Bridge, not too far.

Implications of engaging the linguistic bridge for the comparisons now had real teeth. The idea that cultures, as reflected in their languages, were predisposed to assume nefarious intent in a culture other than their own could be put to a test of unprecedented objectivity.

Irrational assumptions feeding predatory behavior was as old as society itself. Each new layer of communication sophistication mitigated the consequences but its destructive effect stubbornly persisted. Once the pattern had been successfully encoded by the machine for itself a whole new perspective and collective thought began to emerge.

As he reached the top of the ridge, he could just barely see through the new foliage the industrial activity on the river. Though the sound of what was happening was faint, it too could be interpreted with effort in the forest context. A legendary space within a cities' limits where the well maintained trails and occasional sign was all that was consciously added by 'civilization'.

Objectivity as a relative term in a universe of subjectivity. Building objects of every conceivable size and duration made easy by the magnificent artifacts of a self-referencing species in the process of creating.

To kick down the door, had no meaning here. No doors anywhere close, nor the need for such an artifact in the vicinity. No feeling that something was intentionally hidden, no deception. But is it not fair to say that risk being absent meant opportunity was distant?

She wanted to come here again. He remembered, their trips before were vivid in his memory. That time preceded the project and the nameless bloom.

A Step Outside

Was admonished years ago to think big. So, here goes:

What if we bifurcated the population in a common way such that roughly half whose power was ostensibly far less (at least directly) and suggested to them to exercise there influence in an out-of-control sector of our economy from the inside? We could point out to them that their long-term interests are served by doing so since even being on the inside is now clearly unsustainable? Appeal to their considerable individual and collective intellect by speaking to there highly honed instincts. Perhaps to their leaders, especially those who have overcome considerable odds and adversity?

Inductive Recursion

It was nice to reduce it to just two words. The variety of reactions to the stumbling never-the-same descriptions was becoming something of an embarrassment. The new candidate made it a lot easier for him to just blurt it out. Nice.

Two events, just today supporting the Inclusionary Security model. Coffee with one, online news for the other. Inflammatory headlines the order of the day to keep stoking the fires of scrutiny diversion did not hide the subtle, though many would have thought it might.

"It is a story, sliding from fiction into fact over time.", he explained. And now as he recorded the high level structure on which to build the new wisdom he listened carefully.

Happiness is the awareness that there is nearly an unlimited capacity to give. Take it on secular faith that all that is necessary to help bring it to fruition is at one's disposal. Displeasure as guide posts to avoid less than optimal paths rather than something far less productive.

All three share a space and a frame of mind from time to time. Each of a unique ego type (duh). In that unstructured environment needing exceptional tolerance to circumvent that ever present human trait - "if I don't understand, someone is to blame".

Nice if it could be reduced to something as 'elegant' as mathematics. Even the best of mathematicians knew that it was simply not enough to seek safety from life in something that could be proved. And history, long history had the same limitation. That one's smile was a flag that his … frustration … was being transformed. And the third? Well let's find out, shall we?

Staycation

Rock Monster, drag chair and physicist party animal. What a life, he mused. Can't remember anything sweeter than life after near death. As if born again (with all due respect to any and everyone who deserves it). If I were a carpenter, or a disk jockey back in the day, would you still love me? And thank you, dear, for having my baby.

Delivering a sentiment of that … Day of gratitude. We will have to do this more often, he promised himself. Sun peaks out after a cool hard shower and the light sparkles from babies all clean from their bath. Winter's promise … Spring.

Perhaps doting in silence would be less annoying. Not his intent but the buck should stop at his place anyway. Yes, its about me and you need not read. Because others, after all, do it better and I learn from them. Help me see how they do it and I will do my best to reciprocate.

There is a parade at the soup today. Its an inside joke. You are welcome to join us.

Breakdown Fix

These interactions took on an entirely new life when the machine mediated. Though that was clearly the early intent he, and to his knowledge, the others were simply blown away at the difference it made in just 6 months.

What happened today served to solidify the conclusion that something very tangible was happening. The control and test groups were chosen because of the qualitative interface rather than the quantitative to support the new paradigm. The new ability to pull signals out of the noise, even decoy noise, meant that efforts at cognitive bio-mimicry were very promising.

Synchronizing serial and parallel biased sub-systems a la. the corpus callosum, the high value traffic bridge in this case. It was and is relatively easy to see why just tossing them in the blender would be to regress. Having a sufficient reverence for the structure and dynamic to bridge them could be best gleaned from observing nature's related inventions.

Of the several critical dimensions, level of abstraction (heirachical context) seemed to be the most important at the time of the debrief. Data compression to support this function is often critical to its success. The trick is not to inadvertently throw away something of value to its use in the context. That seemed to be exactly what was in play here.

He was not certain though. The machine's recent measured average latency for this kind of issue was 48 to 72 hours. Two responses that arrived just today confirmed this. One a machine mediated reply from a very large, cutting-edge organic entitity and another to the system pattern monitor showing intended wavelet synchronization occurred.

"You were right, it worked. See?"

She was out of breath from her run and just nodded her head in acknowledgement.

Te

Naming follows function. Function is emergent. Emergent cannot be precisely explicit a priori. Yet, there are patterns that increase the probability of prediction by constraining plausible outcomes.

The sequence was difficult to encode with the library as it was then. As is often the case, many of the machine's state-changers required a specificity that would render their generic application a no-op.

The stumbling block? One is hard pressed to define anything usefully by mostly describing what it is not. This seeming paradox and the resultant vulnerability was the front the competition chose for their assault.

The saving grace, so-to-speak, was the implicit part of their community - the nameless connections that are mostly felt, of necessity. Once put to use, they are often successfully named and then the considerable resources needed to do so are released for future growth.

"Yes, that is close to why and how it works.", she explained. "But, as you can see, merely communicating it in a formal way compromises its efficacy."

"I am beginning to see."

Lets Play Radio

As some of you know, I am a student of the communications revolution (with apologies to all who consider that inflammatory rhetoric). Through a concerted effort to 'friend' a relatively small number of individuals that span some pivotal dimensions (age, right/left political, gender, economic etc.) I now have a robust network in place. Using the new organizational technologies in concert with face-to-face interaction, I am able to productively engage our species in a way I never dreamed possible.

Even my creative friends in newspaper, radio and TV have expressed envy in how I am able to do this from the couch at home and select coffee shops. For example, a few friends have reached the pinnacle of radio, morning hosts in major markets and/or syndication. They 'earn' 6 or more digit incomes for working a few hours a day, five days a week. For much of my life, I wanted to go there.

