OpenSource: To Thrive

Putting the finishing touches to our latest paper on money and tokenisation in recent days coincided with my discussion with the PHA about how to manage growth, in which I was encouraging the “core team” to embrace self-organisation and opensource methodology.

Subsequent questions, from my local PHA Hub and others about the significance and power of opensource, instigated this tour of the opensource way.

The paper on Direct Value Handling we just published says: “By Alex Nikolov and Clive Menzies”, but Alex and I are merely trying to communicate where the self-organising, opensource methodology has led us. The paper itself represents the synthesis and distillation of many people’s work across many different disciplines, accumulated and processed over the last 11 years, that draws on historic and contemporary research, analysis and ideas from multiple perspectives, from a diverse range of sources.

We don’t claim “ownership” of the analysis or ideas because they are derived from the opensource methodology.

The opensource way starts with SELF

The Self is the fundamental building block of self-organising, distributed, autonomous but interdependent organisation (DABIO – not sure what I think about that as an acronym?)

Self (autonomous but interdependent)

The following image of the Tarot illustrates the two higher (of four) levels of the microcosm or self.

Having operated in the dominant environment of masculine logic in the physical realm for most of my life, the Tarot has taught me the need to balance masculine logic with feminine intuition, in both the spiritual and physical realms.

Tree of Life, the two highest levels

Briefly, we are le fou (fool) navigating the world that we barely comprehend or appreciate.

Our aim is to become the le Bateleur (magician or number 1); if we claim to be magicians, we are but fools.

The magician represents our unification with universal consciousness, the highest level of “being”.

The magician encompasses or draws on the attributes of the next four characters.
The numerical order is instructive:

  • Feminine intuition of the spiritual realm is represented by la Papesse (priestess, number 2).
  • Ranking more or less alongside her is l’Imperatrice (empress, number 3) – feminine intuition of the physical realm

The triangular configuration of le Bateleur, la Papesse and l’Imperatice governs our (highest) spiritual “self” in the microcosm.

At the next level we have:

  • l’Empereur (emperor, number 4) – masculine logic in the physical realm
  • le Pape (priest or hierophant, number 5) – masculine logic applied to the spiritual realm

Number 6 is l’Amoureux (lovers) – love is the overriding principle of the universe and circulates within universal consciousness to which we are all connected whether we believe it or not.

The triangle of cards 4, 5 and 6 represent the next level of our being. If the first level is the spiritual plane then this is the next level down towards our physical being that is level four. We’ll leave levels three and four for a later article. We might usefully refer to this second level as the “soul” level.

When recording information or thinking about how to present something in a talk or article, I use mind maps (See HOWTO Process). This article took shape in three mind maps, the second was this one:

Balance

The mind map at the top of the page reflects the teachings of the Tarot. To seek balance is one of the highest priorities, reflected throughout the Tarot. I’ve written other articles that provide Tarot “context” – click on the word “Tarot” in the tag cloud on the right hand side of the page to see them.

The piece at the bottom refers to the current trend towards self-organisation to solve our problems rather than appealing to the structure for justice, help etc. As we turn our individual and collective attention away from the structure and its deviance, its power declines… while we continue to thrive.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ – Sun Tzu

Opensource In Action

The first mind map I drew that began to shape this article comes next. It shows some of the more easily identifiable groups or sources in my opensource network and circles of trust that have helped me on my journey of discovery.

Some of Clive’s opensource network

Alex and I collaborate in some of these networks together. One such is the Digital Currency Global Initiative (DCGI) – a joint project of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland and Stamford University in the US. DCGI involves representatives from central banks, supranational government bodies, crypto firms and consultants, DeFi (decentralised finance) specialists and many others. The paper has been submitted for presentation to the various DCGI working groups: Policy, Architecture and Security.

We have worked together since 2012 starting with the Critical Thinking project that also involved Eddie with whom we work on the Invisible Universe project. Alex and Eddie are very much part of my “family”; we often spend time together in Mother’s Cafe, at the London School of Mosaic, and other environments. For example, yesterday, the three of us were engaged in discussion with students at the Architectural Association who’ve started a materials exchange in the school as part of the LAWuN project that Eddie runs with David Greene.

There is much more that I could write about my rich network of “soul mates” and mutual interest groups but suffice to say that we couldn’t have produced such a pivotal paper without all those highlighted and many more. My “family” includes many who’ve been involved in the Critical Thinking network that extends internationally.

Reclaimers deserves a mention because while it only started in June this year, it has already greatly expanded my “family” while growing my confidence and awareness to resist having my energy and resources harvested by the structure (Council Tax, PCNs, Debt, Utilities etc.). I’ve already mentioned the People’s Health Alliance and our local hub, where again the people I meet and work with are warm, caring and now part of my loving “family”.

Elsie’s cafe has been an oasis of sanity amid the lockdown madness and beyond. Run by the irrepressible Karl, Elsie’s is the place to meet, learn, share ideas and have fun. There’s a music evening on there tonight with a rich line up of performers. “Family” entertainment.

Yesterday, our local PHA group hosted Bo who talked about bio-resonance and frequency technologies for diagnosis and treatments. His encyclopedic knowledge and derived wisdom comes from his own journey of discovery, drawing on his opensource network. I’ve not assimilated enough of this wisdom nor accumulated sufficient references to share anything meaningful on bio-resonance itself just yet but the next mind map provides an indication of the potential expansion of networks for learning more and sharing the information in accordance with the process.

Bo’s BioResonance talk at PHA Edmonton/Enfield

Bo emphasised that dis-ease or ill-health arises when something in our system is out of balance. As in everything else, if we seek good health, we must balance our nutrition and lifestyle. So much of our health is governed by our emotional state that seeking balance in our awareness is paramount.

Principles

Self-organisation and opensource require Principles and we try to adhere to those laid out in the CoCreative Learning website:

Opensource is the foundation of liberating information technology that is a double-edge sword. What people fear is that having colonised much of this technology, the structure could use it to control and cull the human population in unprecedented fashion.

It has become apparent this year that the plan for total control is failing.

Self-organisation is already displacing the power of “command and control” mechanisms and is evident in the networks and groups described here and resonating globally. We just need to keep doing what we’re already doing and we cannot help but thrive as individuals, families and as a species.