Included here is a description of a spontaneous vision which came to me around an hour before I received the news of Steve Job’s death. While I had not immediately realized it at the time, in retrospect, the vision now appears entirely related, and very likely synchronous with the actual last moment of Job’s life.

Before I describe the actual vision, some context to how prominent a figure Steve Jobs was in my own life is appropriate:

Steve Jobs inspired and influenced my life deeply. I was 8 years old when my father introduced me to the Apple II computer in 1978 (I was fortunate, as maybe only 1 in 2000+ households had any type of personal computer at that time). This was a seminal and significantly defining moment in my life. I quickly became immersed into a world of extraordinary possibilities, invested long days and nights over entire summers exploring a new type of creative expression, and I taught myself, and eventually mastered the BASIC computer programming language within a few years (before I even reached puberty). I’ve been an “Apple evangelist” ever since, and the entire spirit and philosophy of Jobs and of Apple has been a primary element woven into the background of my life.

During the rise of the internet culture in the 1990s (in my 20s), and then thru 14+ years as a successful creative professional and entrepreneur in new media, I’ve made my entire living, crafted an ingenious artistic style, conducted innovative research and development, and enjoyed the benefits of a tech-nomadic lifestyle … all in the wake of this one man’s extraordinary vision, character, and ingenious innovative contributions of delivering technologically-based magic to the world.

So I’ve always understood and generally stood behind the philosophies of quality design and paradigm leading innovation that Apple has been founded on–a philosophy that is spirited by the DNA of Jobs himself. And in some way that is perhaps also magical or not easily understood, these aspects of Job’s DNA were passed into me (and many of us).

This past week, on October 4, on the evening before Steve Jobs passed away, I had actually intended to watch the Apple Special Event video that had been released earlier that day. As I readied myself to click the “Play” button, however, I changed my mind … because I felt that I was not quite ready yet to watch the new CEO (Tim Cook) standing in place of Steve Jobs. Somehow, I was still letting go of the fact that Jobs had just stepped down as CEO only a month or so earlier. So I just told myself that I’d watch it maybe in a few days, or whenever I was ready.

The next day, October 5, 2011, was the day Steve Jobs passed away.  Around an hour or so before before this news hit the world, I was driving my car along a country road to the local market, and had a spontaneous imaginal vision came thru my mind:

I saw an older man, tho not too old, just between 50 – 60 years old, sitting quietly in a lush green field. He was sitting in a way that he was “looking back”, observing a vast space of earth and atmosphere, and he maintained a very calm tho highly attentive observation of what he was seeing and in consideration of. Along with the spontaneous arrival of the vision, I also experienced a felt sense for the character of the man himself, for what he was consciously considering, and a sense of his states of conscious awareness. He was reflecting on the immensity of his life, and doing so from an extreme vantage point of as if this moment being the very last moment of his life. In particular, he was reflecting upon the long stream of various innovative technological advents which he had seen emerge in magical ways … ways which have altered human culture during his life time. He thought: what an incredible life, what incredible progress in technological innovations and cultural change. This led him to then consider what new extraordinary wonders had yet to emerge just over the horizon of time.

Then something new came into the vision: in the middle of the green field, a new technology emerged–something even more extraordinary and wonderful that maybe did not quite exist yet: a whirling, spinning, floating, flashing, semi-transparent 3D field of multi-colored rainbow light emissions–some type of magical interface of extraordinary technology. Around this rainbow-light technology, a group of children gathered, holding hands, and dancing a ring around the phenomena in happiness, joy, and with a fresh perspective that only the very young have new eyes for. These children danced not just for the magical gift of this wondrous technology, nor just for the fresh moment of their generation’s time, tho even more, they danced the eternal dance of joy for the ever present origination which the future always promises. As the man observed this, he was enormously moved by the purity and innocence of the children, and moved by the always originating promise of the future unfolding into eternity.