Why, given the options that kind of money implies would they envy me? Money does not constrain this old geezer. The most amazing part of this story is that these low cost tools, collaborators, and a quality of actual caring about each individual's health that can only come from deep friendship are available to EVERYONE. In fact, a wandering friend (you know who you are), got me started. The more who join in using these resources for compassion, the better it gets for each of us.

It may confuse the self-appointed 'leaders' from time to time but I sure do see a sincere smiling face when I look in the mirror. I derive great joy from trying to export what I have discovered.

Short Handed

Fragile health was a handicap they needed to deal with from inception. The term fragile was vague in this case, to put it mildly. The lesson to them from the experience, attention to the connections that related to adaptability more than made up for the risk.

With him out of the picture, the crew would rely more on procedure support rather than explicit delegation. It was the nature of the mission that contingencies could not be anticipated (like other rapidly evolving tasks). The extra layer of indirection was required because their activities happened in parallel and certain necessary interaction between them largely emergent.

The long awaited flood of trusting candor was now bearing fruit. Unexpected emergencies were turned into practice drills with highly probable positive outcomes. And the monitor log was recording not only the raw sensor data but the real-time inductive speculation.

For purposes of realistic simulation, his interaction would be responsive but he would not initiate in the normal way. He gazed at the monitor looking for clues from the unnamed pattern visualizer.

"Something unique … no doubt.", he concluded as she joined him in the control room.

"Our field operations person is suggesting we be more explicit. What do you think?"

"Your call, of course. It is not the first time."

Crypto-analytic Factor

Beware, some suspicious activity relating to BecauseTheNameIsTaken.com has been logged. Because of an embarrassingly careless registration process, the author is not in current control of the site. Further, certain key elements that could be co-opted for a competing agenda will need upgraded protection (and careful monitoring in the meantime). To the author's knowledge, so far, the damage is only a nuisance. As of this time, it is not clear how to extricate the mission of this blog (and its sister BuzzerLog) from future exposure to parties opposed to the mission specifically or to freedom more generally. This also applies to just about anything in between.

What is known so far: at least two parties known for nefarious internet behavior have their metaphorical fingerprints on the evidence gathered to date. Rest assured that deeply resourceful individuals and entities have an acute interest in what is going on. The process of fully engaging them has been initiated.

I think it fair to say that the silver-lining to this recent development is that an application of the Inclusion Security model (as disclosed earlier) is being robustly tested as I write this. Recall that its basic premise is that the best security is derived through friends (rather than isolation, weapons, gates etc.)

With a little luck and diligence we will learn, hopefully, as fast as our friends at Google, Facebook, Apple and BarackObama.com. Thank you for your support. Look for ongoing updates here.

Cool as Vulnerable

"We may have stumbled upon a domestic operation. Enough suspicious activity has been detected to elevate it to 'probable' status. Our connection may not be visible. It could be a legacy account that has been overlooked."

Messages of this type were rare these days. Not that the threat had gone away, far from it. It was that cloaking methods had evolved to such high sophistication that the old detection techniques were rendered all but obsolete. Except in the case where daemons and the like were running unnoticed. And that, in turn, exposed a port.

The biologic precedent (there always is one) could have gone by several names in the past. For some reason, Freudian Slip came to mind. At a certain level of complexity and organization, the managing entity can no longer control low-level detail. Delegation ensues. Checks and balances can be put in place but are always less than perfect at preventing unwanted access. Reasons vary from near random to coincidental.

Especially vulnerable are those who harvest the vulnerabilities of others, organizations and/or individuals. If that is the case here, the induction pattern library could be put to very good use. The friendly approach is to dispassionately repair or remove the dysfunctional entity and do it without the judgement baggage.

"With a little help from my friends." the Lennon-McCartney lyric played in his head as he chuckled.

Day at the Office

"Storyboard nearly ready, I would say.", he told the man who would make visual the decode to this point.

They were clearly beyond speculation and ready to try their collective chops. Their chosen medium somewhat famous for its history of generating value largely apart from strict accounting the old fashioned way.

Voice-over narrative perhaps morphing into a female vocalist … Guitar and rhythm of a spellbinding song that served as a monument to a short life well-lived. Light and dark from the same basic document. The view from a community into opportunity. No more largess into uncertainty.

Standing in front of symbol of sacrifice, addressing a spell bound constituency. Less compelling now that what was happening outside no longer seemed to confirm that which was claimed inside. Invisible sponsors finding it ever more difficult to manufacture perception. Time to find a new gig fellows.

Listen ever closer to the new source of wisdom relayed on the latest vehicle. Fitting that it started near the beach. Shipping patterns of electrons so much cheaper than shipping things with larger mass. We live in a physical world, make it local, it is the organic way. But too, we are immersed in a world of interactive ideas. Importing and exporting wisdom won't hurt us so much as that other stuff.

Dive

A time to reflect on his origins related to the mission. His gratitude for the opportunity to participate had come into sharp focus since linking through the machine. This silent period could only support introspection and, as a result, produced insights of a remarkable nature. The images were likely to be much clearer this time.

Serendipitous that health issues (both perceptive and physical) converged with economic decline to create a climate conducive to subtle confidence. As if to say, "lose these intoxicants at least long enough to realize bliss is natural."

Escaping from a beautiful home to 'resorts' to feel alone in the presence of his most intimate partner and waste a universal symbol of well being so as to render it inconsequential. "If I can just be secure from an uncertain future, then I can be content.". To think that there was a time when such things made sense. He shook his head.

A seemingly short time left to make something truly valuable for the survivors. Hurry. Well, no. That had been tried with dismal results. Well surely desperation, no pain - no gain. Not really, a near mindless emotion with a staggering wake of grief. Ah then ritual, participants won't be arguing with each other if they are doing something together. I don't think so, we already breath the same air together what more ritual do we need?

"And just who is we? For that matter who am I?" Owner, boss, citizen of a lucky nation. No, something much more. There is no answer expressible in a word, sentence, paragraph, book, … Knowing this produced the serenity that could not have been bought or controlled. And, frankly, he was hard pressed to know how he could see this until the noise of his ego was nearly starved and suffocated into submission.

The man was young enough to be his son. A dreamer with a practical bent. Dependent on a bridge into the mist leading to a place he knew not where. This man was someone he could relate to more than most and a dear friend. His mind's eye flipped through the album of those initial years recalling the significant milestones of discovery ...

