Friday random thoughts ...

I was watching a show on PBS last evening about absolute zero.

What you may ask does that have to do with Long Island and the One Long Island project? Maybe nothing, maybe something.

What I found interesting in particular, among the many concepts explored, was the Bose-Einstein condensate concept wherein at a certain temperature gases, liquids and solids become a unique entity.

If they can do it in physics, we can do it organizationally on Long Island. If we "cool" the level of hostility, posturing and rhetoric that exists between individuals and groups, then we can begin to see a type of "condensation" of our own in a manner we began to explore here. Groups and individuals "condensate" to form "new organizational structures" to solve or collaborate on one or multiple issues.

Debates must be about ideas, not about what keeps individuals and organizations in "power." The One Long Island series of ideas can return "power" and decision making back into the hands of Long Islanders in a way Thomas Paine might have enjoyed.

It is as much art as science, even in the field of physics, hence the need for a (meta) multi-disciplinary approach to solving problems.

What uses does this have? I mean why work so hard for something that has no immediate payoff? Scientists are still exploring the potential uses including the generation of energy from alternative sources.

The point is the stretch the boundaries of knowledge and to explore what is possible without having to justify an immediate practical application.

Knowledge and ideas are then, in a sense, a means to an end in and of themselves.

Why do I say this?

Well, some folks tell me that while they enjoy this site, they can see no immediate practical application to my ideas. I hope to remedy that, at least in part very soon with the help of some of my new found friends and colleagues with a couple of "real world" One Long Island projects.

As I've stated before, we need to operate on many different levels simultaneously if we are to be successful. So working in the practical world and the theoretical world is certainly something we need to do as well.

The point is that if you don't think out of the box, sometimes WAY out of the box, you never really know what is possible.

If you don't draw on the lessons of other disciplines you are unreasonably limiting yourself and your organization and, by extension, the future of Long Island.

So what does absolute zero have to do with Long Island?

That's really up to you.