Reality is a Window, Dreams are Mirrors

Bella Artes Museum - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Enviro Expo - Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Ghost Town - Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA


The Spring comes in November in Buenos Aires, bringing comfortable 75 degree F weather and almost no bugs, there is nothing to deter one from going out. I visited the Bella Artes Museum while I was there last week, taking my time to get a good look at the art work. Last August I visited Bella Artes with my friend Deirdre on our first morning in Buenos Aires. We were exhausted from the plane ride and the cold, we were hungry and thirsty to the point of delirium. I was in the Modern Art wing when I lost sight of Deirdre, after a while I began wandering the halls looking for her. I was turning corners, seeing splashes of shape and color of Klee and Kandinsky, the lazily reclining nude in the Picasso watched me pass by multiple times, unable to tell me which direction Deirdre had gone. The fatigue, disorientation, and confusion of the events cemented a vivid memory in my mind that feels more like a dream than a physical event.

I ate lunch at my favorite cafe near Parque Centanario, I enjoy the kaleidoscope of views that you get from most every seat in the small dining area. Large glass windows put you close to the events on the street and the few spaces between the large windows have mirrors that reflect the other mirrors, windows, and hidden corners of the cafe. I glanced up to see the reflection of the girl at the table behind me then turned to see what had caught her attention near the floor. Simultaneously, as I turned, the passers by on the corner were coming and going depending on which window or mirror I was looking at. The girl behind me was now holding the small puppy who had wandered from behind the counter to explore the cafe.

Over the weekend a group of sustainable businesses gathered in downtown Atlanta for the first Enviro Expo. Being Green is quite trendy these days, I remember telling a gentleman who was asking me questions about the event. I spent most of the day answering other peoples questions, so when I had a chance to ask my own question I made sure it was a good one. What is your experience with ghost encounters, I asked the woman on the segway. With wide eyes she told me that they were just like people, some she had good experiences with, some unpleasant. She has been able to see these beings all her life. It must be interesting to experience something that others around you are unaware of.

On Sunday night I landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The streets were asleep and the tall buildings downtown were completely empty. In the distance stood a large, brightly lit stadium with bold red letters telling me to: B. O. K. At first I walked on the sidewalks, my heals creating a rhythm that echoed in the streets. Eventually I ventured into the middle of the intersection reclaiming the space usually occupied by vehicles, watching the lights cycle, red - green - yellow. No one was around to confirm or deny my experience of this ghost town, I might as well have been having a dream. I wandered until I found a restaurant that was open. I sat at the bar at El Guapo's to snack on chips and salsa and have a drink before heading back to my hotel for the night. The next morning the ghost town of Tulsa was waking up with the rising sun, by then I was on my way back to Atlanta. I can only dream about what the city might look like filled with life.

CHO/ATL/EZE

Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I had one flight out to Charlottesville, Virginia on Sunday evening, I spent a full night and morning there. I woke up very early and went for a walk, soon I was at the University of Virginia. In the small town area that borders the campus I bought a newspaper and found a nice local coffee shop to sit down at and have some tea. Later in the morning I caught a bus back to my hotel to get ready for work. I was back in Atlanta by the early afternoon, with just enough time to change out of my work clothes, take a small break and board the evening flight out to Buenos Aires. I had the Tuesday through Thursday (11th-13th) off and decided that I had pleanty of time to make a comfortable trip out and back. Earlier in the week I had caught a cold and decided that some warm weather would do me good.

I dozed off to sleep in my seat on the airplane in Atlanta and nine hours later when I was well rested I awoke to the sound of the massive wheels touching down on Argentinian soil. I was in Buenos Aires just a few months ago so this experience was not exactly new. Everything was quite familiar but different, It is warm at this time of year so I had nothing but the clothes on my back and a small pack of snacks. Last August I had two small (yet cumbersome) bags and was wearing a winter coat to fight the chilly winter weather. I caught the city bus into town this time, it is a two hour "senic" route but costs only $1.50 AR. Last time I split a half hour cab ride with a friend and it still cost me $100 AR. I did pretty well considering I had no map or any solid plan to go by. I was following my memories and the impulses that came to mind.

