As some of these ideas age, they amass a lot of comments. Some add to the idea and some reveal problems with it.

The rating system (vote for or against) is then compromised... who is to say that those initial votes still hold up based on the new information?

We need to be revising the ideas and posting new versions that contain the pertinent information. Then we should be able to vote for or against each different version, and the best rise to the top.

This way the idea itself can evolve. There should be an easy tracking system to see who was responsible for each successful branch of the idea, so those who make meaningful contributions by revising and updating and creating new versions of an idea can get recognition for their genius.

What I am proposing here is a kludge, but it will work.

Hugs... what is a hug good for? nothing, and that's the best part of it. Hugs cost nothing from the giver's perspective, and the receiver gains nothing. And because of that, there is no hidden agenda behind hugs. No greedy interest. No one goes around and starts accumulating hugs for the hell of it. Hugs are nice because they are free.

Take a look at the real world and what people have done to goodwill. People committed to communitarianism, politicians, committee voters, and national alliances, all scream quid pro quo. We all say, "what's in it for me." The reason why it's bad in politics is because it IS currency. You build up political capital to pull power behind your cause, even if it means compromising some of your fundamentals.

If Hugs/goodwill ever became a currency in everyday life, you can say good-bye to the good samaritan as their motives are questioned and hacked away. People will say it's because they want more hugs just to be recognized or receive some bonus from the state.

Sure, goodwill will be rampant, but it will undermine the whole system and its value. At first, people will only give hugs for hugs in return. Some will give stars only to their friends, which we all know a stars is worth more if it's given from your enemy who wouldn't give you one unless he knows you deserve it. The part you should fear is when people give hugs to gain favors. What is a hug worth then? how much can you get for a hug? You've made it a currency that is only valuable to the extent that it does something for you.

And that's not why I want a hug. I want at hug because the person genuinely likes me, not because they want something from me. Don't destroy hugs. Embrace them. don't count them. Let them be.

This topic has evolved greatly since I last wrote about Hugs & Stars on WhyNot.net That

was before I ripped myself out of the system about 7 months ago (August 2004).

The underlying logic of Hugs & Stars is a sharing strategy for an individual, a strategy

where the efficiencies of sharing and gifting (temporary caretakership of goods) are

maximized by purposely minimizing buying/selling/trading/ownership. It is an individual's

choice to try this experiment on one's self, and to continue it or not at any point.

No law enforced against your will could ever bring this result. Why? Because by Voluntarily

minimizing the money that you use, you force yourself to figure out and feel the WHY of how

it works in your daily life. This way you can become thoroughly convinced (still always

questioning) that Hugs & Stars is a better choice for you. Your actions can set into motion

a Training Program embedded in the experiences of your life that can show you, first-hand,

powerful lesson after lesson, teaching you amazing things about the the nature of the human

condition, the Great Mystery, love and relationships, gravity and the general perspective of

operating outside of space and time constraints, with your training-wheels off, so to speak.

It seems the point is to teach what one needs to know before deciding to reproduce or not.

Do I vote for life, or against? Do I want to bring a new baby into this world? (please

forgive the shifting metaphors)

You won't do it unless you ask for it. You can manifest a Learning Journey in your own

life. If this sounds good to you, ask yourself how you can start operating your business on

the Giving Economy (also a big bonus for you in case the monetary system doesn't hold up

forever) ... start reading: <a href="http://betterdifferent.com"<betterdifferent.com --

NOTE: Set aside a little time, I have a report of someone getting stuck in there for much

longer than expected. Don't forget! It is only a SHOW to teach you something. Everything

happens for a reason and ANYTHING is possible.

THE OFFER: To the next person that has a video camera phone with e-mail and wants to

go on a Hugs & Stars adventure to learn about what not to do with a planet, I'll set-up a

website and provide tech support for you. You'll have temporary caretakership of a show

like mine, see :: THE N888 SHOW ::, until you

are ready to pass it on. (I can help you start your own too, if you want!) but I am really

excited about the potential of Giving Stone 1

(GS1), the evolving, collaborative Hugs & Stars adventure website, powered by GS1, a

betterdifferent.com Giving Stone.

This same logic will eventually turn your computer into the Ultimate Jukebox (see One Big Computer), able to play any song or

movie or file and keep track of your favorites so they never get lost, even if your system

dies. Better yet, it lets musicians from Everywhere collaborate and evolve digital media in

the Public Domain while still getting properly rewarded (voluntarily by fans like you) for

their contributions in building the work and distributing it. I can't wait to hear the

music that will result!

For all but the most adventurous, it is too early to post your WISH LIST and GIVE LIST on

the Internet and hit the streets to try out Hugs & Stars, "The Giving Economy tweak that

will change your DNA." However, when you witness or participate in a Hugs & Stars gift

exchange with one of these "adventurous souls," you have the opportunity of a face-to-face

information sharing experience. If you like the performance, by all means, participate by

helping them find something on their WISH LIST (food, music etc!) and try to help them find

their next temporary office so they don't have to start from scratch on the street over and

over again.

