particularly solar photovoltaics.
Directed efforts to developing robotics.
Decentralisation of control - so that local issues can be solved locally by local agreement - particularly significant in the area of nearshore fisheries (within 12 miles of shore).
I wouldn't mind a few million dollars - or at least someone prepared ot pay my travel and communication bills ;)

Just about anything can be dangerous, if used or approached in ignorance, or without respect.

Water is essential for life, without we die in days, yet too much can cause drowning.
Oxygen is another essential - take it away and we are dead within minutes, yet try breathing it alone at 60 ft under water and it will kill you.
Everything in life can be dangerous in inappropriate concentration.  

There are some people who are so damaged by their upbringing and culture that any approach by a stranger is dangerous.

Volcanism, comet and meteor strike, pandemic, economic failure; all threaten the survival of human culture at this point in our development.
If we can survive the next couple of decades, we ought to have developed technologies to combat all of the above.

Perhaps the biggest danger is the way we as individuals react to threat.  Our brains are pre wired to shut down extraneous mental functions (including most higher function) and focus all attention on the deepest response to the threat (usually or first learned cultural response).   In our currently highly interdepndent political / economic / technical state of development, this would almost certainly be disasterous.

Perhaps our biggest danger - is the perception of danger itself, and our inbuilt responses to it.   It takes a great deal of work and discipline ot overcome those responses and resestablish "higher" mental function.

How to answer this one?

So many different sorts of pain.

I remember quite clearly when I caught the last three fingers of my left hand in the chainsaw - when I looked at them after shutting down the saw, there were no nails, just a lot of blood.  There was pain.  How to describe it.  It was like my awareness was being forced into ever more narrow bounds.  Something in my head was getting signals from my fingers that were not at all pleasant - in fact the opposite of pleasant.   Something to get away from.

After putting the chainsaw in the shed, and going back to the house, and calling my wife onto the deck, something in my consciusness relaxed a little, and at that point I fainted, and woke up 10 minutes later.

The following day I drove 6 hours to Greymouth, to work on a computer system there.  They way to keep the throbbing to managable levels was to hold my left hand over my head.  Each throb of blod pressure into my fingers felt like it threatened to overwhelm my awareness, but by holding the hand high, the effect was reduced, so that it was mostly just an annoyance.

There was jumping off the roof into some long grass, under which was a board with a 3 inch nail sticking up.  Then standing on the board and wrenching my foot up to pull the nail back through.   The pain of the event pushed into insignificance from the throbbing pain of the swelling, that went on for days, without relief.


There was standing on a giant purple sea urchin, and having the poison inflate my foot to the size of a football.  On an Island, a day's travel from home.   The physical pain mixed with the uncertainty, the lack of support - no doctor - needing to look after myself (none of the others with me knew any more than I did).


There was getting my skull split by a steel bucket falling from above, then the blood poisoning that set in 3 weeks later.  More throbbing, loss of control, feeling like my arms, hands fingers, were all balloons, beyond my control.  Feeling like a detached awareness floating, so little left to connect to or control.



Emotional pain is something else.
To have some situation occurring that is so not what I want.  Like my mother suffering from cancer as her body's systems shut down, one by one, over weeks.   To see her lose her sight, then most of her hearing, then her speech.  To be at her side, holding her hand, knowing she wanted to communicate something to me, but not knowing what that something was.


To have an idea, that I believe can mean that no-one needs to die.  That no one need suffer the pain of the loss of someone they love.  To have that idea, yet not be able to communicate it to others in a way they get; in a way that moves them to coordinated action.
The sense of waste, of frustration, of anguish, of torment.
What else can I do?
What can I not do?
What can I do differently, more effectively?

What is the cost of this idea to my family?
What am I not giving my son, my daughter, my wife, my sisters, brother, nieces, nephews, ..... ?

The nagging doubt, that maybe there really is a right and wrong, and maybe I have got it so wrong? (Not often there, but sometimes adds it voice to the crowd.)


Physical pain can be handled by ceasing to resist it, by just accepting the information that is being given, instant by instant - it is resistance that causes the problems.

Emotional pain seems so much more complex.

It is like we want there to be some solid ground under our being - something reliable, but it seems like the whole house of our being is built on a thousand bamboo poles pushed down into the ooze below us.
If we push on any one of them, it sinks away, without any real substance, yet the little bit of resistance from each one contributes enough stability to hold our "house" above the mire.

It is so easy to say - to accept all that is, and resist nothing.
It is so much more difficult to do in practice.

Happiness feels like I have value, both to myself and to others.
When I am happy the context of being seems favourable - that is that most things seem to working in my favour (irrespective of the actual circumstances).

When I am happy, physical pain (if present) is less of an intrusion and may disappear from awareness altogether.

When I am happy I stand straight and tall, I breath deeply, I smile, I relax.  Feelings of anxiety of stress are low or noon-existent.

When I am happy I feel related to others, I find love for others easily, have an optimism for the future.

And, as Tony Robins has noted many times, creating the physical attributes of happiness can create and internal experience of happiness.
It does work.

