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2002-11-29

Ism-ing

Back to DocBook.

Today I started working a bit on version 4.0 of The Ism Book, my dictionary of philosophy. I re-converted the format back to DocBook XML and began the massive cleanup required to make the content something I can be proud of. I may even finish this by the end of the year. No promises, but at least I'm making progress. Stay tuned.

Posted on 2002-11-29 at 22:38. File under philosophy.

~ link ~

2002-11-27

Self-Trust

Emerson, Rand, and individualism.

In Ayn Rand's dystopian novel Anthem, the protagonist, who has just escaped from a totalitarian society that has removed the word "I" from human language, writes the following in his journal when he first sees his own face (reflected in a stream, as in the story of Narcissus):

We sat still and we held our breath. For our face and our body were beautiful. Our face was not like the faces of our brothers, for we felt no pity when looking upon it. Our body was not like the bodies of our brothers, for our limbs were straight and thin and hard and strong. And we thought we could trust this being who looked upon us from the stream, and that we had nothing to fear with this being.

Reading that passage some years ago, I was struck by the concept of trusting oneself. It's not an idea one hears very often. Why not? What is the alternative? In the context of Anthem, the alternative was trusting in the collective -- in, that is, the state, which set itself up as a new god that demanded total obedience. Historically, one was supposed to trust in the god of one's people (it's even printed on our money!), in kings and satraps and princes and pharaohs, in the king's representatives, in one's feudal lord, in priests and bishops and medicine men. Women were supposed to trust in their husbands or fathers. Children were supposed to trust in their parents. Slaves were supposed to trust in their masters. And on and on.

One of the plinths of modern society is the democratization of trust: individuals trust other individuals, who are all perceived as (roughly) one's peers. In a social version of the Copernican revolution, modern society broke the chains of hierarchy. But as a precondition for that democratization, one must also to some large degree trust oneself, and assume that other individuals are doing the same. Yet even modern society contains forces that militate against fully trusting oneself. In his essay Self-Reliance, Emerson explores two such forces -- other-directedness and concern for one's reputation:

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitide to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude....

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? ...

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.--'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'--Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The epigraph to Emerson's essay is "Ne te quaesiveris extra" -- "do not seek outside yourself". This does not mean that one does not love and respect others or work together with them; but it does mean that one is centered enough to not seek one's core self-respect through others, for this is something that no one else can supply. To return to Rand, she also captures this idea later in Anthem (after the hero has rediscovered the word "I"):

I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.

Posted on 2002-11-27 at 07:17. File under philosophy.

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2002-11-26

Looking Up

The case for optimism.

People like to think that the old days were good and that we're now standing at the crossroads of history, with apocalypse just around the corner unless we do X (where X is your favorite prescription for change). While such doomsaying sells books and may scare up some support in political campaigns and fundraising drives, the bare fact is that life has never been better. In America during the 20th century, life expectancy increased by 30 years; poverty and infant mortality plummeted; per-capita economic output increased over six times; the cost of food fell significantly; pollution of land, air, and water decreased dramatically; the average workweek went from 50 hours to 35 hours; educational and career opportunities opened up for women and minorities; and the list goes on (details here).

"Yes, but!" That is the usual response to the glad tidings of human progress. "But what about environmental degradation?", wail the Greens -- glossing over the fact that on all measures, pollution is decreasing and we're taking better care of planet earth than ever. "But what about our spiritual bankruptcy?", moan the religious -- missing the fact that human beings are living more fulfilled lives than ever. "But what about the loss of precious freedoms?", complain the libertarians -- ignoring the fact that more human beings are more free today than at any time in human history. "But what about our atomistic alientation?", cry the communitarians -- oblivious to the fact that people have more time and money to help others and devote to associations of interest than ever before. "But what about wage slavery and the exploitation of the masses?", shout the socialists -- disregarding the fact that most people actually like their jobs and that the lines between work and play are increasingly blurry.

