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I started a series about places where I lived. As an artist I traveled a lot, moved more then most people, and saw quite some part of the world. Apart from ingredients like my parents and education, it made me who I am.

The stories I will tell about the towns and villages, area’s perhaps, are personal. I don’t want to sketch an historical or geographical overview. There are enough broad tales on the Internet. I want to keep it small, something from me that no-one else can tell.

The first 3 towns are published on joachimartist.hubpages.com

For new content and achievements visit my website JoachimArtist

The future is ours to see 8

Whisper, digital art 10032012

Some days ago I spotted a new trend: Chiliwire. They present themselves as the new Facebook, with this difference that users share in the revenues. It’s a pyramid-system. The more users you convince to join, the more money you can make. And you know what: the concept will work. Why? Do I really have to explain this?

Facebook was set up by a couple of students who wanted to share amongst each other. The idea was not new. Together with some fellow artist I built a likewise application in the late nineties, as a possibility to keep in touch and share ideas, other than by email. Time was not ripe to commercialize it, or better: no-one thought of commercialization. It was for fun and for own use. It was no-one else’s affair.

The same for the students, apart from Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, the commercial wiz kid of the group. That it worked we all know: the fun-tool of the years 2000.

The developers of Chiliwire must have thought: If people love to share, it is even more fun when gaining real money from it. At least if people don’t have actually to do anything for it. They already share, they already invite friends, why not split a part of the income we gain through advertising. The concept is as simple as can be, and there is a future in it, because Internet is all about sharing. Facebook is a one-way-alley: the users share, the owners collect. As I explained before: Zuckerberg is still thinking in the past to discover the future. The old economy versus the new, which will be about sharing if one wants to stand out in a world without boundaries. The world is too big (seven billion), and the Internet community too large and too dominant in not so much time from now.

There is another reason why initiatives like Chiliwire will succeed. More and more people have to stay home making their income. For various reasons: traffic, energy, pollution, and not the least: time! Internet-society is an information-society, and therefore time-consuming. This grows so fast that a lot of people actually sleep less to cope. Staying home and making your income from there, saves time. That is one reason why so many people are looking for extra revenues over the Net, and what is more easy then do what you already do, lay back and make money at the same time.

The Internet made it possible to work from home. The next thing will be that people actually make their earnings, not because of logging in their employers network, but because the electronic highway itself supports them with everything necessary.

For those who are interested: http://www.chiliwire.com/JoachimArtist 

…to be continued… 

The future is ours to see 7

Fear for the Future

Do we have to fear the Future?

Of course not! Future is always exiting, and will always be. It is always uncertain, that’s the nature of it: unpredictable, because we do not know all ingredients. But to fear it, is as stupid as fearing your own destiny…

Our material certainties are fading, at least for most of us. The top 2% doesn’t bother. They think they can get away with it, but the ones who have most to loose will lose most in the end. That is history, and there is no reason not to believe that it will be future as well.

Systems come and go. We cannot imagine to survive without the near past economic certainties, at least in the Western world, the lucky part that gave shelter to the “happy-few”. But it is changing fast. New economies come up, copying ours, and are successful like we were when it started. Most people in the Bric-countries are still poor, which is also not new. The same happened in our regions when we discovered industrialization, and it needed a couple of generations before we reached the welfare we are afraid of loosing now.

Human life is all about possibilities, and as soon as a group, a nation, or a part of the world has more, the rest wants to follow. I want what you have, is even more natural to us then eating, drinking, or even breathing. Gathering is where we live for; afraid as we are that life is meaningless without it. That’s the problem with us people: the more we gather, the more we are afraid of loosing it again.

The society we live in today will disappear eventually. As a fact that is history as long as mankind walks the earth and because of that it will be future as well. History is what shows us future, and even new techniques cannot change this repetition. We become older by every generation, but living longer is no guarantee for wisdom.

Mankind came quit far. A successful specie developed a wide range of tools to make it easier for himself, and even struggles to understand what and why he is. We brought the whole world back to our desktop and even laptop or pad, so we can carry it with us wherever we go: The whole world in a tiny suitcase, still sounds as a fantasy story.

No system we know yet can cope with that. The world we surf on a daily base is in our house 24/7, and totally without boundaries. It is still a young reality, but one we face together, have to accept together, because there won’t be a reverse. Outside the little box on our desk or lap, is still a different reality which is in the total of its appearance the absolute opposite. How long will this discrepancy survive?  I don’t know, not in measured time, I only know that it has to vanish. In a world without boundaries regulations will differ and mankind has to face a new truth: the acceptance of total responsibility of each individual for the complete machinery of our future system. With such a complex structure the world will be, there is no other path to walk…

…to be continued…