And then he reflected briefly on what was next for him–not an easy perspective: his time is now ending, and the part of him that wants to stay to see the promise of the future unfolding–that part must rest now. He must go … it’s never been more certain. For a brief moment, he felt a certain natural sadness around this fact … a sadness that also began to naturally contract his mind and distract his full awareness from the more glorious and whole perspective which he had just been sharing in the scope of today’s children and with all future generations. He then became aware of this contracting distraction itself, and then skillfully allowed for those thoughts to dissolve. He saw again that the perspective that he is able to have now, “looking back” from the extreme end of life–is utterly unique in its gifts of wisdom, and only possible from the perspective at the end of life now. And then he realized that the fact of his life’s ending is as natural as the beginning of life also was, and always will be. Finally, he realized and settled into a state of complete acceptance that it’s okay: the end of life and the beginning of life are natural and right as the stream of life itself in its entirety. This is as things are … and it is all so awesome.

Then the imaginal vision dissolved from my mind’s eye. And I found myself continuing to drive along in my car thru the beautiful country side …

At the time that this vision had spontaneously and (seemingly) involuntarily arrived thru my imagination, I had not really considered it anything too unusual (as I am a person in constant engagement with my creative imagination). Tho, even as it did occur, it did seem subtly unordinary, for I had never really experienced anything exactly like it before. And somehow, the character of the man seemed somewhat familiar to me, tho I could not quite place who it was. Also, I did acknowledge to myself at the time that the empathic insights derived, particularly about how the man was coming to terms with some profound and subtle nuances which may naturally occur at the end of one’s life time … these nuances of realization were new to me. And it was only by my empathically “borrowing” the conscious perspective of this other man coming thru my imagination that I was able to arrive to these insights myself (insights that moved me as they happened, and that I can now apply to the inevitable ebbs and flows of my own life). This was interesting and unusual to me, and especially caught my attention … as if this imaginal vision was somehow coming from beyond my own autonomous cognitive faculties, via some relationship beyond just myself.

In any case, I soon arrived to my destination at the local market, and the experience completely left my mind for the time. I generally let it go without too much more consideration for its greater significance or meaning.

About a half-hour later, I made the return drive, and arrived back home again. There (at 1:49 pm HST), I got the news of Steve Job’s passing while browsing the social network on FaceBook via my MacBook Pro laptop. The news came by my casual discovery of a very early post made by my friend Sara who just happens to work at the Apple store in downtown San Francisco. Within the first few minutes, I had tears welling up in my eyes. As the day continued, and the reality of the news set in, it actually felt like I lost someone I knew personally somehow.

That first night, I barely slept at all. While I did not make the connection at first, the news of Steve Job’s passing was stirring in me more deeply than my conscious mind was yet aware of. And it was not until the next morning, after just a bit of sleep, and then freshly awakening with a blank mind … that I realized the potential connection with the spontaneous vision which occurred the day before (again, it happened sometime around an hour *before* I received the immediate news of Steve Job’s death, which would place it around the actual time of his passing). While I can’t claim to be certain of what the meaningful coincidence of this event means exactly … I also can’t deny that it did happen, and that it is synchronistic, fantastic, and memorable.

Now for several days and nights since then, I’ve invested several hours (usually in the late evenings) immersing myself into the extraordinary life and now absence of Steve Jobs. I’ve reviewed his wise quotes many times over, the entire history of his personal life, read thru many of the extraordinary stories involved in his origination and founding of Apple, and his involvement over the years in delivering his vision and the Apple corporation to such awesome actualization of its potentials. In my on-going research and contemplations, the significance has been seeping into me (in many ways both personally meaningful, and mutually meaningful for our collective) . It’s been really profound (and positive) in ways that I never expected.

Finally, last night (after first watching Steve Job’s last keynote video released in June), I watched the Apple Special Event video that I had previously delayed watching on the night before Steve Job’s passing. Overall, the video appears strikingly iconic of the poignant junction and juxtaposition of that 24 hour period between October 4 – 5, around the time of the actuality of Steve Job’s passing. The video is very interesting in many ways: such as the single and empty front-row seat marked “Reserved” that the camera passes directly over several times (which, if I had watched the video the previous evening, that alone may have seemed foretelling and even symbolic to the next day’s news). Then there is the relatively low-key and slightly somber atmosphere of the event and of its executive presenters. There is the expected tho always super impressive statistical reports of how enormously (now globally) successful Apple is constantly becoming as a business corporation: breaking records of sales and distribution, awards for unprecedented innovation, and charts which show how Apple is not just leading several key markets (computers, phones, music, books, etc), but also inventing (and leading) new markets (iPad / app paradigm). Such reports are now even beginning to suggest trends of potentially monopolizing many of these huge and emerging global markets! And then finally, they introduce several truly groundbreaking and extraordinary advents: the new iPhone 4S, iCloud services, and Siri (Artificially Intelligent) personal assistant.