The Essential Three - Buenos Aires, Argentina
If I ever wanted to seriously live in Buenos Aires I would need three essentials. First of all I would need a GuiaT, this little book is full of maps and charts that translate the activity of the busy collectivo buses that choke the air and give bass tones to the civic symphony. With a GuiaT you feel like there is a sense of order in the universe and maybe even a god. Secondly I would need a mate mug, straw, and thermos ensamble. Mate is a South American tea leaf that is seeped in water and served in silver mugs. This would open the door for hours of aimless relaxing at any hour of the day, no other reason needed. In Rio Plata with mate you might make unexpected friends and you will definatly make more trips to the bathroom. Finally one last essential, I would need to learn Spanish. Scratch that, I just need a smoking hot bilingual Argentine girlfriend to be my resident translator/teacher/sexgoddess.

organized complexity for complex organism

The thought process for understanding complex organisms draws from both a general knowledge of the subject (if attainable, abstractions of raw data into comprehensible maps of the system) and a specific local knowledge (through simple observation over a period of time or of abnormal occurrences)

statistics and behaviorism
The first step is to apply general rules to the whole problem. It is a good starting point to look at human organisms since we still have difficulties understanding ourselves. The general rules for a functioning human organism are drawn from the ideas put forth by BF Skinner in the middle of the 20th century. Behaviorism says that humans make all decisions based on the initial genetic information passed on by our parents and then by the environmental stimulus. It states that human organisms have the allusion of control when in actuality control is either passive or aggressive but is never a quality of the individual organism. Since it is nearly impossible to analyze every single moment of an individuals waking life and completely predict what change in the environment will cause what reaction, we rely instead on statistics. Theoretical models and mathematical formulas can make abstractions from the existing data (which there is currently an abundance of in the form of polls, census data, digital records and time-stamps) and tell us the probability that one action will cause the specific reaction.

emotions and observation
Not everyone follows the general rule, actually most people will not, it will be fairly close but that is what makes it a statistical analysis. Both statistics and behaviorism are fairly incompetent with handling individual problems. Individual human organisms rely much upon their personal observation and the interpretation of their individual experience through emotions. A further understanding of emotions and instinctual feelings can be found in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink. We have a remarkable processing system (the knowledge of it is being updated almost daily) which allows us to quickly read our environments and give us instantaneous (and if trained properly it can be very accurate) information in the form of emotions or feelings. Our minds are able to give us indications about the future changes that we can expect to encounter in our environment, this insight can give us the proper direction when reading the overall statistical picture of a given situation. Both are imperative to understanding organized complexity and directing the future world we will want to live in.

feedback loops
The act of combining these two ways of looking at an organism allows us to move away from the idea of 'problem' and 'hypothesis', and rather look at it as 'present state' and 'bizzaro worlds'. One can read the maps of incoming organic information (raw data that is constantly changing) and compare it to ones personal observation, this will inform the individual about how to look at the statistics. Then one may make a decision to respond a certain way, and go back into the field for observation. The changes in the statistical maps and the personal observation will inform the individual about the current state. The process can happen once again, it will continue this way creating a constant monitoring and feedback loop of the present state so that the most ideal present state is maintained.

The Global Organism

The practical function of the current global organisms is one that must be accepted as is. If one is to express a forward thinking of such an organism one must assimilate into and change the current culture. If we continue on the course that we have currently charted we will continue to to destroy our national and global organisms.

We have come up with certain ways of dealing with such disconnects within the global scene that show some progress, unfortunately from a biological standpoint we are so far from the actual desired healthy condition that it is difficult to define the blueprints to construct such an environment. Such a goal can be attempted at by a biological assessment of the organism as a whole. It should be approached from the same unbiased attitudes that the scientist approaches an individual organism that functions destructively.


Supporting Evidence

The study of the global organism must take into account the vast disconnects that are happening within the world currently. It is insightful to look at the ways other small organism have grown up into larger organisms such as medieval European nationalism compared with the modern EU. What forms of control have worked? What accidental discoveries has history revealed in the subject of behavioral conditioning? It is only useful when taken in the context of the given individual, societal, or global organism. One must also realize that just as in biology the solution for reconciling conflict in one area of the individual organism may not necessarily be the right solution for a different part of the body.

In the period of history that separated cultures from each other by masses of land or by bodies of water, it was seen that healthy practices were able to be exerted within isolated communities if the forms of control were benevolent, in this sense the organism was not in extreme conflict. The whole record of human history gives examples of social organisms of all sizes, it gives examples of healthy and unhealthy organisms, organisms that have increased health and organisms that have died out. During the globalization of the last century the variety that cultures had in the privacy of their confined physical environments was challenged. They were forced to share similar resources and environments, these different cultures then were inspired by their local national allegiances to maintain their individual cultures. This brought about a large scale conflict of national organisms against other national organisms. Therefore is is logical to see why the global organism has had such a difficult time during this century, it has been very sick from a biological stand point. Its separate parts were in extreme conflict with each other and still are.