Brief History

The data suggests the 'other side' has very special meaning. If the incoming light trajectory is precisely aligned with the center, the virtual path is a single straight line that exists on both sides.

Cosmic events of this type occur frequently. Further they are 'visible' to us. We have only to choose a harmonic of the trigger point and frequency. Once phase lock occurs the opportunity window stays open until uncertainty accumulates to the dropout threshold.

"We will need to wait for the auto-paramaterization to complete. Shall we get some air?"

She did not answer … verbally. More and more, he looked to her eyes when expecting a reply. Her acknowledgements, while always nuanced, fascinated him more lately.

Change Primitive

We could focus on the less-than-optimal behavior of a few and try neutralize it. I am of a mind that empowering the friendly part of the many is a smarter way to go. Evidence of this as a successful model abounds. Rest assured, we are going there … fear not.

Qualitative Universe

The discipline to avoid mathematics and therefore rigid deterministic proof was confusing and frustrating at first. But the exercise clearly engaged the empirical verification they sought. Because the large data set was not available before, the method had not occurred to those who could best put it to use, much less anybody else.

"… closer to the event horizon than our calculations would have us believe …"

Back to Source

"Recall that the design called for protection that makes it only marginally easier for us to access the target rather than an intruder. With the detection perimeter constantly monitoring the immediate area and dynamically morphing its methodology, most if not virtually all known methods of unauthorized access will be thwarted. What authorizes us is anonymous consensus and the multi-level indirection key. The latter is not known to any single individual but its components reside in a recoverable domain. This robust cloak gives us a limited time window. Our estimate tonight is that we will have just a few seconds more than five minutes to access the pilot.", he concluded his recitation of the preparatory statement.

"On my signal, we will go dark to the outside and proceed to the port.", she looked at the current time and marked it.

Early in the project it was clear that sophisticated structural noise, the result of persistent design by highly competent individuals was essentially a given, "Because its there." The primary mission was to isolate the pilot from both adversarial and friendly analysis for a period of time. The secondary mission was to monitor access attempts over that time while gradually 'leaking' the perimeter's design secrets. This time, they were no longer blind to the leaders' agendas on the other side.

The drill began. The five member team, one by one, boarded the tram in near darkness. Only the faint glow of LEDs to guide their way. Once on board, she gave the signal. The eery silence was metaphorically deafening.

Which Beginning?

Funny sometimes what we remember. It was a heady time for a kid in his early '20s. A generation found voice in a re-invented medium. Art with a very visible unified purpose as an ancient savage ritual was replaying on a stage visible to a war weary world.

The distribution mechanism was aural and of the one-to-many type. With a diminished but nevertheless pivotal roll for imagination. Building a platform that nearly reaches but does not touch conscious awareness a very effective means of eliciting the feeling of ownership and thereby forming community. Applied now for a legacy mission that, thankfully, preceded, those developed for a war machine.

Only recently did they discover the utter foolishness of beginning with what on first look appeared to be valid primitives. Morphing a non-sequitur framework in hopes of achieving a fundamental breakthrough?

So is it any surprise that the initial conditions have so much meaning in 'chaotic' phenomena? End effects have a set of patterns that seemingly emerged with consciousness. But together we need not be constrained by something invented for our understanding?

Comrade

Still early in the season, spectacular colorful displays of life beginning punctuated by cold, dark windy nights and days. From this temporal angle one could better imagine boundaries in the higher cognitive regions.

Mood as measurement rather than dictator. What a relief to be free of that oppression. Worth the considerable effort required to sustain freedom. An ongoing task to prune the weed connections grown to survive in a hostile, unfriendly environment.

The stagnation caused by underutilized growth mechanisms provided a fertile ground for short term exploitation. And the atomic fools gathered to use there skills against the very system that made them possible.

Silos breeding shallow bridges. Perception does not a foundation make. The TV generation. One way, privileged controlling the information flow. Efficient noise generator and common language propagator. Interactive with more reasonable asymmetry though clearly far superior in theory hard pressed to overcome a mindless momentum borne of technological constraint.

"You know we can't go there, there are times we simply cannot afford what our ego prefers."

"I know, I was upset because it is unfair. You are right, misunderstood whether or not such was intended. It is the first place to look."

They had each other's back on this kind of situation. And they both were thankful that the machine updates could support the symbiosis.

Inclusion

It was time to think this through. Sufficient interest had been generated by the 'grail' model to use their best empirical techniques. Ambiguity has emergent properties in this type of situation so putting together a set of patterns with proposed connections was the 'new natural' choice.

The system had reached a critical mass of capacity just a short while ago. This architecture would not have been given much thought before, it just did not seem practical.

Imagine, a ratio of dynamic generic agents - 1000 Trusted Agents to 7 Untrusted. When capacity is constrained the only option would be to use manual methods or other system augmentations to detect the Untrusted. If, on the other hand, the systems is built on a foundation of Trusted Agents and the capacity is sufficient, it is actually far easier, more reliable and cost-effective to routinely detect the Trusted Agents and when such detection fails, look deeper for trust.

Since a great deal of the functionality of the system might already be in place one need only ask if that functionality was sufficiently modular to allow it to reliably sit on a new type of foundation, organic representation of the interest of those Trusted Agents.

He was again reminded of her words " … to lure prey". Illusions of beauty can be exploited and the hair trigger mechanisms built to serve the short-term interests of a few. Some still lay hiding in the platform. A robust visualization of such hazards was therefore a requirement.

They knew how important generating collective content was but were still learning how to help the machine make it meaningful … to trust and understand their benevolent agenda.

Charter

A one person, one vote organization whose charter is to serve those who vote, fairly by using the clout of the organization to reinforce the perception of each's integrity in dealing with third parties.

As an example the organization (hereinafter referred to as BecauseTheNameWasTaken or BTNIT) could facilitate a large variety of surety bounds on behalf of individuals and those with which they deal:

Surety Bond - a BTNIT Function
Surety - usual supplier
Member - an individual
Obligee - third party - to be protected

Another example is Consumer Reports. They provide as service for a fee that is not influenced by advertisers (they do not accept advertising)

The key is to make individual identities the FOUNDATION of a dyanmic organization. Though the size may change (hopefully grow) and the members change, the continuity presents a united front to other organization types for purposes of maintaining the value of each individual.