On the day before Steve Job’s passing, he has passed along the foundations for both a globally distributed, cloud-based wireless network for automated content back-up and distribution, as well as the voice-activated Artificially Intelligent public assistance service. Each of these advents, of course, is fully integrated into the already established legacy of Apple’s global consumer technology base, and is ground-breaking its own rite. Put it all together, and one can sense how Jobs has laid down the final elements of a rock-solid (tho actually electronically ephemeral) foundation for an extraordinary new level of technological synergy on a global scale.

The future is looking bright indeed. What a time to go.

And what a time to be alive … and have these extraordinary gifts of magic living thru us … ~

~ ONE INFINITE LOOP ~

Thank you for everything, Steve Jobs. Your life was as revolutionary and magical as your products, and the world is a better place because of your passion, innovation, and vision. We will miss you ~

Here’s to the crazy ones …

________________________________________

This article is re-posted here:

http://dreamcatcher.net/gaio/8596

THE INTEGRAL APPROACH Course 1: Essential Integral

A self-paced, interactive walkthrough of the most widely acclaimed map of human potential. This course contains over 20 hours of instruction and activities. Finally, a way to discover the Integral Approach that is both actionable and comprehensive.

See a trailer video and demo of the final DVD package product.

blog page link back: http://blog.michaelgaio.com/2010/08/18/core-integral-design/

The Art, Design, and Technology Exhibition

The PolyTech University Design School Gallery

The CogSpace navigation console

People Navigating CogSpace

People Navigating CogSpace

CogSpace screen

Visualizing Collective Intelligence

Digital Synchronicity

More photos here by David Chalmers: http://consc.net/pics/hongkong.html

I’ve been developing this interactive, 3-dimensional model, and it was just recently accepted to be exhibited and presented at the Asian Consciousness Festival in Hong Kong this June.  You can see, interact, and read all about the model here:

www.cogspace.net

You can also download the entire abstract and descriptive paper here:

www.cogspace.net/docs/CogSpace.pdf

An excerpt from the abstract:

This model is an examination of consciousness through an interactive visual representation of the interdisciplinary knowledge domains of Cognitive Science and Consciousness Studies. As a visualization of the various scientific and academic approaches toward understanding mind and consciousness, a unified and comprehensive overview is achieved that orients our collective approach in the field of consciousness research as a whole.

The model is based on a 3-dimensional conceptual framework that assigns six (6) formally established primary knowledge domains of interdisciplinary Cognitive Science (namely: Psychology, Anthropology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Philosophy, and Linguistics) to the geometric Cartesian coordinate system (x, y, z), and to a correlative color system (based on gradient scales of red, green, and blue), resulting in a semantic-color-space matrix for ontologically representational coordination of the topic contents. More specific knowledge areas are plotted within this axiomatic framework as sub-domains (such as Analytical Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Semantics, etc). The precise positions of subdomains are determined by metric averages derived by consensus survey of a diverse group of people, and is therefore also a representation of a collective perspective of consciousness research (not just the perspective of a single individual or isolated disciplinary field).

With this dynamic arrangement of organizational factors, the model renders a unique integral perspective and informative cartography of the “terrain”, and provides a “navigational instrument” for our explorative traversing across the frontier of consciousness research. By plotting each sub-domain in scope of the relative positions of all other domains, areas of knowledge and research concentration and lack of concentration (“unexplored regions”) become apparent. When referencing any particular disciplinary sub-domain within the manifold model, where it is at and what color it is can suggest something about it’s qualitative proximity to either more discrete and concrete or more continuous and abstract types of knowledge and research. For example, a sub-domain that is extremely neurobiological will be far less philosophical, and is placed on an extreme exterior boundary of the model (color saturation is more additive toward extreme hues). Inversely, a sub-domain that is a hybrid, somewhat balanced in interdisciplinary collaboration between linguistics and computer science, psychology and anthropology, and philosophy and neuroscience, is placed closer to the center of the model (color saturation is subtractive toward gray). The exterior of the model therefore represents the diverse areas of the more discrete and concrete–portrayed as the bright “rainbow” spectrum of colors. The interior of the model represents hybrid areas of the more continuous and abstract–portrayed figuratively and literally as the “gray area”. The closer a sub-domain is to the exact center, the closer it is to blending and fusing with an absolute, unified, and direct knowing and application of consciousness itself.

