Michael Timms | TEDxSurrey
• January 2024
When faced with challenges, do you often seek someone else to blame? Leadership expert Michael Timms shows why this instinct is counterproductive, highlighting three effective habits of self-accountability that will empower you and others to make positive change — whether at home or at work.
TED is supported by ads and partners
How does one become an artist — not in a practical sense, not by some external measure, but by an invisible and intimate surrender to the creative impulse? It often happens in a single moment of recognition — a point of contact with some aspect of the miraculous in some aspect of the mundane, catalyzing an overwhelming sense of the unity of things and an uncontainable desire to emanate that sense outwardly; to share it, in some form, with others — whose otherness is suddenly dissipated by the very impulse.
For Virginia Woolf, it was an epiphany by the flowerbed; for Pablo Neruda, the childhood incident of the hand through the fence; for Albert Einstein, his first encounter with a compass.
For Patti Smith, one of the most radiant creative spirits of our time, it was a similarly precise and transcendent childhood experience. In Just Kids (public library) — the magnificent memoir that gave us Smith on reading as a form of prayer and her lettuce soup recipe for starving artists — she recounts what she considers to be her first memory of the creative impulse:
When I was very young, my mother took me for walks in Humboldt Park, along the edge of the Prairie River. I have vague memories, like impressions on glass plates, of an old boathouse, a circular band shell, an arched stone bridge. The narrows of the river emptied into a wide lagoon and I saw upon its surface a singular miracle. A long curving neck rose from a dress of white plumage.
Swan, my mother said, sensing my excitement. It pattered the bright water, flapping its great wings, and lifted into the sky.
The word alone hardly attested to its magnificence nor conveyed the emotion it produced. The sight of it generated an urge I had no words for, a desire to speak of the swan, to say something of its whiteness, the explosive nature of its movement, and the slow beating of its wings.
The swan became one with the sky. I struggled to find words to describe my own sense of it. Swan, I repeated, not entirely satisfied, and I felt a twinge, a curious yearning, imperceptible to passersby, my mother, the trees, or the clouds.
In this excerpt from her altogether terrific conversation with The New York Public Library’s Paul Holdengräber, Smith reads the swan passage, punctuated by a most endearing two-way volley of graciousness:
Smith revisits the animating presence of the creative impulse in her memoir M Train (public library) — her beautiful exploration of time, transformation, and how the radiance of love redeems the pain of loss. In her appearance on NPR’s consistently stimulating On Point Smith reads a passage from the final pages of the book — a lyrical meditation on the seemingly arbitrary fragments that compose the magical mosaic of life’s creative force:
Complement Just Kids and M Train with Smith’s advice on life, her poetic tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe, and her fifty favorite books.
Published Monday 12:50PM (TheOnion.com)
NEW YORK—Calling out the unsustainable pace at which historic events seemed to be occurring, local man Brad Gifford told reporters Monday that important news stories were now happening faster than he could generate uninformed opinions about them. “Look, I’m trying my hardest to scrape together confused takes about everything that’s going on in our country, but it’s getting harder and harder to come up with enough incoherent perspectives to meet the moment,” said Gifford, who emphasized that he had already felt stretched thin devising a superficial and deluded reaction to the Trump assassination attempt before Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 campaign sent shock waves through the race. “Frankly, I’m exhausted here. Just as I’m putting the finishing touches on a worldview about a topic that I don’t have even the faintest inkling about, it’s like three more news stories pop up out of nowhere in an arena where I genuinely have no idea what the fuck I’m talking about. And again, I really don’t know jackshit about anything at all, so how am I supposed to keep up?” At press time, Gifford added that the only thing helping him keep his head above water was that he did not have to research or think about his opinions at all before putting them out into the world.
Published Yesterday (TheOnion.com)
WASHINGTON—Doing her best to appear elated while a large, throbbing vein protruded from her forehead, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was ‘really, really, really happy’ for Vice President Kamala Harris as she shook the presumptive Democratic nominee’s hand and refused to let go of it. “So, so, so proud of you for this huge accomplishment—there is no one more deserving of this than you,” said a stock-still, unblinking Clinton, who, when panicked advisors quietly asking her to release the presidential candidate’s hand, only widened her smile and clamped her fingers tighter, causing Harris’ bones to audibly crack. “Oh, don’t worry about us. We’re just two strong women having a great time. Ha ha ha. Girl power! Right, Kamala? Just think, you could become the first woman elected to the American presidency! What could possibly be better than that?” At press time, Clinton was reportedly being dragged away after pulling Harris in for a hug and attempting to snap her neck.
