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In the News (from ScienceDaily): A new study co-authored by an MIT professor suggests that many people are, in fact, heavily influenced by the positive opinions other people express online – but are much less swayed by negative opinions posted in the same venues. Certain topics, including politics, see much more of this “herding” effect than others. …

“This herding behavior happens systematically on positive signals of quality and ratings,’ says Sinan Aral, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and one of three authors of the study. …

“’People are more skeptical of negative social influence,’ Aral says. ‘They’re more likely to ‘correct’ a negative vote and give it a positive vote.’

“While this phenomenon of social positivity sounds pleasant enough on the surface, Aral warns that there are pitfalls to it, such as the manipulation of online ratings by some political operatives, marketers or anyone who stands to profit by creating an exaggerated appearance of popularity. …

“In turn, Aral suggests, we should be as analytical as possible when it comes to harnessing collective judgments.

“’We have to be careful about the design and analysis of systems that try to aggregate the wisdom of crowds,’ Aral says.”

My Comment: So, even though the wisdom of crowds is closer to the truth, but in an egoistic space, no one can be sure that this option is not used by selfish individualists, and we should not trust this indicator on the Internet until we correct egoism and get rid of cheaters.
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In the News (from the University of Michigan): “Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being instead of enhancing it, a University of Michigan study shows. …

“’On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,’ says U-M social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the article and a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). ‘But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it.’ …

“The study found that the more people used Facebook during one time period, the worse they subsequently felt. The authors also asked people to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and end of the study. They found that the more participants used Facebook over the two-week study period, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time.

“Importantly, the researchers found no evidence that interacting directly with other people via phone or face-to-face negatively influenced well-being. Instead, they found that direct interactions with other people led people to feel better over time.”

My Comment: The whole process of our development aims at bringing us to full disillusionment and an understanding of the need for unity: It is impossible to communicate in the old and the new way in order to direct us to the new kind of connection and interaction—spiritual (bestowal and love).
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In the News (from Raw Story): “’There is a cyberwar going on,’ Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, said during a cybersecurity debate at the Geneva Press Club.

“’Just like a conventional war, there are no winners, only destruction,’ he warned an audience of reporters, diplomats and technology experts.

While Toure declined to pin the blame on individual countries, such attacks have become common currency. …

“In an increasingly connected and Internet-dependent world, cyber attacks by governments and criminal gangs alike have the potential to wreak havoc on everything from the financial sector to key public services, Toure said.

“’No one single entity can do it alone. We have to change the mindset. Are we mentally prepared to work with one another?’ he asked.

“’In this arena, there’s no such thing as a superpower anymore,’ he said, given that is it cheap to create viruses and launch attacks.

“’It’s the human brain that’s driving this. So we’re all equal in this, and we need to come together. That’s the new order. It’s not one country. It’s not like a nuclear power, where the technology, the knowledge base and the infrastructure and the funding are required for that.’

“’We have to treat cyberspace like we treat the real world,’ he added. ‘What’s true in the real world is true in cyberspace. Some people say we’re in a new environment where the rules are completely different. We’re not. Because humans are at the centre of this.’”

My Comment: As nature reveals itself as an integral whole, our connection and interdependence will be constantly revealed in increasing scale and depth. Agents like Snowden (not traitors) and residents are required to let the world know that “everyone’s hands are in everyone elses.” Thus the process of liberation from boundaries only shortens. This requires a psychological revolution in people by means of the method of integral education, but this is only possible in the integral analog system in which we find nature and ourselves.
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Question: In the years 2008 to 2009, Internet business didn’t see any decline. In fact, on the contrary, it grew by 10 to 12%. Today, this business continues to grow. Is this becoming the “tomorrow” of all human activity?

Answer: In principle, we already have passed through this stage. The generation of the technologies of steam, electricity, and gas has already ended. Also, the generation of all kinds of communications media technologies also has reached its end. Now, we no longer aspire for knowledge and for communications links. The idea of communications between people has disappeared. We see this very well with the Internet, how rapidly it is helping us to develop and filter all that already has been on some level that has completed its work, and so we discard it.