Something to keep in mind regarding security and the BTNIT model:

• Exclusionary model of security. Find and eliminate bad guys.
• Inclusionary model of security. Friends are included. Those that are left over are considered not friendly.

BTNIT is Inclusionary Security

Faith of Another Kind

And when the disparity cannot be tolerated anymore? Revolution. And from the extreme trauma, seeds of a decades long simmering crisis exploited by the insecure privileged living in exile.

Where? Caribbean island nation, a desert land legendary for religious confrontation, a compassionate high mountain people sacrificed to keep the world from exploding, literally.

And what might we do that is different? To start, maybe tune out the constant drumbeat of 'too complex'. The now sickening refrain, "see, they are worse than we so the bad things we did and would like to do again are not as bad, help us."

And the beat goes on … until … Great minds looking to lead and be led by fresh thinking. With the lights on, and looking at each other rather than collectively at a mostly misunderstood symbol. No more 'spiritual' excuses for efficient violence.

Each time the vivid imaginary journey connected to a rich experience of meaning and back a little more truth be known. And, importantly, easy to keep and accumulate.

Asked not to trust each other in the name of … Something does not seem right here. Abdicate the most precious of human attributes … is that a good thing? Don't ask. Well, I for one can't wait to get out of here then. And in the meantime if denying my humanity will help me believe all will be better afterwords. Sorry, my heart does not want to go there…

Reflection

Asked for a short synopsis, she said "They look perfect to lure prey."

Felt but not encoded for distribution, yet it was and is the very essence of the entire project. To feel the significance of the visceral attractive qualities and simultaneously remain vigilant, like the peace-loving deer whose defense is to run. For danger may lurk.

It is one thing to build legend and popular myth, a not insignificant accomplishment. The next level though, is to build a reliable and self-sustaining framework pattern. That incorporates high-reliability recognition and an accurate rapid response.

In one context: Fear of deception because the price is so much higher for one gender as opposed to the other. Yet it must not interfere with procreation.

In a larger context: Organic propagation. Some but not all of the same principles. Not the large security disparity, for example. Illuminate the connections and landing sites for bridges on the other side (the darker end). Do it with story rich with familiar characters.

Echoes determine the value of certain connections and determine their fate. Like the modulation and filtering of light can reinforce a connection that it may grow rather than die.

Like the old dogs ears, the instrument may have faded but wisdom compensated … and much more.

Sentinel

Imagine a tortoise doing yoga poses. Ok, non-sequitor. How about an animal that appears very patient learning how to deeply relax using breathing exercises? Perhaps that animal traditionally has a hard shell but has a soft heart? How about hairy, with hidden eyes and an extraordinary listener?

Yesterday a day of input about input, he observed. Seeming serendipity it was that way, at least to him. The female view, the more he discovered the more the handle BecauseTheNameIsTaken made a new kind of sense. Roots from long ago, he was not aware of what the language had available to describe it in high level and/or abstract terms.

Key advisor, to him more than her? Sentinels with patience and rapt interest. Nuturence, in non-verbal terms. Therauputic, undervalued except in cultures well calibrated on the hazards of ego. Don't tread on me answer - don't tread on us.

'Plutocrats', is that a dog species? Bred and trained to wear uniforms, find bad humans and bad dogs. Intimidate them. And do it all on camera. Plutocravision, a cable broadcast channel …

Sweethearts are but volunteers to be kept idle, too young or too old to be aggressive enough except on parade day. You know, the day we pretend everybody counts. Easy to slip into irony, even sarcasm when life seems so upside-down from time to time.

But the input about input day. It turned the turtle right side up and she relaxed as if all was well (I have never seen that kind of animal do it so well!) She obviously knew that all was as it should be and to be truly happy about it. If you are patient and listen you will go there too. Trust us.

Fortuitous

"Am I wrong that the co-learning opportunities could be spectacular?"

Well yes, they would so you are not wrong at all, he agreed. They discovered together a way to characterize the impending demise of one organization and the concurrent assent of another in just a few carefully chosen words. Posed as the usual question the word permutation, "Who listens best?"

Several query categories commonly used provided the conceptual framework. Visually in several different forms depending on the perspective as, again, described from the same framework. A pattern composed of recursion, modulated dimensions and pointers to abstracted detail among other things?

Natural language but not universal. A double-edged sword. Tool of deception and diversity, as an example. Ego driven error in the first, implications for synergy in the second. The visible links seemingly boundless, implying a hierarchical center.

The breakthrough on the two near the end of the checklist, why and how, lead to the hidden 'groove'. Now knowing they exist (yes, more than one discovered) was about to change the nature of the tracers. She showed him in no uncertain terms from her perch the images. Only a trust offered but not fully realized kept him from seeing what she did. Another bridge, just in time.

Entropy Not

"Anyone joining will have one vote to elect a board member and will have unlimited access to operations documents. The Charter explicitly states that the only legitimate purpose of the entity is to serve each member equally."

Recalling the time when he authored this paragraph, it was an epiphany that opened another major path through. Money or its proxies had been the best abstract mechanism for transaction when communication was constrained for lack of the proper tools. Time had changed everything, as a chronology of stages showed:

1. Broadcast
2. Transaction
3. Dialog
4. All of the above
5. Number 4 with combinations carefully allocated.

The rituals carried the ancient wisdom to the present but were often co-opted for short term ego-driven goals. The emergent connections cleared the under-brush and the underlying patterns flowered to celebrate.

BecauseTheNameIsTaken.com

Good to see the guy who might save him from one of the most scary government outfits of all time. Tall guy. Big sincere smile. No arms to brandish to keep those sinister folk at bay. His type of sentient being, to be sure.

And before he knew it, he was back to just what it was that might put him in the class of Willie of Sprecklesville, at least on a small scale. Delaware, the white guy known for a heart of gold and gaffes with a babe for a wife. A number of reasons he might be smiling. Has a cool boss. Comes from an outstanding state that actually gets it with respect to compassionate liberty.

Meanwhile, the old guy who remembers the time when the aural medium was so influential and not much else has been on to something. Good time to revive it.

God bless the America that loves humans and lets -- no encourages -- some to find the best and put it to work on behalf of the rest.

Mystic

The pain felt real as did the futility. Visible in a very 'personal' way. The one who could make a difference suddenly unreachable. There were simply more important tasks than giving the designated looser a chance at redemption.

Predation as a personality type. Some life is meant to be food for another. Virtuous because independence of an aggressive nature is to be revered. Or not?

