Sustainable worldwide happiness

Why I do what I do ?

2011-12-04T19:16:00.001+01:00

Four years ago I wrote a short post pointing out why I do what I do.
Four years later I still committed to the same goal, working towards it every day.

I recently had to do a talk about my current work, which gave me the opportunity to update my sources, and get the latest numbers from the most recent statistics.

From what I can see the progress in Europe is great, in the last 20 years the number of road fatalities has halved. We now have "only" 30.000 death per year, and 1.500.000 injured per year.

The number of people dying on the roads, in Europe only, corresponds to having one airplane crashing every week. If you knew that one airplane goes down per week in Europe, would you take the airplane or the train? Yet, we drive cars everyday.

The anonymity of individual car-related deaths is at the core of the this untold drama.

In Europe things are getting better, but they are not yet good enough. What about the USA?

The National Safety Council collects national statistics in the USA. Their latest data show that car accidents are the fourth cause of death in USA (after heart diseases, cancer and stroke).
In USA you are three times more likely to die in a car accident than by firearms (listed 9th cause of death). The total number of deaths per year is roughly the same as in Europe (thus, the airplane crash analogy also applies to the USA).

The situation in Europe and USA is not great. Maybe this is only a problem of the "developed world", where cars are so abundant, maybe there are more pressing issues in the "rest of the world"?

The World Health Organization provides worldwide statistics. There the results are clear: this is a issue of global concern.

Not only car accidents are in the top 10 of death causes today, the issue is expected to become worse in the next ~20 years as the car usage increases worldwide.

Since four years ago, things seem to have improved a little bit, but the conclusion remains the same.

In the modern world, the car is the single machine that kills most people.

This is wrong and needs to be fixed. We are loosing tens of thousands of young people every year because the machine is flawed.

The good news is that we know the solution (since more than 15 years): driving robots.

Removing the human from the driving decision will remove more than 95% of the car accidents.

If you do not like the idea of driverless vehicles, worry not. With the driving robots technology we can build cars that you will drive, but that will not let you crash them. If you drive safe, you will have the exact same driving experience as today, but whenever you do something stupid, the car will block the speed or the steering, so as to avoid the collisions. You can drive straight to the precipice, your car will avoid the crash.

That is the vision I want to make real. This is what I do, and why I do it.

Towards an empathic civilisation

2011-02-03T16:09:00.000+01:00

Life is awesome

2011-01-08T16:52:00.003+01:00

It really is !

Song of the day

2010-12-09T10:28:00.001+01:00

30 years since the death of John Lennon. A man who dared to dream a better world.

Here is a cover from one of my favourite artists: Anthony and the Johnsons.

You can hear the related EP in Dezeer.

You can also hear more covers of Lennon at I Guess I'm Floating.

Kemono no Souja (3 of 3)

2010-10-31T01:23:00.000+02:00

In my last two posts I ranted about TV series for children and argued about why I think Kemono no Souja is a great anime.

This two posts resulted absurdingly long (I guess I had a lot to rant and a lot to praise), so I though I rather end this sequence with a positive note in a shorter format.

I want to revisit my rant and put each point in a positive form:

There is not such thing as pure evil. Bad people are just persons who learned through teaching or experience a different set of values that serve them to survive and reach well-being in this world. We may jugdge them as bad or "evil", but they are not intrinsically bad. We should never forget our shared humanity.
To err is human. Even the best persons make mistakes, have moments of "moral greyness".
Life is change. A big part of learning to live is to learn and accept the transient nature of all things.
Women are the new men. In the rich world girls can reach any position they want. We should foster the spirit of little girl to dream wild. We want more girls as president, engineers and movie makers.
There is not a single story. Every event can be described in a myriad of different ways. I recommend this exercise at home: invent stories about a simple event you observed. If a single event can have many equivalently plausible explanations, so is History. Different individuals and cultures have a different narrative of the world. We should be able to leave comfortably with this fact.

These ideas are part of my belief system. I would expect media to reflect some of them, but unfortunately I find them blatantly absent in most productions. Fortunately there are some good examples of a better future.

Kemono no Souja (2 of 3)

2010-10-31T01:20:00.005+02:00

In my last post I ranted about the current status of TV series for children and how distorted is the usual world they present. Most TV series for children fail to represent the notions of equality, tolerance and humanistic belief I consider necessary to make in the modern world a better world.

But not all of it is bad. I have seen better, so I know it can been done better. The first example that comes to my mind is Ava tar, the last airbender . The movie is horrible, but the original series was a quite good one. It depicts a world with four different cultures, where the main characters include strong women, it portrays the need to learn from other cultures and shows "bad ones" that are able to self reflect and rethink their moral code. It does not respect all the principles I have listed, but it is a step in the good direction.

I few months ago I inquired about "what would be a good new series to look at ?", and I stubled upon very positive reviews for Kemono no Souja. Despite my initial doubts I gave a shot at it, and I have to say, it is amongst the best series for children I have seen up to now.

I highly recommend this anime.

Inside its colorful and "for children" format it provides a miriad of possitive messages that almost every other TV series lack. Let me list some of these.

- Women in power and as main characters.
In this story the country's ruler, the most respected doctor, the school administrator and the main character are all women.

- Main character is a bright student that progress in life through academic success.
Finally a series not about go that shows academic success as a relevant dimension of life.

- Main character understand value of learning as a way of understanding the world.
Academic knowledge is shown as what it is: a way to understand the real world and be a better actor in it.

- Men cry (often).

The different men characters are portrayed as educated, reflexive, and also physically strong (many of them are warrior). They are also able to be sad and cry, not only once by in repeated opportunities. Being sad and crying is shown as a normal behaviour for men too.

- Characters grow and get old.

The story follows up the whole life of the main character, from 4 years old to a grown up woman with children. It shows the importance of hard work along the years, how life changes through time. I think it is important to show in children stories and that children do grow up and become adults "like us". What you do as a youngster affects who you become later. I believe that understanding the link between life and time is an important part of defining our identity.

- Life is tough, but you get over it.

