First Qin Emperor of China. Image: wikimedia commons.
Can a channel cause communication? It might be so with the Grand Canal of China. First Qin Emperor improved the canal and initiated a standard script for communication along the internal waterway, making possible governance and security, as well as agriculture, commerce, culture, and education. Some historians opine that the Grand Canal was the Internet of its time. The Grand Canal is not only the longest canal or engineered-waterway in the world, it is also the longest in time. Begun in 486 BCE, it is still under use and improvement, the latest phase to be completed in 2050. Another long-standing accomplishment of China is the concept of time cycles; may the Spring Festival and the Lunar New Year of the Monkey bring special gifts to our world.
For more on Chinese time cycles and other aspects of Chinese culture and tradition, please visit the Confucius Institute at UMass Boston: https://www.umb.edu/confucius
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
W7-X stellarator may help to build a better world. Image: wikimedia commons.
The world just took another step towards the future. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute invited Chancellor Angela Merkel (who has a doctorate in physics) to press the start button on the stellarator W7-X that someday may produce nuclear fusion. A cleaner, renewable, more advanced form of energy than nuclear fission, this new form of atomic energy is also being pursued by ITER in France. While ITER uses the Russian design tokamak approach, Germany’s program uses an American design stellarator. Whichever method proves to be chosen for fusion energy, the future of this new power may draw environmental and social dimensions from the Atomic Energy Act.
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
The identification of phonons in 1932 by Igor Tamm gave rise to harmonic oscillators. With implications for thermodynamics as well as quantum computing, phonons are shaping the future. Design of cell phones and solar panels is also heating up, according to Professor Gang Chen of MIT. The discovery of atomic energy transformed the world in dramatic ways. What is the future of phonons in energy and the environment?
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
“Looking up from the center of the Eiffel Tower.” Photographer: Jebulon, 2011. Image: wikimedia
World-inclusive agreements, such as the International Meridian Conference, or the UN Paris Climate Accord, are historic. In such accords, the world agrees upon its future. Recently, the world came together to pledge improve to earth’s climate. Throughout the Paris negotiations, the Eiffel Tower served as signpost. While some might complain the Paris agreement could have been more demanding, and some nations advocated 1.5 as a goal, many hope that COP 21 will spur actions to build a better world. What other kinds of world-inclusive agreements are needed? And, in the light of Paris, what can you do to improve climate? Here is a link to Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Eiffel Tower, one of 200 iconic monuments and buildings illumined in blue to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. Image: wikimedia commons.
October 24, 2015: 70th anniversary of the United Nations. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proclaimed: “By turning the world UN Blue for a day, we can light the way to a better tomorrow.” More than 200 famed structures joined the blue light celebration, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris where the UN Climate Conference will meet to build a better world. How might iconic buildings spark public awareness of world issues?
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The Atlantic Rim. Image: Voyages of Columbus from wikimedia commons.
Indigenous Peoples Day reminds us that no new worlds are discovered, just met. Although Leif Erikson, celebrated on 9 October, may have been the first European to “discover” America, Columbus had a contract. The history of those agreements is telling. Once word traveled, Spain and Portugal (to the detriment of established residents of lands visited by Columbus) claimed “rights” in the 7 June, 1497 Treaty of Tordesillas, to divide the world via an imaginary line in Atlantic ocean (in 1529, the Treaty of Zaragoza would similarly claim Pacific rights). The founding of Singapore, and creation of Panama, are more recent proclamations of new territories. World views of yore seem shockingly xenophobic today, but contracts between Columbus and the Castile court of 17 and 30 April, 1492, as well as papal bulls of Alexander VI of May 3 and 4, 1493, may provide some of the few precedents for laws, treaties and declarations that might be anticipated as mineral rights in the oceans are debated, for example in the Atlantic. Should the matter be decided by the peoples of the Atlantic Rim? We will soon see agreements regarding new worlds discovered in space. Standing on the shoulders of history, can we build a better world?
Anderson, Rasmus Bjorn (1874). “America Not Discovered by Columbus: an historical sketch of the discovery of America by the Norsemen in the Tenth Century.” Chicago: S.C. Griggs.
