This past weekend, May 12-13, 2012, has been a turning point. It has been like the surprise you get when you are looking at computers in a store and you unexpectedly see yourself on the monitor, since the computer has a camera. This is usually an unpleasant surprise, to realize that this is how you look to other people. This weekend has been like that but even worse, like seeing myself in a fun house mirror. A jarring experience. I suddenly realized that I am playing the wrong role, in the wrong story, in the wrong theater, in the wrong neighborhood. After spending six or seven months rewriting my home page, I have to throw most of it out and start over.
I don't have to spend my time fighting the tar baby. There are other things to think about. There are other things to do.
Until I can get a new page written, I am just going to use the ending of the old home page, which is still valid, as a starting point:
The most important thing to me is the cellular transformation project.
The idea is to modify the cell so it repairs itself better than it already does, and then redesign it on a higher level so it can make such modifications on its own, without outside help (or with less and less help as time goes on). Instead of evolving in geological time, over a period of many generations, it will modify itself continuously in real time.
The question is how to put myself in a position to proceed with this. It requires money and infrastructure. The way to create that infrastructure is to establish a network of businesses. As far as investors and other participants are concerned, this has to be conceived as a business venture, not a "project." The metamorphosis is my motivation, but that is in the background.
The businesses will be established for other reasons, which are valid in themselves.
Survivalists are right about the problem. We cannot depend on society to provide for our needs, even basic things like food and public safety. We have to provide for ourselves. However, survivalists are wrong about the solution. I am proposing a new concept, Active Survivalism.
It is not commonly known that there were many earlier depressions, comparable to the 1930s. The depression that started in 1873 is now known as the Long Depression, since it continued off and on for a long time, but in the early 20th century, until the 1929 depression knocked it out of the number one position, it used to be known as the Great Depression. In 1873, as the depression was beginning, John D. Rockefeller was 34 years old, and Thomas Edison was 26. They did not buy gold and retreat to a survivalist compound. They did not waste their time worrying about the fact that many Americans were destitute (as destitute as the Greeks are today). They did not try to overthrow the evil capitalist system. They just went on with their careers.
In the coming years, there will probably be a depression, but opportunities always exist. Many famous companies were founded in the 1930s, such as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Motorola, Ryder, Unisys, Texas Instruments, Revlon, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Converse.
Many people made fortunes in the hyperinflation of 1920-23 in Germany. That will happen again. In the next hyperinflation, Hitler's Beer Hall is not the place to be.
As long as the financial system is there, make use of it. This is from When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson, page 24:
Side by side with unprecedented want among the bulk of the population, there is a striking display of luxury among those who are benefitting from the inflation. New nightclubs are being opened. These clubs have the further effect of greatly intensifying the class hatred of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie.
This is the situation that gave rise to the NSDAP and other radical parties of the time. The idea of National Socialism is that it is possible to fix society so this never happens again. Wrong. This scenario will happen again. The economy is going to collapse, and most people are going to be destitute. We, the Active Survivalists, are going to be the ones who make money and live well in the midst of chaos.
Survivalists, i.e. passive survivalists, do exactly the wrong thing. Going off by yourself and living off the land is one of the stupidest things you can do. It is better to do the opposite. Stay mobile. Be active, not passive. Be one of the people the survivalists are hiding from. The way to survive financial, ecological, and social collapse is the way to survive any other time: be an entrepreneur, or invest in entrepreneurs, or work for them.
Human enterprise is safer than gold.
You have to be not just an entrepreneur but a connected entrepreneur. The old slogan is still valid: either we hang together, or we hang separately. Operating a business by yourself, with nobody backing you up, is as bad as being a survivalist. Maybe worse, because you are more exposed, and more vulnerable. You are a more attractive target.
The fact that we are going to be living in a time of unprecented turmoil puts constraints on what kind of enterprise we should engage in, but it has no effect on the general principle. No matter how dire the situation is, it is always better to be active than passive. In fact the more dire the situation, the more important it is to be proactive.
I have in mind two kinds of businesses. The first is basic commerce, including import/export. This is the place to get leverage in a time of high inflation. It is also a way to secure access to commodities when the supply chain may be disrupted. This sort of thing is not interesting in itself, but it will provide an income stream to support more important things. There is no use doing anything else without a secure financial base.
It is always possible to have a secure financial base, no matter how bad the economy gets, but it is only possible if you plan ahead. If you wait too long, it will be like trying to build a boat in the midst of a flood.
The second thing I have in mind is what I really care about: high-tech businesses, such as desalinization of sea water, tapping into the electricity in space, reviving old oil wells, designing made to order cells, and applying cymatics to the molecular lattice. Those are just a few examples. 21st Century science is opening up a vast array of opportunities. There will be another tech bubble before the financial system finally blows up. I am going to be at the center of it.
The companies will be designed to continue functioning even after the system blows up. If the system never blows up, so much the better. This is still a valid thing to do, even if you believe there is no need for Active Survivalism, because society is as robust as it ever was, and money never dies. You may be right. In any case, it is always a good time to start a tech company. As I mentioned above, Texas Instruments, Xerox, etc. were founded in the 1930s, and Edison got started in the depression of the 1870s. If you are looking for a safe place to put your money, it is better to invest in Edison than to buy gold.
I am already having second thoughts about this. I am not happy with this way of framing it. Gold bugs will go ahead and buy gold. The idea that human enterprise is safer than gold goes right past them. People who invest in startups and people who buy gold are different demographics. The more I think about this, the more I am inclined to separate the tech company from the Active Survivalist concept. They really have nothing to do with each other. The tech company - I have a name for it, but I am not going to say what it is yet - will be financed with venture capital, like any other such endeavor. The "safer than gold" concept is irrelevant. In fact the more I think about this, the more I am inclined to abandon Active Survivalism, or at least keep it to myself. This is one of those weird Lyle ideas that does not make sense to anybody but me. As far as I am concerned, the fact that society cannot be depended on is the context for everything I do; but most people do not feel that way.
What I am writing here is not carved in stone. The Active Survivalist concept might fly if I promote it. We'll see.
Some of my weird ideas make sense to nature, if not to anybody else. I really do know how to do everything I mentioned, and much more. There is plenty of oil in old wells, and yes, it can be extracted. Ask Ellis Wyatt. As for extracting oil from shale, the brute force methods they are using are incredibly inefficient and stupid. There are more adroit ways to do it. And don't get me started on what they are doing at the atomic level. There is no shortage of energy, just a shortage of ingenuity.
The company, or network of companies, will take the anti-dumbing down policy to its logical conclusion. Jobs will be designed to be challenging. Inventive thinking will be recognized and rewarded. This policy will be wired into the corporate culture at all levels.
I have let a lot of things go in the last six months. One thing remains.
There is a commercial I hear on the radio, about "the most interesting man in the world." I want to create the most interesting company in the world. It will be a more interesting place to work than Google, Facebook, or Apple, specifically. They set the bar pretty high in Silicon Valley. That's all right.
As of May 17, the untouchables page has been rewritten. The only way to get rid of TSA is to pop the 9/11 illusion. The Untouchables project will do that.