Though this Newsletter has been around intermittently for a few years now, I only harnessed it as a vehicle to share People First thinking in May of this year, Issue One going out on May 31st. Since the launch in May, readership has been steadily growing and judging by the emails received I have hit some nerves with some of the pieces. Definitely a good time to take stock and recap where we have got to.

The Recap

I’m very much a Darwinian. This means I must ask myself questions like ‘How come all surviving cultures until modern time have been based on religion?’ and I draw the conclusion that religion has somehow helped people and civilizations to survive.

In the same way I ask ‘how come all sexually reproducing forms of life age (unlike e.g. amoebas, or yeast)?’ and its the same conclusion - in different words now: ‘if there has ever been a sexually reproducing species that did not age, they have not survived to tell the story’. Have there existed such failed species, then? I’m suggesting that its likely, because (unless I’m misinformed) aging is a ‘feature’.

Around the age of 45 the human body ’switches on’ aging, or rather, it switches off the function that keeps us young. Much of the research today is (unless I’m misinformed) about how to keep the stay-young-function ON. 

To be provocative - the ambition to stop aging can be seen as disrespectful of the wisdom of Darwinian nature and it has a slant toward man-made creationism.

It’s not going to end well, in each case. 

David Nordfors

It struck me as so very right - little to argue with, so recording for posterity!

RelBasil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be.

Oscar Wilde

Related Links

The Picture Of Dorian Gray - the book is on this list.

Darwin on Aging Theory

Why hasn’t evolution dealt with the inefficiency of ageing?

Thinking Allowed

• More about People First
• Other People First Posts
  (not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)

“Look at gender. We used to think of it as a binary, male or female, and now we understand it's a spectrum. It is high time to ditch the old-young binary, too.”

Ashton Applewhite

Says it all really. Ageism is alive and well. In fact the same day, Paul Krugman wrote a piece on the job market that I totally disagreed with - so of course I had to write something.

You can read the whole of Issue Number 7 here.

Startups are now offering people “passive income” for their personal data. These companies claim to empower consumers to profit from personal data. But actually, they entrench an attention economy where cash-strapped consumers trade personal privacy for quick cash — much like the plasma-for-cash biz. Data exchanges broker the sale of personal data between the people who generate it and the large companies hungry for it. One, Streamr, connects real-time personal data with companies via subscription. Another, UBDI (Universal Basic Data Income), buys personal data and sells “insights” to companies. At first glance, it’s tempting … If my toaster and my watch are already collecting data, I might as well get paid for it, right?

The Hustle

My Take

Wrong. And they know it. Read more here. No most discussion needed, but if you want to - I'm ready.

What is Data anyway?

"No one ever conceived of a more sophisticated and dynamic philosophical history than Hegel. His system is built around three fundamental ideas."

Sam Haselby

In summary ...

First, the key to human agency is self-consciousness. For people to be doing anything in any real human sense is to know what we are doing as we do it.

Secondly, self-consciousness is always a matter of locating ourselves in a kind of social space of ‘I’ and ‘we’.

Third, there are ways in which things can go better or worse and we can make it possible to become new, different and better versions of ourselves. But what we can make of ourselves depends on where we are in history.

... but what we can make of ourselves depends on where we are in history.

Hegel’s search for the universal patterns of history revealed a paradox: freedom is coming into being, but is never guaranteed

Read the whole thing at Aeon : What is history? Nobody gave a deeper answer than Hegel

Thinking Allowed

• More about People First
• Other People First Posts
  (not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)

More of a record to self than something to overly concern you, but nonetheless potentially useful. As People First continues to further establish itself, we are 'upping the ante' on our online presence.

First, we are moving the site away from the blog centric feel it has had for a while now to more of a functional site. Most content not in place, yet, but there are plenty of pointers and 'eye candy' in the galleries.

There has been a Google Groups in place for years, but it fell into disuse, so it is being killed and replaced with a new group on Groups.io Emails have gone out to the old membership to test the appetite before I spend too much time building it all up. I can say that I have good experience of it, since a 'sister' organization - Me2B - is using Groups.io very effectively.

We have agreed to our first Sponsorship, more details about it in the not too distant future.

Tomorrow being Tuesday, will see our seventh newsletter hitting the streets (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor), really wanting to grow that readership.

The Instagram and Twitter accounts are in full flow and a presence on a few third-party publishers is beginning to happen, with plans for more. Any of the links below will allow you to engage with People First in your way and on your terms.