Earth Change

Time to Move On

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:51:00 +0000

The end of a year and several chapters of my life.

Time for something new.

This blog is winding down, and my new one is starting up tomorrow:

Thanks for reading, and see you on the other side.

Alexandra

Sweet Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Some beautiful daughter moments to share and remember:

- little Delta falling asleep singing the theme from Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky "da da DA da da DA da"

- Samantha's reply to me on the cell phone as I was coming home from Tai Chi and told her no, I didn't find anything with no milk and no nuts in it: "That's OK, Mommy, you have something to bring me - you can bring home love."

- both girls making meals, real and pretend, for all of us to enjoy

- hair-washing service, the pink ribbon story, imaginary friends Himp, Icca, Aman, and Aban

:)

The Social GPS

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:52:00 +0000

About a month ago, we were taking some relatives on a driving tour of Silicon Valley. They were following us in their rental car, and somewhere around Stanford, we got separated.

Samantha, in the back seat of our car, suggested that the GPS system installed on our dashboard should show not just our car, but our relatives' car too. That way we would be able to easily find them.

What a great idea, we thought. A social GPS, where you could authorize other GPS units to view your location. You could choose to follow your friends' locations, almost like a position-based Twitter for your GPS. I can imagine some cool maps showing color-coded tracks of your daily commute compared with your friends' commutes, or where you traveled on the weekend compared to where your friends traveled.

A quick Google search for "social GPS", and of course people are already doing something like this! Check out Ipoki, where your voyeuristic inclinations can be satisfied by seeing little icons of your friends driving down the freeway or stationed at their house or office. I think right now I'd only consent to sharing such a level of personal surveillance with my kids, so they would know how to find me if they needed to. Somehow this kind of constant monitoring feels more invasive than posting my Twitter or Facebook updates. The more automatic the data collection is, the more regulation I want to have over who gets to see it. So for example our relatives would be able to see our position for the day we're traveling together, but not beyond that.

The level of comfort people have with personal data sharing seems to be gradually increasing with this generation - my parents don't blog, Twitter, or have much of an online persona. The question is, how far will it go? Is it all good, a great sign of progress? Or are we all lobsters about to be boiled?

How To Get Out Of A (Scientific) Rut

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:04:00 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Irene Levine online, a psychologist and journalist writing an article for Science magazine on scientists in a rut. She was interested in hearing my story of how I became disillusioned in graduate school and left to apply myself to a greater good.

The article just came out today, here: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2008_10_03/caredit.a0800144

Irene offers some great advice for getting out of a rut in general, whether you're a scientist or not. The tip I liked best was Take Care of Yourself, something I'm still working on (and hopefully getting better at).

Thanks Irene, and happy rut-breaking, everyone! :)

Guest Post: Daniel Reda on Offense vs. Defense

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:27:00 +0000

For a different perspective, my husband and thinking buddy Daniel takes the stage today. He recently had a discussion with a friend about which is stronger, offense or defense? He synthesized it beautifully, and was happy to share it here.

--------

Offense vs. defense - I've explored this concept as well. I think it has to do with an asymmetry in how we define success for each side. Take any situation with an offensive side and a defensive side and we will consider offense to have succeeded if any ONE of its attacks penetrates through the defense. Alternatively, we only consider defense successful while it's able to block ALL offensive actions.

The odds of any one of many offensive actions succeeding will generally be much higher than the odds of ALL defensive attempts to block such actions.

So if we think about offense and defense this way, offense is inherently stronger. This surprises us because of a cognitive bias that causes people to consistently underestimate the odds of any one thing happening and overestimate the odds of all things in a set happening.

I haven't thought about how it applies to sports as much, but I imagine the asymmetry is reduced by the rules of the game, which constrain the possible offensive actions, limiting the space of defensive tactics necessary to block most attacks.

When it comes to terrorism, terrorists only need to invest resources in one strategy at a time, but a defense system needs to invest resources toward block ALL possible attacks because it doesn't know which one will be used. And, as we have seen with 9/11, if it lets one out of a million pass through, it's readily judged to have failed overall.

Replace terrorist with virus and defense system with immune system above and the same applies I think.

It's easier to destroy than to build because there are more ways of being in a destroyed state than in a state we called ordered. We both have children and know this from experience - there are far more ways to scatter blocks around the floor than there are ways to build something we consider ordered or "interesting".

