Questions and Answers

1.    Who else is working on technology initiatives for peace (TIP)?

The Foresight Institute (established in 1986), recently renamed as the Foresight Nanotechnology Institute, has recently issued a new list of nanotechnology challenges.


These challenges are:

  1. Meeting global energy needs with clean solutions

  2. Providing abundant clean water globally

  3. Increasing the health and longevity of human life

  4. Maximizing the productivity of agriculture

  5. Making powerful information technology available everywhere

  6. Enabling the development of space



The US Institute of Peace has done some investigations on how Information Technology can be applied to PSO (Peace Support Operations). Read the report by Lt Col Donna G. Boltz. This appears to be a start but limited (covering information sharing, remote sensing, GIS, computer simulation and training) and scope. To consider what a broader coverage might yield: add handheld wireless devices, helmet mounted cameras, real-time in-the-field conferencing support, immersive gaming and so on.

The UNDP has a focus on IT. Report
In that focus is greater access to information technologies. Our TIP initiative is an agent of technology development and compass for moral guidance. UNDP is an agency for training and deployment. There is a natural match.

World Peace through Technology believes that there are many technologies being developed that can help foster peace between people and peace with our world's environment. Communication and educational technologies will allow us to learn more about each other raise awareness of our global cultures. While technology has allowed us to live more easily in the world it has had a negative affect on our environment. Conversely, there are technologies being developed that can reverse this trend and help us live in harmony with nature.

Examples of Benevolent Technologies include:


Internet/Wireless Networks - enable global communcation. Each person can virtually connect with other's who share similar interests and beliefs. Electronic voting systems allow each invidual's voice to be heard rather than leaving decisions up to other representatives.


Media Literacy - having a wide access of news and information sources. How to discern "real news" with current media's focus on sound bites.


Sustainable Energy Sources - Our global dependence on fossil fuel for energy is unsustainable and breeds conflict. Wind, wave, solar, thermal and bio/vegetable diesel are all renewable technolgies. Sustainable transportation options and less reliance on indivdual automotive use will promote peace.


Self Publishing - technology allows people's individual voices and opinions to be heard at low cost.


Entertainment - technology that encourges people to come together (such as music/dancing, visual entertainment) and foster community.


2. What is the relationship to the “Department of Peace” which is a bill in the US House of Representative?

DoP as this is fondly referred to is meant to establish a Department of Peace within the US Government with a small percentage of the Defense budget allocated to it. We are tracking developments and supporting this effort. As yet there is no formal or informal relationship to DoP and TIP. The Mission of DOP reads as follows:

The Department shall-- (1) hold peace as an organizing principle, coordinating service to every level of American society; (2) endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; (3) strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking; (4) promote the development of human potential; (5) work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution; (6) take a proactive, strategic approach in the development of policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict; (7) address matters both domestic and international in scope; and (8) encourage the development of initiatives from local communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental organizations.

We can ancitipate that on (1),(2), (3), (4) and (5) we are congruent and hence can support each other; on (6) if DOP pursues new technology initiatives we can be partners; on (7) we can be an affiliate in their actual work; and on (8) that DOP becomes a sponsor of TIP.


3. Are we supporting novel uses of existing technology? Innovating breakthrough new technologies?

Both are what we are seeking. Breakthrough technologies for peace will give us the greatest joy. Read CTFC website for innovative technologies


4. Isn’t technology value-neutral? Most technology can be used for war and for peace?

Two Answers: This was the prevailing belief fifty years ago. However, ever since the Manhattan project, the creation of the atom bomb, guided missiles, MIRVs and “star war” defense shield – we have seen a plethora of “war only” or “war and defense only” type technologies. I believe we were lulled into sleep with the idea of value-neutral nature of technology. My instinct says there are some technologies that are for peace only, incorruptibly so. The challenge before us is to identify and build some incorruptible technologies that are solely for peace and prosperity.
Second answer is socio-economic in nature. If there is some technology that is most useful when used by large number of people (Recall, for instance,  Metcalfe’s law, which states that the value of communication rises with the square of the number in the collective). So Economically since the large majority of the population is neither with the military nor wealthy, one could employ that as a guiding principle on how to identify incorruptible-by-war technologies. Also with open source, shared commons, if the technology requires only distributed infrastructure and low investments to get to use it, it will inevitably spread and remain incorruptible. So a combination of economic and sociological factors can accomplish some breakthrough technologies. I trust a few specific examples will be added here soon.


5. Distinguish between defense technology being used for "peaceful" purposes and peace technology. 

The philosophical question rattling in my mind is whether there is some technological innovation that serves only peaceful purpose. In the military area, there used to be notion that all technology is "neutral" and all depends on the intent of use. With the advent of guided missiles and MIRVs we saw the neutrality of technology swing over. So part of the vision is to have an intense breathrough in the other direction.

6. How "inclusive" is the definition?  Would a handgun child-lock be a peace technology?

The idea would be to keep it inclusive, open, shared and common property.

 

7. How does technology intended for peace not also get appropriated for not-so-peaceful purposes?

I am currently working through Michel Bauwens' paper on P2P and Human Evolution.

He makes the case the P2P as a social form - leads to a new consciousness - and in its wake revises out ideas about economy, organization, values - engaging in creation of common pursuit, without hierarchy, freely sharing the product for the benefit of all. A leap from the old hunter-gather model relying on natural abundance, a leap over agrarian model that led to private land ownership, over the industrial model with the idea of money as capital and confinement of distribution and sharing through the creation of exchange economy. It would be a matter of discussion and further development to see if P2P is robust enough to stay focused on creating common good.