I hate to break it to you, but these are the best of times. This is not Pollyanna-ism, it is simple reality. And it's only going to get better, because we continue to apply human ingenuity to problems unsolved and challenges unmet. Power generation is becoming cleaner and safer; communication methods are exploding in variety and bandwidth while falling in price; medical knowledge and technology are advancing at an incredible pace; computing power increases by a factor of ten every five years; food gets cheaper; people live longer and better. We find ourselves in the midst of an age of abundance.

And we're not accustomed to abundance. Most of our thinking is driven by notions of scarcity: of wealth, time, resources, technology, talent, freedom, trust, fellow-feeling, equity, knowledge, and so on. As much as we wish for it, we don't know how to deal with abundance. So we continue to look for scarcity even when it's increasingly hard to find. We are spooked by dangers that are positively minor. We fret that the sky is falling when in fact the sky's the limit. And we ignore the evidence of our senses because we're afraid that the reality of our lives is too good to be true.

The chattering classes are especially afraid of the good news of human progress, because it robs the experts of their reason to rule. Connected individuals successfully pursuing their own fulfillment in an age of abundance don't have much need for the political process, which may be why most Americans are politically apathetic.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that everything is perfect, nor am I ignoring the fact that there are problems in the world (e.g., whole regions of this planet are sadly benighted and wracked by conflict and desperation). But I am saying that life is better for more people than at any point in history, and that this progress shows no sign of abating. We have not even begun to grapple with the implications of abundance for society, ethics, or politics. It is high time we did so.

Posted on 2002-11-26 at 15:05. File under society.

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2002-11-25

The Towel

Yes, I've thrown it in.

Once upon a time I thought I'd write a book about Jabber. It'd be easy, right? -- I work full-time on Jabber, few people know it as well as I do, and I'm just about the only person wro writes Jabber documentation, so cranking out a book would be a snap! Unfortunately, I ran up against a cold hard reality: someone who works 60 to 80 hours a week doesn't have time to write a book. Even an utter Jabber fanatic like me can push himself only so hard. On a recent Friday (I think after a late-night meeting of the Jabber Council), I found myself perilously close to falling over from exhaustion. That was the day I realized that I need to shed some commitments. I can't very well hand off the XMPP Internet-Drafts or delegate most of my other responsibilities, but I can face the inevitable and tell my editor that I can't write this book. Which is just what I've done.

If you're interested in a book contract, let me know.

Posted on 2002-11-25 at 21:12. File under jabber.

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Return of the Huns

Reflections on barbarism.

Bruce Lindsey has published a thought-provoking three part article in which he delves into the thinking behind the enemies of Western society. They are, he writes, "utopians turned nihilist, totalitarians turned barbarian". And it is the settled way of life in the West, dependent as it is on the concentrated intellectual energy of our great cities, that makes us vulnerable to the depradations of nihilistic barbarians. Interestingly, Lindsey points to the development of small arms in the 1500s as the turning point in the battle against the last barbarians. As Jared Diamond documents in Guns, Germs, and Steel, weapons matter. It was the rifle and the pistol that enabled farmers and townspeople to fend off and vanquish the likes of the Mongols, and to retake their land for civilized purposes. A few weapons in civilian hands would have prevented the atrocities of September 11. Lindsey argues persuasively that Western civilization is built on trust between not just families and clans (even Somalia and the north of Pakistan have that), but between total strangers. It's sad today that in large measure it is a lack of trust in the citizenry by the power elites that opens Western society to threats from nihilist barbarians.

Posted on 2002-11-25 at 20:00. File under society.

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Party Animal II

Nietzsche on party thinking, again.

Here's another quote from Human, All Too Human:

The party man. -- The genuine party man no longer learns, he only experiences things and judges them: whereas Solon, who was never a party man but pursued his aims beside and above the parties or in opposition to them, is significantly the father of that simple saying in which there lies enclosed the health and inexhaustibility of Athens: "I grow old and still I go on learning." (Volume 2, Part 1, §301)

Posted on 2002-11-25 at 19:41. File under politics.