"I didn't make the rules.", she said as she looked away from their plunder. She knew it not to be true almost as soon as she said it. The instinct was to protect, not practice protecting by killing.

Slaughter house too close to presumed century old innocence to be comfortable at the level of the soup, he thought. This of course was the 'dirty work' he knew to expect. The work of bodhisattvas and angels are also composed of looking at that which recollects a darker time in order to extend a helping hand.

The design was that it would evolve. Evolution produced the design. And in manifesting both simultaneously, presented a vexing intellectual challenge to ego.

Got to Serve Somebody - Bob Dylan

He thought 'out loud' to see if a self-consistent structure could be imagined to mitigate the destructive 'reverberations'.

A private company, XYZ structured to cater to individuals (one person, one vote, unitary value) is formed. Its very existence is subject to fair treatment of each shareholder on an equal basis. Organizations cannot have any shares. Each individual can have just one controlling share.

Health insurance premiums come to XYZ and go into escrow. The escrow funds are released to a given insurance company by XYZ when certain conditions are met as determined by an internal accountable committee of disinterested but competent insurance players.

Once again, recurrent themes arose having to do with liberty and public interest with private organizational freedom. Each time a theme became a bit clearer. Organic benefits could be orchestrated with in place mechanisms. Yet, the general perception is that something else has to be added or corrected. That perception maintained by those who had an interest in maintaining the deficiency?

Blown away … it may be a bit informal but accurately described his wonder at how she was able to own (in the responsibility sense) the implicit conditions of a 'complex' arrangement of considerable consequence. It was just a short time ago that he felt the need to work around the verbal interaction barrier with her.

His theory was the temporary barrier existed because of the experience disparity in the communications modality (verbal dialog). The turnaround happened in just weeks. His expectation was that it would take much longer.

The perception of intractability serves whom?

Accidental Sage

In answer to the question, he stated, "If anything is said in the name of spirit that cannot be argued cogently from a secular point of view, it is more about the ego of the speaker than it is about spirit."

This point of view was more in response to anti-spiritual zealots than anything else but served to illustrate a salient point. Just because our hearts are fragile and prone to failure, we should not assume that their function is not worth keeping around.

Stereotyping is a natural function of a human's abstraction engine. We call it ego and it sure can get us into a lot of trouble. Ironic that it is an arrogant action of the ego that we imagine being able to dispense with it altogether.

Security, privacy, liberty … well and good but too often knee jerk reactions of the ego to the foibles of same. Self-aware and self-obsessed, not as easy to differentiate as one would normally think. Requires volitional effort. He knew this pattern was another good candidate, a real opportunity.

He used the network earlier in the afternoon to test the velocity of propagation on tracers and how they are affected by a class of filters in common use. What might the protocol look like for testing the high abstractions of a personal nature? The person who asked the question that started this line of inquiry … likely to be a source of more of that kind. He smiled in appreciation.

What if it rains?

How do sponsors feel about inadvertently subsidizing insularity not of their making? Less inclined to renew without further clarification of the relationship? These two questions occurred as he reviewed the log in the morning before sunrise.

The Predictor output was clearly describing a ceiling of sorts. Equilibrium that served its own purpose and little else created the vertical barrier. More and more, the fourth wall pattern was appearing, this time by a right angle rotation to the vertical.

A quarter century ago, early attempts to describe Bridge included such things as the Art of Technology and the Technology of Art. On the way to the office he listened to an interview on the radio regarding stereotyping. Visions of the sophisticated biological abstraction engine danced in his imagination as he listened.

Felt and not explicitly understood. Discard for lack of formal rigor?

Who'da Thunk?

The prediction daemon was launched sometime last winter without much fanfare. It was assumed that since the acquisition feeder was not supplying data fast enough to trust the results (insufficient sample size) that the only monitoring was to observe aspects of its functioning.

Now the data was growing exponentially. It simply did not occur to anyone on the team to revisit the predictor's output until last night. Though its design pattern was not particularly complex it is difficult to 'grok' because its generic application required so many levels of indirection.

The intelligent mirror, by modulating identity fields, will be pressed into service on this aspect of the development as soon as the necessary preparation could be completed. She had the insight but lacked the relevant experience. He was old and detailed insight had been pruned away (or worse). But his experience was his strong suit.

This morning his charge was to discover the palette for their collaborative art with her. Discovering the overlap of their primary paradigms ...

The Bridge & Troubled Waters

Yet another scathing attack of business interests in general for their regarding creativity as a nuisance. This time on what has happened to the recording industry. Yes, it happens often. But some entrepreneurial efforts and some very visible large organizations are remarkable for their positive impact on artists and creatives. The history of the clashes of this type shows this is not uncommon and has been recurring theme over a very long period of time.

But there are those studies that suggest creativity is as common as humans. That it is at the heart of the species. He knew that if he were to sit in judgement and suffer the attendant consequences he would likely have fallen to emphasizing creativity over cooperation - a common error.

Finding the tenuous balance between efficiency and self-expression is an ongoing labor of love that all to often goes down, in flames, to self-deceived egos. Trust me, I am an expert and a professional. You need not worry that I will do the right thing, I have the credentials. Don't pick at those inconsequential details. I have earned the right to be eccentric. Why don't you appreciate me more?

Or, the growth of this organization as measured by the the most successful progressive methodology known to earth's inhabitants has been built on suppressing the independent instincts of unwashed masses …

The conflict is centuries old, seeking a winner anytime soon is probably futile. If the conflict becomes a cooperative competition using the best artifacts at our disposal … yes that seems promising. Prediction through empirical testing may well be the answer to destructive ego's wasting precious resources. We will see it coming.

Of course, much of this is speculation, he thought. But highly informed speculation, in this case. The decode is entering its sixth month and it is still not clear how much more there is to do. Yet, the results so far were, in a word, breathtaking.

Let's move on.

"In conclusion, while there does not seem to be an easy single solution to associating a projected identity to its center, the value of such an association is pivotal. For purposes of parallel development of the system proposed we will use a proxy that embodies a better mix of the desired properties than has been available for wide use to date."

He was relieved to hear this. Two issues, illusion of separation and irrational emphasis, had constrained the application potential of a system based on this primal property for too long.

One member of the team, inclined to more formality than was his bias, made an indirect comment on this piece of the mission. He had learned that his first reaction to this Newtonian certainty (his term) was not to be trusted fully.