The overall result of the model is a “mind map” of the collective processes involving the differentiation and unification of interdisciplinary oppositions–the amalgamation of Interior and Exterior, Science and Art, Matter and Spirit, East and West–toward a realization of a coalescent whole.

A key element of this developing project is that the shape of the model is determined by a consensus formulation of the ontological constituents.  Among preparations and continuing development of this model, a survey will be made of a diverse group of people over the next few weeks.  In order to derive some “collective intelligence” in this formulation, some principles of “crowd wisdom” will be applied.  The more diverse the crowd, the better … so anyone can apply.  If you or someone you know is interested in participating in this survey, please contact me with the following information:

1. Name
2. Gender
3. Occupation
4. Education
5. Date of birth and age
6. Where you live
7. Any comments on why you want to be involved, or something special about yourself …

Within a week or so, the group will be selected, and the survey conducted.

Please forward this to anyone.

The CogSpace model will continue to evolve in various ways …

Thanks and happy cognitions!

I also appreciate the insertion of ideas around a necessary and fundamental shift in consciousness.  For a shift in consciousness is preeminent to establishing a funamental change in economy, and correspondingly, in society. I can see how the selection of Krishnamurti’s words is a good choice in articulating this point (at the beggining and end of the film), as he generally proposes that it is the responsibility of each individual to catalyze a shift in consciousness within themselves.

Here is an opportunity to actually make the fundamental change of converting the economy to debt-free money.  You can vote for ideas such as these at Change.org, and the most popular ideas will be presented to Obama just as he enters office in January, 20th 2009:

Regarding the Zeitgeist movie, it was synchronistic and significant for me to have had someone remind me to watch this film last night–as yesterday, the planet Pluto had moved from Saggitarius into Capricorn (where it will transit for the next 16 years). A general interpretation of this transit is: that the mode of global transformation we have been in while Pluto was in Sagitarius was collective visioning, philosophies, and theories of global transformation. With Pluto in Capricorn, the mode of transformation is more down-to-earth, manifest, and structural.  For sixteen years, Pluto will engage in a process of breaking down and then rebuilding the structures on which we depend for a successful experience in the material world.  We can expect the transformation of all things ruled by that sign: such as our religious institutions, halls of government and political structures, construction techniques and buildings, and how we handle ownership of property. The point is: this day marks the point when we can say that we have the over-arching vision and theory we need, and it’s time to get down to actually manifesting the transitions.

Recall the disappointment in 2000 when Al Gore lost to G.W. Bush?   Can you imagine what it may have been like to have had Gore as President instead?  Despite Gore’s loss, look at the tremendous good Gore has done to bring a great deal of awareness to global warming over the past few years.  On the contrary, Bush started his eight year run as the worst President in American history at a time when the world needed that the least.

In 2004, we had the opportunity to exit Bush out of office, yet Bush won again against John Kerry.  The suspected voting suppression, manipulation, and fraud of 2000 (which many just could not quite believe could be true at that time) disuaded voters in the 2004 election, some complacency set in–and in any case, the election was stolen again.  With Bush’s regime, the world has been changed forever.

Now here we are in 2008 with an opportunity to exit Bush (and the policies and thematics that McCain would appear to carry forward), and more, to bring in Obama: perhaps the most progressive and liberal President any of us have seen in our life times so far.  Personally, I see that Barack Obama is the best realistic candidate for American President since JFK, perhaps even Abraham Lincoln.  We are blessed to have this opportunity.

Yesterday, while browsing through FaceBook.com, I was shocked to see someone in my own personal network posting a status note that made the assertion, “In this election do not vote.” Complacency is one thing, yet I’m highly perplexed why anyone would make an assertion against voting. I made a reply comment, saying that this is like saying, “IN THIS MOMENT DO NOT BREATHE.”

