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Welcome!

We want to make the world a better place: by talking with, listening to, and potentially working with, people who see the world differently.

We - the people on this site (and, we trust, you) - want to make the world a better place. The question is: how?  An important part of the answer is: with help from one another - we can't do this on our own.  If we want to make this happen, we will need to learn how to cooperate, really cooperate, with one another.

Right now, the challenges the world faces, but also the possibilities for real change, are greater than they have been in our lifetime.  So we want to do everything we can to understand the challenges and come up with the best possible responses, to enable us to work together and make the best changes happen.

What the human race does today, and in the next few years - how we live, the choices we make - will shape the world, and decide our future.

We need to understand the practical challenges we face.  But we also need to explore ideas and beliefs, hopes and fears, because these are the things which drive our choices and affect the way we live.  And we need to explore them with people who do not already agree with us, because we will need to cooperate with as many people as possible if we are going to beat these challenges.

We will not learn enough if we only talk to those who agree with us, and we will not be strong enough if we only cooperate with those we like.

So we want to attract a wide range of people with different ideas and opinions.  With a range of differing perspectives, we can test the evidence for our ideas and explore the alternatives, so that we have good reason to believe the actions we take are the best we are capable of.  And we always need to be open to the possibility of understanding more, and changing our strategy.

Alongside the challenges, we also want to share some good news about things which give us hope end encouragement: if we are to overcome these challenges, we will need joy and strength just as much as we need clear thinking and accurate information.

What Next?

Fee free to browse.  All the content on the site is available for anyone to read.  If you wish to contribute in some way, or simply support our vision of people cooperating despite disagreement, you are very welcome to join us, but please read the material in the Introduction first, to understand how we try to do things and why we have a small monthly membership fee.

This site is currently under development - we are still copying content across from the original site.  But there is enough to give you an idea of what we are aiming to build.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

 

Activity

Paul Hazelden commented on Don Baker's article AI - Alison Pickard Interview
"Thank you - a helpful article, I feel.  For me the key quote comes near the start: "I ... first started trying to build computers that could have emotional intelligence.  While computers do not feel, think, or have conscious experience like people…"
Friday
Don Baker published an article
AI Rosalind Pickard Interview 20200317.pdf  
Friday
Don Baker and Brian Monahan are now friends
Friday
Don Baker updated their profile photo
Friday
Paul Hazelden posted a blog post
Introduction
Over the years, I have lost count of the number of 'vision' and 'strategy' meetings I have participated in, where we spent more of our time discussing the meaning of 'mission' and 'goals' and related words than we did actually…
Mar 18
Paul Hazelden published an article
[Back to Spiritual Challenges]
Introduction
There are many definitions of religion; for our purposes here, we can understand religion as shared spirituality.  This is, inevitably, too wide for some people and too narrow for others, but it has the…
Mar 16
Paul Hazelden published an article
[Back to Spiritual Challenges]
Introduction
There is a common assumption in many Western countries that if you are religious, then you 'believe in God', and that your choice of religion is all about believing in the 'right' God.  However, while you…
Mar 10
Terry Wood and Brian Monahan are now friends
Mar 7
Paul Hazelden commented on Paul Hazelden's event Discussion
"The topic is 'AI and Ethics' - see the discussion paper."
Mar 7
Paul Hazelden commented on Brian Monahan's article Pacifism and Ukraine
"Brian,
A similar point, perhaps, but I think it's important: you say, "Russians genuinely felt that they were liberating Ukraine from neo-Nazis and Western imperial exploitation – they were just retaking and liberating what had been stolen from them…"
Mar 1
Paul Hazelden commented on Brian Monahan's article Pacifism and Ukraine
"Adrian,
Thanks for that helpful link.
However, I think you misunderstood my second point.  When I said that I see the arms manufacturers as another 'side' to this conflict, with a vested interest in seeing the war continue as long as possible, the…"
Feb 27
Paul Hazelden posted a blog post
MAY GOD BLESS YOU with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for…
Feb 26
Adrian Roberts commented on Brian Monahan's article Pacifism and Ukraine
"Couple of things:
1] The profits in the arms industry were certainly of concern while we were selling arms to suspect developing countries. But is it really a huge part of the discussion now? Like a lot of things, everything changed on 24th February…"
Feb 26
Paul Hazelden commented on Paul Hazelden's article Three Kinds of Sex
"Adrian,
There is actually quite a lot of research with apes and monkeys which deals with gender.  I summarised it quite horribly, but I think reasonably fairly.  To give just two of many possible references...

New Scientist: Male monkeys prefer…"
Feb 17
Paul Hazelden commented on Paul Hazelden's article Three Kinds of Sex
"Mark,
Many thanks for this.  As you say, an interesting article.  If I understand it correctly, it seems to be saying almost exactly the same as my article, but using different language, and (in my opinion) talking in unnecessarily dogmatic…"
Feb 17
Paul Hazelden published an article
War
[Back to World Affairs]
Introduction
This is an attempt to identify the key aspects of war.
Almost everyone agrees that war is bad, something to be avoided if possible, but we are not very clear what the ‘if possible’ might consist of: whoever you…
Feb 17
More…

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