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2002-11-22

Party Animal?

More quotes from Nietzsche.

Here's another quote from Human, All Too Human that I enjoyed recently:

Not suited to be a party man. -- He who thinks a great deal is not suited to be a party man: he thinks his way through the party and out the other side too soon. (Volume 1, §579)

Perhaps that explains why I'm no longer enamored of the Libertarian Party.

Posted on 2002-11-22 at 20:34. File under politics.

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Dare to Be Dull

A philosophy of life.

I'm a boring person. I've never gone downhill skiing, I have absolutely no interest in exciting things like skydiving or bungee jumping, and I prefer staying home reading, writing, or blogging to going out with friends or catching a concert. I like to joke that my philosophy of life is "dare to be dull". Reading Human, All Too Human the other night, I found a great quote from Nietzsche on this very topic:

Courage to be boring. -- Whoever lacks the courage to allow himself and his work to be found boring is certainly not a spirit of the first rank, whether in the arts or the sciences. (Volume 2, Part 1, §25)

Posted on 2002-11-22 at 20:22. File under personal.

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Lolling

Wherein I take a vacation.

The word of the week next week is "loll". Yes, I am going to attempt to take a few days off and relax. It's not easy when you're a workaholic, but I'm going to try. Maybe I'll start updating The Ism Book (which sorely needs it), do some reading, write a bit for some of the essays I have planned, and finish setting "Freedom's Plow" to music (there's really just this brief middle section that I need to work on). But I'm going to try not to log into Jabber, check my mail, and the like. We'll see if I succeed...

Posted on 2002-11-22 at 20:09. File under personal.

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Words4Nerds #14

On the move.

This week's words all relate to movement (yes, I was traveling this week):

• peripatetic -- given to walking around; also used to describe the philosophy of Aristotle, who reputedly walked the grounds of the Lyceum as he taught
• peregrination -- traveling or wandering
• perambulate -- to walk through or about
• hie -- to hurry or hasten
• gad -- to wander aimlessly, or to rove in pursuit of pleasure or social interaction (familiar from the term 'gadabout')

Posted on 2002-11-22 at 11:46. File under language.

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JJ #3

Still journaling about Jabber.

This evening I published issue #3 of the Jabber Journal. Mere minutes ago we also finished our latest meeting of the Jabber Council. Good progress on many fronts in the Jabber world right now. I'll try to post more about it after I get some sleep. :)

Posted on 2002-11-22 at 00:10. File under jabber.

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2002-11-15

RDF?

Thinking again.

I've been looking a bit into Resource Description Framework for several Jabber projects, including an extensible user profile system (improving on the current vCard-XML format we use) as well as calendaring over Jabber using RDF calendar formats. But items like this give me great pause. If RDF makes Tim Bray cry uncle, mere mortals like me have no hope.

Posted on 2002-11-15 at 13:31. File under technology.

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Words4Nerds #13

A visit with the Muses.

Following up on last week's theme of Greek mythology, each of this week's words relates to one of the nine Muses:

• Terpsichorean -- having to do with dance (from Terpsichore, the Muse of dance)
• Thalian -- comedic (from Thalia, the Muse of comedy)
• Melpomenish -- tragic (from Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy)
• Euterpean -- having to do with music (from Euterpe, the Muse of music and lyric poetry)
• Uranian -- astronomical (from Urania, the Muse of astronomy)

It seems we don't have adjectives in English derived from Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric or love poetry), or Polyhymnia (sacred poetry). Definitely something to muse on...

Posted on 2002-11-15 at 13:23. File under language.

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2002-11-08

Jabber Journal #1

A new publishing venture.

Today I published the inaugural issue of the Jabber Journal, an informal weekly report devoted to all things Jabber. Enjoy!