- Daniel

Open Source Health Research Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:13:00 +0000

We’ve been thinking a lot at CureTogether about open source health research and how it can work. Our thoughts have coalesced into a plan, which I’ve written up here and summarized below. It was also listed as a featured article here. We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section. How do you see this working?

–

Summary of the Open Source Health Research Plan

Open source has emerged as a powerful set of principles for solving complex problems in ﬁelds as diverse as education and physical security. With roughly 60 million Americans suffering from a chronic health condition, traditional research progressing slowly, and personalized medicine on the horizon, the time is right to apply open source to health research. Advances in technology enabling cheap, massive data collection combined with the emerging phenomena of self quantiﬁcation and crowdsourcing make this plan feasible today. We can all work together to cure disease, and hereʼs how.
.

The Elements of Open Source

The State of Health Research

The Open Source Health Research Plan

Step 1: Deﬁne the “source”
Step 2: Apply the elements
Step 3: Develop a platform
Step 4: Build community
Step 5: Make discoveries

.
The Challenges

Intellectual Property
Privacy and Security
Accuracy
Awareness
Institutional Resistance

.
About the Author
Acknowledgements
References
.

You can read the whole report here. Please join the discussion and leave your comments below.

Let's Go to the Singularity Summit!

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:59:00 +0000

From the Singularity Summit website:

"The Singularity Summit gathers the smartest people around to explore the biggest ideas of our time. Learn where humanity is headed, meet the people leading the way, and leave inspired to create a better world."

Speakers include: Ray Kurzweil, Marvin Minsky, Vernor Vinge, Esther Dyson, and more future-looking thinkers.

Date: October 25, 9 am - 5 pm
Location: Montgomery Theater in San Jose

Register here and see you there!

Come Learn Tai Chi With Us!

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:20:00 +0000

As a self-proclaimed evangelist for taijiquan and its many amazing benefits and wonders, I'm excited to announce a new set of beginner classes at our Palo Alto, CA location. Come to a class for free, meet some friendly new faces, and try this beautiful practice for yourself!

Here's the schedule:
Thursdays starting August 28, 7:30-9 pm at St. Mark's
(600 Colorado Ave)
Wednesdays starting September 10, 7:30-9 pm at Unity
(3391 Middlefield Rd)
Saturdays starting September 27, 9-10:30 am at St. Mark's
Mondays starting September 29, 10-11:30 am at Unity

I'll be going off and on to all the classes, so come by, say hello, and give your body and mind a wonderful new experience! :)

What I Write About

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:22:00 +0000

These are the words on my blog, what I care about, what I write about. A very cool website called Wordle made this beautiful word cloud for me.

Despite the title of my blog being Earth Change, I was surprised to see that two of the most frequent words on my blog are 'world' and 'change'. 'Us' is another one I didn't expect. If you have a blog, plug your URL into Wordle and discover your own insights into your word/thought patterns.

Us change world. Sounds good to me!

Open source medical research - Digg this!

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:11:00 +0000

We've just been posted on Digg.com, under open source medical research:

"CureTogether is a place where people share their health knowledge, to help each other feel better and to make new discoveries. It's as private as you want it to be, it's open and it's free. Together we can work to end suffering for millions of people living in daily pain."

Please go and digg CureTogether at http://digg.com/health/Open_source_medical_research
It only takes a minute!
Thanks everyone :)

read more | digg story

Strawberry Sex and Shoe Mods

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:46:00 +0000

This is what unfettered 2 and 5 years olds do with their free time. :)

"How do they make strawberries, Mommy?" led to a discussion of flowers, insects, plant sex, animal sex, human sex, and where things generally come from. Delta has such a thirst for understanding how the world works right now and wanting to do everything by herself, to her great frustration.

And Samantha decided her shoes were not fancy enough, so she did a mod - cutting off the straps, adding ribbons and stickers and flourishes until they passed inspection. She then modeled them at the playground, along with her newly pierced ears. The munchkins are growing before our eyes.

Manifesting Abundance

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:04:00 +0000

The more you give, the more you get in return. And the more you let go of yourself, the more the world opens up to you.