In this story, the main characters go through multiple traumatisms and losses. Part of them are from difficult circumstances (conflicts), some of them from rules of life (death), and others are simply accidents. Showing that life is not all nice and easy is very rare in children series. Even more, here we get to see how the main characters learn to get over it and reach happiness. Along the series the main character will have lost his father, mother, adoptive father and three fingers; but still get over it and continues ahead. This is a deeply moral lesson that too many TV series fail to present.

- Animals shown as neither good or bad, but different.

The central topic of the story is about animals and humans (like Pokemon), some of the main characters are animals. However this series is the first one (finally !) I know of that dares to show animals by what they are: animals, not fluffy-dumber humans. In Kemono no Souja animals are shown as companion, loving, empathic, but also as bestial and irrational (killing other animals, attacking humans, including their master). Animals are different, end of story. The main character gets to learn this the hard way.

I believe it is important properly to portray the link between humans and animals not to perpetuate this fake romantisism that seems so present this days. Phrases "cats are like children" or "how could you eat horse meat !" are not unheard of.

- Petting animals is bad.
Personally, I am very glad about this point. The main character fights again petting animals. She fights for a deeper understanding and respect of their difference. She has the same opinion as I do: a cat/dog in a house is a shame. Cat/dog are magnificent wild animals that should be allowed to live as such. This does not exclude interactions with humans, but at least requires to leave them more space for their own "private animal" life.
Castrating cats so they "behave as desired" looks to me as a modern horror. The main character of Kemono no Souja makes exactly the same point.

- Human societies are complex.
Kemono no Souja presents the story of two kingdoms interdependent but with different cultures. It shows how the loss of respect of each other's culture dooms the country to an internal war. The facts are shown from the perspective of the governors who are aware of the situation and their implication however they struggle to change the course of events.

Understanding the interdependence with neighbours (everyone is our neighbour nowadays), the importance of cultural respect and the implications of interdepence and cultural differences is war is definitely something I would like our children to have a grasp of.

- Humans are fools.

Just as societal phenomenon as presented, also the psyche of the main characters is not unidimensional.

Kemono no Souja shows main characters which are ambivalent, ambitious, that make mistakes and repeat them, that act cowardly. This story dares to show main characters wasting their lives in wrong or absurd belief systems (some of them recognizing it, others without). I think it is important to have stories that goes beyond the concept of "good or bad only". Showing humans as complex animals, capable of mistakes and wrong doing is an important step toward understanding ourselves.

- Music matters.
An underlying thread along the story and multiple characters, is the respect of music. Despite putting an enfasis on intellectual and physical performance, the main characters also play and enjoy music, they respect it and consider an important part of daily life. This is one of the rare series I have seen to present art as a relevant aspect of life.

- History matters.

The original Kemono no Souja plot relates animals and politics in a not-yet-seen way. The plot also turns around the transmission of an historical truth, and how different readings of the past changes the interpretation of the present and the decisions made for the future.

Putting at the core of the plot the importance of history, seems quite unique to me. One more good lesson for our children. Which other anime do you know may motivate them to study history under the perspective of its political consequences ?

- Ignorance and miscommunication leads to discrimination. Discrimination leads to troubles. Troubles affect us all in a negative way.

At multiple moments of the story some behaviour or event is misunderstood. This lack of knowledge and communication leads to negative feeling among different characters. This negative feelings eventually affect them all. These problems end being solved through learning and communication. Such an important moral lesson, so much absent from other TV stories.

- Living your passion is hard as hell, but it is the right thing to do.

The overall life story of the main character is a story of hard work, suffering and persistence. All of it is done for the sake of passion. Multiple times the main character suffers, is misunderstood and excluded because of its passion. But eventually it all turns out well. Living your passion is hard as hell, but it is the right thing to do. I wish all of our children knew this.

- War is messy, warriors are afraid of dying, and in most cases war is a lose-lose situation.

In this story the kingdom is constantly at war with foreigners and is about to fall in an internal war. Many of the main characters are warriors themselves. Just as with animals and life, Kemono no Souja dares to show war as what it is: a messy lose-lose situation. War creates confusion. War creates misery. Warriors suffer and die. Warriors are afraid of dying, some are suicidal, others are cowards, some of them accept the trade-off of war. Very few series have the courage and maturity of showing war under a non glorious prism.

Not everything is perfect in this anime, if I had to point two negative things I would mention the not so great music (but it improves towards the end) and that they repeat some scenes too many times along the different episodes (common practice to reduce the production costs). These negative points are obviously minor compared to the large list of positive aspects. Last but not least, I should also mention the beautiful drawings. Anime is a visual art after all. The graphics of Kemono no Souja are beautiful and support well the general atmosphere.

All and all Kemono no Souja is what I consider an excellent story to be shared with young ones.

It clearly sets the standard I expect from TV series for children. This series gains its excellence not only for the entertainment value and the technical quality, but over all it gains its excellence because of its deeply moral message.

Kemono no Souja (1 of 3)

2010-10-31T00:26:00.001+02:00

Following on the thread of "light" posts about flowers, sounds and technology, let us talk about one more thing youth of the rich world do a lot: watch TV.

Television as we knew it ("radio for images") will disappear. That is a fact. It will become more interactive, more participative, on demand, it will intermingle with the Internet. What will remain is the content.

One of the worrying trends I have noticed in the last year is the low quality of content for children.

As I grew up I realised how bad are some of the series I had spent time seeing. Of course most series have some good elements and many bad ones.

For instance: Dragon Ball Z. Extremely popular, it shows the story of a man overcoming adversity, challenging himself to become better and always keeping a positive actitude to life. It has a rich imaginary universe and presents interesting visuals.

In Dragon Ball women are in power parity with men. There are strong women and smart women (engineers). However only women cook.

The obvious failure point of Dragon Ball is that it focuses on fights and fights only. The dialogs are very poor, and pure muscular force is shown as the way to handle life, solve issues and save the world.

Life is short and we should attempt to provide the best experience of it.

If children are going to spend hours seeing these stories, why should we accept anything but the best story telling ?

After all, this is the age when the brain is most permeable to new ideas.

Most popular series are violent or at least fight oriented.

