LIFESCIENCE: organic political economic morality

[Trevor <tebatt@dds.nl>]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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It is perhaps interesting as we move towards the second millennium to
contemplate the image of us re-entering the dark ages as the barbaric nomadic
tribes of corporate capitalism bang on the gates of the "civilized" Roman
Empire of "law" and "order".

So after all that time the basic game seems relatively unchanged. What a waste
of time! Or is it impossible to escape these "Basic Processes"?

If we are busy rethinking science and art -indeed, we should not forget the
economy:

-Are there different types of economy?
-Are we in an economy of pleanty or an economy of shortage?
-Does "economy" generate wealth or does it simply distribute wealth?

Gradually the (western) universe has evolved from being composed of gods to
God to clocks to steam machines to computers to bionic matter.

Now we must learn to think organically (in terms of (semi-?)closed ecologies
of interconnected chaotic systems).

It is not -"us (or them) for or against the environment" -but "we (and them)
are the
environment" !

So can we reduce these problems to the following equation:

{ My Interests + Your Interests = OUR INTERESTS }

-and look for "Game Theoretical" solutions?


A few Positive Thoughts:

-If someone puts a gun to your head, there is generally little point in asking
them to think of your wife and kids, it is generally wiser to inform them of
the big guy with the machine gun standing behind them!

-Any disease which kills its victims is essentially committing suicide!

-The richer (stronger, healthier) a population is, the more money there is to
be earned from them.

-In many cases it is our banks, our insurance companies and our pension
schemes which own the companies which exploit us.


A few Negative Thoughts:

-(Western) "Economic Theory" only seems to have become anti-social because of
the theories of population growth introduced by Thomas Malthus, so the
"environmental" issue may possibly be not the solution but the cause of the
problem!

-If our fantasies are part of the "reality equation" (as it seems they are)
then perhaps we should indeed learn to exercize a little discipline in our
(scientific, artistic and economic) fantasies: remember those childhood
stories with the three wishes?

Poor King Midas!

Happy Days! (or Happy Daze?)

trevor



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