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Open Spectrum: Toward Ubiquitous Connectivity
obiwan2u writes "ACM's Queue magazine has a moderately dense article describing how new intelligent radios may free up under-utilized spectrum bandwidth, possibly providing solutions to the
last mile bottleneck."
If you live in the wilderness, is getting broadband really a priority?
Sure. I used to live in the wilderness of Brooklyn. Now I'm in a New England town of 3000. Had to find a place with a DSL connection as good as I had there. Managed to. I get the same 35ms pings to Manhattan I used to. If I could be even more rural and get those pings, I just might. I do remote administration for clients in Manhattan. Also have some servers here. This works as well as being in Brooklyn, the living costs are a hell of a lot cheaper, and the beauty ain't bad.
Part of why the wild stuff isn't well enough defended is it's "far away from civilization." Put it inside civilization, and maybe we'll take better care of it. Having it inside, means having civilization's nervous system extend thoroughly through it. There's no reason for civilization to be limited to artificially dense puddles of muck, nor for it to have as its other option suburban sterility. The wilder our civilization gets, the greater its ecological subtlety, and the more impregnable in a multitude of dimensions to assault from one-dimensional fundamentalists, whether Islamic, Bush League, or the next misfortune on the world stage.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Consensus in Aristocratic and Confucian Social Roles:
Ethical relations between the citizen and the society
Harmony throughout social and political strata is a main concern in many traditions and ethical systems throughout the world. Its capture on the intellectual and layperson can be understood in its immediate relevance. How ought one behave within society, and through what scope? What benefits would compliance entail, and what reciprocal action could one receive? Questions such as these illustrate underlying thoughts and ideas people have towards relationships between the individual and the society. In western ideas, it is between citizen and the populous, and to some extent, heaven itself. In eastern traditions, it is the interaction between the individual and the cosmos. Strikingly similar, this paper intends to discuss parallels between eastern and western thoughts on such topics, and ultimately strengthen a developing ethical system based on concessions between the two theories. In developing such a theory, one may hope that, in a practical sense, it may find expedient application in the modern world.
Aristotle believed in an ethical system of virtue, that proper action is initiated only due to the agent being ethical. In addition, Aristotle believed in actions being judged as fair or unfair based on his concept of Justice, in which one's action toward another is judged just/unjust by means of an Aristocratic proportion of merit. The connection, Aristotle posits, between the two concepts is that just actions are a result of the practice of perfect virtue. Aristotle states that a virtuous man and a keeper of the law is just. Thus Aristotle places an appropriate scope of Justice and Virtue in that there is a context of law in considering just and unjust actions. It is important to point out that by law, one can include legislature as well as natural/social laws. Therefore, the context of law may be synonymous with a context of society. Concluding from a previous essay, justice follows from an inclination to be virtuous and corresponding duties, within an appropriate social backdrop, the social Context. Note that there is no threat to dissolving into a relativistic system, as the system is objectively supported by a priori virtues as well as corresponding duties.
A student of Confucianism should immediately draw parallels between this Aristocratic Context and the teachings of Confucius and later disciples. Confucius advocates the idea of jen, virtue of humanness, to be the standard of all ethical behavior. In fact, Confucius believes jen to be the "perfect virtue," from which other virtues take shape. Through this and yi, which one may interpret as ethical principles of action, one may accomplish moral behavior, a ritualistic mode of interaction with others known as li. Accomplishing li, via jen and yi, an individual effects the social strata, ultimately dismissing the entropy of the cosmos. Structured around the people and within these strata, Confucius details the construction of a Jen-Government, lead by kingly figures, promoting and honoring jen, yi and li within individuals and their actions. The effective mark of the individual on his social environment is detailed within both the Aristocratic theory and Confucian tradition, and through an examination of the parallel between the Aristocratic Context and Confucian Jen-Government, a harmonious fusion can be determined, and applied nicely to the modern world.
In his teachings, Confucius detailed the concept of jen as perfect virtue, or the virtue of humanness. Far from detailing a idealist stance, Confucius believed that in the attempt to become like that which is superior, one initiates a cycle of jen based virtues, a similar note to Aristotle's habituation of virtue. Also similar to western virtue ethics is Confucius's identification of the inherent goodness of the mean path. The Confucian Doctrine of the Mean details the good of the middle way, stating,
"Perfect is the virtue which is according to the mean. They have
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