In my eyes many of popular children series fail to represent the humanistic principles I believe in.

Pure evil In most stories the "bad one" is pure evil, absurdily seeking to hurt everyone everywhere, and having people following him in that aim. Examples of failure in this point are He-man, Gatchaman, Harry Potter, to name but a few.

Always good, always right In most stories the "good one" always makes the right choices, always does the right thing and always wins. He may seem to be about to fail, but at the end, he always wins. The obvious ones here are He-man, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon to name but a few.
Nothing changes In many stories time is fix, as multiple seasons pass by, the characters never grow old, no one ever dies, nothing ever changes. Examples of this failure are Doraemon, Pokemon, the Simpsons, to name but a few.
Strong boys, weak girls In times where equal rights amongst citizens is considered the default mode. In times where men and woman are offered the same opportunities and assumed to have the same potential, we still see stories where women have a secondary roles or are completely absent. In my eyes it is not adequate to exhibit such situations as an example of normality. Some child stories that do not pass the Bechdel te st are S a m urai Jack, De xter, Sp iderman and Superman.
Our way is the way This point is probably the most delicate one, the most deceiving one. In a sense it is a mixture of the previous points, but it takes a shape of its own. In most stories there are opposing forces. One of them is represented by the main characters, and the others by "the bad ones". The failure here is to assume that the force, the cultural framework, the sense of good and bad, as represented by the main characters is one and absolute. Never the characters will reflect on their behaviour to judge the value of their code of values. Never they will study the behaviour of the "bad ones" to put in perspective they own. In a sense the main characters assume to be always right, never learn from the encounters with the "bad ones", they are incapable to relate with a different cultural framework and to accept/tolerate their existence. In a sense St ar Trek and Star Wars seem to fail on this aspect.

I understand that story for children should be somehow simplified. But do we really need to dumb them down so much ? Do we need to distort reality to make it enjoyable ? I do not think children are naturally impeded to permeate to reality as it is, as such I do not see why they would not be permeable to stories that reflect better reality.

Why do I care ? I care about this because stories are part of our culture, they mold our way of seeing the world, and how we see the world affects who we behave in it. Systematically providing a distorted vision to our child seems a dangerous trend. At least, I aim for better.

Not all of it is bad... in my next post I will talk about

one

ime that I think is not like the others.

Ocarina

2010-10-06T23:14:00.000+02:00

Following up on video games and references to Zelda here is an intriguing technological product.
Instead of just sharing text, messaging each other, calling each other, or exchanging videos, now we can exchange live instrument performances.

This is like the youtube symphony, but better. Instead of recording with a video camera and sharing on a website, the real time exchange capability is directly embedded inside the instrument.

This is like if the instrument was possessed by all living musicians.

When playing this digital ocarina you can tape into the collective energy, in way that is more tangible than ever.

As mentioned in the video, this actually a product you can buy right now.

Flower power

2010-10-06T22:23:00.000+02:00

The current generation of people living in the rich world is the first one to have grown up playing video games. Today more and more young and not so young people spend a significant part of their time playing video games.

By looking at the young generation and how much time they spend interacting with electronic devices one really gets to wonder about the quality of content they are exposed to.
I believe video games is a powerful media for engaging narrative, that it is an opportunity for people to exchange, and that it can help developing some of the many skills one may need in real life, such as memory and logic.

Before all, I consider video games an art form.

As many other expression media, the most popular items are not always the one considered as most transcendent. Indeed there has been repeated concerns on video game violence. Most of what we hear and see is about first person shooters, war games or very violent car racing, although these are only about half of the kind of video games sold.
There is much more to video games than that. I have great memories from video games such as Myst, Zelda and some very old ones that I would not dare to disclose.

I have confidence than the video game industry is be able to create new beautiful, poetic and transcendent experiences. An example of such experiences is the video game Flower.
I have not played this game myself, but if I had to spend some time playing around, I would probably try this one. Check out the video below, the trailer videos, and discover how much different video games can be.

Go go flower power !

2010-09-21T16:02:00.000+02:00

Did I already mention that I really like the art from Marc Johns ?

Changing the world

2010-09-21T13:37:00.000+02:00

The world is constantly changing. In order to reach sustainable happiness I believe that it needs to change differently.

The world is being changed by human actions. In order to change the change we need to change human actions. To change human actions we should change the way humans see the world.

We need to start seeing the world differently. We need to understand more deeply how we all relate, how we are all part of a closed system.

Changing the world, is all about the teaching to our next generation.
It is about consolidating knowledge, sharing knowledge and teaching by the example of our passion and engagement.

An example of how we see the world is via our maps. The dymaxion world map provides a fresh look at our land masses, their relative position and sizes.

Challenging the traditional way of looking at things helps us understand that there are multiple possible views over the same subject.

It helps us understand that we need to start integrating more that one single explanation in our reasonings.

Everynone

2010-09-21T12:41:00.000+02:00

Following on the topic of the unknown person behind our comfort I discovered Everynone.

Everyone has become no one.

Everynone produces beautiful video pieces reflecting on our anonymous humanity.

"I need the sun to feel a sense of happiness"

The ones behind

2010-09-21T12:26:00.002+02:00

The modern world is an odd world. If I had one word to describe it I would say: opacity.

Tired from the discomfort and physical suffering found in the natural world, humans got into creating a new kind of world: the artificial world.
In the artificial world we are separated from dirt, hunger, fatigue, and most kinds of physical pain. The more modern the more comfortable we feel.

Together with this comfort has come a lost of contact with the natural world. How many of the urban citizens would be able to survive two months in the wild ?
We have lost the knowledge of a simpler life.

More worryingly, together with modernization, we have also lost the transparency of our world. We are surrounded by devices made of unknown materials, built in unknown places, by unknown people, using unknown techniques.
This ignorance is staggering. Most people do not know that chairs are made from air, bottles from oil, or that pig is used to make bread.

The world has become opaque.

We do not know nor understand the rules governing our world. We are unaware of the geopolitics involved in our own comfort.
In such an environment of ignorance the populations have little chance to make good decisions. Repeatedly making the wrong choices reduces our opportunity of reaching sustainable happiness.

