Giant granadilla - Passiflora quadrangularis: Hi Nontheist Friends, In reference to the God-word as a connector ... I was just at a Stanford Law School event yesterday to hear a talk about "How Can We Protect the Internet Against Surveillance?," A lot of hungry bellies to feed in the world, and I observed that even with such hunger, many people in the developing world - the poor part of the world - have mobile phones, in my experience, Seeking high achieving online undergraduate students for free, MIT OCW-centric WUaS

Hi Nontheist Friends, 

In reference to the God-word as a connector ... 

I was just at a Stanford Law School event yesterday to hear a talk about "How Can We Protect the Internet Against Surveillance?" by Australian Peter Eckersley of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF - https://www.eff.org/) in San Francisco. You'll find his slide presentation here - https://www.eff.org/files/surveillance-todos.pdf - as well as here at the Surveillance page at WUaS - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Surveillance ... see too the WUAS "Privacy" and "Security" pages for this and other resources from Eckersley and others. 

Peter's and the EFF's message is protect oneself online as much as possible, with the above steps, such as downloading https-everywhere -https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere . 

At the end of the talk, an African American minister came up to ask Peter a question in person, as is the custom at Stanford Law events for interested individuals, and he asked what the ethics are at the EFF ... libertarian, progressive, legal ... were three answers, and Peter said that personally he is a consequentialist, in a utilitarian tradition. 

I had asked a question earlier about how I assume the "Nation State" always wins vis-a-vis security and surveillance questions and the individual or citizen, how a hypothetical MIT top programmer can theoretically outcode or hack most privacy technologies, and when the "Nation State" or such programmers can't penetrate, for example, TOR or https:// , the State (e,g, the US, Sweden or Japan etc.) has thought through various approaches to deal with such contingencies. I also assume all 242 Nation States ( http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States ) talk with one another in one way or another vis-a-vis such internet surveillance questions ... probably in very very haphazard ways ... but theirs is the winning discourse ... My question was, given these ASSUMPTIONS, how does Peter see the conversation between these nation states developing? He mentioned metaphorically the "Treaty of Westphalia" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia - where the sovereignty of principalities as emergent nation states triumphed over empire in Europe in the early 1600s.

I gave Peter a Quaker-informed MIT OCW-centric World University and School flyer (http://scottmacleod.com/WUaSFlyerArchive.html) and mentioned WUaS's plans for law schools in all 242 countries where WUaS faculty would teach about such questions in courses, as well as talk amongst each other across languages and countries ... with an interest in networking with him vis-a-vis Australia and especially in terms of all the Aboriginal languages in Australia - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages - with WUaS's plans for developing wiki schools in all 7,105 languages; Wikipedia is in more than 300 languages and MIT OCW is in at least 8 non-English languages (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/), by way of comparison. 

Later outside the room at the foot of the main stairwell near Rm 280b, I started to talk with the minister, Pastor George Murray, and mentioned Friendly-informed World University and School, free degrees, the possibility of anyone teaching to their web camera at WUaS, and our seeking high achieving high school students next autumn. 

I also mentioned how I was active with Quakers in SF, but not that I was active with NtFs. 

An African American minister at Stanford Law, he went on to say praise God a number of times in a number of ways, as a manner of connecting and vis-a-vis WUaS, gave me his card, said his church in the US is the largest African American church in the country, and that he would like to collaborate in any way possible. I said I'd add him to the WUaS monthly business meeting email list. 

He had also said there are a lot of hungry bellies to feed in the world, and I observed that even with such hunger, many people in the developing world - the poor part of the world - have mobile phones, in my experience, and also that it would be interesting to complement satiating a hunger for food with satiating the hunger for knowledge-generation and education and the benefits this brings to societies.

But I didn't say I question the language of God, the divine etc ... because I think I understood where he was coming from, and his well-being, with his God language, and he where I was coming from, having mentioned being active with Quakers, as well as my sharing about Friendly-informed WUaS with open wiki schools in all languages, and with free university degrees planned for large languages, and all of this especially for the developing world. 

I was amazed by the insight gleaned from our conversation that God is such a connecting word for some, for many ... for some African Americans, as well as for some whites, and many others in the Rainbow of this world, in this country, and in some other parts of the world ... and I'd like to affirm such connecting possibilities for sharing good will, while continuing to develop nontheistically Friendly thinking, and in conversation.

I'm going to stay in touch with Reverend (Superintendent and Pastor) George Murray, potentially in seeking high achieving online undergraduate students for free, MIT OCW-centric WUaS, among other things. And perhaps Pastor Murray might come into conversation with NtFs on this email list, or even in this NtF wiki school at WUaS ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nontheist_Friends_(atheist_Quakers%3F) .

Friendly regards, 

Scott

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