Gerd Leonhard • Jul 20, 2024 • LONDON This is an edited version of our livestream q&a sessions on July 18 and 19, 2024, see https://www.youtube.com/live/gaeW4XAb… (unlisted) My entire presentation on IA, AI and AGI can now be viewed at • AGI by 2030? Think again! Riveting pr… Captions in ES PT DE! New – dubbed with @Rask_ai : German DUB: • Allgemeine Künstliche Intelligenz: Fu… Spanish DUB: • Inteligencia Artificial General: Futu… Portuguese DUB: • Inteligência Artificial Geral: Futuri… In this special livestream event I outlined my arguments that while IA (Intelligent Assistance) and some forms of narrow AI may well be quite beneficial to humanity, the idea of building AGIs i.e. ‘generally intelligent digital entities’ (as set forth by Sam Altman / #openai and others) represents an existential risk that imho should not be undertaken or self-governed by private enterprises, multi-national corporations or venture-capital funded startups. So: IA /AI yes *but with clear rules, standards and guardrails. AGI: NO unless we’re all on the same page. Here,l explain why I believe we need an AGI-Non-Proliferation-Agreement, what the difference between IA/AI and AGI or ASI (super intelligence) is, why it matters and how we could go about it. @LondonFuturists David Wood joined me as special guest on this live-show. Thank you! #futureofhumanity#techvshuman#publicthinker00:00 Introduction: The Future is Better Than We Think 00:18 Introducing David Wood: A Futurist’s Perspective 01:06 The AI Non-Proliferation Treaty: Challenges and Comparisons 02:54 Economic Incentives and the AI Race 05:11 The Role of Capitalism in AI Development 06:40 The Need for a Trigger Moment 07:42 Embracing Technology for Practical Solutions 09:14 The Importance of Treaties and Social Contracts 12:30 AI Safety and Ethical Considerations 17:30 The Role of Education in Shaping the Future 20:54 Global Movements and AI Regulation 27:33 A Holistic Approach to AI and Capitalism 33:03 The Good Future Campaign: Hope and Optimism 35:26 Conclusion: Books and Resources for a Better Future Have a look at my films: Look Up Now (2023): AI and the Future of Humanity: www.lookupnow.tv TWICE UPON A TIME: • Twice upon a time: Our World by 2030…. The Good Future https://www.thegoodfuturefilm.com or • The Good Future: Beautiful, inspiring… All about AI: http://www.weneedtotalkaboutai.com or • We need to talk about AI – a film by … The future of work: http://www.howthefutureworks.tv or • How The Future Works: Why your ultima… http://www.thegoodfutureexplained.com Most of Gerd’s videos can also be downloaded via my vimeo channel i.e. http://www.storiesfromthefuture.tv
| The Chariot The Chariot is numbered seven and usually depicts a warrior driving a chariot triumphantly home. The chariot is drawn by powerful and wild creatures. These creatures are our Will – a wayward beast to control at the best of times!The Chariot represents the principle that the human Will functions only when the whole being is behind it. This card is about the struggles we have with ourselves and with life. It promises that with diligence, honesty and perseverence we can overcome the most insurmountable of obstacles.This is a hopeful and encouraging card, reminding us that we can climb to the heights if we want to. Here we are taught how to master the opposing forces within us, in order to bring them and thus ourselves into harmony. We are cosmic warriors, unfurling, learning and growing – divine and vital parts of the Universe. |
 |
 For more information, and to register, please visit our website: https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/assembly-2024See you there! |
| Copyright © 2024 The Prosperos, All rights reserved. |
Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract” comparing and contrasting what you think is the truth with what you can syllogistically, axiomatically and mathematically (using word equations) prove is the truth.
The claims in a Translation may seem outrageous, but they are always (or should always be) based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week.
1) Truth is that which is so. That which is not truth is not so. Therefore Truth is all that is. Truth being all is therefore is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore sound, therefore sane. I think therefore I am. Since I am and since Truth is all that is, therefore I, being, am Truth. Since I, being, am Truth, therefore I, being, have all the attributes of Truth. Therefore I, being, am total, whole, sound, sane. Since I am Truth and since I am mind therefore Truth is Mind/Consciousness. (Two things being equal to a third thing are equal to each other).
2) Massive infection; low blood pressure.
Word-tracking:
infection: to stain, to dye, to do, to make, to make fact, contaminate
contaminate: tact, to touch, to make unclear
clear: pure, clean
low blood pressure: weakness of the heart, weakness of the will, weakness of the motivation for life
3) Truth being the unbounded whole, all being, all existing, all living, all motion, therefore all motivation. Therefore Truth is infinite motivation, infinite heart. Truth being true, therefore actual, therefore factual, there can be no making fact (infection) other than Truth recreating Itself. therefore Truth is the only Infector, the only infection. Since Truth is the only heart, the only motivation, and since to be touched is to be motivated is to be loved, Therefore Love infects us all.
4) Truth is infinite motivation, infinite heart.
Truth is the only Infector, the only infection.
Love infects us all.
5) I, being, am motivated by Love and nothing but Love.
For information about Translation or other Prosperos classes go to: https://www.theprosperos.org/teaching