Looking at the global organism, it becomes obvious that there is no positive argument for the continuation of nationalism. From a biological stand point, the fact that we are undeniably forced into each others environments and will be forced even more so in future years, the cooperation of the individual parts is a matter of life or death for the global organism. The global organism has gone through some significant growth pains in reconciling its national and ideological factions specifically shown by the two world wars fought in the last century. The only solution conceivable will draw from the current body of knowledge gained from the successful examples of lesser organism assimilating into greater organisms, and further experiments in assimilating peer organisms. The forms of control that have utilized force are forms that will ultimately lead to destruction, more benevolent and suggestive forms have proven to be vital in the longer run, they are vital to the overall success of the global organism.


Practical Application

Knowledge of the global organism is not the best way to change the organism instead an understanding of what the next small step an organism should take is more affective. The smaller organism may not even understand the fact that that small step is moving them toward a healthy global organism. The messages must be tailored to all organisms on many levels. It must be current and touch on the emotional and physical needs of each specific group. Once their attention is captured one must provide a solution that is not only easy but a solution that is led by example and that is never really presented as a solution but rather presented as something altogether different (humor, example, juxtaposition of elements which lead to logical conclusions, etc) to subtly shape individual behavior through positive means. These are the tools of targeted marketing, instructional design, and political campaigns. This is a practical application of the science of behavior.

We need to begin a program of knowledge of other culture and segments of society that we are unfamiliar with. We need to introduce positive role models of every segment of society to the inverse segments. We need to subtly target all types of people, the rich, the educated, the middle, the poor, the suffering, we need to use the methods of targeted marketing and political campaigning that have been honed for the past fifty year, to introduce different ways to deal with the increasing pressures of assimilation into other peer organisms.

The practical avenues of influence are media for the American audience, compassion and education for third world countries that are suffering, and an ear of understanding (one that seeks to learn from such cultures) for sustainable organisms that have used successful means of survival and assimilation due to resourcefulness which is a direct cause of their unfortunate circumstances. To draw from a cliche of common sense, necessity is the mother of invention.

The most direct path is that of a line, unfortunately we must divert from the direct solution, we also must be resourceful. Let us use the intellectual network of sharing ideas (wikipedia, google, other useful tools that the internet has provided), let us harness the healthy environments of urban neighborhoods (those that cultivate creativity), let us use tools that communicate to the masses (youtube, television, magazines, news), let us introduce methods of self sustainability of the individual organism to individuals that have been only taught to strive for very basic needs (water and food, maybe shelter), let us use all of these tools to positively change peoples environments, attitudes, and ultimately behavior.


Maintenance

The global organism like the human organism is able to stay healthy only through maintenance. Those who truly understand this are those individuals who have found ways to implement that maintenance on the individual level and continue that maintenance through specific means. It may be worth noting forms of maintenance that have been historically positive in organisms at all levels have shown an ability to adapt and assimilate well into other peer organism.

It is only recent that the study of the individual organism is gaining practical acceptance, what this would mean is a combination of several separate fields of study from biology to brain science to psychology to genetics and beyond are being seen in a more holistic view. It seems appropriate that this conclusion of a holistic individual may truly only be realized in simultaneous realization of the practical and essential holistic function of a healthy global organism. It would be an appropriate completion of the circle.


Conclusion

We have the knowledge of the organism, we have tools that are already widely used, all that is left to do is act upon such knowledge in a way that contributes to the overall heath of the organism. It is imperative for the global organism that such measures be taken to influence its behavior. Unfortunately the historically strong forms of control (those that are harmful to the global organism) will not change easily. Those who hope to make changes must realize this fact or risk aversive consequences against their individual organism. One must introduce positive change, but one must start with an understanding of the negative forces that people are used to and the negative forces that will oppose their benevolent efforts. Until there are future generations that willingly maintain a healthy organism, we must continue a relentless implementation of benevolence.

Behavioral Science

There is a colossal novel by Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities, that is exactly the opposite of what fictional literature has been for centuries. Instead of presenting an idealistic, heroic, admirable, despicable, or otherwise purely emotional reason for understanding a character and their fictional experience, instead of all that, our character evaluates his surroundings and his life as if he were a scientist making notes about the grand experiment he is involved in, a grand experiment called his life. The character, Frazier, in BF Skinners Walden Two has also created a large experiment of the human organism but in the larger sense as a societal organism. Nonetheless, both instances evaluate, experiment, and otherwise remain level headed about their subjects, they have approached the previously sanctified areas of Human Life, Liberty, Ideals (and many other emotional concepts) from a scientific point of view.