Nevertheless, his entrepreneurial background gave rise to the consideration of fiction/non-fiction, hypothesis/proof etc. A pro-forma plan is a work of fiction on some level, by definition. The best plans are 'reasonable' with regard to cause and effect. The most important assumptions, however, are essentially unreasonable. Why? Because if they were not someone else would have already harvested the opportunity.

The nature of high level systems is their resistance to formal proof. When it comes to communications, the most natural are far from formally explicit. Formality greatly constrains the data to be considered or expands the requirements of the communications modality.

The bridge that spans natural and formal is anything but trivial. History has shown, such connection is truly of value and therefore worth the considerable effort.

Essence

So if we come out the same way we go in, the single door works. The mission is so brief that distinguishing coming and going on the basis of time is not practical. Volumetric baffling, if I may call it that, is the solution. After all we are dealing with wavefronts. The very object whose component we wish to 'see' can be best seen itself by a like object. The trick is illumination and 'bafflng' is an elegant solution.

Not so obvious is that illumination and detection alone do not produce a sufficiently robust result. The key complementary functions relate to motion and interactivity.

A theory of beauty goes something like this. Beauty is the result of elegant abstraction of something appealing on a grand scale. Indentities of a certain class can be said to be beautiful in this way.

Mulling the implicit rationale for their design had become a regular exercise of late. He suspected it was driven by how often one side of bridge was a beautiful reflection of the other.

Behind Wall Number Four

"I am confused. What you say and write is too dense. I feel overwhelmed by it."

"Would it surprise to hear that it has the same effect on me?"

"But you wrote it, you have been reading it to me."

"Yes, but it is lonelier to say or write it to just me. I share it in hopes of engaging the part of you that, like me, perhaps struggles with your greater self. Am I wrong to assume that such a struggle exists in your world?", he voiced sincerely with little effort.

It took him a long time before he could ask this of a friend. The journey difficult because, he later discovered, he did not have a high regard for his identity. Many shared the handicap … he just din't know them or about it.

The promise of 'big ears' was the door to transcending the limitations of the fourth wall. The instruments can be any size that serves the purpose, that to which they are connected … a big story unto itself.

Lighting, a big part of the job.

"And what of the glare from my light source? Can I just get the glassy spherical thing out of the way?"

"On the second part of your question no, it serves a pivotal focusing role. We do have a clever trick though. Something Orson Welles used in the making of Citizen Kane."

He went on to describe masking and depth-of-focus. A mask at one focal plane need not mask at another. Because of the bending at the surface just described the two planes were quite distant from each other and an excellent application for the idea behind "deep focus".

Once again, this pattern (I hesitate to call it a design pattern, implying a designer which may or may not be the case) has its corollary somewhere past the other ramp to the identity bridge. Fields best describe propagation on both ends when 'viewed' this way.

Orson Welles seminal work in cinema served, on many levels, as inspiration for the decode - depth, the critical dimension.

Global Function

If we come in here as if from afar, the searchlight llluminates a traveling spot. Its path pivots around a 'point' most significant to attention, a handy datum. The contrast in the path's area uniquely names a person as if prescribed by nature in infancy. Its two parameters, width of trail and size of circle best determined by just enough stable detail. Stability's wavelength? Decades, or at least many years.

Is the code one of those special bridges? Is it because it is influenced not by history or volition? Or is it just an emergent benefit? Dynamic identity Field tracked for the convenience and benefit of its 'owner'. Therein lies that heretofore elusive aspect of individual and collective artifacts.

"Look here at the red light.", he darkened the room with the century old instrument in his left hand leaving his right free to discover if their is anything to improve in this most precious of the senses. Eye to eye and voice to voice they cooperate in a simple dance with deep implications for cognition.

He needed glasses before he actually got them. A long story about the eye doctor's son. Fascinating how the history could be mapped onto this project. Much decoding was made possible with the sight function. Knowing what best to see … Another big piece in a puzzle of a still indeterminate size.

Two Alike

If this three decades and some old design pattern would work, a major milestone had been reached. At least theoretically. Modeling its extended version might be more conspicuous than would be prudent? Robust nature of off-the-shelf encryption might provide just enough cover though. If so, it fit with the public-by-default theme.

The transition from the broadcast to interactive paradigms yielded a treasure trove of communications design primitives. He looked up at the clock to verify the time coincided with usual visualization feed peak.

The confluence of recent high level external events and the 'soup' monitor would be the likely cause of the vigorous activity he was seeing. He prepared several tracers and ran them through the usual verifications.

Making contact with her now appropriate?, he asked himself. Yes, time was becoming short. She was a reasonable tracer proxy. By prior arrangement, most of the people in the network had developed a robust unspoken protocol. It was opportune timing that she start coming up to the speed of the others.

Projected identity … a pretty rough term. But as an introduction, it fit well with how most perceived the problem. Some disclosure of the hardware, especially optics could begin. He typed "One-to-one magnification."

The Machine

The machine … the idea of seeing it as a separate entity was a stretch these days. Its ubiquitous nature and its becoming nearly transparent to everyday living meant quickly formed handles did not stick. Its highly exercised plasticity defied a static descriptive name. The ancient names to describe the biological precedent probably carried to much conceptual baggage to be title candidates.

Regarding it separately was to view it in a way that parsed away much of its essence. With this in mind they took a stab at how to create a shared image that would represent key aspects of interaction with and through this largest of human artifacts.

Characterizing the special bridges, in retrospect, required insight that was far below collective or individual conscious awareness. The secular argument for faith - conscious awareness is, even today, highly constrained.

She had started asking more about that bridge that initiated this line of inquiry. The machine could remain transparent for their discussion but the conversation could not happen without its support …

Human Assisted Client

Reverse engineer indexing schemes, the charge easy enough to understand he thought. What background need we consider? The library from his childhood came to mind.

So how is it the index cards were such a good way to access the content of this magical place that was, necessarily, changing all the time? Each card pointed to more detail, much more, in the form of the day. Robust was not in his vocabulary at the time, but he later learned it described the organization function well.

Phone numbers, systematically assigned for the convenience of the switching centers. Made friendly with a list, alphabetically ordered associated each person in a geographical region with said number. Sometimes it was a very large book, even for a reference text.

