I have only lived thirty years... And yet in that time I feel as though I have accomplished wonders. Looking back, I wonder how I came to be where I am today. I remember the arduous journey, I see the results now, but I still stand in awe I have made so much progress... I have traveled the world, thanks to my father doing security work for the US embassies while in the US Marine Corps, completed my black belt in Tai-Kwon-Do after beginning training in the art at eight years old, free-climbed an eight-hundred-foot tall stone spire called by locals the Rock of Yorin with my father, friends, and other family, won several small local surfing competitions in California and Hawaii, took a career in logistics as a Logistician and Optimizer, study Aerospace Engineering and Advanced Applied Physics at the best school a guy could ever hope to attend, achieved my A- and B-License with the United States Parachute Association for skydiving along with Coach Rating, about to embark on the beginnings of the Seven Summits Expedition next year after a month of mountaineering training in Iceland, and much more.
How does anyone do so much in so little time? Persistence and family and friends kicking me forward every step of the way. Between all of my parents' marriages I have eight brothers and five sisters. Between the guys, growing up was a healthy competition. Blood, sweat, and tears were the currency spent to achieve the next objective. Having a father who could be hard and unforgiving at exactly the right times and kind and caring at other times gave me the confidence to pursue any damn thing I fancy to master. Impossible is a reckless word; the earlier it is abandoned the better. This little blog post is a tribute to the time and care invested in me by my parents, siblings, friends, teachers, instructors, role models, and mentors growing up and now.
I thank each and every one of you for making me who I am today. I would've stumbled and been lost long ago without you. It would take more space than I have here to list you all, but you know who you are. From the very core of my being: Thank You!!! Blue skies my friends, and may we forever reach higher together.
If this little tribute inspired you, it was worth every word! Thanks for reading it and I wish you all the best.
To all who voted for me: Thank you!
I just wanted to take some time to personally and thoroughly thank each and every person whom voted for me. I will aspire to be the best I can be, and I will live up to the confidence you have shown in me. I understand there is a level of trust and integrity one expect from the candidate they vote for in any election, and I will strive with all my might to achieve and maintain that standard. This has never been about me, but about all of you! Again, I thank you more than mere words can convey! As we say in the skydiving community: Blue skies! Always.
The future is quickly becoming now, and we have better be sure we are ready for it. Just two years ago, I would have said any concept such as a space nation, even the precursors to one, was a century and more off at best. Yet here we are, well on the road to forging the first one ever... Progress is amazing, but it can be frightening, too. To anyone who is involved with or follows the world of academia, it is obvious enormous changes to our way of life and society as a whole are coming swiftly to fruition.
We are likely on the cusp of wonders. Things such as true nuclear fusion reactors and even immortality are within our grasp. Medical science is leaping forward, as is robotics, artificial intelligence, and computer science. Modern miracles are on the way, and as great as that is, such advances can be dangerous, too. We will need to evolve our understanding of ourselves and redefine many parameters in which society functions today to use our advancing technology responsibly.
With the advances in robotics expected to be made in the very near future, our entire economic structure will need restructured. Robots are expected to take more and more jobs out of the manual labor sectors as the years pass. The majority of the jobs common folk have will be obliterated. Also, with the advances rapidly coming in artificial intelligence and computer science, many higher level professions requiring degrees for humans will also be threatened. The result is a mass extinction of careers and an enormous rise in unemployment. Only those whom own large companies and the systems now performing the duties humans once completed will make any real fortune. Of course an economy cannot work this way. If the common folk are out of the workforce and no longer earning an income, they cannot buy the products and services provided by those companies that replaced said workers with robots or A.I. Governments will no longer collect as much tax revenue and even more workers will lose their jobs as a result. We will quickly need to redefine how an economy can function in such a paradigm and begin implementing systems an policies now to smoothly transit over to whatever form that new economy will take.