I believe that education should shed more light on our world. Not only on geographical, historical and scientific knowledge, but also on fusing all of these together to provide an empowering vision over the world surrounding us.

I believe that education does not end at school, and that we can use modern information technologies to bring back transparency to our lives.

The death begins with a start

2010-09-09T08:04:00.000+02:00

I may not be a fan of extreme biking, but I enjoy riding my bike daily. I am a big fan of urban planning.
I do believe that the environment in where we live affects our well being, and that places where cars are not the dominant transportation mode provide a much more enjoyable environment.

Other than the impressive images and smooth voice over this video makes a point:

the death of things begins with a start

This is exactly the point that the book Cradle to Cradle makes. The best way to avoid polluting the environment is to create products that are designed from the start not to pollute.

It sounds obvious, but it makes the point that the most important step is the design of the product. After that all we can do, is deal with the consequences.

Fifteen years ago plastic bags where considered a great product, today fabricating a plastic bag should be considered a crime against life.

Some may think that the cradle to cradle approach is too extreme. From my perspective, it is the only way that can work on the long term.

Your best investement ever

2010-09-06T19:07:00.000+02:00

There seem to be few ways to reach happiness. One of them has been repeatedly suggested by the moral codes of multiple cultures, religions and in multiple scientific studies: the act of helping others (also known as "love").

Helping others makes you happy.

Simple, direct, effective. It is even said to be automatic, hardwired.

Sheryl WuDunn makes a point on investing on women.

"It well may be that the best way to fight poverty is to invest on women."

Her stories are shocking, crude and inspiring.

Nowadays, with internet it is easier than ever to reach your consumerist redemption. I personally contribute to Kiva as a way to reduce my guilt, but I'm always looking for understanding better ways (for instance, sometimes it is better to go big than to go small).

I own to myself to remember as often as possible that "I'm the luckiest man on earth". Or as Sheryl WuDunn puts it that "we have won the lottery of life".

Now that we have won, what are we going to do with the prize ?

We are all neighbours

2010-07-27T23:03:00.001+02:00

Sustainability is a difficult issue.
Happiness can be observed, experienced individually and shared with others. Sustainability cannot be seen, cannot be touched by individuals. A civilization living in a sustainable way will have a very hard time seeing it. A given set of individuals may believe to live in a equilibrium, they may do some measures that will confirm this belief, but by definition, a sustainable society model can only be validated after a few generation.

In one lifetime no human gets to see a sustainable world.

Since we cannot see it, grasp it, then it is difficult for us to judge if our actions are correct or not, if the current model is good or not.

On top of the difficulties to observe sustainability across time, a single person will have great troubles seeing if what appears to be sustainable locally holds across the globe. Despite being all connected, we are all spread out.

A few days ago I came through this idea: if we pack the population of a country to the highest density of its cities, the area required for human habitat is surprisingly small.

Of course, this particular estimate seems to be forgetting the fact that to support such dense city a much larger area will be required to host farms, forests, fish farms, mines and industrial land, amongst others. The "supporting area" would be so large, that most certainly commuting would not practical anymore. Not being able to commute, people would settle, and human settlements would become spread again.

I like the idea of "withdrawing" human settlements and "force" ourselves on using an as little area as possible, but we should not loose of sight how large and dense is the web of dependencies that cities need in order to keep current standards of living.

Everything is simple

2010-07-23T21:04:00.000+02:00

Despite my engineer mindset, not everything I do or say is rational. I have a set of deeply rooted beliefs.
One of them is the despise of complexity.
Many times I have been told "this is very complicated", I do not believe it. I refuse to accept complexity.

To me, fundamentally, everything is simple.

If something seems complex it is just because of our ignorance. Believing in simplicity is the only way I know to tackle problems that others may describe as "very complicated".

Getting to understand the world as a place governed by simplicity gives to me a sense of peace, it removes the anxiety of perceiving it as something beyond the reach of my spirit.

This attitude may be arrogant, or may be a voluntary denial of the real nature of the world. Yet, in my experience, everything that looks complex, once understood, becomes either trivially simple or becomes the result of a simple generating process (for instance, a set of simple rules applied multiple times).

Believing in a simple world is not in opposition to accepting the limits of our knowledge (accepting ignorance), nor the fact that we cannot control all the elements of our lives.

Now that you know what is my belief, you will understand my surprise today when I found this illustration !

4 lines motto

2010-07-23T20:29:00.001+02:00

Today, I found an old piece of paper with a four lines motto:

Learn from Everyone
Follow No One
Watch for Patterns (a.k.a. Think)
Work Like Hell

I believe these advises have contributed to my happiness.

Robotics

2010-04-08T13:11:00.000+02:00

Yep, I work in robotics. These days I'm working on "vision for robotics" (named issue 1 in the video).

Here are some more videos on why robotics matter for society.

Song of the day

2010-04-04T19:57:00.002+02:00

<a href="http://yellowostrich.bandcamp.com/track/strings-that-tie-to-you-jon-brion">Strings That Tie to You (Jon Brion) by Yellow Ostrich</a>

After you men explode the world, we women will sing it to sleep

2010-03-26T11:12:00.003+01:00

A rare disk from Larkin Grimm, one my favourite artists.

2010-03-16T10:43:00.000+01:00

Theory of change, or what I would call "action with a purpose", or even more simply "design" (developing a plan with a purpose).

One century long party, and still going on !

2010-03-15T12:44:00.000+01:00

Balance is a key element for happy life. Having a healthy dose of sensual pleasure is good for me.

Music is form of pleasure very present in my life. I share part of this joy via this blog.

So here comes the discovery of this weekend: Arte.tv liveweb.

Arte is one of the few (if not the only) Tv channels that I feel happy to be funding via my taxes. They create and diffuse cultural manifestations. They also have a great, wonderful, superb, exemplar, online presence.

They recenlty launched Arte.tv liveweb. Where they diffuse and rediffuse live music.

There I found this concert. And, I have to admit, the musical and visual style reminds me of music from almost one century ago. Noneless, it still sounds great, people still enjoy it, and we keep dancing to it !