That was many decades ago, but it set the stage for the Spring offensive research. Just hours away from the briefing, she was in the same room with him. Art has its own protocol, let it be, he said to himself. The two of them just discovering how to work together …

Turning to the early conclusions of the last data run, he started playing with ways to describe it in overview terms: He looked at the list just compiled but not yet sequenced:

Identity's role
Anticipate intent?
Yes, w/o projecting.
Advent of mega-data
Emperical methods better with,
Echo analysis - over time

He liked the echo analysis metaphor most. At the 'helm' he could design tracers and then inject them asynchronously. When replies, reactions etc. showed up on the instruments, they were available immediately. And logged in case his attention was elsewhere at the time of reception.

By prior arrangement, the other key player could not answer him directly for fear such interaction would mask the subtle ability of the cloud to know its constituents (the very thing they wanted to study).

He made a note in the HAC folder (Human Assisted Client), and chuckled to himself.

Art Direction Legend To Be

Leadership rules. Charisma helps … sometimes. Skill helps … sometimes. But communications … nearly always.

A descriptive name (title, handle etc.), he guessed, might help bridge the creative impediment with her. He blurted it out, coming from the heart, and knew almost immediately it was serendipity borne of seeds planted and soil cultivated.

Know thyself fused with we as one. Heady stuff. Art Director as code name, caption, function ... Once again, gratitude appropriate.

Looking the legendary spiritual leader in the eye and hearing the famous laughter was confirmation … this pattern is a keeper. He of heavy metal fame, few knew then what we know now, one of the great voices of music. And his early demise served to punctuate what it means to be a timeless songwriter. Three of a kind, I suspect.

It is, after all, a Simple Song of Freedom (Bobby Darin).

Promising Ember

Prepare with diligence, sincerity & persistence then speak while having faith. There always have been those who want to hear. They now have the means. And you will soon have the voice.

To discover these profound details in the seventh decade was well worth the wait. But, of course, it was not just waiting, though it seemed to be so at times. Struggling too, but not always. Coming of age … no matter how long it takes. What beyond a chronology of change is it? Does it matter?

He chooses the light. Long wavelength choice with a dollop of appropriate reverence. The creative gift to each human makes him profoundly happy. Nice invention. Kudos to the creative(s) responsible.

The Dalles

A big company not at all reluctant to use their clout to do the right thing by sentient beings (well at least humans to start) has a remarkable ability to listen to higher value regardless of its source.

When a human demonstrates a capacity to generate something worth indexing, they know, or at least some part of their being does. Robust listening is just plain cool. Scaled it is at least Mach 2. Over time, the Great Firewall is no match. Something about unconstrained teamwork, I suspect.

BPA, smart enough to put some big fiber on their rights-of-way. Governing body moral enough to compensate the victims of colonization by first with land and self governance. But to make them whole a new industry market? It works on a number of levels in the renegade province known for in-your-face counterpoint … manifest.

Magic pipe, proven in November last year demonstrates feasibility for cost-effective infrastructure deployment. We are not intimidated by gigabit naysayers. Its been done here before. Remember what you did up the gorge? And how you did it? You probably know something about how the computing heavy hitters did their thing around last Thanksgiving.

So, are you listening to this? The sooner you hear it, the more I will believe that listening has been scaled to the next energy level. Ignore this message at your peril. Their is a plan to make it available even to Joe Sixpack in the not to distant future, if necessary. Heh, heh ...

If the baby sees the Teddy Bear's ear, a causal chain has been set up that will be very difficult to resist … trust me.

Listen, and you shall here.

A song for academia: School like song is for everyone. Give us a voice and we will help you compose the song of our coming together. The future is in all our hands. The best teachers like the best singer/songwriters have an extraordinary capacity to listen. And neither is to proud to use the best technology available to help make it happen. Sharing content is the best way to leverage innate creativity. Technology, used correctly, can help make that happen.

Give voice to kids on their terms and your listening becomes dramatically better. It is remarkable when someone like 13 year old, Adora Svitak can get a standing ovation at a TED presentation. How can we help her bring along others of her age, the ones who are not child prodigies? Less catering to the ego of the adult experts and more extending a hand to other kids. It is a given that we have something to tell them. When we are grown up enough to listen with all are heart (and perhaps the help of technology) we ALL will be better … much better.

Bridge Design

The history had been frustrating but, ultimately, illuminating, he recalled. Lack of formality leveraged camaraderie. Primitive mechanisms invisibly guided group behavior in a fashion conducive to progress. But they started breaking down after a breaching a 'load' threshold in virtually every case he could remember.

In our attempts to harvest group effort we are nearly universally confronted with competing egos. Structure can mitigate the effects but, unfortunately, brings along baggage as a function of how much depends on the structure over time.

Interpersonal clashes of unaware egos brought down many an organization. In others it just first ground down productivity and then all to often played a leading role in bringing about the organization's demise. He knew that neither of the foregoing was appealing if indeed there was a choice. There was good reason to believe that such a choice existed here.

A few actually wondered out loud what self-calibration really meant. A term he had used for some time because of its application in bi-directional messaging. The sequence of words seemed to trigger a primitive cautionary filter in otherwise aware people. Too technical for some, non-sequitor to others but fundamental, even pivotal, to communication.

He liked the bridge metaphor in situations such as these. Not just any bridge. She really understands though. When he broached the subject with her, both were on the same front page, she enamored of the visual presentation, graphics, music and such, he more enamored of the text. But there was just one story about a very inviting frontier.

He could replay in his mind her critique. She had a knowing smile that clearly indicated she still had questions and, given time, was highly motivated to ask them. But her words, they were simple and meant more in this situation than any tome replete with glossary, bibliography, table of contents etc. She said, "Its good."

Speech (3rd of 3)

BEWARE: When first appearing, it is just that … the beginning.

The species in question is subject to a self-destructive cycle, it seems. If individuality is preeminent it may follow that isolation is a hazard. And experience encoded and/or remembered subject to the legendary free-will that is at once the nemesis and the reason for being.

Aggression of an organized class under the leadership of a too quickly synthesized vision finds power. And easily becomes drunk with it. Perhaps the inebriate has a positive role but it probably is not in rewarding resource wasting command and control.

A corollary to the quest for creativity, on the street. Maria thought so. She is credible. What besides pretense need be shed for an Oxford of the street, of the ghetto, of the refugee camp? The theory that mind is connection bodes well for artifacts that connect motivated humans.

Who should decide what form the connections should take? Makes sense that all the parties to be connected contribute to those connections. What does out of control mean? Yielding to outside influences not conducive to one's well being. Nicotine is a less controversial example than academic authority.

