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Thursday 26 March 2009

Energy Survey

This week I have concentrated ion the energy survey. The energy survey project has to goal of assessing the resource in Europe to see whether or not we have the resource base to establish a full technate. So far we have conducted a survey of the solar potential of Europe which shows that Europe has the capacity to produce all its energy needs from solar energy. Currently I am working on the next step of the survey; food production and consumption.

I have collect date for the food part and I have started on putting the data together. I do have some problems with the data as a consumption category does not all ways match with a production category, like "grapes" in production and "wine" in consumption. So I'm having to do the best I can to match consumption with production. Despite a few problems, the data does appear at this point in time to show that Europe has the capacity to produce its own food with the exeption of some more luxury items such as coffee.

Thursday 19 March 2009

Oil Algae

I had a meeting yesterday with a microbiologist and she was very helpful giving advice on algae that I could use for my oil algae experiments. She recommended either Rhodomonas Sp, Chlamydomouas or Scendesmus as good starign algae. They all grow in frees water and I should have no trouble growing them. She has also given me contact information to talk to some other scientist who might help.

Oil algae has an interest to NET as we aim for a sustainable solution to today's problems due to our current socioeconomic system as it allows us to produce bio-diesel in less area than other crops for more oil. Thus presenting a better solution than today's distructive means of producing bio-diesel.

Monday 16 March 2009

Zeitgeist in Umeå

Last night NET conducted a showing of the second Zeitgeist film, Zeitgeist Addendum, at Umeå University in Sweden. The event went really well, despite some technical problems at the start. We had 15 people there and most where really interested in the film and stayed for a discussion afterwards.

Although NET doesn't form part of the Zeitgeist movement we do have a lot in common. We share a common evaluation of the money system and the unsuitability of such a system. We aim to move away from today's destructive money based system towards a sustainable moneyless system that balances our needs with the eco-system. We also share common ground with the Venus Project, although we do have our differences and we tend to concentrate more on scientific verification and implemnetaion ideas. NET has had involvement with TVP for a number of years and we have regualrly shown "Futuer by Design" at Umeå University.

Sunday 15 March 2009

Hydroponics

This weekend just gone I managed to get my hydroponics experiment set up. This year I will just grow lettuce. Hydroponics becomes interesting from a sustainability perspective because it allows us to grow food where we would not have the ability other wise. We could grow food in the cities, thus cutting down on transportation, and grow food vertically, thus cutting down on the need for extra land, without having soil and its associated problems (such as disease). Most hydroponics utilises pumps to circular the nutrient solution. I have the purpose of investigating a low energy solution for hydroponics which involves using a reservoir that I fill up at weekly intervals. The liquid then slowly leaks into a box containing a growing medium and plants.

In addition, I have also started exploring geodesic domes again. I have the intention to exam how the angles work through building a small wooden dome. I also have an appointment with a micro biologists this coming Wednesday to talk about oil algae and the Umeå group has a showing of Zeitgeist II this evning.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Proto-technate update

The proto-technate forms an experimental platform for technocracy and a stepping stone towards a future hi-tech sustainable moneyless society. As we plan to implement it so far involves the construction of a network of communities and a set of interface companies we, in Umeå, have started working on building up the interface companies.

The aim to embed the proto-technate within the current socioeconomic system but to operate internally with an alternative socioeconomic system based on energy credits. The interface companies have the purpose of interacting with the out side omoney world.

Our first attempt to form an company takes the form of a translation company. We have some degree of experitise in that area here in Umeå. At the moment I am working on the business plan and making some progress. If all goes well I hope to have a draft copy ready for next week.

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Monday 9 March 2009

Energy Credit Sim


I have done some more work on the energy credit sim. I have now implemented all the classes so its just a case of linking it all together and getting to work. When I have done that I will make the code public and we can all have a look at it. We want to look at what does it do and what do we want to get from it.

The idea behind the energy credit sim has to do with simulating a resourced based economy that uses energy accounting as a means of resource allocation. Although the idea was proposed many decades ago not one has done any serious work in investigating whether or not this system will work. So, though simulation we hope to show that the system can work and also to see what kinds of problems might occur in such a system.

Energy accounting forms our proposal for replacing money. We (NET) argues that any sustainable socioeconomic system can not use money as money leads to system that doesn't balance with nature. We only have to look at the profit and greed in our current system to see the destruction that results in our world. Allocating resources based on what we physically have forms part of a way for us to balance our needs with the ecosystem. We would no longer have the profit motive nor the ability to "get rich", thus we could build products to last, reduce demand and reduce our impact on the world.