Posted on 2002-11-08 at 12:12. File under jabber.

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Friday Jazz #4

More fine music.

Today's "Friday Jazz" recording is Oscar Peterson Live at the Northsea Jazz Festival. Definitely a non-standard line-up: Peterson on piano, the amazing Joe Pass on guitar, Niels-Henning Orsted-Pedersen on bass, and Toots Thielemans on harmonica. These guys were cooking! The interplay among these seasoned musicians is something to marvel at; they know when to keep out of each other's way and when some friendly competition is in order. I especially like their lengthy rendition of Duke Ellington's "Caravan". Hot stuff!

Posted on 2002-11-08 at 00:13. File under music.

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Words4Nerds #12

A titanic week.

Each of this week's words is derived from the name of an ancient Greek god or hero. The characters are all mythical so take these words cum granum salis:

• Sisyphean -- Sisyphus founded the city of Corinth, but was by all accounts not a good king. In addition to murdering passing travelers, he was also a trickster figure who betrayed the secrets of the gods and chained the god of dead so that the souls of the deceased could not reach the underworld. In retribution, Hades consigned him to eternal damnation, his punishment being to forever repeat the task of rolling a heavy boulder up a steep hill. Thus the core meaning of "Sisyphean": endless and repetitious. (I wonder if this myth gave Nietzsche the idea for the eternal recurrence.)
• Promethean -- Prometheus, whose name means "forethought", stole fire from the gods and gave it to human beings. Some myths relate that along with his brother Epimetheus he was also charged with endowing the creatures of the earth with their faculties. For stealing the sacred fire and various other crimes, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a mountaintop in the Caucasus, where an eagle or vulture would eat out his liver every day, only to have it regenerate overnight. Today we use "Promethean" to refer to acts of great creativity or innovation.
• Epimethean -- Epimetheus was the less intelligent brother of Prometheus (his name means "afterthought"). He gave all the natural gifts and powers to other creatures, leaving humans with nothing until Prometheus stole the fire. He also ignored his brother's warnings about accepting gifts from Zeus, and married Pandora, whose box (or urn) loosed a flood of evils upon humankind. Curiously Epimetheus was not punished like his brothers Prometheus and Atlas -- presumably because he was an effective weapon for the Olympians against those upstart humans. "Epimethean" is used to refer to those who think too late.
• Atlantean -- Atlas was another brother of Prometheus and Epimetheus. Atlast led the war of the Titans against the Olympians, for which Zeus punished him by making him hold up the earth (or the heavens). Etymologically his name means "one who dares or endures", and "Atlantean" describes one who pursues great deeds or who carries a great burden.
• Tantalean -- Tantalus, son of Zeus and king of Sipylos, was favored by the gods and invited to dine with them. Unfortunately he either tried to share ambrosia with other mortals, or served the dismembered body of his own son Pelops to the gods. In punishment he was consigned to Tartarus, where he was immersed up to his neck in water (which immediately receded if he attempted to drink) and "tantalized" by fruits hanging from trees above his head (which were blown away by winds if he attempted to eat). Thus "Tantalean" can refer to someone who is tantalized in the same kind of way.

Posted on 2002-11-08 at 00:11. File under language.

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Forward Crawl!

Jabber moves, I tire.

We've been making good progress in the Jabber world, as we discussed in a Jabber Council meeting that ended a few minutes ago (agenda | log). As noted recently, I submitted new Internet-Drafts to the IETF last Sunday; people tell me that the xmpp-core draft is especially improved in version 02. In the last week I've also worked on JEPs 30 (service discovery), 32 (Jabber URIs), 45 (multi-user chat, almost done!), 54 (documentation of vcard-temp), and 55 (documentation of jabber:iq:search). I've started thinking pretty seriously about a standards-track proposal for a more flexible system for user profiles, too. Based on the JEP roadmap I published on Monday, we'll soon be moving many more JEPs forward through the JSF's standards process. So I feel that we're making good progress on the protocol front (especially since new protocols like MUC have been well-received by implementors). The only problem from my perspective is that I've been working 70+ hours a week for at least the last two months, and I'm getting tired. Perhaps I'll take a few days off during the week of Thanksgiving...

