I was reading The Celestine Prophecy this weekend up near the San Francisco Peaks. I wanted to post an excerpt from the book which had to do vaguely with Free/Open Source Software, and also put some pictures of an interesting phenomenon I noticed.

Anyway, I'm driving back to Phoenix right now, so if you're interested in these topics check back later.

{next day, Monday, 12-September-2005}

So, back in the Phoenix area today, I am not in quite the same mood I was in when I was up near the San Francisco peaks. But I still want to post this. As I mentioned, I read TCP this weekend, which was one of those books on my "when I get around to it" list. I found a used hardback copy for $1 at the Scottsdale Mustang Library, which has a small used bookstore before you actually enter the main library.

In the last section of the book, entitiled The Emerging Culture, these paragraphs caught my eye as they echo some of the thoughts from this French paper, about the cultural reasons for the death of Microsoft and the success of Open Source ideas. Here is a taste:

"The Manuscript says that as we discover more about the energy dynamics of the universe, we will see what really happens when we give someone something. Right now the only spiritual idea about giving is the narrow concept of religious tithing."

He moved his gaze to Father Sanchez. "As you know, the scriptural notion of tithing is interpreted most commonly as an injunction to give ten percent of one's income to a church. The idea behind this is that whatever we give will be returned many times. Bu the Ninth Insight explains that giving is really a universal principle of support, not just for churches, but for everyone. When we give, we receive in return because of the way energy interacts in the universe. Remember, when we project energy into someone this creates a void in ourselves which, if we are connected, fills up again. Money works exactly the same way. The Ninth Insight says that one we begin to give constantly, we will always have more coming in that we could posibly give away.

The book also talks about where people will live in the future (much nearer to forests), and how needs will be met largely through the application of automation. While this may not be on many people's radar screen, a post from the Oekonux list today illustrates how close we really are to that point:

1) Free software
2) Free software for designing hardware
3) Free hardware
4) Free CNC machines (digitally controlled machines that can mill parts for
other machines)
5) Free CNC machines that can do free CNC machines
6) Bootstrap of CNC machines to advanced stage as GCC compiler compiles
itself in 3 bootstrap stages
7) Advanced CNC machines which don't cost much to manufacture (they
can replicate just for price of material and energy) can manufacture
other, non-CNC machines
8) People build factores themselves just for cost of material
and energy
9) People will be able to produce goods themselves just for cost of
material and energy. Technology will be for free.

It's perhaps hard for us to imagine right now in our current state of affairs, but my personal hope is that we will eventually get on to things more interesting than how to blow each other up.

Anyway, reading about how we will live nearer to the forests in the future makes sense, because I for one do feel better and have more energy when I am up in the forest. As I was reading, I kept looking at Mt. Humphreys, and noticing that the clouds which were coming in from the south disappeared after they have crossed the peak. I don't really understand why that happens; it looks like the clouds are just eaten by some invisible hole in the sky. Here are some pictures which I hope will let you see vaguely what this looks like. Click on any of the photos for the original size (warning: each one is about a megabyte!)