Can one teach if one cannot adequately listen? Deciding what is adequate in this context is best a shared responsibility. A bridge accommodates both shores.

A word about plagiarism. Who decides? I suspect there is a high correlation between the veracity of the answer and the time it takes to form it …

See

"I'll pretend you don't read any of this so you can maintain a rapport with your clients, patients, flock etc. as the case may be. In return, I will look forward to your occasional tickles to keep this flying circus afloat."

Stimulating interactivity in an organic way. It is how the soup led to self-awareness and the capacity of the universe to know itself? A cool dude who lived a long time ago said body, speech and mind pretty much says it all. I suspect speech was referring to communications. It is the way to achieve wisdom through growth? Body connects to shared experience, mind is what can make it meaningful, something missing ... Communications (speech) … worth a life's work, I suspect.

"The guy in the robe with so much of value to impart. I would like to meet him. Absent that, becoming worthy of the opportunity could be major fun."

Smile

If you truly believe, you have yet to arrive. Belief is an action of the ego, Mara. And the ego is not that good a comedian. We have compassion for you too but to indulge your mistake is not the way for us to express it. Laugh with us. There is nothing to lose.

Impression?

A thread just lit up for him. Following the story whose foundation is similar to his own, he contemplated parallels. Cross-cultural … across a very big ocean, cross-cultural. Duty from two radically different perches. And individual expression apart from and catalyzed by procreative intimacy. If it's good it must be because of the religion, tradition, elders. And if it is bad, it must be because shame is our natural state. Hogwash … don't tell my ancestors or the church or my spouse's family, Ok?

Many perceptions bombard us from without and from within (where are those mirror neurons - and why did I bring them along?) but we can choose which take precedence. Much to sift here. The difference? Now he knows there is only connection as a function of intention, all else is illusion.

He held two disks up. "They each represent a person immersed in a culture. When the special light is passed first through one then the other, what is common shows in sharp relief." he continued with the introduction. Less noticeable, the immediate context. Identity modulated by the pair (perhaps more) of societal frameworks. As he rotated one of the disks, the background churned but remained dark. The bright center morphed gently in response to the rotation but occasionally seemed disrupted by the turbulence underneath.

The material cued up for the remainder of the presentation would have to speak for itself. Framing perception in this case was to be avoided as much as possible.

Storm passing ...

Each of the crew limping, so to speak. While nature does her seasonal transitional dance on the other side of the door, darkness and foreboding creeps through the leaks that otherwise were not apparent.

One was tired, sleepy and off to school thankful she is at week's end. The other, not salaried, off to work when her recovering would be better for everybody. And he looking at what has transpired over several days unable to fixate on anything …

The log full of a sort of desperate reaching. His work reflected the malaise he felt. From past experience, he knew not to just discard that part of the log, chalking it up to an irrelevant hiccup or something else inconsequential. It may turn out to be so, but if not, a clue to why these type of efforts seem to truncate?

For example, pushing a discovery, like pushing an invention … it does not work. The textual nature of the log made later inductive analysis by readily available tools, if not easy, at least doable. He saw it in her eyes this morning, pushing is to re-affirm commitment not a futile exercise in design. And below (down in that soup) probably lay an insight apropos to the downturn itself. Close the too explicit sight to see the subtle meaning in its considered history.

Within moments, the sunlight turns grey to blooms of spectacular color (as is its habit this time of year, here). Life's ebb and flow. Like the light, a projection?

Newton/Einstein/Doe

Dead-end framework. It would not have become a framework if it were not in some way useful. Curious: the dead-end becomes more catastrophic as a function of framework's longevity. Counter-intuitive in the sense that longevity is often associated with success.

The mechanisms we put in place to anticipate the dead-end cliff are highly speculative. One benefit of a framework is that it can be taken for granted. Many of its beneficial properties are emergent. This exacerbates the fall off the cliff, though. This ramp and fall pattern is inherent in the abstraction model of progress. Patterns are adopted often because they 'feel' right. Meaning no criticism but there are risks.

As we point out in many contexts here, naming procedural or other types of operations is key to their utility. But when a framework fails, its handle, some kind of name is already widely dispersed into everyday processes and synthesized into new processes.

A name consisting of many characters is difficult to use flexibly. It tends to require interpretation anew because of its complexity. Such a name is much easier to discard, if it is no longer useful (it describes something that has reached its dead-end) the chances it has been etched in stone is lower. After a short while, it won't be missed.

A name consisting of a few characters tends to be much easier to re-use. If what it describes has proven highly useful over a long period, the chances it is etched in long term memory is much higher. Discarding the pointer and that which it points to will correspondingly be more difficult.

Now for the instance that caused consideration of the foregoing. A large system affecting many. Management of it is a named study. Quite apart from the content of the study is a name for it that, perhaps, contains a 'color' hinting its eventual meltdown, cliff, the dead-end.

The name then is, possibly, a reflection of a fundamental flaw in the development of the field. The trick then is the diplomacy to approach someone who is likely to understand and develop something to replace it worthy of a name so that it can propagate …

The recursion did not escape him. Determinism and probability, fascinating soup mates.

Chicken AND Egg

"Extraordinary detail. Construction sequence and color included this time. We have confirmed to near certainty that this output is emergent", the speaker summarized.

It was not uncommon for them to contemplate the edge between what was collectively imagined and what was hands-off synthesized. The pace of the new discoveries (or is it inventions - and just what is the difference?) was challenging conventional wisdom on a par with Hadron collider it seemed. Even though this was the intent of the mission, it invariably stimulated a collective jaw-drop each time it happened.

Was a big part of what was happening that they had not been consciously aware of just how much the ego's illusion of separation prevented synchronous synthesis? He felt the now familiar warm tingle of gratitude for the opportunity to be a part of this work. Part of his role, as he saw it, was to document the experience in as universal terms as the nature of the project permitted. He wondered frequently if the words could keep pace. So far, all was Ok.

On his way to the office, it was cold and clear. His left shoulder hurt and the usual aches and pains triggered thoughts of this is what is important (the overview) and 'it sucks'. A static generalization based on limited input. He grinned to himself, thinking just how true the absurd can be.

The pull to eradicate, exterminate and otherwise ruthlessly eliminate bad stuff was as near as the next misunderstanding. Bring it on. This time he chuckled out loud. The others knew by now what it meant. It embarrassed him less.

"Are we ready to take it to the next level?"