Even assuming we master a new economic system, other changes threaten our current view of how society works. There exists a movement called transhumanism, of which I proudly am apart of, that promotes the easing of human suffering and the betterment of our quality of life by using technology to exceed our biological limits. When used in a moral way, these technologies will work wonders. The trick is defining "moral." Many will stand by the belief we should never augment or tamper with our natural selves, others will claim we have been doing so already for centuries and this is just another step on a ladder we as a species began to climb millennia ago when the first human began to light fires at will. Our moral code will need better defined on an international level as well as the way we define once-concrete terms such as "identity," "human," and "mind." It is increasingly more evident we as a species will gain the ability to more successfully integrate with our machines as the years go by. If a person has nearly all of his or her limbs and/or organs replaced or augmented by machinery or artificial substitutes, can they still be considered human? What if a person has a significant portion of his or her DNA altered for whatever reason? Are they still human? What is the percentage of either a person can achieve before that term no longer applies? As we better understand the hardware and software of the human brain, we will inevitably gain an increasing ability to alter that system. If we eventually gain the ability to upload our consciousness to a digital substrate, many more questions will need answered. What exactly is an identity at that point? When a person can make any number of copies of himself or herself, which is the "real" individual? If just one of these entities commits a crime, whom is charged? If memories can be transferred, altered, or deleted at will, this poses serious issues to our current criminal justice model. If a person commits a murder and deletes the memory of having done so, is he or she still guilty? At that point a seemingly innocent person, from their perspective, will be tried and sentenced. If this person transferred the memory to another before deleting theirs, is the other person guilty? If I were to copy my mind to a computer and the biological me still lived, to whom has claim over my identity? Who is the real me? Are we all merely our collective brain data, or are we the physical composition of our bodies? If the former is true, any new copy has equal claim to the identity of the original entity. If the latter is true, a clone is as much you as you are, even if the two possess differing memories. Also, that would mean if enough of your physical composition were changed, either by DNA editing or cybernetic enhancement, you could no longer be considered you.
Advanced in human longevity are occurring every year. There are many experts, such as Michio Kaku and Aubrey de Grey who believe we are within fifty years of biological immortality. If this is achieved, many other things will need to be addressed. Who is allowed access to this technology? Only the rich? Only those with enough political power? Any law determining this is in essence defining who is allowed to live and who must die. Even if all were granted equal access to this technology, many things will need solved. With greatly enhanced longevity comes the problems of population, finite resources, retirement, and more. Earth can only contain so many people, even if we maxed out how efficiently we manage our resources. We would either have to expand into space or limit our population growth sharply. I suspect both will be needed,. Many details will need to be hashed out to sustain a society of which has members that may live indefinitely.
I do not point these things out to spell out any doomsday scenario's or to induce panic. We have every opportunity now to foresee these issues and work on them before they even arise. Nations that have been formed and operating for centuries will have great difficulty switching from their existing systems to a new one that addresses these radical changes. Asgardia, being a brand-new thing, can address these things now, and better be prepare to slowly transit into the new world as such is needed. We should continually evaluate how our science and engineering today will likely affect our future, using the best data possible, to begin implementing policies and plans that will ease transitioning into those futures as easily and painlessly as possible.
To all who read this blog entry, thank you for you time and I hope you enjoyed whatever insights you may have gotten from these words. If you liked what you read and wish to elect a leader mindful of these things, please visit my candidate page below.
The company I presently work for is a third party logistics and storage company that transports and stores all manner of materials for large clients all across the US, Canada, and Mexico. I started here as a basic heavy equipment operator and eventually, through dedication and hard work, I advanced to the dual rolls of Logistician and Optimizer. My career responsibilities include helping coordinate a vast fleet of commercial haulers (trucks, barges, ships, etc.), evaluating a variety of internal processes on a continual basis in multiple locations throughout the US and composing reports consisting of how to improve these processes, coordinating efforts between the Logistics and Production departments, compose daily reports on inbound and outbound inventory, debrief the Head of Operations weekly on changes in production and inventory, assist with internal audits of many facilities throughout the US, and aide in negotiating the terms of requisitioning new assets or contracts with new customers and vendors.
SK5 Mobile Services is a third party property management firm that manages medium to large properties for clients all across the Midwest region of the US. Here my duties entailed managing a number of properties of varying types and sizes (apartment suites, condos, mobile home parks, hotels, motels, resorts, etc.) simultaneously. I managed the operations budget of each property, kept accurate accounting logs, hired and managed all personnel on the installation or repair crews, set the salaries of the installation and repair contractors, ensured property expenses were kept up to date (utility bills, repair bills, supply costs, etc.), reviewed and processed all tenant applications, collected and processed all rent revenues from tenants, coordinated efforts with the company attorney to handle all legal matters (evictions, civil cases, etc.), handled all public outreach efforts, and negotiated with new potential clients.