Barron, James and Marjorie Arons-Barron, The Atlantic Rim, Boston, MA and research archive, University of Massachusetts Boston.
Kresl, Peter Karl. “The Atlantic Rim: A New Conceptualization of Pan-Atlantic Relationships,” Bucknell University and The Atlantic Rim. www.departments.bucknell.edu/…/The_Atlantic_Rim/. pdf.
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
“Supermoon” photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA. Image: NASA and wikimedia commons.
“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken,” penned poet John Keats, in the era when Uranus was just discovered. September 27, 2015: a rosy supermoon heralded upward wonder. Since 1969, when Apollo’s Neil Armstrong set foot upon the moon, space has become increasingly accessible. The Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967 by the United States and 128 other countries including China and Russia, led to the establishment of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Treaty provisions assure space belongs to all, is free for exploration and use by all, and the Moon and other planets cannot be claimed by sovereign nations, despite Armstrong’s symbolic planting of a certain flag. The Outer Space Treaty decrees space must be ruled by peace and that no weapons may be launched in space, or in orbit. The parallel Liability Convention declares that space devices launched must be registered by the initiating state or nation, and become sovereign “territory.” But in this era of drones and satellites, ushered in by technological breakthroughs including COMSAT, there is a call for updating the Outer Space Treaty to reflect current issues including mining, science, debris, tourism, and space habitation. Will the vision of Unispace guide the new frontier?
Gerard K. O’Neill, “High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space,” Princeton University Press, 1976.
Roger Davidson, “Unispace for choir, piano, organ and percussion,” Society for Universal Sacred Music, 1982.
United Nations, “UNISPACE: A Context for International Cooperation and Competition, A Technical Memorandum,” March, 1983 (report following UNISPACE ’82)
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963, delivering his “I Have a Dream” Speech.
On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis addressed the United States Congress; it was an historic occasion, as the Pontiff was the first to do so, although predecessors had also received invitations. Pope Francis referenced the message of Moses, and highlighted four American heroes: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. In these leaders, the pontiff called forth the hope and action of the United States, and the world, to the qualities of peace, freedom, dreams, responsibility, and dialogue. What is the role of heroes as an inspiration to those ready to build a better future?
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
LE Eithne Operation Triton, June 2015. Image: Irish Naval Service.
Our world faces a refugee and migration crisis. What solutions can be found? Greece, now a center of activity, pioneered a new vision when people boarded boats from Thera to found ancient Cyrene. In Australia, from 1947-55, over 75,000 industrious, innovative individuals and families left two dozen European countries to relocate and build the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Power Project, a multi-reservoir hydroelectric system of 16 dams, seven power stations, and 140 miles of interconnected tunnels, pipelines, and aqueducts in the most arid country on earth. Australia remembers: #LighttheDark gathered support for the world’s current migration crisis. Europe has also opened doors to freedom and opportunity. Major infrastructure projects to combat drought are still needed today. Can our world find inspiration in the examples of Greece and Australia to offer opportunity to the industrious, innovative, pioneering migrants and refugees of our times?
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Japan released doves in the sky in a ceremony on August 6, 2015 in Hiroshima, calling for “the necessity of world peace.” Image: Nevit Dilmen, 2011, wikimedia commons.
August 9, 2015. Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon urged: “I wholeheartedly join you in sounding a global rallying cry: No more Nagasakis. No more Hiroshimas.” Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led a ceremony of remembrance and resolve, on August 6, 2015, with representatives from 75 countries, including US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, proclaiming: “Seventy years on I want to reemphasize the necessity of world peace.” Mr. Abe, whose security bills face some public opposition, and Hiroshima Majoy Kazume Matusi released doves in a declaration of peace. The Atomic Energy Act, instated after the world realized the tragedy of using such energy as a weapon, in Hiroshima August 6, and Nakasaki on August 9, 1945, may offer a path to peace. Section 11. (b) “Use for Inventions for Research” and (e) (1) “Patent Compensation Board” could spur beneficial development, guided by Section 1 (a) stating that atomic energy “be directed toward improving the public welfare, increasing the standard of living, strengthening free competition in private enterprise, and promoting world peace.”
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