To care 3/3

2010-03-15T12:23:00.003+01:00

Culture shapes our view of the world. Today, like never before, we have the chance to live in a rich, diverse world, and to interact with it.
Never before a person had access to read, hear and see documents, records and videos from such diverse cultures.

In USA it is believed that business and entrepreneurship is one of the best ways to change the world.
Other than my full time job as a researcher I also spend some time working on my own web startup projects.

When studying at school I had multiple topics to learn and work on, plus extra curricular activities, and I enjoyed all of them. When at the university, other than the 5~6 courses I always had around 3 side-track projects going on.
When I finished my engineering degree and started research, I felt uncomfortable working in only one single topic, so I started some side activities, amongst them, some entrepreneurship projects.

It is important to do what you care about. Bellow are two videos that talk about that, doing what you care about, and learning to have a dialog with other people that also care about it.

If you dot not know "about to care about", but feel that you want to make a difference, then just look around, talk with your friends, spend time thinking about, and you will end up finding something. Yes, you will.
There is, for instance, the story of three Chileans that "wanted to do something", but had no idea what. They ended up creating a new kind of protection for radiography that removes the use of lead and reduces the chances of manipulation mistakes. Starting worldwide commercialisation this year.

To care 2/3

2010-03-15T11:53:00.002+01:00

When I talk about sustainable happiness, I'm talking about sustainable (worldwide) happiness.
Why is "worldwide" in parentheses ?
Well, today some people are happy with their lives, many are not. Amongst the happy ones many worry that today's well being will not last long, and probably their children will have less chances to be happy, than they had.

When you care about sustainability, you think long term, beyond the scale of one or two lives.
If you have let us say, 70% of the population live in conditions that make happiness possible, and 30% in conditions that makes it very difficult, then, I believe, you will inevitably end up in a confrontation between this two groups. Wars are source of suffering. When suffering, a person is not happy.

In order to obtain sustainable happiness, it has to be worldwide happiness.

Caring about other people is amongst the paths to happiness. Caring about the happiness of people on the other side of the globe is also a way to solidify your local happiness.

Fulfilled happy people do not hold grunges, fulfilled happy people do not start wars. Living in a world where wars are highly unlikely makes it easier to reach happiness.

To care 1/3

2010-03-15T11:25:00.001+01:00

There are some things too important in your life not to care.
Buddhists teach us that life is made of illusions. Yet too many of us spend too little time on disassembling these illusions.

Some years ago, right at the beginning of my PhD, I spend some introspective time to search what I really care about, what is too important for me not to care.
The answer came clear and crisp:

Sustainable (worldwide) happiness

If my actions can help, somehow, to build a sustainable (worldwide) happiness. Then this would be good enough for me.
Since then, I put each of my actions and choices, under the light of this choice.

So, as of today, I have decided to refocus my blog speak about this topic. I will keep my music posts and talk a little about my personal life, but I will put more effort on speaking about this topic that matters to me.

Music band of the day

2010-03-04T09:29:00.002+01:00

Blair, discovered via the wonderful I guess I'm floating.

Blair - Hello Halo

blair | MySpace Music Videos

Where does this comes from ?

2010-02-01T11:48:00.004+01:00

Finally ! Someone has done it !

This is an idea that has been in my mind for years. A tool to know "where does this pen comes from" ?

This tool is yet far from perfect, but it is a good start. I'm really looking forward to see how this will evolve.

The queer middle world

2010-01-24T13:21:00.000+01:00

The accordion is not what I though it was !

2009-11-06T20:58:00.002+01:00

Supercapacitors in 2009

2009-07-28T18:32:00.004+02:00

Supercapacitors are coming... and these guys now their stuff...

"""
Very cost effective and time effective. So I think we've got that well under hand. I think the materials is a very very nice story there. Barite, which was Barium, was used in the front end of TV sets. If you go buy a TV right now there's no more ... it is hard to find a CRT TV set unless it is a small thing for a computer. Most of it now in fact is very ? DLP and or other types of technologies. CDP and so ... We're the best friend of the Barite company the Barium company's got in the world. There are major sources of Bariite found in the United States. But a new one is just found in Nevada. We're writing? to get the sole rights to that. And looks like that's going to be done. Then we have large amounts of it in Mexico. And owned by US companies. You can also bring that in from other parts of the world in very high volume. So, the United States Geological Service, with *out* the stuff I've got in Nevada, says there's at least 2 billion tons of stuff in known reserves.

That's unlike Lithium ion where there is a small amount down in Chile, where they got the brine. You run out of that, then you've gotta' go over to China an get it from China. Uhhh, if you think we're in trouble with oil, wait till you have to go to China to get your Lithium.
"""

2009-07-28T14:15:00.002+02:00

Music by Barcelona

Robocup 2009

2009-07-10T19:55:00.002+02:00

The Robocup aims to create in 2050 robots able to play one to one with humans (and win). 40 years downstream we start seeing the first encounters...

Not yet a great match, but hey: it started only 12 years ago...

Sausages, muffins and pancakes

2009-07-10T19:52:00.002+02:00

2009, not the same anymore...

ps: no, the videos are not accelerated, these are 2009 german industrial robots.

We do not see the world, we see its illusions

2009-06-30T12:32:00.002+02:00

Do you see green and blue ? Well look again.

2009-06-29T02:28:00.002+02:00

"""
We’re an international tobacco company focused on creating value for our shareholders.
"""
pretty much everything I could hate in a big company, put as the main message of their website.

if you are white...

2009-06-25T17:35:00.000+02:00

It is easy, if you are white you will not get killed in Brooklyn.

Just change the scale

2009-06-19T11:04:00.002+02:00

Simply put, the best argument I have heard on why we should not use Carbon/Gas/Oil/Nuclear energy/'Anything that does not come from outside the Earth':

"""
Just change the scale.
"""
(look at it on a 4000 years span)

As others said, "earth is a closed system for materials, but an open system for energy".

feel -> do -> think

2009-06-19T09:12:00.001+02:00

"""
Everything we do is filtered by our emotions, first.
"""

almost.at

2009-06-09T14:18:00.003+02:00

Time and space are not what they used to be.

