TED Community » Alan Bishop

More About Me

I'm passionate about

A future where people treat each other fairly and respectfully in a world of opportunity for mankind to grow, prosper and live healthily on a planet that is well maintained for future generations.

An idea worth spreading

Eliminate money and replace this with LC (life credits). LC's are earned from others for treating them fairly and respectfully. LC's also earned for selling products and services that help society grow, prosper and live healthily. All activities that have a negative consequence to the maintenance of the planet would be charged LC's these LC's will be stored in LC banks to pay for work or products that reduce these negative impacts.

This is a rough concept that would need to be refined but I hope this idea, or something very similar, is adopted in the future.

Imagine a world where the leaders are paid LC's for their good works.

Talk to me about

Your ideas for achieving what I am passionate about.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +2

  A comment on Conversation: How can we make technology more friendly to people in their old age?

  Jul 31 2011: Nene, I think you are making the first important step, you are asking the question which indicates that you are prepared to listen to the older people. I am 61 and would class myself as someone in my age group as being somewhat new tech savvy. Keeping up with the high rate of innovation is challenging for many older people, no soon as you have learned something it is being replaced by the next new flavor. Older people will not have the intellectual stamina for this unless there is on hand, cheap assistance to help them learn new systems.
  
  In addition the technology has to be seen to be useful. On line shopping for groceries with free (or low cost) home delivery would be really useful. Having a system operated by voice command to show family photographs on
  TV and recall aold TV shows and films would be useful. Finally having the ability to receive and respond to family facebook, skype, email through the TV (with voice command) would be equally useful.
  
  I hope this helps.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Has the U.S Criminal Justice System failed? (Casey Anthony Case)

  Jul 8 2011: The prosecution built a case on first degree murder. To win a first degree case you have to prove a murder occurred at a certain point in time, that there is evidence that the accused had a motive, that there was hard evidence to prove that the accused performed the deed. None of this was proven without doubt. To have done better the investigators needed to provide more evidence and the prosecutors should have lowered the case to a lower degree murder if this evidence was not forthcoming.
  
  The legal system did not fail, only the people involved.

• A comment on Conversation: Can we find and turn on genes in animals that expand and accelerate brain growth?

  Jun 18 2011: Why? What is the objective? Our dog already contributes to our family society, giving more than he takes. Judging by his wagging tail he is very happy with his situation.

• A comment on Conversation: Is the death penalty a good idea? If so, for which type/s of crime..

  Jun 18 2011: Executing people is barbaric and serves no useful purpose. Statistically it has been proven in countries that eliminated the death penalty that 'death penalty' crimes have not increased. On that basis it is not a deterrent.
  
  If the idea is to punish, I think it is a greater punishment to serve a penance isolated from law abiding society.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: Is it our responsibility to help 3rd world countries?

  Jun 18 2011: Helping others who need help is to be encouraged. Foreign aid, directly managed by governments, has a troubled history. Unfortunately government provided aid comes with 'strings attached' driven, in part, by controlling motives. What I would like to see at the government level is United Nations GDP based levy together with a UN central list of aid projects. Aid could then be funneled through the UN to the most needy situations. Not perfect, but a better system than the one we have today.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: America is not the center (or is that centre) of the universe as we know it! Amercan arrogance is astounding (and I like Americans)

  Jun 5 2011: Why have demarcation by country? What is the purpose? The internet is a global tool and artificial borders in internet space really is pointless. While we have these divisions it can end up fueling a discussion like this. I was born and raised in the UK and for the last 12 years have resided in the US. When registering what do I determine ... my point, who cares?
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: TED generates brilliant ideas for good. Can we take it a step further and actively apply these ideas into productive action toward problems?

  Jun 3 2011: At it's inception TED was formed as a partnership between Technology, Entertainment and Design to spread ideas. Today, TED is best thought of as a global community. It's a community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. These statements come from the About TED page.
  
  Your idea takes the process to the next stage, asking what do we do with these ideas? Ahmet suggests engaging with TEDActive 2011. I went to the link, clicked on Education and was led to a TED conversation (now closed) entitled: How can we empower kids to shape the education system? The subject is now closed and and I do not see a conclusion on what was going to change.
  
  I am not trying to be a critic, I like TED, the community is good and it achieves its purpose as an enabler of ideas. Turning ideas into focused actions that bring about change requires a different set of skills and a high degree of leadership. I do not see this in the TED purpose statement so it is fair to presume that this is not really what TED wants to evolve to. This subject is of interest to me since I feel that in this great modern age of social media we are full of ideas and information and this leads to an ability to engender people to perform simple tasks and then, often the next steps just fizzle out as we go off to tweet, facebook and blog about some other issues. Let me use as an example, the recent uprising in Egypt. Facebook got the crowds on to the streets, the crowds gathered in the square and peacefully held out for the President to step down. The people were successful, persistence paid off. When the dust settled what happened next? There was a vacuum, no leadership and suddenly you have fights between Christians and Muslims and other issues developed. Was this what the demonstrators wanted? I do not think so but they only had one goal, a single idea, get rid of the President.
  
  Delivering results from ideas is a difficult and takes stamina.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Why is "old-fashioned" a negative thing?

  Jun 2 2011: The term is the problem. Old fashioned assumes that new fashion is so much better than previous fashions, interestingly I see fashion repeating itself, maybe with a new twist but it often echoes some past fashion. So what is wrong with the term? Simply this, "old fashioned" can be applied to ideas and thinking in a derogatory way. For those of us of more mature years we can remember the times when we used the term in a derogatory way, sometimes denouncing the ways of our elders. So, with that memory it kind of sticks in our mind that maybe we are perceived as "old fashioned".
  
  So, with this background, I do listen to young people to get a sense of what the world looks like through their eyes. I do also offer advice at times, when it is asked for, and do not get put off that my advice maybe viewed as "old fashioned". I resign myself to a view that maybe, with age, I do have some wise words to offer and do not get upset if they are rejected as "old fashioned". The world is free and everyone in it has entitlement to their opinion.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: is it wrong to be interested in money

  Jun 1 2011: Money enables transactions. Money can earned by doing good and bad things, money can be used to do good and bad things. For these reasons money gets a good and a bad name. If you are motivated to acquire money as a goal in itself I think this is problematic for there is potential for doing bad things and supporting bad things.
  
  I would like to see a system where we all are provided with a fixed amount of Life Credits, these LC's can be converted to a cash value if you want to simply acquire money. Alternatively you can give LC's to people who, in your opinion, are doing good things without seeking monetary gain. At the same time you may do good things and receive more LC's which you can use to encourage good acts where you see a particular need.
  
  What I like about LC's is they are only used for good things and will promote better human habits.

• A comment on Conversation: You cannot simultaneously prepare for war and plan for peace - Einstein

  May 27 2011: To transition to a peaceful state you must first address the causes of unrest. When thought of in this way you really see the extent of the problem, there are a myriad of causes for unrest. Maybe some of these causes are easier to fix than others and maybe this is where to start. When you think about this problem in this way you begin to realize there are no easy answers.
  
  Another approach might be to define what makes a war justified and if it is not then this becomes an illegal act, with the instigators of illegal wars being brought to account by international courts. Fighting to prevent your borders being compromised is legal, defending others from the attack of those waging illegal war is also legal, all other wars are illegal. If you agree with these definitions then the war in Iraq was only justified to the point where the territories of Kuwait were no longer under threat. The war in Afghanistan, I think, would be classified as illegal.