Scott-
Thanks again for your interest and for the info on yourself. You're basically the exact sort of person that I'm looking for to serve on the legislative network, as you understand a number of things that are crucial not just to this project, but to understanding the time in which we now live altogether.
The article about the Anonymous attacks on Scientology is simply meant to illustrate the unprecedented dynamics that are now in existence; I'm convinced that such dynamics are about to take center stage on the world scene over the next couple of decades. I'm not advocating DDOS attacks or anything of the sort, nor am I expressing approval of Anonymous itself or any other group. Rather, I'm simply pointing out that this sort of thing, whereby individuals across the globe form their own power centers in order to achieve some ad hoc goal, is in many ways a fundamentally new aspect of world affairs that has great potential if harnessed in such a way as to use this "potential energy" ethically, honestly, and with proper goals in mind. Anonymous itself is a particularly interesting subject for a number of reasons, including its lack of leadership or organization and its amorphous nature in general; altogether, the only thing it has in common with Project PM is that it would have been impossible without the internet. At any rate, the situation is akin to a large rock sitting on top of a cliff, and which is certain to fall at some point due to the potential energy it holds due to its position atop a gravity well. I want that rock to fall a certain way when it does end up falling - a way that will be of benefit to mankind.
As you note, history shows that the boons of civilization can fall apart unexpectedly and will tend to do so if a population lacks awareness regarding what particular forces might threaten its continued existence. I have grown more and more concerned about this country and man in general, as I began to really grasp the implications of the faulty media in this country - if there are trends that will lead to disaster, can we depend upon the media structure to inform the public of such trends to an extent necessary for the public to take action and avert that disaster? From what we've seen over the past decade in particular, and from what I and others who work in the media have seen from the inside in particular, the answer appears to be: no, we cannot depend on the media to fulfill its duties in that regard. We need to build new institutions that take best advantage of the internet both as a medium for the dissemination of information and as a tool for organizing people for action. My intent is for Project PM to be among those institutions - not just to fulfill these goals to some degree on its own, as we can only do so much no matter how successful we are, but also to serve as a showcase for a variety of specific procedures and methods that others can adopt in building their own institutions.
I'm going to be dedicating the rest of my life to this effort as I believe it is the best way I can contribute to the ideals of The Enlightenment in addition to the well-being of humanity. Getting a great number of erudite, honest, and well-meaning individuals into a single entity designed to best allow them to corroborate on their shared goals, is, I think, a very worthy goal, and the first step towards enacting great and positive change, particularly since this entity is designed to grow automatically and perpetually without losing quality and thus become more and more viable as a means of change as time goes on. If you are willing to assist in this project, I can promise you that the time and effort you put in will absolutely have a positive effect on the world, starting with the very crucial realm of the media.
I'm going to have one of my partners take down your basic info for now, and she might also get in touch with you about your specific skills in finance and other things you've mentioned. One of the sub-projects that our legislative network will be overseeing will be a charitable trust - the idea is that a group of erudite people organized into this particular sort of network will be able to better oversee charitable donations than would the average charity, and this will be a sort of experiment that will hopefully prove that. You might be of great use in helping to oversee whatever money we take in for that purpose. We're a long way from implementing that (and we won't be launching the project itself till later this summer), but I'd like to get some people thinking about some of the details and how this could best be implemented. You could be very helpful in that regard.
Anyway, let me know if you'd like to be a member of the legislative committee in addition to serving as a sort of informal advisor to myself and others who are putting this thing together. Feel free to ask any other questions you have, either by phone or e-mail.
Thanks,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302
On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 4:33 PM, Scott Mintz
<scott.w.mintz@gmail.com> wrote:
Barrett,
Thank you for the informative reply. I will try to do it justice by first commenting on what I've read so far, and then adding some information about myself.
I've read the links you posted and I must say that so far I feel far more connected with the ideals of the former rather than the latter, this is not to say that I cannot feel connected to the latter, but rather I found it difficult to my feeble mind to comprehend. To confirm and/or clarify, the posting about DDOS attacks serve more of an example of the Internet's powers rather than an advocate of such attacks, even against organizations that by many are viewed at repulsive? I am certainly interesting in hearing more about the goals of Project PM. For example, is there a resemblance of a mission statement that has been put together?
I am a young man at the age of 27 and with that comes a lack of experience, conviction, and, sometimes, confidence. I will not be able to add to the cause in any way relating to attracting high-quality news and commentator folks, however, I do have other skills and personality traits that you may find useful.
My background is as follows: My father's side of the family is
money-focused and calculated, while my mother's side is empathic and
realist. Growing up I was fascinated with the sciences and excelled in
various science-related academics. I was pre-Med before deciding to
enter into Business School. I was let go last year from a hedge fund
which I joined in its formative stages and that ended up closing shop
at the end of 2009.
I like to view myself as a futurist in the sense that I look back at all the world's amazing accomplishments throughout history and use my overactive imagination to think about what is possible in the future. While an idealist that may stray too far from realist, I truly believe many wonderful things are possible, socially, economically, and technologically. Politically, I aim to be as optimistic, but one thing that has, so far, proven true is that all great civilizations fall and that peace is not permanent.
Thank you for your time,
ScottOn Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Barrett Brown
<barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Scott-
Thanks for getting in touch. If you haven't already seen it, read through the description of how the main component, the blogger network, will operate
here. I've also written a short treatise regarding why I consider "ambitious" projects such as this to now be easily accomplished, found
here. Let me know if you have any questions at this point.
If you're interested in proceeding, t
here are a couple of ways you can be of assistance. First off, I'd like to get many people as possible established within the legislative network (which is separate from the blogger network) so that more and better ideas will be conceived, evaluated, and tweaked by as many competent people with as many different varying skill sets as possible. Participating in this network will allow you to contribute to and shape the project to the extent that your proposals are determined to be swell by other members, as well as to influence the direction of things by "voting" on the proposals of others - although the process is somewhat different than voting and more akin to advancing something by means of perpetuating it further through the network by means of clicking a button that both indicates your approval of a given item and pushes it to those to whom you are directly connected within the network; we're about to make a final determination regarding how those mechanics will work specifically and what threshold need be met for a proposal to "pass" or "win" or what have you.
Also, please let me know what particular skill sets you have that might possibly be of use in terms of your potential role as an informal advisor or operative; even if you can't think of how they might be applicable based on what you know of Project PM so far, they may indeed turn out to be useful as we expand our scope of action. Though we won't be launching till sometime this summer, the blogger/journalist network that is to be the main component of this project is already a success insomuch as that the people we've recruited are of such a caliber as to easily recruit a great number of other high-quality news and commentary folks with established audiences, and as this network will thereafter expand on its own without need of any real oversight by myself or the legislative network, we'll be able to concentrate on advancing our goals from a variety of different angles. To the extent that we do, it will be tremendously helpful to have members with wildly different abilities and social resources.
Thanks,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302
On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Scott Mintz
<scott.w.mintz@gmail.com> wrote:
Mr. Brown,
I came across your discussion of the project via LGF and respectfully request additional information.
Thanks,
Scott