2009-06-01T14:20:00.000+02:00

dot-communism

2009-05-30T04:13:00.004+02:00

Wired has a thoughts provoker article on dot-communism.

The article is interesting not only because of the presented topic but also on how the American writer interprets "socialism" / "communism" using most of the well known Americans clichés.

On a related note I just noticed that, from USA's point of view there is "almost nothing in the world beyond Mexico (low level workers with strange accents) and Canada (dumb weird socialists)". Below illustration and comparison to France.

ps: remember that "internet will not save the world", or in other terms, "it is not what internet does, it is what people do"

2009-05-29T09:22:00.001+02:00

Google keeps updating the concept of Awesome !

2009-05-17T17:25:00.001+02:00

the world is a place yet to be seen.

I'm sorry little fox...

2009-05-14T21:48:00.000+02:00

just tried chromium linux nightly build, and I have to say that, now, I know there is something better than Firefox out there. Just waiting for flash support and Chromium will become my daily navigator (until Firefox beats it, by using multiple processes, importing V8, and imitating the user interface...)

making the world data computable

2009-05-14T21:40:00.003+02:00

ok, now I'm sold. I'm waiting for your newborn, Wolfram.

Yas & the LightMotiv

2009-05-14T02:36:00.003+02:00

I really enjoyed their concert.

The money, the heart and the brain

2009-05-14T00:10:00.000+02:00

You can say whatever you want...

2009-05-13T20:06:00.002+02:00

but living in Paris is better.

(and yes I do agree that the music sucks)

How far is far away ?

2009-05-04T22:46:00.002+02:00

Understanding the human (omni)presence on earth and how to plan a real escape out of this world.

Worst movies... ever

2009-05-02T20:43:00.003+02:00

Joining the infamous duo, I have now discovered, in deep sorrow, the three worst movies ever:

- Transformers 2007
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008
- Dragonball Evolution 2009

Interestingly enough all three movies fail in the same way:
- All three are american movies
- All three have good enough actors
- All three have very good special effects and production
- All three have the basis to create a very good script
- All three where massacred by a catastrophic direction, transforming a a potentially great movie in a non sense butcher.

I'm sharing this comments as relevant public health information to be diffused at large.

It was them, not it

2009-05-01T20:01:00.001+02:00

"""
Give us a million $$'s to find a million cures for a million types of cancers
"""

2009-04-30T13:17:00.001+02:00

Impressive video, with a superb music.

2009-04-28T16:22:00.000+02:00

View Larger Map

And that is why I want an apartment with direct sunlight...

Bacterias in 2009

2009-04-27T19:23:00.002+02:00

Yep, not the same theory as in 1990's. This talk is super simple to understand, it updates our knowledge on the life of bacteria, and it explains how our child are going to survive the next wave of killer bacterias.

Lylo == 3000 concerts per month

2009-04-23T14:06:00.005+02:00

I finally found the mythic "Les Yeux Les Oreilles" free magazine.
This little bimensual treasure repertories musical events in Paris. I used to say " in Paris, there is something going on every night". Now I have the numbers to support me, LyLo indexes more that 100 concerts per day ! And at least 10~20 of them have a "drink something please" entry fee !

Once you have LyLo in your hands you have no excuses to stay at home...

Sentio emotio ergo sum

2009-04-22T13:25:00.003+02:00

That is why my first AI design included emotions from scratch.

So true...

2009-04-20T14:38:00.001+02:00

If you are a programmer, programming is not your job.

Chuck said:

Never stop learning.
Communication is critical.
Under promise, over deliver.
"I was wrong."
If it is not tested it doesn't work.
Programming isn't your job, shipping is.

2009-04-03T21:04:00.000+02:00

Steel Life from Mathieu Gérard on Vimeo.

OLPC Mali

2009-03-30T15:45:00.002+02:00

"""
With the exception of Bamako, schools in Mali do not have electricity because class is conducted during the daylight hours and electricity is expensive. Electricity was a necessity at the school in order to charge the computers during the day and give the children a full day of computer usage.

Getting electricity meant paying for concrete poles, wires, outlets, and installation of all of this. This proved to be the largest cost of the project and quite expensive in the end.

An internet connection was originally in the plans for the pre‐pilot but set up and service through Orange Telecom Company, which has a virtual monopoly on internet service in Mali, was far too expensive and therefore not realistic at this stage.
"""
OLPC Mali final report.

Love song of the day

2009-03-26T20:41:00.001+01:00

buzz, buzz

2009-03-23T13:51:00.000+01:00

"leko ikea"

So true

2009-03-17T00:58:00.000+01:00

HRP-4C

2009-03-16T20:22:00.001+01:00

Year 2009.

Talk to talk

2009-03-09T03:28:00.004+01:00

Sometime good ideas are strange ideas:

"""
David, a Masai herdsman from Kisumu in Kenya, answers a call on his cellphone. After listening to the message, he repeats a short phrase in his Masai dialect. He then listens to another short message, and repeats the new phrase. After 30 minutes, he ends the call, having earned enough for a week’s worth of personal cellphone airtime.
"""

If I gave half an hour per week of my work time, and considering my current salary, that would be equivalent of me paying 80 Euros per month for unlimited phone calls. Seems a little pricey, but I like the concept of direct "skill for stuff" instead of "money in the middle".

Also the concept of implanting a small technological device "in the middle of nowhere" that allows a direct flow of money from rich countries to poor individual seems very interesting. The question of "which is the highest value skill possible to be done on a small cheap mobile unit ?" seems interesting to me.

Song of the day

2009-02-23T18:46:00.001+01:00

牛肉面 for everyone !

2009-01-26T15:04:00.001+01:00

Happy new (lunar) year !

(plenty of posts to come soon)

Been there, done that

2008-12-12T22:32:00.001+01:00

I enjoyed yesterday the concert of Matt Eliott at Le Point Ephémère. I was pleasantly surprised by its "mostly electronic" piece (after playing a few pieces of "valse with sugar coat").

But I went to that concert not to hear Matt, but to hear "Thee, Stranded Horse". A young French musician that plays the Kora.
His song "Le Sel" is hereby declared song of the day.