Many accounts in literature that attempt to understand the individual are thoughtful, beautiful, and emotional. Unfortunately even some classic works of literature that come close to shedding some understanding upon human behavior fail to fully do so. It is as vain an attempt as asking a sculptor of human figures to shed light upon the exact workings of biological man, those specific questions are left to the biologist, an individual who tries and fails, hypothesizes and eventually comes to a scientific understanding of the body.

Skinner and Musil may seem as ridiculous and silly as Copernicus or Newton would have appeared in their time when they denied the mystical nature of the universe and its forces, But once again it is time to make such a bold statement against a commonly held belief. The belief of our time is that the nature of the human species and more broadly that LIFE is mystical and unexplainable or only explained by faith in humanity, and superhuman or supernatural forces.

In BF Skinners novel Walden Two, the characters Frazier and Burris look from a distance upon the activity of a bustling community as Frazier explains the experimental nature of the community he has designed, these poetic descriptions are strikingly similar to the ballet of life in a healthy urban environment as described by Jane Jacobs in her book Death and Life of Great American Cities. In addition to this commonality is the further look at the questions of why these vibrant healthy communities are the way they are. Jacobs describes the environment (complex albeit, even she is ready to admit) as the key to the success of a large social organism such as a city. The environment she argues must facilitate or encourage use that is healthy. She attempts to understand why large planned projects and developments have failed to attract healthy environments (many times they have become worse environments than they were before the planning). She just touches on the devices of control such as positive reinforcement for the shaping of other peoples behavior (People are willing to help other people in an environment in which they feel safe). Skinner's observation of human behavior on the other hand, begins at the individual level. In both his novel, Walden Two, and his non-fiction book entitled, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, he is able to successfully explain the basis for a practical science of behavior. From that individual level his argument builds up to the group level, where the interactions and complicated ballet of life begins to flow smoothly and beautifully, almost a work of art. From understanding, beauty.

A rational science of the behavior of organisms is as essential to solving societal problems as modern medicine has been to preventing and curing diseases. The promise of a science of behavior is that it can help connect the dots, so to speak. We have technology and medicine and a variety of other tools to assist the human race in dealing with the large dominant species that it is today, but we have many problems that we find difficult, almost impossible to solve with only technology, medicine, and common sense.

Common sense is an old tool, and it needs to be refashioned out of a new material. When steel replaced bronze, it was an essential shift for the purpose of moving ahead as a culture, so it is the same in this instance. Where the old materials of common sense, history, religion, and government have proven to be limited, the newer material of experimental science of behavior should be adopted to advance forward as a culture.

We have gained useful tools for the advancement of our culture, such as modern medicine (there is the ability to reduce physical human suffering, thought unsuccessfully implemented), but we have difficulty with correcting what we know currently as society's "Moral" Problems (one of them being the difficulty to implement universal health). This basic problem of society has been approached as a battle, literally and physically, government uses institutions and ideals to exert force over a large group of people, Religions also implore physical (crusades, jihad, etc.) and ideological control over others to create desirable behavior.

We tend to call this a problem of "Morals" simply because we do not know what else to call it. That phrase can from now on be left behind just as we understand that we do not have four humors to accurately describe a healthy person as the ancient Greeks did. We find it foolish to use archaic medicine, and should also find it is foolish to use harmful devices of control such as those utilized by government and religion. A scientific examination of human behavior is available to pursue, for anyone who wishes to influence his fellow man.

Creativity

All organisms that exists in the world today are subject to follow their genetic predisposition, as well as their unique placement in the space-time matrix. Both genetics and unique placement are difficult to fully understand. An organism enters an environment that it did not choose, at a time it could not control, with specific instructions of inherited functions that it had no contribution to, that organism is an outline manufactured by its predecessors, its parental contributors as well as the society at large. From the very beginning the chapters begin to be written but those paragraphs and pages, every sentence, word, letter, and ligature is being laid out on the press by the exact same forces that brought it into existence, genetic predisposition and space-time placement, or more specifically the parents(main contribution would be genetics) and the culture(definitive in shaping the individual, even the parents are just playing a role that they are subject to play within that culture).