 

Then again, I am also thinking about Jean-Paul Lederach’s play, The Meeting Place. JPL describes Peace, Justice, Truth and Mercy in a dynamic tangled dance. So perhaps the path to peace sometimes requires a move away from it to jostle people to awaken and take action. For those who know all about systems and complexity theory, the idea of peaceful uses might be very situational and context would tell us. http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/transform/jplchpt.htm

8. What is your view on “surveillance technology”? Does it promote peace or breed suspicion?

Surveillance cameras, aerial cameras, body mounted cameras, web-cams and many other methods of keeping vigilance are available. When surveillance is done in secrecy, to gain an information advantage over those under surveillance, it falls under “misuse”. When there is transparency and information sharing – it has a use for promoting dialogue, fostering honesty. Use of surveillance as “deterrent” while it may promote peace – as in front of a surveillance camera some behaviors may be subdued, but that is not Peace, just fear, compliance, energy waiting to bust out. Open and transparent use, serving to foster freedom is a better use model for surveillance.
Read Donna G. Boltz interesting report of using an unmanned UAV in Bosnia resulting in a “call to dialog” – a positive example. http://www.usip.org/virtualdiplomacy/publications/reports/13.html
In conclusion, we might say that it all depends on the context of usage.


9. OK, OK, some examples, please of what user-developers can do? Jeez, now you are going to be asking for democratizing innovation itself? Yuh?

Right, right. Democratizing Innovation is not only a way of rapidly and effectively innovating, but having user-developers engage in it is to ensure that needs are allowed evolve while the technologies evolve. Now that ought to be a compelling position to reach. Read Erik von Hippel’s little book: “Democratizing Innovation” at http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ.htm

Some examples, sure thing. Ever heard of the “Simputer”. Awesome in its conception and scope – it is a PDA like device, but it is not a “personal” device – a shared communal device. A couple of radical innovations – it is low cost using open source software and the entire design is in the commons – it is customized using a “smart card” so one device can be used by dozens of people – very suitable for communities in developing areas – multilingual software – wireless communication among devices. It is the rage. http://picopeta.com/
PicoPeta is currently focussing on providing hardware and software solutions to select business domains:


Spot Billing for Electricity Meters

Education

Microbanking and Finance

Rural Life and Agriculture

E-governance

Healthcare

Sales and Service Force Automation


10. More examples of some far out things one can do, that requires innovation, even breakthrough innovation?

Of course. Back in 1996, the UN Secretary General declared in quite a visionary fashion that the Internet was to become one of the most potent technologies for global reach. He was right and so were many others. Along with global reach, we also got spam email, spam websites, rampant viruses and worms and now what with Blogs all the rage, we get disinformation soup with a few chunks of information. The short of it is that we have utterly lost reliability, credibility of information. Here is what I believe can be constructed. A “disinformation” meter – or if you like positive terms a “trust meter” that rates web pages and web sites. Google has the beginnings of this in the fashion of the PageRank algorithm – a huge improvement compared to prior search engines which could be spoofed easily. The innovation we are speaking of would not only rely on structure of the web as Google does, but also on content analysis. Is this possible? Ask any graduate student dreaming about the next “big thing” on the Internet, you will hear they are working on this. The real question is not “can that be done?”, but “how do we accerate innovation?”


11. Tell us about how the suite of technology created under this initiative would be "brand managed"

Brand creation and brand management is definitely key part of our agenda. Brand names such as Google are carriers of trust among the public. Google stands for simplicity, accessibility and technology for all. Similarly, we will create a brand for TIP, under a suitable name and logo. Brand management means being very clear about what these technologies "mean" for the public. All new technologies issued from TIP will be closely scrutinized to ensure that they carry the brand values and brand message.


12. What constitutes SUCCESS for TIP?

Success is not part of my framework of thinking and acting. Right action is. By that I mean that our lifetimes are small compared to the timeconstants over which results accumulate. Over a long period also there will be local reversals and progress. So I am not so driven by the notion of success (results) but right action.
Why this feels like right action - it acknowledges that technology is the key driver of evolution for the next phase* of evolution - it combines a moral humanistic compass with progress in technology - it builds a community that supports such a direction. Will this be a good thing? I don't know. It feels right to me. Anyone else for whom it feels right can contribute and participate.
Phases of evolution: Biological evolution; Cultural evolution; Technological evolution; Spiritual evoluiton
Modes of evolution: Nonparticipative evolution; Participative evolution; Directed evolution; Cnnscious evolution

13. On the main page you mentioned Google, Blogger, MeetUp, Friendster and so on. What are they really?

Google started out as a search engine for the web on the Internet. It has now begun to delivery a wide range of technologies to provide easy access to information - desktop search assistant, google maps with local information, Internet shopping via Froogle, Google Print which delivers full text searchable books (mostly from Library collections, books with expired copyrights and books submitted by publishers), Google Scholar which indexes scholarly journals for research and academic use.
Blogger is a service that lets millions of users maintain their own blog sites, considerably enhancing the voice of the citizen to express their ideas and opinions freely.
MeetUp is a fee-based site that assists people find others with shared interests, usually meeting once a month in local meeting places.
CraigsList is an enormously successful site started by one person to enable others to buy and sell used equipment as well as rental apartments and so on. It is very much in the spirit of Google with a simple uncluttered user interface, with no jarring advertisements or dangling animations saying Click Me.
Freecycle is to be found on Yahoo groups - local neighbors offering things for free. Most popular are clothing, bedding, toys, records and radios. It is aimed at reducing the amount of things that end up in landfills.
Friendster is a new breed of web-based service that promotes social networking for business, entertainment or dating.

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Answers to come