I don't have any definitive answer, and it is a fascinating question.
In common usage, if not in the Oxford English Dictionary, there seems to be a quality of volition around wants, and a quality of requirement around need; though in the dictionary there is little to pick between them.

Even if one takes the common usage, it still seems to leave open more questions than it answers.

If needs are things that keep us alive - like food, shelter, oxygen; and wants are just things we'd like, as in a new car, or the latest fragrance, then where does one put the idea of indefinite life extension?

Where does the idea of providing food, shelter, education, sanitation and transportation for every person, no exceptions - fit?

Are they needs?
Are they wants ?

How does one tell the difference ?

Is there a difference ?

For me they are real - as real as the love an concern I feel for my wife, son and daughter.

If one does take the step from short term self interest, to long term self interest - how can it be any other way?

How else can we get any real security in our future ?

Coercion cannot work - never has in history.   It has sort of worked for a short time (sometimes even a couple of generations), but always collapses under its own inequity in the end.

I come back to www.solnx.org as a viable way to peace and prosperity for all - all need met, everyone with the ability to pursue their own wants (provided those wants do not interfer with the rights of others).

Call my insurance company.

If no insurance company left - start working to build up sufficient reserves for security.

Might take a holiday for a year or two, and just travel and try out a few things.  Odd job it for food and accomodation.
See what opportunities showed up.

My wife can give me a cuddle - that's always works.
Someone can give their full attention to a communication.
They can introduce me to somethng novel, interesting.
They can challenge me to something, then work with me towards achieving that end.
Praise usually works, particularly if I feel that I have made an effort and deserve the recognition - yet I distrust praise for its own sake.

Ultimately, as with most things, when I am fully conscious, happiness has nothing to do with external circumstances, and has only to do wiht my own choices.

Perhaps the best thing anyone can do for me is to recognise when I am "asleep" and give me a quick "shake" to wake me up.

Like a roller coaster.
Sometimes I think that I can make a big difference to humanity.
Sometimes I look at my procrastination, and lack of progress, and wonder if I have any integrity at all.

Sometimes, it's not easy being human.
The washing machine just blew up!

So much weird stuff going on right now.

I can't answer with certainty - I'm not.
I have been without sight for a few days - after being a bit sloppy while welding and getting a bad case of "arc eye".

I suspect I would miss seeing my wife and children, driving cars, flying planes and skippering boats, cycling and playing golf.
I suspect I would enjoy talking to people, perhaps lecturing, tramping with friends.

I would missing seeing what is on the internet, and I suspect I could get almost as effective using text to speech technology, with a brailpad touchscreen.

I would miss looking at the ocean, and the night sky, and I would enjoy more the sounds and textures of the world.

I hope I never need experience it, and I would far prefer it to death.

The biggest thing is giving up my judgements.
Giving up the notion that I know how it is going to turn out, getting as deeply into as many aspects of understanding the problem that I can, then just listening to my intuition, going with the flow, and looking for opportunities.
Keeping "an eye" on the context I am using, and changing contexts if it feels "stale".

Sometimes the best thing, if I am getting stale, is just to get out and experience nature - it is hard to beat the refresh rate on reality.  So much inspiration available to intuition in the systems of life and matter - ocean, wind, plate techtonics, ecologies, .....

Judgements and attachments.
When I get too certain about anything and stop listening from the place of "not knowing" my listening power seriously degrades.
When I get attached to a viewpoint, a context, or an outcome, then these attachments get in the way of listening, by limiting the possibilities available to my mind.

When I can clear my consciousness of thought or intention, then I am as open to communication as possible.

And I love the quote from G B Shaw "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place".

Again difficult to judge.

I have been without hearing for a few hours, after a shotgun was discharged a few inches behind my head, but that's not the same thing.

I suspect I would find things quite difficult for some time.  I use my hearing to give me awareness of so much.  The movement of family, what the dogs are up to, how the washing machine and computers are operating, TV, approaching cars, locating birds, the state of the water (by the sound on the hull), the engine state (both rmp, and need of maintenance), the state of the environment (wind and rain, and even heating as the house creaks from expansion).   I can do so much instantaneously with my hearing, without having to focus attention in the way I do with sight.

Then, of course, there is conversation and music.

I imagine the world could be much poorer without sound, much more so than without sight.

Interesting conjecture - and again - I would still choose life.

Yes.
Honesty is always the best policy, and it is always possible to be honest in a way that is a contribution to the listener(s).
Some people use honesty as an excuse to be less than a compassionate contributor - it is not.

People's feelings are never directly related to the facts of any situation, they are related to the framework of interpretation of those facts (the meaning we give them).

The art of honesty is creating a context (framework) in which the listener experiences both the facts, and that they are loved, honoured and respected.  In such a context - anyone can deal with anything - to think anything else is to not think very highly of their abilities.

What I need to give more time to is generating money.
I have been "on sabatical" rather too long.

Ailsa asked me to stop and pick up a hitchhiker.