Aside from politics, candidates, and the issues–the right to vote, and the initiative to take personal action to vote–is the core and fundamental component of democracy. Each individual vote comprises a piece of the total collective body. Together we vote, together we forge our collective shape, and move forward in social evolution. While it is true that the political landscape has turned vile nearing the cusp of the 21st Century, and real crimes are being committed to deter and alter votes–we simply cannot afford to allow ourselves to become further deterred as individuals locked in complacency, depression, denial, or ungrounded idealism. If we lose our will to vote, we are losing the breath to keep our collective body alive.

The origin of the word “vote” comes from the Latin “vovere” which means “to vow”.  When we vote, we literally vow to participate in animating the collective spirit by our own action, and define the collective body by our individual perspective and choice.

It can be helpful and true to think about the mass population of America (and of the world) as having similar psychological and energetic constituents as an individual human being. Psychologist Carl Jung describes the fundamental psychological concept involved with the dynamics of the conscious and unconscious, which can be applied to either the individual or the collective psyche:

“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.” (AION: 126)

The notion of the collective unconscious was introduced by Jung as a “reservoir of the experiences of our species.” And Eckhart Tolle, in his book A New Earth, speaks about the “collective ego”:

“A collective ego manifests the same characteristics as the personal ego, such as the need for conflict and enemies, the need for more, the need to be right against others who are wrong, and so on. Sooner or later, the collective will come into conflict with other collectives, because it unconsciously seeks conflict and it needs opposition to define its boundary and thus its identity. Its members will then experience the suffering that inevitably comes in the wake of any ego-motivated action. At that point, they may wake up and realize that their collective has a strong element of insanity.”

Clearly, what we have been largely observing for the past eight years are various manifestations of the collective ego struggling against the evolutionary tide of the collective conscious as we move into higher human potentialities of a 21st Century global society. We have witnessed the collective ego emerging with it’s shadowy type of power in the events around 911, the wars in the Middle East, the surmounting economic crisis, partisan politics, voting fraud, and more. The old structures do not want to give into the new change. The extremism of McCain’s campaign very well characterizes this egoic manifestation by it’s harsh partisan division, aggressive attack ads, impulsive recklessness, contradiction, deceit, slander, and, even in the last few weeks, the internal dissension among key members of the Republican party itself. This CNN video report of Peruvian Shamans (in a majority favor of Obama) reflects a traditional awareness of the fundamental energy dynamics going on around the representatives of Obama and McCain.

The origin of the word “conspiracy” comes from Latin “con-” which means “together with”, and “spirare” which means “to breathe”. Although the common taken meaning of the word “conspiracy” is heavy with the extreme power dynamics of the collective ego in action, what it literally means is “to breath together”. I propose that this is the true meaning of conspiracy, and that we have an opportunity to reinterpret and deepen our understanding of the greatest conspiracy that is occurring upon the cusp of the 21st century. After thousands of years of our collective’s noble struggle to know ourselves within the massive backdrop of the cosmic unknown–we have come very far in our collective evolution, and are now becoming self-aware of ourselves, beginning to make a clearer distinction between our collective conscious and unconscious, our collective ego, and our collective superconscious. Yet the task is not to attempt to banish the collective ego by lashing out at it; that is simply more collective ego. As is recommended in the psychological process of individuation, the goal is to integrate and transform the ego with the authentic self. As a collective, we must recognize our collective shadow as ours, consciously and with wisdom utilize the resource of it’s energy and power, and consistently aim with our highest consensus intentions to create a world that can harmoniously orchestrate all of our diversity, and continue along our pathway toward the stars.

So at this moment in history, among the shadow of the collective ego struggle–occurring right now as voter suppression and fraud–be certain to follow thru with your vote (vow) to breath into our collective body, participate in the new pronoia conspiracy to evolve everybody. If you think you may choose to not vote, consider that perhaps you are playing into subtler levels of the voter suppression dynamics that have been set forth upon the collective body. When you do vote, you are taking responsibility in activating your own individual conscious evolution, and participating in the conscious evoltion of the collective.