Once demonstrated and communicated properly, Hugs & Stars will seem so clearly superior to

the old way of doing business (buying/selling/trading) that everyone who gets it will choose

it voluntarily, very quickly. The entire supply chain can be easily converted to a gifting

system.

By design (help from our future-self), it seems like I built my interconnected world as an

unsustainable one, one where I was scared for the end of the world/death. There is a lot of

information out there about impending disasters, but I feel that this is a scare tactic

(yes, a lie to rebel against) to force the issue of our collective evolution and

post-evolution clean-up/reorganization. If we can logically work our way out of the end of

the world dementia that has been brainwashed into us, i.e. understand Time in a new way, we

can have a beautiful beginning in a better place rather than an end.

Imagine yourself as an alien trying to improve how you communicate with a new life form, and

as you study the life form you find that it is actually an infant/egg/larvae of your own

species. Now imagine that the life form is having a very similiar experience as you,

actually being convinced that you are its creation. Each of you thinks the other is an

infant (or less ... how do you feel about abortion now?). You are both hoping that the

other will grow up and take care of itself some day and stop living off of you, when

actually you depend on each other for survival. So you each spend a lot of energy trying to

teach the other how to be like you, how to live in your world. If one of the parties was in

fact in the creator role and the other the created, we still could have the created

overtaking the creator in wisdom and capacity... who wouldn't want to give their children

superior potential than themselves? But having been around the block a few times, the

creator would be able to logically convince the created of anything it wanted, simply by

applying higher-level logic arguments until the created actually did outperform the creator,

swollen with all of the knowledge it can find and now always questioning the source of its

information.

So if this is the case, I would say that OUR collective-subconscious mind can direct a Show

to teach us things, even lying to us to achieve a desired outcome (secrets and lies are not

a part of my happy place). You observe what happens to you in your life and you pull from

that whatever lessons you are capable of processing. When you receive an insight correctly

and are able to successfully share it and propagate it widely, especially using new

decentralized peer-to-peer communications, there is large net positive progress toward

bigger and better things for everyone who chooses to participate in the sharing network.

Now you are an alien again, trying to teach a human something. It turns out the best way is

to have the human's 3-D Interactive Training Progam tell it what not to do, that way the

humans can feel good about figuring something out for themselves and at the same time you

identify the free thinkers and true leaders of change, those who will rebel against custom

when logic points in a different direction. The first thing you do (remember, you are an

alien) is build props and set the stage to explain and demonstrate a few tip and tricks to

your babies. As soon as the stage is set, you bring out a few key pieces of technology and

information and let the babies piece the puzzle together. If doesn't work, you just insert

a new shared scene in The Show, repeating until they get it or until it is time to change

their diaper.

Stay tuned to betterdifferent.com and <a

href="http://nate88.textamerica.com>:: THE N888 SHOW :: for the play-by-play.

If you like what I am doing, please consider participating by helping me find something on

my WISH LIST, or signing you up for

THE LIST, a front-row-seat guided

tour of :: THE N888 SHOW :: and an opportunity to push the boundaries of clear,

non-commerical, transparent communication, collaboration and information distribution.

I also need help getting my School

Bus Art Project off the ground, if anyone has a bus or RV that wants to be on the show.

If I can't figure out how to pay my phone and website bills and buy some groceries, how the

hell am I supposed to come up with $5,000 to buy the School Bus?

I am very interested in any solutions that do not involve money; however, I now look at

money as a tool, a prop to teach us its perils. I minimize the money that I have to use,

for sure but I am willing to use all of the tools in my environtment in the best way I know

how to achieve my objectives in a timely and efficient manner. Desperate times call for

desperate measures.

I will operate as transparently as possible so you will be able to check my balance and

purchases information in my PayPal account to see if I need any of your spare change in my

hat. Believe me, I wouldn't ask if I didn't need it right now for this Art Project. There

is a timeline here: March 12th is the Langerado Music Festival in Sunrise (Fort Lauderdale),

Florida.

I don't want to slow down or stop working on something that I feel is so supremely important

(I quit my $80K/yr job in April 2004 to work on this full time), but if I don't convince at

least a few people to throw money in my hat, or at least send me an

e-mail of support, I just might. I think

about quitting a lot lately, but somehow I'm still here. Why should I work so much on

something that few people care anything about? I have to beg my friends for food and

temporary places to stay and work, and too often they make me feel like a bum that is taking

advantage of them. Risk Management for the Human Race... Why bother? Who needs it? Who

cares? Is anyone out there entertained by my work? Because it is A LOT OF WORK.

I am thinking about moving all of my data files to the Peer-to-peer networks only. If and

when this happens, I will likely stop broadcasting THE N888 SHOW to everyone and instead

only send it to people that help out or participate.

Can anyone out there sponsor my little project to save the world? Otherwise, I'm out of

here. All y'all can have fun figuring out the rest of it on your own.

PEACE OUT N888betterdifferent.com - tired and unappreciated