Business: Kickstarter to Fund Projects

Often, you have an idea you wish to pursue to fruition but you are blocked by the reality of insufficient funding. So what can you do? Run around asking for investors or borrowing money from the bank? That's the traditional way. Recently, I discovered this cool site, http://www.kickstarter.com/, which funds projects purely through individual donations. The catch though is that the donor doesn't donate right away. You, the project owner, must set a money goal that you're trying to reach within a time frame. If you don't get enough money by that point, there will be no donation. This is to ensure that all projects actually get sufficient money to be successfully completed.

Anyone can sign up for an account and submit a project allowing anyone to donate if they're interested. The only limitations are that the projects must

1. Have clearly defined goals and expectations.

2. Be creative. It must fit within the fields of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater.

3. Not be for charity or donation.

4. Offer rewards and not financial incentives. You cannot offer ownership, financial returns, repayment, etc. Instead, you must offer rewards like copies of the work, fun experiences, etc.

If your project fits these requirements, all you have to do is then fill out a short proposal form answering a few basic questions:

1. What is your project (750 characters max)

2. What rewards will you offer? (1000 characters)

3. Where can we find out more about you and your project?

4. Which category fits your project?

5. How much money would you like to raise?

6. How did you hear about us?

And if you're looking to fund some project, there's loads for your money to go into some worthy cause: http://www.kickstarter.com/discover

Some of the more interesting projects (in my view) that entrepreneurial-minded people have raised include. Check them out and/or post one of your own:

ISS-Notify

A LED light that shines whenever the ISS passes over your head.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/natronics/iss-notify?ref=live

http://mechanicalintegrator.com/2011/iss-notify/

And this was also interesting since originally he made one to detect near earth asteroids:

http://mechanicalintegrator.com/2010/near-earth-asteroid-lamp-at-science-hack-day-sf/

Paintings for Satellites

Rooftop paintings for the specific purpose of art observable from orbit.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1145342167/paintings-for-satellites

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollydilworth/

Team Prometheus N-Prize Mission

Launch a small satellite into LEO from a high-altitude balloon of 100000 feet. Note that this funding failed.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1775006829/team-prometheus-n-prize-mission?ref=live

http://www.teamprometheus.org/

Lumi Co. Textile Products

A new textile technology that makes some products made of the material.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lumi/lumi-co-a-new-textile-printing-technology

Windfarms Project

Grassroots way of growing vegetables in the windows of homes in an aesthetically pleasing way.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/windowfarms/turn-our-cities-windows-into-vertical-veggie-farm

http://www.windowfarms.org/

Aperture Science Sentry Turret

Sentry gun based on the one from the amazing game Portal

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sirwolfgang/aperture-science-sentry-turret?ref=category

Mapping Gulf Oil Spill

Group of citizens got together to build balloons and kites attached with cameras to map out the Gulf oil spill.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jywarren/grassroots-mapping-the-gulf-oil-spill-with-balloon

Literature: Shadow

i wish you'll see it in my face
but my thoughts you don't see at all
i'm just taking my slow steps home
putting on a face of someone i don't know
but that's someone you think you see

i thought i could light up the room
but my candled flame burned out long ago
i'm just a shadow
walking behind who you think i am

if i can just dissolve my thoughts
i'll walk this path with steady steps
to have that flame making life what it is
and not to walk as this shadow
of a flame that had died long ago

i thought i could light up the room
but my candled flame burned out long ago
i'm just a shadow
walking behind who you think i am

so i'm just walking along thinking
will i just go away fading?
how will i relight this candle
so that i can be true to what you see?

Philosophy: Consumption, Destruction, and Creation

For every object in existence in this world, we can choose to act through one of three methods: consume, destroy, or create. Consumption is using the outputs of creation. Destruction is eliminating the creation itself. Creation is the act of creating something so that there can be consumption or destruction. An everyday example is TV. Consumption is watching TV programs. Destruction is physically destroying the TV or ensuring that no TV broadcasts are made. Creation is producing a new TV program or building a TV.

From a macroscopic perspective, the percentage of time allocated to each of these three actions in a society is a good indicator of the society's well-being. In the worst possible dictatorial society such as North Korea, the only acts permissible are consumption and destruction. Creation is carefully restricted to those in power and strongly discouraged by force otherwise. In such a society, progress will be slow if at all. Indeed, this can be extended to a generality: For any society, if creation is not greater than consumption or destruction, then the society cannot progress.

The macroscopic relevance of this rule is built on a fundamental level upon the microscopic acts of the individual. If an individual consumes or destroys more than he or she produces, this individual is creating a negative balance in society. For an individual to exist in this world, he or she is either selfish, misguided, or lazy to presume that the individual should feel entitled getting things by doing things of lesser value. A rich heir that squanders away his inherited wealth has demolished the culmination of the value of the creation of his forefathers. By logical extension of the counterpart, the most worthwhile individual will be one who strives to be at least one step above the ladder than his or her predecessors.

Some may object to this simple analysis by stating that not everything which is created has value. Aren't some creations dangerous and harmful? Is it not better to create nothing than something if more harm will arise due to its creation? Unfortunately, creation for the most part seems to be a double-edged sword. With few exceptions (such as gas chambers), any product or service created can both be served for good or bad. For instance, just consider

- Nuclear bomb versus nuclear energy

- GPS satellites for military surveillance and missile targeting versus ensuring that you do not get lost

- Rockets for military use versus rockets to travel to space

- Viruses concoted to kill people versus medicine developed to cure diseases

Since the good or bad usage of technology is impossible for us to predict, we cannot stop all progress just because of the possibility of something being used in the wrong way. This is not to say that we shouldn't be careful. To be noted is that in general for a technology, the greater the potential for good, also the greater the potential for bad.

Another valid counterargument is that not all individuals can create more than they consume. Consider a long-term hospital patient who is suffering from a debilitating illness. Is that person not entitled to be supported, i.e. consume more than create? The answer here seems to cross from the mechanistic into the moralistic. Actually, there is no such distinction. One merely has to observe the past history of the individual and his or her present state of action assuming that the individual still has faculty of mind and body. If even at this stage, the individual has the brimming energy to go do something or if the individual has demonstrated such tendency in the past, then the current state is but a temporary one.

More counterarguments can certainly be brought up and I'll be happy to address them.