A surprise call

Will wonders never cease?

Apparently some political heavy hitters have been reading this blog! You won't believe who gave me a call last night.

About six o'clock my time the land line rang. I didn't recognize the area code on the caller ID so I almost didn't answer. But some little voice in my head urged me to find out who it was. I picked up.

"Hello"

"Professor Mobus, this is Barack Obama. I hope I'm not calling at a bad time."

The voice really did sound like the President's. But I had to suggest this wasn't a very funny gag.

"I get that a lot when I call people. But it really is me."

"OK," I said hesitantly, "but what do you want with  me?" My mind was vectoring in on a speculation of what he (if he was he) wanted. I guessed someone must have told him about my several criticism in this blog. I was right.

"Look, I know you haven't been very happy with me and my administration," the Obama voice said with what sounded pretty sincere. "When Axel (his chief of staff) told me about your blog I was, at first, pretty upset about some of the things you wrote." He paused. "I have really been trying to do the right thing."

I tried to choose my words carefully. "Mr. President, I believe you have been concerned about doing the right thing, I really do, but..."

He cut in. "Here is the deal. I was upset at first, but I started reading some of your other writings, especially this subject you call biophysical economics. I had never heard of anything like this."

"Yes," I replied, "I suspected that your decisions were based on a lack of the really big picture. I can't fault you for not knowing everything, I suppose, but I do think that the president of the United States would be relentlessly looking deeper and get his advisers to dig deeper and not leave their assumptions to ideology."

There was a long thoughtful pause.

"I guess I have to agree," he said at last. "But in my defense, that is actually why I am calling you. I want to get better advice, I guess. And this biophysical stuff is very intriguing. Already from what I've read on your blog I can see that there really are deeper causes to the economic situation than most of us had imagined. I'm starting to get it."

"Mr. President I am delighted to hear that."

"Would you be willing to come to Washington to provide more education on this view of economics? I think my people and I could really stand to learn something new."

"Sir, I am at your service, of course. But may I suggest that you really need some real experts on the subject. I am not really the best person to help you out there. May I suggest...," and I reeled off a list of names of the biophysical (and ecological) economists who I consider to be top experts. Charlie Hall, naturally, led the list.

Then I continued to encourage him to get  a hold of these folks and get on with looking at the REAL problems with the economy so that they could begin to look for options (I didn't say solutions, because we all know we are not talking about solving the problems to re-establish business as usual).

He thanked me and said he would still appreciate meeting to discuss some of the other things I had talked about in the blog. He mentioned systems science and my heart skipped a beat. "Wow!" I thought. But I reiterated that I would be at his service. We hung up, and I continued working on dinner.

And then I woke up. It was just after midnight. Boy. Some dreams seem so real. If only.

Comments

[porge]

George,

This is off topic but I want you to see this and get your take on the validity.
Remember in a not so recent post when you were musing about starting a science based religion to enable the average majority to actively help the sapients be the priority group to get through the bottle neck? Well check this out and think of the traits that you have identified juxtaposed with the DRD47R gene traits.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garret-loporto/surprising-way-your-neand_b_568455.html

Now I understand that the source is not exactly a peer reviewed paper and the Huff Post can be sensational but this seems to make sense to me.
If indeed the ratio is 10% DRD47R and 90% other then we as a species are already hardwired to have few leaders and many followers.
All religions formed.....many with absolutely no awareness that others existed so it indicates a trait/traits combination in the population to naturally do so.
I find this not only interesting but very useful if the gene could be tested for.
I don't want to sound like a eugenicist and I know you know what I mean.
This is exactly the position you have argued on sapience since I first read your stuff.
This actually backs you up.
If you would like I could e-mail as well. Or e-mail back to me if you want to keep the blog comments on topic.

Thanks
porge

PS. I had this hunch since I was in High School and we studied Anthropology
I think this is a break through discovery.