The next stage is a stage of meaning, characterized by a yearning for attaining the meaning of life. Today, we stand on this threshold. This is not just a generation of energy, material, and information, but beyond this, it is a generation searching for an answer to the question about the meaning of existence. Without this acute question and its answer, humanity cannot advance further. It will enter into depression, suicide, terrorism, and absolute confusion, saying, “I don’t know what to do!”

Today, the world lives according to the principle of, “earned-disposed,” “stole-ate.” In a state like this, there is no goal. Therefore, humanity needs to find it, and it will be discovered specifically in the integral collective if we can present this example to the world quickly. The problem is that humanity needs to feel it by itself. We cannot put people into a state like this artificially.

If people can achieve this, then everything will be changed, and if not, then it could be that we will exist in this state for a much longer time. However, then it will be bad for us. We will yearn for war in that we will think only about cutting off complex connections and solving problems.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/20/13

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Opinion (Robert McChesney, communication professor, author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy): “‘When capitalism is mentioned, it is usually as the ‘free market,’ which is taken as a benevolent given, almost a synonym for democracy,’ McChesney writes. Yet ‘really existing capitalism’ doesn’t fit with the free-market ‘catechism’ or with democracy, he writes, ‘the crisis of our times is that capitalism undermines democracy.’

“The Internet has been transformed from the noncommercial and public space that many dreamed of in its earlier days to one that ‘has been commercialized, copyrighted, patented, privatized, data-inspected, and monopolized,’ McChesney writes.

“As part of that process, advertising has been transformed online in a way that eliminates previous notions of privacy, and the government has surveillance powers that were once unimaginable. Large telecommunication and entertainment corporations that once appeared to be vulnerable, because of the Internet, have prospered through their influence in a ‘corrupt’ policymaking process.

“The Internet giants that have risen over the last two decades are not the progressive force some think them to be, and have prospered as the result of monopoly privileges, exploited labor, and government policies and subsidies, he says. …

“This book comes now, McChesney writes, because he sees the Internet as having crystallized to a significant degree. ‘We are in a position, in some respects for the first time, to make sense of the Internet experience and highlight the cutting-edge issues it poses for society,’ he writes.

“We also are in a better position to understand what decisions can be made that might determine the future of the Internet and its influence in shaping the society, he says in the book.

“Among his prescriptions: broadband availability to all for free as a basic right, strict regulation of advertising and a sharp reduction or elimination of the tax write-off of advertising as a business expense, heavy regulation of digital “natural monopolies” or conversion of them to nonprofit services, large public investments in journalism, net neutrality, strict privacy regulations that make online activities as private as correspondence in the mail, and strong legal barriers against militarization of the Internet and use of it for warrantless surveillance.”

My Comment: The Internet is an imprint of modern society, and all our vices appear on it in an exaggerated form since admission is free, reaction is instant, and distribution is unlimited. As long as we don’t start changing ourselves, our Internet will not change. So, all the attempts are in vain.
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In the News (from MIT Technology Review): “The global pattern of e-mail communication reflects the cultural fault lines thought to determine future conflict, say computational social scientists.

“In 1992, the Harvard-based political scientist Samuel Hartington suggested that future conflicts would be driven largely by cultural differences. He went on to map out a new world order in which the people of the world are divided into nine culturally distinct civilizations. …

“Bogdan State at Stanford University in California and a few pals … have analyzed a global database of e-mail messages, and their locations, sent by more than 10 million people over the space of a year. State and co say that the pattern of connections between these people clearly reflects the civilizations mapped out by Huntington. In other words, the way we send e-mails is a reflection of the mesh of civilizations that is an important driver of future conflict. …
“This result provides evidence towards a division of the world into civilizational blocks following Huntington’s theory,” say State and pals.

“But there are other patterns too.  ‘The findings (unsurprisingly) support the idea that geography, transportation and administrative decisions are all important determinant of between-country communication: distance decreases density, as do visas, while direct flights increase it,’ say the researchers.

“And there are surprising results as well. For example, a common border between two countries actually reduces the communication density between them, perhaps because of increased tensions.  ‘These curious findings do raise the issue of potential problems with European integration, as well as of the higher potential for conflict between countries sharing borders, which may lead to less communication,’ say State and pals.”