Friendly Enterprises is a medium sized construction/installation company that specializes a diverse assortment of services, such as building or maintaining or repairing small or medium structures, paving roads or large scale concrete operations, installing mobile and temporary structures (mobile offices, mobile homes, etc.), carpentry, excavation, plumbing, electrical, septic, masonry, welding, fabrication, and more. Here I started as a basic apprentice and worked my way through various trades and eventually became a fulltime foreman and project manager. Daily duties included hiring and managing crews of diverse workers from many different disciplines, coordinating work efforts between the multiple crews to keep production progressive and to meet critical deadlines, continually assess progress and adjust manpower or equipment to ensure all project deadlines were met, estimate the costs of operations to potential clients and negotiate contracts, evaluate each project's conclusion to determine any and all flaws that must be addressed before final client walk-through, and much more.
Learned the details of heavy equipment operation (many differing kinds), grading, earthworks, MIG/TIG welding, worksite leadership, fabrication, asset management, and project coordination.
Ongoing studies in the design and construction of various aircraft and spacecraft, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, material science, metallurgy, and mechanical design.
Ongoing studies into various fields of physics, the underlying equations, and how they apply to real world applications beyond theoretical science.
Completed the eight-hour ground course, canopy control drills, parachute packing course, parachute preventative maintenance course, pre-dive written tests, post-dive oral tests, seven dives and demonstrating a firm grasp of specific basic skills with each jump, and the Accelerated Free Fall check dive.
Completed and passed all pre-dive written tests, completed and passed all post-dive oral tests, completed spotting course, passed spotting examination, completed directional heading training, passed directional heading examination, completed basic free fall maneuver training, passed basic free fall maneuver examination, completed basic parachute malfunction course, passed basic parachute malfunction written test, completed free fall docking training, passed free fall docking examination, completed basic free fall formation training, passed basic free fall formation examination, performed and passed all Coach jumps, performed and passed A-License check dive.
Completed and passed all pre-dive written tests, completed and passed all post-dive oral tests, completed water landing training, passed water landing examination, completed night jump training, passed night jump examination, completed advanced canopy control training, passed advanced canopy control examination, completed advanced free fall maneuver training, passed advanced free fall maneuver examination, completed advanced free fall formation training, passed advanced free fall formation examination, completed advanced canopy malfunction course, passed advanced canopy malfunction written test, successfully performed the twenty-four requisite jumps from A-License to B-License check dive, successfully performed and passed B-License check dive.
Completed Coach rating course, passed Coach rating written test, successfully performed five dives in the capacity of a Coach, successful performed the requisite one hundred logged dives to obtain Coach rating with the United States Parachute Association.
I confidently believe I have accrued a variety of skills that will transition well to the role of Trendsetter or Ambassador. Having completed training courses in both Asset Management and Budget Management, I have the skills needed to regulate funding carefully and without waste. Working as a Logistician, I understand well the intricacies of getting crucial supplies from one place to another undamaged and on time, and as an Optimizer I am trained to keep a constant eye on internal processes and devise ways to increase efficiency.
As a Property Manager, I have had many large assets under my watch and had to regulate a great number of variables simultaneously. I know how to work well with diverse groups and I am practiced with maintaining good relations with the public. I also completed a course called the Art of the Deal Negotiation Tactics, where I learned the science of carefully working out mutually beneficial and long-lasting deals involving multiple parties.
Having worked in the construction trades for years and getting certified in a few of them, I have experience working in the "everyday world" with "everyday people." The hard labor trades make up the backbone of any developing organization that hopes to expand its infrastructure and broaden its horizons. As a Foreman and Project Manager, I have brought multiple crews from diverse backgrounds and trained across many differing disciplines together to complete a larger project on time and to the required specifications. These skills will translate nicely over to office in Asgardia, as Asgardia will have numerous titanic projects needing completed and managed as it grows and has an extremely diverse populous that will complete this work.
I was raised to know there is something permanently useful that can be gained in every experience and used in later times. Even qualities I have picked up in my hobbies can be put to use in Asgardia. As a licensed skydiver, I have a great deal of practice in keeping my calm in dangerous or stressful situations and keeping focused on the tasks at hand. In knife forging, I have learned one can take a raw lump of nearly worthless material and, using great care and skill, can shape it into a useful tool. In model building and sailing, I have learned to concentrate and retain a careful eye for details. From Hiking, I take in the beauty and respect for our world and remember it is fragile and needing protected and preserved.
Even in my raising I have taken aspects I can use toward my goal of serving the good of Asgardia. My father, a retired colonel from the US Marine Corps., raised his sons and daughters to reach as high as possible, and to work ever harder to climb to those heights. From him I learned there are hard decisions in life, those with no easy answer, merely one solution being less terrible than another. I learned the light of logic best serves to guide us through these decisions. I also was taught to admit my limitations and when I am wrong, to seek out advice from those who know better rather than acting or making decisions in ignorance. Before my father retired, he performed security work for the US embassies abroad, and, having rank, was able to take some of his family with him from place to place. I have been blessed to have traveled the world and gain a direct and in-person view of other cultures and to other ideologies.
