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Siegfried Othmer is a physicist who over the last 33 years has been engaged with neurofeedback as a technique for the rehabilitation and enhancement of brain function. He is Chief Scientist at the EEG Institute in Los Angeles. Coming to understand the brain as a complex, self-organizing system also gives one insight into the core workings of our economy and society as a complex, self-organizing system. Of particular interest are the failure modes in both cases. Complex self-organizing systems tend to live near the edge of instability. The brain manages to contain instabilities in the general case. In our economy, however, constraints can be overridden, leading to substantial risk of instability at the macro level. In a complex technological society, the risk factors have progressively shorter time constants, whereas the compensating stabilizing factors have increasingly longer time constants. The consequence is an increase in societal risk of major instability over time. Promoting societal resilience must therefore become a policy objective in its own right. This has become my overriding concern in my involvement with OpEdNews.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, January 11, 2010 On Negro dialect
If Senator Reid cannot speak the truth about race without it being considered a gaffe, then perhaps others among us need to carry the discourse forward.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 31, 2009 The Path Not Taken
President Carter's views on the state of the country in 1979 are even more relevant today. A historical perspective on how we got here helps to clarify our current challenges---political, economic, and technical.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, December 28, 2009 Voluntary taxation
The article considers the desirability and means of allowing individuals to either opt in or out with regard to public support of abortion, capital punishment, and undeclared wars.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Rumination on Taxation
Options for restoring tax equity are discussed, with the dual objectives of restoring fiscal credibility to Washington and of righting the economic ship of state.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 23, 2009 Thoughts on Afghanistan
Discusses risks of military escalation and introduces policy alternatives
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 25, 2009 On Torture: The Issue of Collective Guilt
After Hitler, Germany had to deal with collective guilt.
Now that the USA has its own issue of the violation of the Geneva Convention regarding torture, the question of collective guilt needs once again to be raised. As far as I can tell, there has been essentially no discussion of our common, shared responsibility for what we have allowed to happen.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, September 26, 2008 Toward a New Economy
The proposed bailout is a rescue effort for an economy that has not served the nation well. But the alternatives are not up for debate. As the bailout is unlikely to be effective in the long run, it is best to explore alternative economies now.
SHARE Wednesday, April 16, 2008 A Revitalized Liberal Agenda
A reflection on a liberal resurgence on the basis of foreseeable technological developments that imply a moral mandate for our society.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Musings on the Fed
The center of power in our country has already gravitated from Washington to Wall Street. Its incestuous marriage to the Fed completes the hegemony of capital over our political institutions. On the one hand, capital claims the freedoms accorded all private ventures. And on the other hand the Fed has been deliberately insulated from public pressures.The people hardly matter anymore. This is the essence of fascism.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 24, 2008 Assuring a Progressive Future
The opposition has no intention of playing fair.
Too bad the press is otherwise engaged. It is not our press anymore, simple as that. It has become the mouthpiece for interests not our own.
In this fragile state of our democracy, it is not enough for us to shove Barack out front as our gladiator against the forces of evil. It is not enough to mobilize for the election and then retire to the sidelines.
SHARE Monday, July 17, 2006 Tantrum Politics
A couple of years ago our California ballot offered voters the opportunity to support stem cell research in the form of a $3B state funding commitment to a targeted research program. I recall only the vaguest details of what I voted for, and I certainly had misgivings about many aspects of this initiative. This is not the kind of issue where direct democracy should be exercised.