Psychologist Carl Jung says, “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” And spiritual pioneer Andrew Cohen reminds us that “You Are It“:

No matter what happens with the results of this election, there is always the golden opportunity to choose to be present, to maintain equanimity, and to be rigorous with oneself as a conscious individual upon the collective path of evolution. This is the divine vote, your reverent vow to persist with the inherent quintessential nature as a conscious being. Above all, breathe …

[This blog article is also posted at the Barack Obama website here]

 
Obama ’08 – Vote For Hope.

This high quality media production really captures the progressive edge, and may have really helped ground-in votes from the younger “hip” demographic. I’ve participated in helping this outstanding video go viral in it’s organic distribution (nearly 250,000 views in just a few short weeks) by leveraging my own social media tool and skills across my networks.  

After the video was initially released, I was told by friends that MC Yogi lives nearby, and that a few people who managed the media production are people I know and have worked with here in Marin County.  I had a good feeling that I would likely have an opportunity to meet MC Yogi and congratulate him on such a successful production and contribution.  That opportunity finally came last night when I attended the “Groove Garden” dance party in Fairfax–where MC Yogi did a live rendition and rap of the same “Vote for Hope” song for Obama. Directly after his performance, I approached MC Yogi, and shared with him my appreciation of the production, and let him know that it really inspired me.  He is a great guy, and my further encouragement led him to also peform several more crowd-inspiring raps for Ganesha, Shiva, and other spiritual reverences.It’s great to realize that with just a few creative minds and some dedicated skill and time–nearly anyone can make significant contributions toward progressive change in this world.See MC Yogi’s website here:

www.mcyogi.com

BBC – Peru’s shamans send US election vibes

CNN – Peruvian Shamans for Obama

Now THAT is voting on the level with conscious change!

Diamonds are forever. Are you ready to live with the clarity, brilliance, and high value of such a perfect gem–and then literally pass it on to future generations … forever? According to an article at BBC News, you will.

The current trend of digital storage technology is about to go vertical. In just a few years, advents of digital storage and recording devices will be available to document our entire lives in perfect audio and video–continuously (24/7/365). We will then pass forward the high-defination and intelligently organized content of our collective lives into an indefinite future.

Currently, anyone with about $600 can go out and buy a Terabyte hard drive. Many current cellphones and PDAs also have ample storage capacity, as well as audio and video recording. We can extrapolate the current trends toward a near future where nearly everyone will be able to have enough storage capacity, and the devices in their hands to nearly effortlessly record their entire lives. As the author of this article suggests, we are on the brink of entering into real history:

“We’re only a few years away from the cost of data storage dropping so far that we can record ‘everything’ that happens to us: our location at any given time, what we are hearing, what we are seeing, and what we are saying or doing.”

“For the first time ever, the human species will have an accurate and unblinking, unvarnished view of its own past as far back as the dark ages of the first decade of the 21st Century, when recorded history ‘really’ began.”

Think about it: we lack nearly any accurate rendering of human history from 1000 – 2000 years ago (just a couple of old scrolls and stone tablets). I’ve seen perhaps a few dozen black-and-white photographs and have read only a few texts that were created only 100 years ago. When I look at my family photo albums, the images are tinted yellow, and appear just about as old as the scrolls of ancient Sumeria. From when I was between 3 – 5 years old, there is about a minute of recorded film (with no audio, of course). Fortunately, I was an avid journal keeper–and I now have a stack of about a dozen or so hand-written journals on my book shelf that loosely document my life from 18 onward. Today I take lots of photos and keep a blog (and yet, since entering my 30′s, I’ve become increasingly less concerned with recording the content of my life as opposed to investing time into generating new content of life). Interestingly, in just a few more years, I will be able to record just about everything in multimedia detail, while not needing to become overly concerned with the technical process of it. Even more, as overall information technologies continue to advance, all of my personal life content will be automatically indexd and organized for very efficient recall and cross-referencing.

“With your phone converting all the speech it hears to text (and storing that, too, and indexing it by time and location it becomes possible to search it all – like having Google for your memory.”

Once we pass into this technology paradigm, the process of collectively generating an impeccably detailed, broadly diverse, and long-lasting multimedia record of collective history will continue to evolve in its methods, means, and implications. As storage mediums get increasingly granular and smaller in size while simultaneously growing greater in capacity–we will approach another threshold: molecular and atomic archiving. Eventually, we will be able to record binary code at the molecular and even atomic scale.