These are the lessons I am learning this month. It started with a spiritual awakening during a Taoist Tai Chi workshop, and a strong desire to help people. I can't say that I've done anything really different besides tuning in to the energy of the spirit world and just getting lost in the bliss. Maybe losing myself is the key to letting life flow without ego and expectations getting in the way.

The result?
- Launch of CureTogether.com with over 700 visitors, 70 members signed up, 38 conditions suggested, and 6 press/blog articles
- Invitation to join the Biotech/Medical Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation to safeguard humanity
- Invitation to present a video clip of CureTogether at the upcoming Singularity Summit
- Invitation to join the local Branch Council of the Taoist Tai Chi Society
- Invitation to attend the futurist retreat Fusion
- A childcare angel appearing to help us out for 15-20 hours a week
- My first date with my husband in 6 years
- Deeper connection with my girls when we are together, because Mommy has had time and space to be herself and fill up her reserves

With such an unexpectedly abundant month coming to an end, I wonder what the next will bring. Plutarch said, "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality." So let this coming month be an inner journey, with adventures and insights as yet unknown. And manifestations in outer reality to be discovered with curiosity and delight.

My vulvodynia update at The Body Chronic

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:21:00 +0000

It's a beautiful, sunny day, and I feel like I'm flying. The pain I've tolerated for over a decade thanks to a condition called vulvodynia is almost completely gone, and has been for several weeks, with some active management on my part.

If you want the complete story, I guest blogged my amazing recovery here, at The Body Chronic.

So this is what a cure feels like.

J.K. Rowling Inspires Me Today

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:19:00 +0000

Samantha and I just finished reading Harry Potter (the first) as our bedtime story, and we both loved it. So I was especially interested to see J.K. Rowling's commencement address at Harvard University earlier this month.

Here are my favorite quotes:
" It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously, that you might as well not have lived at all... in which case, you fail by default."

"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks, means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive."

Having been through intense times myself, these words ring true and give me strength and hope going forward into bright days ahead.

I hope you are equally inspired. :)

The 10 Pillars of Learning Anything

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:03:00 +0000

I wrote this article with my husband Daniel Reda in 2007 and am reposting it for a burst of fresh inspiration as another "school" year ends and a new one is about to start. Samantha has been asking to go to school, and we've been wondering whether homeschooling will work for us given our own intense need to work/add value to the world and given all of our idiosyncracies.

So this morning, re-reading our 10 pillars and recognizing also the need for space and freedom to learn on one's own, I feel like we are still on the right path. Definitely a challenging path, to say the least, but then we should be used to that by now. Going against the grain is almost always harder but almost always incredibly rewarding in the end. OK here goes...

Future Path: Homeschooling from First Principles Instead of a Curriculum

It's 2037. Your child is your age, more or less. Cars drive themselves. You can access the entire Internet directly from your own brain. And most of the world's knowledge workers live in India and China. Everything is very fluid, time and space oozing between virtual reality and meatspace. Some fundamental principles of living remain the same, but everyone is having increasing difficulty adapting to the rapidly accelerating rate of change. It's a brave new world.

Flash back to 2007. Schools are still teaching for the industrial age. Schedules, standardized tests, students sitting in rows waiting for the bell to ring. But a growing number of dissidents are pulling their kids out to self-educate them. According to the US Census Bureau, more than 2 million children in the US were homeschooled in 2001. That number is growing at 15 to 20 percent per year, making homeschooling the fastest-growing educational movement in America. And, since our first daughter was born, we knew we would join the ranks.

As we began our foray into homeschooling, various curricula were recommended to us: prescribed, step-by-step approaches to learning at home based on diverse philosophies from Waldorf and Montessori to classical education. We found ourselves turning more towards the freedom and self-directed nature of unschooling. But something still didn't feel right. We were traveling without a compass.

So we asked ourselves the question: what are the fundamental first principles of education? If we take a step back, what do we want our children to learn? 10 pillars jumped out at us, building a Parthenon of education before our eyes. And these principles are also what we seek to improve in ourselves, so it will be a family journey. The wise parenting counselor Naomi Aldort says, "We are all sometimes convinced that we know what is best for the child, yet it is more likely to represent our own needs." We are all, after all, learning all the time. So here goes.