Discover Thee, Stranded Horse!

update: photos

Quote of the day

2008-12-09T00:32:00.000+01:00

"""
l'au delà de l'ailleurs est il ici ?
"""

A smart guy told me...

2008-12-06T15:14:00.000+01:00

"""
What you are doing is great. If we had it, we could sell it as hot bread, everyone would want one. Unfortunately, up to the foreseeable future, it seems impossible to be done.
"""

So here I am, doing the impossible.

2008-11-26T22:57:00.000+01:00

He wants to fly

Question of the day (see end of video): is poverty man made ? who made it ? why ?

OMG !

2008-11-25T03:34:00.000+01:00

Paris got full street view ! Oh YEAH !

View Larger Map
Today I'm there.

Love song of the day

2008-11-24T03:17:00.000+01:00

Découvrez Noah And The Whale!

"""
Oh it makes me cry in bed
I said
Please don't lie
Oh it makes me cry in bed
"""

IO

2008-11-10T10:40:00.000+01:00

This morning while eating my breakfast I learnt a new programming language that, I have to admit, looks really fine.

ps: yes, I eat breakfast in an hour or so... its so tasty...

quote of the day

2008-10-30T03:40:00.000+01:00

"Je suis d'une simplicité très complexe"
heard on the net....

Cola

2008-10-25T03:11:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I got to taste the Cola nut, which seems to be the source of the "Coca-Cola" flavour.
Well, by association I would like to mention Cola, the real-time concurrent edition plugin for Eclipse. It allows two persons to write in the same text file at the same time. It still in early development, but it is a great, great, great tool.
If you know me long enough you know that I'm a huge fan of real-time concurrent text edition (I wrote a couple of editors myself). Until now Gobby was the "best thing out there" (Subethaedit is good, but not free). Having this function directly integrated into Eclipse, is a notorious improvement in the user experience.

Cola: Real-Time Shared Editing from Mustafa K. Isik on Vimeo.

The corn conspiracy

2008-10-25T02:59:00.000+02:00

I knew something was going on between those yellow teeth of theirs !

Polyface farming seems an interesting concept, I'm curious about how virtuous the cycle can become. Focusing on worms and grass first, crop and animals after seems to be the correct approach.

I found in a little box

2008-10-24T12:19:00.001+02:00

09/09/2008 La Defense celebrates 50 years since the creation of this "modern" area of Paris.

Same place, different time. 15/10/2008 Freezing to mobilise towards the end of hunger.

Biblioburro

2008-10-24T01:28:00.000+02:00

Information technology at its best.

art is art

2008-10-21T13:08:00.000+02:00

Song of the day

2008-10-21T03:34:00.000+02:00

Answering a request on spanish music, I remember this chilean electronic music hit from the "kinda underground but well known" group Marciano.

The singularity could come as a game

2008-10-20T21:25:00.000+02:00

Have you heard of "The singularity" ? That moment in human history where we build a machine smarter than us, capable of creating a machine smarter than itself, creating an "explosion of intelligence" in our world.

Today, at the very end of an interesting talk on complex dynamics modelling, the presenter mentioned an idea that sparkled in my mind. They created a software where humans can "play to fold proteins" (which known as a difficult problem in modern biology), the results of the "games" are then used by researchers to understand how the proteins fold. The presenter then mentioned that, ideally, they would like to build automated systems that could learn from the users gaming, and that this scheme of "shape a difficult problem as a game, get a lot of people to play it, learn from the results" may an interesting generic strategy.

Well I do agree, this is a somehow generic strategy to "suck knowledge and skills" out of humans. Thus, if we could build a system able to create games (things that motivate humans to do actions), and then learn from what humans do, we would have a system able to learn "the human way of doing things". This may be a path towards the singularity.

Getting rid of sprezzatura

2008-10-20T21:15:00.000+02:00

I discovered today in a TED talk about glamour the word "sprezzatura". In simple terms this word means "to hide the difficulty of what is shown". I can not stop noticing that this concept is very prevalent in current media and I think we should get rid of this practice. American TV constantly show experts solving problems in a few minutes (think of Numb3rs), while in reality it would take weeks. You can also see persons learning skills in a few weeks, while it actually takes year to reach such mastery (think of sport movies). I can not think the benefits of deceiving people with fraudulent facts. Not understanding the difficulty in the acts done by others, is also not understanding the difficulties in solving existing problems.

Please medias, get back to reality and stop lying to us.

I found in a little box

2008-10-17T11:13:00.001+02:00

Ifrom Ramona playing at the Union Bar, 3 October, Paris.

I found in a little box

2008-10-17T11:08:00.001+02:00

Concert of Kawaii & Orouni @ Le Motel, 3 September, Paris.

EP of Kawaii available for free on their website. Latest disk of Orouni can be heard at Deezer.com.

An introduction into western budhism

2008-10-17T09:19:00.000+02:00

... and beyond

2008-09-29T14:10:00.000+02:00

Song of the day

2008-09-19T02:20:00.001+02:00

Lykke Li - Tonight

You can hear for free (in selected countries) the latest disk of this great artist at Deezer.com.

Large Hadron Rap

2008-09-11T16:00:00.001+02:00

And suddenly, it all became clear...

Song of the day

2008-09-07T23:50:00.000+02:00

"The end has no end" cover by a child singer named "Zak Laughed". I like this slow version much better than the original power rock of The Strokes.

Armes, trafic et raison d'État

2008-09-06T15:45:00.000+02:00

If you so speack french then I strongly invite you to see this great documentary on war arms travelling around the world (available online only for a few more days).
It points out the role of NGO, government, smugglers and the ONU.
It also remembers you, that your computer, your cellphone and your television are full of children's blood.