I have gained a great deal of well-earned confidence in myself and even in others along this road I call life, and I truly believe I could make a fair candidate for office in Asgardia by using everything I have ever learned, even the seemingly insignificant things, to keep progressing forward.
The company I presenty work for is a third party logistics and storage company that transports and stores all manner of materials for large clients all across the US, Canada, and Mexico. I started here as a basic heavy equipment operator and eventually, through dedication and hard work, I advanced to the dual rolls of Logistician and Optimizer. My career responsibilities include helping coordinate a vast fleet of commercial haulers (trucks, barges, ships, etc.), evaluating a variety of internal processes on a continual basis in multiple locations throughout the US and composing reports consisting of how to improve these processes, coordinating efforts between the Logistics and Production departments, compose daily reports on inbound and outbound inventory, debrief the Head of Operations weekly on changes in production and inventory, assist with internal audits of many facilities throughout the US, and aide in negotiating the terms of requisitioning new assets or contracts with new customers and vendors.
From all new things can spring forth unintended consequences. With a concept as new and radical as our Asgardia, a multitude of futures is possible, some fantastic and some frightening. We must be diligent now to protect our nation and ensure it remains true to her destiny.
Asgardia is in her most vulnerable stages now, in her infancy, where the framework that makes her she is can potentially be twisted or corrupted. We must band together now to keep Asgardia pure and true. All throughout human history, nations have been plagued with strife. We will not allow the squabbles of Earth to reach space.
Asgardia is too precious a thing, in what she represents, to allow her to be threatened. We at last have a way to peacefully reach into the heavens and exist among the stars, as none before us ever has. We must use every tool and utilize every tactic, peacefully and responsibly, at our disposal to keep Asgardia true.
Asgardia is above the politics and petty differences that plague every Earthly nation. We are like no other country that has ever existed and it is with this uniqueness that we can hope to build something that has never before existed: a peaceful state that holds tolerance and logic as its innermost core principles.
With the light of science and the very human drive to expand and explore every possible horizon, we can achieve that which has never been done before. The troubles of the Earth must stay with the Earth. We must strive, now, to refuse the problems of the past to prevail into our future.
We strive to forge a society on the other side of the sky, and to show by example what the light of logic and the path of passion can achieve when every person is valued as the treasure they are. In Asgardia, every individual, regardless of his or her past is an immeasurable resource of limitless worth and potential. We have a populace more diverse than any other nation in the world.
Language and race and terrestrial borders mean nothing to Asgardians, as we have already transcended these bonds. I want to do everything I can to keep Asgardia as it is and is intended to be, no matter the amount of effort needed or the prices to be paid.
We must band together in Unity to ensure we keep our Asgardia true to her purpose. We must not allow Terra's mistakes to spread to space. By knowing where we come from, we can better know where we are going. Please help me help make this a continued reality.
We all have a part to play in the grand scheme of things. How large or small that part is depends on each of us, and the choices me make on the road called life.
Yes, politics is a thin thing, there will be many more bad luck and disappointment, but it's all temporary. Good luck to you I for peaceful coexistence. Good luck and I can support you.
Count with me to do the right way too!
Ultimately, I personally politically favour Anarchy. A lack of a system can be a system too - and an effective one. At the end of the day, you shouldn't need someone to tell you what's right and what's wrong - you know. You'd also not be really requiring anyone to tell you what to do - you know that too. However, I'm able to accept that some people are just completely unable to cope with taking social responsibility for their own actions/inactions. Even with more than a million citizens, it's still possible for them to decide for themselves. Via a forum structure such as this, we can argue amongst ourselves upon the various merits concerning decisions for a set period of time - assuming this is nothing desperately urgent - and then collectively vote. I'll agree with the opposition to decisions principle, but think it should be set as a % instead of a solid number. Say 60%. To assume that up until the next elections at least the 1'st 100k have a say, then one hundred would be only 1% or so - and not a good representation of the larger societies veiws. 100/600,000 is pretty insignificant. Should a structure develop wherin individuals make their own decisions, then the role of the ministries would be akin to that of mods in forums. An adjudicator ensuring productive conversation, and in cases where no clear agreements can be reached, the arbiter of the ultimate decision. I think proposal for dismissal should also require greater than 100 people - again a fixed percentage, 60% sounds like a good minimal.