Pillar 1: Understanding
Actions: Observe and Analyze

We all do this every day. Understanding is the foundation of the scientific method and the basis of living in the world around us. Observing everything from the universe via telescope to the human-scale world to the world of bacteria via microscope. Making predictions and hypotheses, then going out to gather data to test them, and adjusting our model of the world based on our results. Understanding also applies to different cultures; learning how people around the world see and do and live. And our understanding of the world shapes who we become. But understanding is so much more powerful when combined with...

Pillar 2: Creativity
Actions: Design and Build

Creativity - the buzzword on every "educational" child's activity kit these days. But really how creative is it to follow the instructions for how to put together all the pre-cut, pre-designed materials into the picture on the front of the package? This seems to be the antithesis of creativity. Try starting from scratch, from raw ideas and raw materials, and see what emerges. This kind of scrappy, fresh creativity will be a major differentiator in the economy of the future, and will be a key way to add true value to the world. Throw away all the colorful plastic toys and get out a bunch of random materials lying around instead. Or better yet, start with an idea and seek out the materials you need. There's nothing like working with limited resources to unleash the creative spark. And when your magnificent creation is done, you'll want to tell the world about it. Read on...

Pillar 3: Communication
Actions: Write and Speak

Our society today is so input-focused that few of us take the time to write and develop our ideas to share with the world. Hours of TV, mass consumption, and email bombardment give us little free time for active output. And yet we need to make the time. Turn off the inputs and start writing. Get your ideas out there. Learn to talk about ideas with the same facility that you talk about everyday matters like what your kids are up to. We need to model this ability to our children, and help them find opportunities to practice as well - communicating with others about real world issues. It's the only way to effect positive change. But it's not all work and no play...

Pillar 4: Play
Actions: Art, Dance, Music

Sometimes we feel like we've forgotten how to play. This is where our children can teach us. They work and play seamlessly, as though there were no difference between the two. Laughing, creating, enjoying life. Play lets us express ourselves freely, gives us mental rest and creative energy, and just feels good. Slow down, be present, and see what unfolds before you. Most of all, step back and let your children play. It's a great chance to watch and learn. A playful attitude towards life will serve you well. And speaking of service...

Pillar 5: Service
Actions: Give and Help

Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." The biggest change we want to see in the world is people helping each other. But not in a let's-all-go-and-do-manual-labor way, sorting food or building houses. While these are noble and worthy causes, there is so much more value to be added if people give in ways unique to them. Do your highest value work for the world. Contribute your special talents, whatever they may be. Take what you love, or what your kids love, and find a way to apply it to making the world a better place. Turn it into a whole family project, encompassing different areas of study and different interests. If we unite our diverse, collective forces for a common good, we will have a formidable force ready to weather the changes in store. But while helping others is a fundamental building block of education, so too is helping yourself...

Pillar 6: Influence
Actions: Market and Sell

Here's something they don't teach at school. Or at least not until you're in the MBA program at an elite university. And yet what a valuable skill. The ability to change the behavior of other people - to get them to hire you, or buy something you produce, or join your cause. Yet for most people the fear of public speaking is greater than the fear of death! Why? We never learned this stuff. Well, now's our chance to learn it together with our kids. Practice stretching your comfort zones together. Negotiate for the next item you buy. Look for ways to add value to yourself, like a newspaper article or your own website. You may feel uncomfortable or even guilty at first, because we've been trained to be followers rather than leaders. Let's reverse that. And if you're worried about getting too self-absorbed, the next section is for you...

Pillar 7: Perspective
Actions: Expose and Travel

This is one of our favorite parts of homeschooling. The freedom to travel without the constraints of school holidays. The flexibility to choose activities and events that interest and enrich us. And the spontaneity of throwing in unexpected experiences for exposure to something new. All of these things broaden our perspective on the world and fuel our minds and spirits. So try something different today. Shake up the box a bit and see where it leads you. Every homeschooler has a different life experience, which is a wonderful contrast to the bleak uniformity of conventional education and brings a refreshing diversity of outlooks to the table of the future. How interesting to share perspectives, learn about other people's world models, and ask questions. Which brings us to the 8th pillar...