Modern life

2008-09-01T10:30:00.000+02:00

(Spending time in internet searching for something better)

Pastel de Choclo made in France

2008-08-28T18:50:00.000+02:00

Last week, during a short trip to the "Pays Basque" in the south west of France I got to realise a secret desire of mine: cooking a Pastel de Choclo.
The Pastel de Choclo is a plate that Chilean consider Chilean and it is without doubt one my favourite non seafood food. In Chile you get to eat it in restaurants, or you can buy them in food stores or even as frozen food. In France, well it is a little harder (although I guess Chilean restaurants offer it).
It had been a few months already that I wanted to "give it a try", but in my apartment I do not have the necessary tools (in particular I do not have an oven), and I was not confident enough to ask another person's kitchen to make a mess over a plate I had never cooked, or seen cooked.

Anyway, during my trip I stayed at home of a "friend of friend" where other "friends of friends" where staying too. Part of the game was to help cooking, and in an fuzzy sequence of events I got to be in charge of cooking, for the first in my life, Pastel de Choclo for 20 people. I admit that the situation put quite some stress on me, but finally things ended "good enough", everyone got feed and the end result was close enough to the "true pastel".

I have to say that I was not alone in the quest and I should thank Francesco, Caroline and Sean that provided crucial help during the preparation (actually I was mainly in charge of supervising and taking decisions).

So, on request of the attendants, here comes the "Rodrigo's recipe for Pastel de Choclo made in France".

The basic ingredients are Corn, Meat, Basil and Onions. To that you will add eggs, dry raisins, black olives, milk, sugar and other spices (up to your desires).
I got to make food for 20 persons, so my proportions are a little off. But overall you want to have "half corn half meat", the rest is decoration.

The corn should be fresh cooked corn, but we used canned corn and it was good enough.
The meat is traditionally a mix of meat, with beef as main element, and then chicken and other mixed in (up to the cook desires). Traditionally the chicken would be grilled to get a better taste, and it would be embedded in the plate as a single piece with bones included. In our case we used simple minced beef and sliced chicken breast. Two third of beef, one third of chicken seems a reasonable proportion.
The onions are to add taste, a reasonable proportion is one onion per 100g of meat (not all of it will go into the meat).
The basil is for taste too, add as much as your taste tells you is fine (do not be shy).
One egg per 100g of meat seems a reasonable proportion.

Let's start the preparation. You have to prepare four separate elements that will converge in the plate that will go in the oven: the mashed corn mix, the beef, the chicken and the eggs.

Take all of your cooked corn and mash it (we used a machine for this). You want to obtain a mix with the consistence of a thick purée. Keep it aside.
Take all of your chicken, slice it and cook it (uses spices as you desire). Do not cook it too much since all of it will pass a few more minutes in the oven at the end.
Take all of your eggs and boil them.
Now take your onions chop them in small portions and cook them slowly with chopped basil (warning: basil cooks faster than onions). Half the way of the cooking, split it in one third and two third.
Cook your minced beef with the largest portion of onions and basil. Again do not cook it too much, since it will go into the oven too.
Finish to cook the smallest portion of onions and basil separately, until it is "good to eaten by itself".
Time to finish the mashed corn mix. Take the small portion of chopped onions and basil that you just cook and mix it in a pot with the corn purée. Put the pot on slow fire and mix everything (and keep mixing to avoid burning the purée). Now you can add some milk to control the thickness of the mix, you do not want it too thick or it will be to dry to eat, you do not want it too liquid or you wont get a nice result. In our case, the canned corn without water gave an almost perfect texture by them self, I just added a little of milk. You can also add a little of sugar and spices up to your desire.

Great ! So now you have cooked eggs, chicken, beef and corn purée.

Take a big plate/tray (which is the correct English word ?) that may go into the oven. Traditionally, the Pastel de Choclo would be prepared in individual clay pots, but we will do it all in a big tray.

Start by mixing your chicken, your beef meat, some dry raisins and black olives (amount of raising and olives up to the cook, do not be too shy on the dry raisins). Lay all of it on the tray.
Now chop your boiled eggs in circular slices and put them on top of the mix of meat.
Now take your corn purée and use it to cover all the meat (and sliced eggs).
Finally add a pinch of sugar on top of the corn purée (important detail).
Put your tray into a oven at 180 degrees Celcius for around 20 minutes (a little more, a little less, you decide). You want the meat to be the cooked, the corn to be slightly toasted.

The overall taste, with the corn, sugar and raisins should be a contrast of sweet with taste of the meat, then the basil should appear, followed by a smooth touch of onion. Of course the main flavour still is "corn with meat".

I hope the instructions were clear enough for you.

Enjoy !
(and give it a shot someday to eat in Chile the real thing...)

From Paris to Beijing in 161 days

2008-08-28T17:37:00.001+02:00

I have noticed in the past that in some circles of persons I tend to become tagged as a "crazy guy". One of the good things of being a "crazy guy" is that you get to meet other "crazy guys". To my great pleasure I have come to know people travelling around the world, taking two years long vacations, biking all across China, spending one year of more of they life in poor and remote locations teaching, people inventing the next generation of cancer treatments, HIV treatment, and so on.
Today (a little late) I would like to present a special one.
One of the professors at my current lab is an "ultramarathonist". "Ultrawhat ?" you say ? Well it is a guy that likes running, a lot. Like "Forest Gump a lot". His name is Phillipe Fusch. Most of the time he is a dedicated researcher in virtual reality.
For the Olympic Games of Barcelona 1992 he run from Paris to Barcelona, bare foots. For the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 he run from Paris to Athens, bare foots. And this year, for the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008 he run, from Paris to Beijing, bare foots !

Sounds crazy ? Well it is just human.
You can read all about this incredible adventure here and read the news of its arrival here.

True or false ?

2008-08-24T19:41:00.000+02:00

From gapingvoid.com

Beyond the good and the evil

2008-08-13T06:56:00.000+02:00

Since the dawn of conscience

2008-08-11T23:11:00.002+02:00

About the importance of protecting the "ethnosphere".

2008-07-30T09:07:00.000+02:00

Somehow, editing the thesis is resulting a much more painful experience that writing the first drafts. A small sacrifice for a larger purpose.

Thinking about the next 5000 days

2008-07-29T16:36:00.000+02:00

"""
We have to get better at believing in the impossible
"""
Kevin Kelly

Song of the day

2008-07-25T13:52:00.000+02:00

Do I ?