“Consider a carbon crystal, created (and edited) one atom at a time by nanomachinery; there are two stable isotopes of carbon, and we can use a Carbon-12 atom to represent a binary 0 and a Carbon-13 atom to represent a binary 1.

One gram of this substance could store 10 to the power 21 bytes (887,808 petabytes) – the equivalent storage of more than 11 billion typical PCs.

By way of comparison, in 2003 we as a species recorded 2,200 petabytes (2.5 x 10 to the power 18 bytes) of data – enough to fill the hard drives of more than 28m typical PCs.

If we can figure out how to read and write data on the atomic scale, you could store the sum total of all the data we recorded in 2003 on a grain of sand.

Using nanoscale diamond as data storage, six hundred grams (about one and a quarter pounds, if you’re my generation) can store a lifelog, a video and audio channel, with running transcript and search index, for six billion human beings for one year.”

Sand, glass, crystal, and diamond could make very good storage substrates as they are each carbon/silicon based chemical structures with highly calibrated molecular symmetry matrices and optimal transparency (for optical read/write methods). Given that modern scientists have somewhat recently ushered us into the “New Diamond Age“, having invented methods for artificially growing synthetic diamonds in a lab, a next reasonable step will be to invent a way to “burn” a diamond (just as we now “burn” a CD with lazer) with the content of petabytes of knowledge and experience. Once a diamond is “burned” with data at the atomic scale, it will essentially last for millenniums and beyond.

I find the implications of this coming revolution in collective memory incredibly inspiring:

Imagine a day when dust sized nanobots drift through the air of your living room capturing audio and video (in super-high resolution) of every experience from multiple views of perspective, instantly logging with impeccable detail every nuance of experience and the environment into a super-intelligently organized hyper-array within a ubiquitous and transparent global communications network. Combine this with the inevitable advents of semantic systems and ontological engineering, and suddenly–life itself becomes far better than movies (YouTube gone toroidal)!

But what about security and privacy? Of course these are the most obvious concerns–and will be magnificent hurtles to overcome along our way to match social and spiritual evolution alongside the progressive strides of such technology [link here to future blog page on the archetectonic issue of human security and it's spiritual, psychological, philosophical, and technological correspondents].

Given that we do move though the coming bottle neck of social evolution and the environmental challenge–imagine a time centuries from now when it will be a common tradition for all people to review the moment of their birth–re-experiencing that potent and original moment with incredible and sensible detail. Future historians can render composites from vast resources of archived content into a life-like virtual reality (hello HoloDeck). They will interactively explore reconstructions of very specific moments in history, taking note to nuances that we may take for granted today. Everybody will be accountable and truly recognized for every small or great contribution (or lack of contribution) in their entire lifetimes. Each person may realize a uniquely compelling sense of presence and responsibility within the powerful scope of a collective witnessing to their every action–a witnessing shared not just by billions in an instantly networked global community in local time, but also for countless future generations. This aspect alone may contribute significantly toward a holistic integration of personal/collective psychology, result in a much greater sense of fulfillment while living life (feeling a deeper sense of security that your time well spent will be remembered), and be a key element in resolving the psychological problem around death. At the end of people’s lives, the very best moments, contributions, and messages are transferred onto a “hyper-diamond”, and then placed with the family gem collection, or passed along to kin as a diamond ring or pendent (where stories and experiences of the family lineage are continuously added).

Take into perspective that organic diamonds formed from oily carbon refuse of ancient plants and dinosaurs hard-pressed under tons of rock and eons of time into the most endurable and valued of gems today. Now again we cross a threshold of time into a new eon: where the dinosaurs of our gigabyte hard-drives full of photos, videos, and blogs will soon be placed within the vast archives of a complete composite of our unique stories. All that we say and do over the next few decades will, perhaps, even become mythologized onto the very atoms of a glimmering hyper-diamond–brilliantly cut with the multifaceted perspectives of a shared human legacy of immeasurable value.

Shine on you crazy diamond …

And keep an eye out for Lucy in the sky …

~ Michael Gaio

[300707]

[reference article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6287126.stm]