The illusion of a highly intelligent species is more apparent when one looks at organisms that begin with a script that is simpler to describe. agcttgcagagctagctagagagggatcctgagatcga. It begins just the same as any organism, its dna begins to make its initial instructions, within a few hours it has reached a state where it is still microscopic, but amazingly that is as large as it will ever get, it has reached full maturity. Its predecessors, the organisms responsible for its conception, have passed on some genetic traits, like a list of instructions, these instructions cause the microscopic organism to kill white blood cells in the host body. Stop for a moment. This organism, it can be concluded, is forced to live inside the human body, this fact is determined by those that came before it and it is supported by the enviroment it was forced into. Perhaps one day it could mutate and become acclimated with other environments, and one day humans will fly or breath outside of the earths atmosphere. So let us proceed in the life of our microscopic organism, why does our organism kill white blood cells? does it hate white blood cells, well that would seem silly to say. the straight forward answer is that white blood cells exists in the immediate environment just as they have for generations before this particular organism, and this organism is merely using the white blood cells to further its life and unknowingly continue its species. Why did our organism kill those particular white blood cells? They just happened to be in his particular sphere of existence and that is the interaction that played out based upon its particular space-time position.

Another organism with a different genetic code has also been conceived. acgtctcggtatattcgcggcattgtcttgatatgctatgcggca. Within an hour it is also still microscopic, but curiously it still has yet to reach maturity. The organism develops inside a host body just as our last organism, it too depends on a certain environment outside of which it would surely be unable to function. This organisms DNA has determined that it will be equipped with a system of nerves that will give it a better indication of the environment that it exists in. This time it has completed development after a few days, this organism lives inside of the host just as previous generations of its species did and its environment determines what kind of existence it will have. Why does the organism eat its hosts food? does it hate its host? how ridiculous that sounds! It is following the genetic makeup passed on by those before it, and responding to its immediate environment, both of which were out of its control.

A third organism appears to be forming. atcgctctggcggcattgagatcgatgctagatgctgctag. The host carries it for months and it continues to survive, it deforms the host visibly yet the host continues to support the organism, the genetic makeup has determined that this organism will be able to survive outside of the host body after a term of nine months. The organism exits the host in a painful ordeal, it seems a wonder any of these organisms survive, they are subject to a variety of harsh elements upon exiting the host. This particular organism has not only been equipped with a nervous system, but also a set of lungs for surviving in an oxygen environment, other peripheral stimuli such as wave sensory in the 400 to 700 nm range located on an extremity on its top most region, there are nerve endings located on the outer surface of the organism that give it additional input, and it has sensory response to microscopic particles from other forms of matter (oranges, flowers, decomposing matter, etc.).

This organism is much more complex and in order to coordinate all of this complex biological machinery it employs a nervous system, which takes in all of the stimuli from the biological machinery, it also has an immune system which acts like a teacher and guardian to the biological machinery, if something in the space-time environment disturbs the organism the immune system begins to function according to a genetically predetermined set of instructions, the purpose is to coordinate all parts of the organism, it directs resources to the place that needs it most. This particular organism also employs a system that is able to make memories. It does not record every single instance, rather it makes note of unique events within either the biological machinery (as registered through the nervous system), the immune system, or instances registered by chemical sensors which are built right into the memory organ. One particular part of the genetic outline prescribes the rules which these systems work, they are very much interconnected and impossible to separate without disturbing all systems.

The least understood parts are the chemical sensors and the memory system, both systems just like the biological machinery and the immune system have a very detailed script predetermined by their genetics. Some organisms are formed with small hearts that are incapable of supporting the organism past the age of 10 years, others have abnormalities that equip the organism with a smaller or limited range of wave sensory, others are formed with lower than usual chemical receptors which make them unable to make decisions the same way other organisms of the same species do.

The memory organ proceeds in forming a representation of its environment based on predetermined genetic rules, specifically how this happens is admittedly not entirely understood, but is believed to work in the following way. Stimuli that ranges outside of a predetermined zone fires neurons in the memory organ, the more often those neurons are fired, the easier they become to fire and thus they become more permanent. Those instances associate chemical levels located in the memory organ, as well as particular states registered by the biological machinery (be it wave lengths, or microscopic particles), as well as the state of the immune system. it is like framing a shot, some elements come to the foreground, others are diminished in the background, other are totally ignored in light of a more dominant element in the picture.