Pillar 8: Critical Thinking
Actions: Question and Challenge

Inherent in American culture is a bizarre dichotomy. Freedom and individuality are highly prized as ideals, but on the other hand, conformity is essential. It's cool to be different, as long as you're different in the same way everyone else is. Advertisers capitalize on this by telling people they will be cool and unique if they buy this mass-marketed product. We want our children to question this, to challenge models that don't agree with their understanding and perspective, to have the courage to be honest with themselves and others instead of following the flock. Look at school again. Masses of children educated to be subservient and agreeable, following the rules and pleasing the teacher, turning down the volume of their inner voice of reason. This is more factory thinking - destructive to the individual and to the future economy. We need people who can think for themselves. And people whose sense of self is intact enough to master the next pillar...

Pillar 9: Love
Actions: Self and Others

Author Marianne Williamson says, "Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learn here." Love is really the foundational pillar underlying all the others we're talking about here. Everything we think, do, and believe is either out of love or fear. Many of us have forgotten how to love ourselves and others, and operate from a basis of fear. Fear of failure, fear of success - you name it, we fear it. Yet if we can cultivate a profound sense of love and gratitude, we can manifest so much joy and richness in our lives. This is truly the greatest gift we can give to future generations. Give yourself a big, fuzzy hug, and give your kids one too. We'll need a solid foundation of love for what is coming next...

Pillar 10: Change
Actions: Evolve and Improve

Change is not only constant, but accelerating. Exponential growth is happening before our eyes across the board. If our ancestors saw us walking down the street with our Bluetooth headsets, talking to no visible person, they would think we had all lost our minds. And this is only the very beginning. With the technological singularity approaching, where artificial intelligences will increase the rate of progress beyond what we humans can comprehend, the ability to evolve and adapt will be a critical skill. A sense of continual improvement of self and circumstances also leads to a feeling of well-being and self-esteem. So if love is the foundation of all the other pillars, change is the direction where they are all going. Keeping our wits about us in the face of this change will help to guide humanity towards a constructive, positive future instead of total annihilation. The faster we can adapt, the better.

It's 2037 again. Your child has followed this Future Path and found her place in the new world. She is thriving, and using her talents to make a positive contribution to the future of humanity. If only the others were so lucky.
It's time to change.

Gallery of my recent artwork

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:54:00 +0000

I'm a guest blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Kim at The Body Chronic invited me to post a guest blog entry about my experience with vulvodynia. Here it is, although be forewarned that it gets personal and somewhat detailed. :)

About Kim and TBC
The Body Chronic is a blog with a goal: to create a community of support for those living and dealing with chronic illness and chronic pain. Specifically, but not exclusively, TBC deals with the following chronic health issues on a regular basis: polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), insulin resistance, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, pevlic floor dysfunction and irritable bowel syndrome. TBC was created so that no one needs to wander the path of chronic illness or pain alone.

Thanks for your efforts Kim, and good luck!

A quick update

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:26:00 +0000

The last couple of months have been truly transformative, and I found myself driving down the 101 the other day thinking to myself, "Wow, I really love life!!"

I've had a life-changing experience with my tai chi practice. After a recent workshop with visiting instructor Steve Harris from Colorado, worlds opened up to me and I can now send my body into a deep state of bliss doing tai chi, with my mind and spirit following closely behind. I practice 6-10 hours a week, and have begun instructing as well - this is too amazing to not share with anyone who wants to learn!

Everything in life has taken an upswing along with this increased state of well-being - closer relationships, more fun, faster progress on our new venture, and really enjoying life.

Samantha maintains her intense passion for art, devouring new techniques and styles and producing hundreds of pieces of work each month. It's a challenge to know where to keep them all! She has a deepening interest in witches and magic, and has begun writing and illustrating stories (mostly about witches flying on brooms and having adventures) in her journal. We also delved into agglomerative hierarchical clustering recently after watching a Google developers talk - it's a fancy name for a way of organizing data visually, and she picked it up without skipping a beat.

Delta continues to amaze us - the other day we were standing outside on the porch and she looked up at the moon. Then she said these words, "The sun makes music and the moon likes dancing." She and Samantha have been having wonderful times playing together for stretches of up to an hour, and homeschooling is becoming fun again. And when they do encounter conflict, great tenderness can emerge. One time Samantha was upset about something having of hers having been taken and she said "I don't want (Delta)!" To which Delta replied, with tears in her eyes, "I love you." This melted Samantha's fiery moment and the sisters were friends again.