My Comment: Global and personal egoism is constantly growing and becoming interdependent, which heightens contradictions further. It is impossible to isolate oneself. We can only follow the trend, indicated by nature, that is, to unite. This is possible only through the change of the human being, by our re-education. A method of correcting our egoistic nature is offered: integral education and upbringing.
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Question: What allows the power of thought to help a person transcend his own nature? Why is the potential of the collective thought stronger than our nature?

Answer: We exist in nature on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and nothing more than that. Our desires are usually focused on food, sex, family, money, respect, domination, and knowledge. This is our nature.

On the other hand, I receive power from the environment that is on a higher level, on a spiritual level. If a collective thought dominates my environment, it will influence me by 100%.

Today we discover such phenomena: thoughts that wander around the world and pass from one person to another like viruses. They don’t simply “float in the air,” but are actually part of a connecting network that we don’t feel yet, although it ties us together very strongly.

Earlier, during the first stages of our evolution, the connection between us was weak and now its influence is revealed more strongly.

As a result, we now need electronic communication: cell phones, text messages, e-mails, video conferences, social networks… we haven’t quite penetrated the network, we haven’t actually reached it, but we already respond to its signals and are attracted to mutual communication. This is the root of modern technological communication.

Soon, however, we will leave all that since this network will prove its ineffectiveness. After all there is no point in external communication, in empty talk, “Hi, what’s up…” Our desire grows and the general network that connects us is increasingly revealed and at a certain point we will want higher quality communication. Then people will leave what they are so addicted to now. They will start to communicate only when they need to, and will give up all the “electronic babble” in search for a new channel that is above the ordinary discourse. They will yearn for an inner connection.

So if we influence each other correctly, we can already use the network between us now. After all, the souls are shattered with respect to themselves, but not in Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), and that is what we yearn for. So what’s the problem? Malchut is concealed from us by many Masachim (screens), but that doesn’t mean that we are not in it. The more we awaken the general network, the more we can operate it.

This is what we do through mutual guarantee. Therefore we need it for our correction. It is as if we are asked, “Are you ready to use the network that connects all of us for the sake of bestowal in a clear, correct, and appropriate manner?” This approach is generally called “mutual guarantee.”

Today people are closer to the recognition of this network than ever before. They are close to participating in it actively and consciously, so that they can resemble the Creator. After all, the “Creator” is the surrounding network that is filled with the infinite connection; this is how the Creator is revealed to us.

If I want to discover this network in advance, I “awaken the dawn” by myself, by trying to add exertion and feeling an increasingly greater responsibility towards the world, towards all of reality, including the Creator. If I am not ready and do not aspire to advance, then the network that is revealed “catches” me by surprise. This is the difference between the “path of the Torah” and the “path of suffering.”

Generally speaking, this whole network—with the different types of connections, with all the Lights, and all the details of perception and all the stages of revelation—is called “Torah.” By our mutual guarantee we activate it and encourage a greater revelation and this affects everyone.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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In the News (from The Christian Science Monitor): “A stunning report by a US digital-security company accuses China’s military of conducting more than 100 cyberattacks on American corporate and government computers. If accurate, the report by the firm Mandiant only adds to the urgency to develop international norms in cyberwar and cyberespionage.

“Each new tool of aggression requires its own rules of war. Cyberwarfare should be no different. Without a code of ethics for conflict in the digital universe, nations could eventually bring down each other’s water supplies, electric grids, military defenses, and vital institutions. And key values, such as privacy and a right to intellectual property, could also be lost.

“Global rules now restrict the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. They also help safeguard civilians and prisoners of war. What the Mandiant report shows is that the world may be losing the struggle to come up with rules for cyberspace behavior.”

My Comment: The problem is not in the desire to adopt new rules for new weapons of war, but that the enemy can easily disguise himself and strike without exposing himself to retaliatory attacks. So, a lack of complete control, as in the case of nuclear weapons, is the cause of the ongoing cyberwar.

The solution lies in the unity of all the systems into one, when everyone attacking the enemy will bring a blow to himself at the same time. Either we ourselves will create this system or nature will bring us to this system of mutual dependence in which there will no other choice but to establish such ties or perish.
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