The young organism begins to form full albums that create a overall view of the world. when pictures that are similar to past picture are taken, they actually share the same neurons therefore they begin to make stronger firings of that neuron as well as associations of seemingly disconnected elements. A new experience that registers a warm environment and high levels of opiates released by the chemical system will have the unintended effect of tying the two disconnected events together regardless of which condition came first, so that the next time the organism is in a warm environment the neurons that had a picture of a chemical state with high opiates can actually replicate a state of increased chemical release. This is extremely simplified when one considers the fact that we have such complex systems all working as an ecosystem. Each has a domino effect on the others that it is sometimes difficult to determine which came first, and how to correctly modify particular problems in the organism without negatively disrupting other parts of the whole.

Our memory system is fortunately built in a way that it associates past events and can, if properly trained by its environment, coordination all of its systems to act out a response that will preserve its self and ultimately its species. Why does such an organism choose to eat a watermelon slices rather than a hamburger, does it like watermelons better than hamburgers? of course not, that just sounds silly! First of all it is limited to certain foods based on its immediate environment created by its culture (usually the parents at a younger age). Secondly its biological and immune systems if trained properly will give signals as to what the body is actually craving, those cravings will in turn evoke chemical responses of previous instances associated with the craving, and the organism will then choose to eat in this particular instance the watermelon (oh and some corn chips on the side, the explanation of which is just as complicated). This explanation was just the simplified version, what about the other elements in the organisms environment competing for its attention, what about the threat of unpleasant experiences by the culture to condition our organism to chose one over the other, well they can fire other associated neurons and lead the organism down another path only if they can capture the organisms attention, if one could take a photo that represented the moment that a desicion is made one must remember that only so much will fit in the frame since we are not real time recording devices but rather photographers. Therefore the environment, considering the organisms genetic predisposition(capacity for strong neuron firing), and space-time experiences(all previously associated elements across all systems; biological, immune, nervous system, chemical sensors; with that particular instance) determined to have the organism choose watermelon. It becomes a dizzying assortment of systems and environment that factor in to the behavior of such an organism, but even in its most complex explanation this complex organism is really just as free to make decisions as the first simple organism was.

Fortunately the knowledge of even this basic structure of the organism can be valuable knowledge for future development. This basic structure serves as an introduction into what is sometimes called creativity. An organism that has been exposed to many different environments and has either much repetition in firing certain neurons or has neurons that fire easily, that organism can be presented with a new element in an environment and quickly make associations with many elements from the organisms previous neuron firings and trace back many associations until a new association is either recalled from experience or created by combining disconnected but traceable connections of associations. This practice can evoke chemical states, reactions on the nervous system, even in some cause reactions with the immune system. The whole organism participates in the activity and sometimes this is mistaken for a spiritual experience, a gut reaction, animal instinct, or creative inspiration since the complex path is very difficult to trace even by the organism itself.

Creativity, though far from being given accurate dimensions, is definable. The next step would be to try to understand how culture and society functions. how do groups and cities, religions and nations work? Cultures can be looked at as organism just the same as a biological system. There are obvious differences to be considered but the prospects(some already a reality) of practicing cultural experiments (which aim to modify cultures in order to cultivate individual creativity) is best approached with a reasonable understanding of the human organism, a basic sensitivity to the theoretically quantifiable model of creativity, and a look into behaviorism on large scales as utilized by educators (this can be a helpful departure point).

The Creative Class

The creative class as introduced by Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class is one that as he describes as dependent on an environment. I suppose that the physical land was the starting point when the city was first inhabited hundreds or thousands of years ago and the development of a city over time has created different types of cultures to form, cultures with different priorities and values. Looking at this from the perspective of say a behaviorist, it is interesting to look at the current state of cities and speculate as to what factors other than the physical landscape caused the culture to evolve into what it is today, especially cities with high concentrations of this so called creative class.

Florida's introduction of the idea of environments that are conducive to a more prosperous creative class are prompting civic leaders of cities that have failed to attract such creative capital to ask for suggestions, they are looking to experiment with their local cultures in order to cultivate creativity. These experiments are like those practiced by the character Frazier in BF Skinners Walden Two, but on a scale much larger than even Skinner could have dreamed up (but not nearly as involved in every aspect of social existence). Talent, Technology and Tolerance, are the three t's that Florida outlines and has motivated governments and cities to experiment with. The following quote from the preface to Florida's paperback edition illustrates the connection I am making here between Skinners behaviorism and the inroads that Florida has inadvertently made toward realizing such social experimentation "Building broad creative ecosystems that mobilize the creative talents of many is a complex, multifaceted activity. We are only beginning to understand how to do it. it will take a long time and many local experiments" And it seems that we are finally willing to experiment.