Daniel is flourishing too, despite a lingering cough. He speaks with such passion and animation and eloquence about our venture and grand ideas, with such an incredible vision for the future. (And he has even started doing tai chi, so we get to practice together - he had an idea for extreme tai chi; doing tai chi in all kinds of unusual places around the world! Leave it to him to mod even the most gentle and ancient of practices :)) He has really grown since coming to California, as have I. It just feels like the RIGHT place for us to be.

As my pants from REI say,
life is good.

The Empath and the Missing Tooth

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Our little Delta is such an empath. She feeds her animal figurines before herself at every meal, she says "That's OK, Mommy" when I'm feeling sad or frustrated, and when she saw her Daddy drawing a picture of a happy face and a sad face, she started to cry. "Wants milk," she explained, seeing that the face was sad because it wanted to nurse with its mommy. She also came up with the idea of "sharing Mommy" when I am at a meeting or tai chi. "Where are go-ning?" she always wants to know.

And while one is getting in her last baby teeth, the other is transitioning to official big girl-ness. Samantha has lost her first tooth, which was surprisingly emotional for us as parents - no longer our little baby girl! She was very excited. Her tooth got wigglier and wigglier until it was hanging by a thread. Then it happened - she was eating an apple and felt what she thought was an apple seed in her mouth. She spit it out and discovered it was a tooth! Great celebration and festivities. :)

We've been so busy over the past couple of weeks that the munchkins are feeling stressed and bickering with each other. Time to slow down a bit for some more one-on-one time this week, focused freeplay where each one has a parent's full attention and gets to direct the action. We find this always works to restore family harmony. It's all a balancing act, and sometimes we're better at it than other times. But when we feel the balance shifting too far in one direction, we take it as a sign to move the other way and hopefully respond quickly enough that everyone feels their needs are being met.

"That's OK, Mommy!" :)

Authenticity vs. Privacy

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:39:00 +0000

I'm on Facebook. I blog. I have an online persona, and am one of the only people in my circle of IRL friends to do this - open myself up, put the details of my life out there for all to see. My thoughts, pictures, CV, connections, preferences, quirks, daily status - all open to public scrutiny.

This makes my friends nervous.

But for me, it feels like a form of authentic self-expression. On the web, you can be who you are and be proud of it (something I'm still working on in meatspace). The long tail of social networking would theoretically let me find other scientist attachment parents who practice tai chi, although I haven't tried that search yet (now I'm curious).

The question is just how much information do I reveal - how far to open the kimono, so to speak? More detail = more authenticity and self-expression, which leads to greater trust and connection. But am I also making myself vulnerable to identity theft or various other crimes that I don't want to think about? Do I really want my business advisors to know about my 4th grade classmates and vice versa? Do I want either of them to know that I had a really hard day with a cranky toddler who was constantly nursing? Do I share my travel plans with everyone? There is a surreptitious excitement I feel when I reveal another bit of myself online, but surely there must be a line to be drawn between freely/proudly expressing myself and keeping some things to myself.

I'm interested to hear how other people feel about this balance. Thoughts, anyone?

Ending Aging

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:58:00 +0000

The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is alive today. This preposterous-sounding statement is made by Aubrey deGrey of the Methuselah Foundation, whom I had the distinct pleasure of meeting earlier this month at the Yahoo! Brickhouse. deGrey is the author of the recent book Ending Aging - in it he outlines the seven deadly pieces that we need to solve in order to defeat aging and live indefinitely. He calls his approach Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, or SENS for short, and discusses the current state of biological research and directions for future discoveries.

Here are the Seven Deadly Things:
1. Cell loss, cell atrophy
2. Nuclear [epi]mutations (only cancer matters)
3. Mutant mitochondria
4. Death-resistant cells
5. Extracellular crosslinks
6. Extracellular junk
7. Intracellular junk

It seems to me that deGrey's biological approach combined with the flurry of imminent nanotechnological discoveries will undoubtedly lead to indefinite life extension. The question is how soon. This is such a fundamentally important question - the ultimate puzzle to solve - that I plan to devote my fifth career to it, after this new startup (details to come).

If not my parents' generation, then hopefully mine, or at least my children's, will be able to benefit from these new technologies and live to be 1,000. I'd personally love to live that long - there are so many amazing things to do and learn and think about in this world. I wonder if I'll still be blogging in 900 years...