[porge]

George,
I didn't even read your April fools blog above until after I posted my comment so I hope you read my comment and give me your take on DRD47R gene validity.
If you could id the possible gene/genes for sapience and also other traits such as creativity and such could narrow the bottle neck front runners.
Now I am definitely going into the boogie man area of eugenics.

[porge]

It is getting late in the day so I'll say APRIL FOOLS!!

[Anywhere But Here Is Better]

Excellent George, my heart was a pumpin' until I remembered the date.

Now if only you'd included the terms "jihad" and "sharia" in your piece, you can bet your last $ that it would have come to the attention of the web snoops that keep the Pres informed about developments.

Then Mr O'Bama may have called you for real - and you could have put him straight on behalf of us all. If only.

[Aboc Zed]

@porge,

if you follow thru to the press release re sequencing Neanderthal's genome you will note that only 60% of its genome was sequenced

here is the quote from the press release:
~~~~~~~~~
By comparing Neandertal and modern human genomes, the scientists identified several genes that may have played an important role in modern human evolution. For example, they found genes related to cognitive functions, metabolism and the development of cranial features, the collar bone and the rib cage. However, more detailed analysis needs to be carried out to enable conclusions to be drawn on the actual influence of these genes.
~~~~~~

When Mr. Garret LoPorto did his piece for HuffPo I think he was driven by desire to present his idiosyncratic views onto reality not a belief-free science

i think we should be very careful about such presentations

[Aboc Zed]

@porge

look what Mr. LoPortto promotes in his HuffPo article

http://www.uprisers.us/

this is all about making a buck off those who want to think of themselves as "innovators" (mstly young people) - note how they use a quote from recent Puss-In-Boots movie about their "club" - these people could not care less about science or society - it is all about making a buck

[porge]

Aboc,

What was the date?

I know they are trying to suck in people with ADHD and Bi-polar since the DRD47R variant is a marker for those conditions. But, there is as you say a Neanderthal influence in modern populations. I know this and have for a while since I look like a Neanderthal and have been told so many times and not just by my girls friends!

I have the skull features and probably the rib cage/long torso thing.

Any way I found the pathetic link to that cheesy upriser site and then did a bunch more hunting and came to the same end you did.

But thanks for bringing out on the blog.

Sapient Neanderthals......If Only...

[Robin Datta]

Even if it were true, a mulatto Uncle Tom is more beholden to his bankster masters than any white one would be. Nothing would have come of it.

With regard to Jihad and Sharia, the gent is either a Murtid or an adept at Taqqiyah.

The vehicles of religion are highly culture and environment specific. Mythology in the Hindu tradition speaks of the deity incarnating in various forms to teach the creatures embodied in those forms of the methods of progress towards eventual "enlightenment". Similar tales are found in Buddhism.

[GaryA]

I had a dream: I was walking down the high street, suddenly my heart missed a beat and I grasped the truth;
We are all suffering from a inherited progressive neurological disease which prevents humans from attaining authentic self awareness.
Then I woke up and discoved it wasnt a dream after all.

[George Mobus]

porge, aboc,

Glad you guys did more digging. I read part of the article but found it too sensationalistic so started discounting it almost immediately. I did a quick look at the gene in question and could find no references that led to some of the claims made in the article.

My own suspicions, and that is all I have at the moment, is that the expansion of sapience in hominids and its accelerated expansion in Homo is more the result of an EvoDevo event, an alteration of one of the control segments governing the expression of factors that influence the growth of Brodmann area 10-specific cells/wiring. I suspect there are probably a few variants of this control which might explain the range of sapience strength, all the way up to incipient eusapience.

In any case this is all still speculative. We will have to wait for the neurscientists working on the genetics of prefrontal cortex and the development schedule of those genes before we can really say much more.
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Anywhere, Robin,

Are you guys trying to get me tagged? More likely than Obama hearing about a blog that had suspect terminology in it, the feds would just pick me up for questioning (not everything) and that would be the end of this blog!

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GaryA,

I'd settle for some illusory self awareness. Oh wait. That is exactly what we have now!

George