WHY SPECULATE?

A talk by Michael Crichton, International Leadership Forum, La Jolla, 26 April 2002

There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can. – Mark Twain

Jon Chase photo/Harvard News Office - Harvard Gazette, CC BY 3.0, Link

My topic for today is the prevalence of speculation in media. What does it mean? Why has it become so ubiquitous? Should we do something about it? If so, what? And why? Should we care at all? Isn't speculation valuable? Isn't it natural? And so on.

I will join this speculative trend and speculate about why there is so much speculation. In keeping with the trend, I will try to express my views without any factual support, simply providing you with a series of bald assertions.

This is not my natural style, and it's going to be a challenge for me, but I will do my best. Some of you may see that I have written out my talk, which is already a contradiction of principle. To keep within the spirit of our time, it should really be off the top of my head.

Environment WorldGame (1991)

The following was a report I'd published online shortly after attending the Ottawa Carleton Pugwash WorldGame event in 1991 -- I attended this with my oldest son, Linton, who was 7 years old at the time (who says kids can't do thinktank exercises!) The report was formatted crudely through an online LaTeX converter just so I could throw this out there for anyone who may be interested.

Environment WorldGame

---

Table of Contents

• Set and Setting
• Playing the Game
• Beyond the Game
• epilogue

<articleinfo>
<title>Environment WorldGame™ </title>
<authorgroup>Carleton University/Pugwash</authorgroup>
March 16, 1991

</articleinfo>

News of this WorldGame came nonchalantly over electronic news:

>From mag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Wed Mar 6 15:51:58 1991
	From: mag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Gifford)
	Newsgroups: ott.general
	Subject: The Environmental World Game
	Summary: Student Simulation Game at Baker Hall, Carleton U
	Keywords: Pugwash, simulation, world, Student, Baker Hall
	Date: 6 Mar 91 05:03:08 GMT
	Distribution: Ottawa
	Organization: Sandelman Software, Debugging Department, Ottawa

	Hi

	The Canadian Student Pugwash is sponsoring an event at
	Baker Hall, Carleton U, within a National Conference. This
	part of the conference is free and open to students here in
	Ottawa.

	A 3 to 4 hour simulation with 100 to 300 people, played on
	a 40x70 foot world map. Participants will engage in actions
	that help them learn about the environment. Its problems,
	options, and interconnections from a global and local
	perspective. Durring the game, players are given the power and
	opportunity to solve the world's problems as well as create the
	kind of world that they want to live in. Because participants
	learn about the environment from an active and empowered
	perspective, the game serves as a testing ground for later
	action by individuals and groups.

	As a participatory event, the Environmental World Game has
	been designed to put players in charge of the world. The event
	is not an academic exercise, but rather about changing the
	world.

	1:30 to 5:00 Saturday, March 16th
	Baker Hall, Carleton University.
	For more info either reply to this letter, respond
	to my email address, or call
	Mike Gifford @ 563 - 0176
	or Canadian Student Pugwash @ 234 - 3622
	--
	Mike Gifford -- 2nd year Integrated Science Studies..
	** -- I am normal.. And everyone else is wierd..
	/ -- Mike_Gifford@xxxxxxxxx/mag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
	\_/ -- attending Carleton University, in Ottawa..

  

With the new moon overhead in Pisces, Linton and I made our may from our drop-off point, through the maze of campus tunnels to a canvas-walled room in the Carlton Unicenter where we filed in with about a hundred others. At the door, we were issued with a stats chart for North America, 1970, the two of us representing three fifths the total population, 6% of the world total.

The Cosmic-Myth Equations of Sun Ra

by

David A. Martinelli

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Sun Ra's Background, Overview of Stylistic Traits, and Important Arkestra Members
• Chapter 3: The Cosmic-Myth Equations of Sun Ra
• Chapter 4: Musical Manifestations of Sun Ra's Equations
  
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Discography
• References Cited

---

Chapter 1: Introduction

Sun Ra is a composer, bandleader, and multi-keyboardist who has led his own big band, called the Arkestra, for nearly 35 years. Sun Ra is of African-American descent, born in Alabama, and has since lived in Chicago and New York, and is currently based in Philadelphia. Sun Ra and the Arkestra have released over one hundred records, both on small and medium-sized jazz labels as well as on Sun Ra's own label, Saturn. The music they play covers a very wide spectrum, but they are mainly associated with the jazz or improvised music idiom. Sun Ra has developed a complex, multi-leveled philosophy1, which incorporates many different elements (for example, ancient Egyptian concepts and outer space imagery), yet when looked on as a whole reveals an underlying unity of purpose.

Whither Ambient?

Whither Ambient? – Last.fm (2008): an essay on my quest to find true electronic ambience that is present in the current moment and now replayed shadows from some past space and time. It turned out to be harder to find than I thought, although admittedly I had added some tough criteria, not the least of which is that the sound should "Be not a cancer on this Earth. Leave room for nature!"

"Considering the roots of Electronic in Cage ... I do find it surprising that its so hard to find any records just wanting to be records."

and even more surprising still that I could find so few Cage recordings!