Taoist Tai Chi Open House in Palo Alto

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:15:00 +0000

I've been doing Taoist Tai Chi for 11 years. I find it an amazing way to reduce stress and heal everything from back and knee pain to depression. I've also made some wonderful friends along the way. So it made sense to me to take on the online marketing volunteer job, as a way to give back and spread the word about this truly amazing form of exercise and meditation.

We are having an open house on January 19th from 10:30 am to 2 pm at Avenidas Center in Palo Alto (450 Bryant Ave) and everyone is invited!! Come and learn a few moves, meet some friendly faces, and treat yourself to a boost of well-being. :)

See you there!

Click here to check out
The Palo Alto Taoist Tai Chi Open House!

Entrepreneurial Family

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:07:00 +0000

As we head out east to celebrate my brother's wedding, I am thinking about my family and how it came to be that we are all involved in entrepreneurial ventures.

Mom: private practice lawyer, politician, doer of good works
Dad: independent management consultant, DIYer, various side ventures
Evan: part of our first startup (Redasoft) at age 19, now runs a huge website and consulting practice giving motivation and resources to entrepreneurs
Stefanie: has an amazing social conscience, going to the Kigali Centre for Entrepreneurs in Rwanda to help local businesses get off the ground

And then there's me - serial entrepreneur in the bioinformatics space, married to Daniel, my partner in life, business, and silliness. I remember Dad helping me start my first business at age 11, designing patterns for plastic canvas needlework and putting together kits to sell with everything needed to do the project. I remember Mom giving speeches and raising money for causes she believed in, working hard to change the system. Being a part of Mom's political campaigns and Dad's ventures gave me the early seedlets of new venture creation, adding value, getting your ideas out there, and making a difference in the world.

I guess we all picked up on it, and I'm so proud of my sibs too. So we will celebrate love, togetherness, and new ventures on this trip, as we welcome another entrepreneur into the family, Evan's bride-to-be Sharon. Everybody salsa!!

Transhuman Transition

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:32:00 +0000

Here's a poem I wrote inspired by thinking about life and separation and transitions:

Conquer death the ghastly
Live forever free
Rage and rage and rage again
No dying light for me

My younger self is dead already
Babe in Mama's arms
I wrench and twist and grow and change
But part of me lives on

How will we look back on those
Who choose to die too soon?
Left behind as dust
As we lumber on alone

Anguish, loss, and deep regret
We could not make them see
The life that was awaiting them
The future yet to be

Here we are - we made it!
Shattered lock and chain
Our gleaming path to ecstasy
Is tinged with deepest pain

Future Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Sustainable Living Dojo) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:17:00 +0000

I was so excited to attend the intellectual feast served up at the Foresight Vision Weekend on November 3-4 at Yahoo headquarters in Mountain View. From online worlds to life extension to artificial intelligence to nanofactories, the discussions were spirited and tinged with great responsibility as we embark on revolutions in biotech, nanotech, and artificial intelligence that will dramatically change our lives.

The key insights I got from this hyper-participatory unconference fall into three categories:

1. Life Extension - I think my favorite sessions were Jeff Hall's talk about the latest SENS research being coordinated by Aubrey de Grey's Methuselah Foundation and Chris Heward's keynote about his work at Kronos Optimal Health Company. The prospect of curing aging in our lifetime is so compelling and so important a problem that I feel guided to contribute my talents and energy to it. Hence the added mention of life extension in the title of this blog. There are decades of work to do, and what a challenging puzzle to solve!

2. Online Worlds - Being somewhat of a late adopter of gaming/virtual reality technologies, it was amazing to me to learn about the latest advances in artificial intelligence from Steve Omohundro of Self-Aware Systems and Ben Goertzel of Novamente. Second Life was proposed as a sandbox for experimenting with the release of AIs and the testing of various theories regarding control of and reaction to this coming brave new world. Now to create an avatar for myself...

3. Open Source Physical Security - Christine Peterson of Foresight talked about her idea of applying the concept of decentralized, collaborative, transparent open source to physical security (think the 4th 9-11 flight). I found this mapping fascinating and will definitely need to think more about this.

As often happens when brilliant minds collide, new questions emerge, new energy is created, and everyone scatters back to their own corner with fresh insight and ready to tackle some of the biggest and most exciting challenges in the world today. Many thanks to Foresight for opening up their Vision Weekend to all who were interested in joining the feast.