Posted on 2002-11-08 at 00:09. File under jabber.

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2002-11-03

02

Wherein I learn to submit again.

Woot! I just submitted -02 versions of draft-miller-xmpp-core and draft-miller-xmpp-im to the IETF. Check 'em out at http://www.jabber.org/ietf/.

Posted on 2002-11-03 at 16:14. File under jabber.

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2002-11-02

Friday Jazz #3

The Ellington Express.

We skipped Friday Jazz last week because my main "customer" was out of the office. This week I sifted through a raft of Duke Ellinton CDs to choose yesterday's recording: Side by Side, a laid-back session co-led by Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges. Ellington is mainly known for his big-band recordings, but I really like his piano recordings and also his small-group sessions. Side by Side is one of the latter. There's some really tasty piano playing from Ellington (I especially love his piano solo on "Stompy Jones") and Billy Strayhorn, and of course the inimitable alto saxophone playing of Johnny Hodges. A fine recording, and definitely not the last Ellington recording we'll be featuring on Friday Jazz. Yes, the Ellington Express is just getting rolling! But despite the fact that I revere the Duke, I promise not to make it all Ellington all the time. :)

Posted on 2002-11-02 at 10:56. File under music.

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Words4Nerds #11

In the dark.

In honor of All Hallow's Even (or the festival of Samhain if you prefer the holiday's pagan roots), this week all of our words describe various state of darkness:

• crepuscular -- of twilight or half light (applies to both dusk and dawn)
• Cimmerian -- characterized by perpetual mist and darkness (derived from a mythical people named the Kimmerioi mentioned in Homer)
• nubilous -- cloudy, misty, foggy
• tenebrous -- dark and gloomy
• umbrageous -- shady

That's not even to mention words like caliginous (dark and gloomy), fuscous (dusky), fuliginous (sooty), and atramentous (inky black). There sure are a lot of words for darkness in the English language!

Posted on 2002-11-02 at 09:27. File under language.

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Jepping Along

Friday night entertainment.

The JEP fun just never stops. Last night I updated the Service Discovery JEP (JEP-0030) in line with a discussion we had in yesterday's Jabber Council meeting (log), released yet another version of the Multi-User Chat JEP (JEP-0045) based on comments I've received in the Last Call that ends this Friday, and wrote an informational JEP for the old jabber:iq:search namespace (JEP-0055). I also recently took a poll regarding what JEPs would be best for me to work on next. Following on the heels of the informational vCard JEP I wrote the other night (JEP-0054), I think I'm going to try to tackle a JEP about user profiles. The vCard spec is only a small subset of what we could do for user profiles in Jabber. A more sophisticated spec that provides extensibility for application developers and that enables ends users to control who gets to view what profile information would be pretty sweet. Plus it ties in with identity, which is a hot topic in other circles these days. After profiles, I think I'd like to work on a calendaring JEP, since that is not only inherently interesting but ties in with the Chandler project as well.

You may wonder: why would I spend my Friday night working on JEPs? Well, for one, I'm a JEP machine. But jepping also provides a welcome break from working on the Internet-Drafts I need to submit by 09:00 Eastern Time on Monday! It's going to be a busy weekend.

Speaking of Internet-Drafts, the XMPP Working Group has been approved within the IETF. We're still waiting for the official notice from the IESG, but the XMPP WG Chair informed us on the mailing list late in the afternoon on Halloween, whereupon I somewhat prematurely unveiled an announcement on the jabber.org website, whereupon Slashdot picked up the story. Sigh. It's great news, I just wish I'd handled the announcement a bit better.

Posted on 2002-11-02 at 08:53. File under jabber.

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