The email

This morning, as promised, I received the following email. It certainly clears up some things, including why the keys I found on the web were on such random forums. I assume the fifth forum, where “people started talking”, is Unfiction.

“A week ago, I wrote a manifesto in which I asked you to join a revolution that would begin today, June 13th.  The manifesto included clues about what this revolution might entail… but when you chose to be a part of it, you did so on faith that it was real.

It is real.  Thank you for having that faith.  And special thanks to those of you who thought hard and came very close to figuring it out on your own.  I may have honored you at:

 http://www.avanoo.com/d/revolution/aries.zoo

Like you, I had no idea what would come of this endeavor.  Would millions of people find the manifesto, somehow, and ask to join in? Or would it languish, alone, in web obscurity?

A few public relations firms guaranteed me access to real, life-like revolutionaries.  ”We have an unparalleled web presence,” they all said.  But Wilford and I didn’t want it to happen that way.

“Revolutionaries are like husbands or wives,” I said to Wilford. “They aren’t nearly as special if you buy them!”

He agreed.  ”Either this revolution begins organically, with people who want to make their lives and this world better, or it doesn’t begin,” he said.

After writing the manifesto, I asked a friend to put messages about it on “a maximum of five forums”.  I didn’t tell him which forums to hit, and I didn’t tell him what to write.  ”Just do your thing,” I said.

Four of five forums immediately trashed his posts and prohibited him from further use.  ”You are banned for eternity,” said one message he forwarded to me.  But in the fifth forum, people started talking.

The conversations on that forum spurred activity around the web: tens of blog entries, a few Craigslist posts, and hundreds of revolutionaries joining in.  Not the millions needed to change the world overnight, but – and I am convinced of this – something much better.

Revolutions don’t begin with millions of people.  Rather, they begin with small groups of people who want to improve their own lives, and make the world better.  These people – us, the vanguard – are the first step.

It is my hope that together, we can help spread the word about this revolution… the one that begins here!

 http://www.avanoo.com/d/revolution/

Best,
Dan”

Part 3

E = hν = h (c / λ) = h (c / 2πr) = (h / 2π) c / r = hbar c / r
hbar = m c r => hbar c / r = mc²
E = mc²

Perhaps Einstein’s greatest insight was to realize that matter (stuff) can be turned into energy (light) and vice versa. He proved this with his most famous equation: E = mc2.

Although physicists have spent the past 100 years building on his theory, few of the rest of us have considered its philosophical implications: Totally unrelated “things” can actually be deeply related, and even one and the same.

Rich white professionals from New York (let’s call them matter) and poor Asian students from Tunisia (let’s call them energy) have different life experiences, and different perceptions of the world. Yet these two communities are the same – part of a larger global community of people. Different life experiences, but people nonetheless.

To get his insights, Einstein needed to understand the fundamental properties of both matter (rich, white, professionals from New York) and energy (poor Asian students from Tunisia). Without an intimate understanding of both, he couldn’t possibly have had the insight that led to a revolution.

Like energy and matter, two seemingly unrelated communities are not so different. If we can learn how to tap into into the unique perspectives of poor Asian students from Tunisia, as well as rich white professionals from New York (and millions of other communities), then we’ll be able to start a communication revolution in which better advice, content, knowledge, and information is at our fingertips.

This revolution is about access, understanding, wisdom, communication, and people. It’s about matter and energy and our ability to know which is which, but still to understand that they’re one and the same. It’s about vision, insight, creativity, and craziness. And it’s about change.

The link between the keys

The Choose Your Revolution page we found with the first set of clues said to post why we thought the keys were important.

I’ve collated over 50 keys from a variety of sources on the internet, and have even tried to plot them on Google Earth (though there were a few difficulties with this approach). The keys seem to cover states of mind and emotion, class, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, nationality and even occupations. We have keys covering North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, even Antarctica – the only continents that I’ve not found keys for are mainland South America (the Falklands have come up a couple of times) and Australasia.

The only conclusion I’ve really been able to draw from all this is that the keys are designed to remind us that whoever you are, whatever background you might come from, and wherever you might be, everyone is a valid person in their own right and should be able to speak up and choose their own revolution.

It would seem that the revolution is for the people, and everyone’s invited.

“Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

A million workers working for nothing
You better give em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now

Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on”

Part 2

From the next page of Choose Your Revolution:

1. Einstein could have proven E=MC2 in three short lines. We’ll show you we how to do it soon.

2. We are not famous, although many people know who we are.

3. We are pioneers. We do believe that Native American College Students from Cape Verde deserve a voice too, and that you deserve to hear it.

4. The more people who sign up for this revolution, the better it will be.

5. Specifically, the more friends of yours who sign up for this revolution, the better it will be for you.

6. We’ll post the next set of clues on the blog entry that comes closest to telling us why your keys are so important after 10,000 people have signed up for this revolution (we anticipate this will be sometime late today). When deciphering the pattern, make sure to use ten unique keys (not found anywhere else on the web) from ten friends. It will help.

Good luck!

The keys

I’ve been gathering the keys, and have put them into a Google Spreadsheet in case it helps anyone work out what’s going on. You will find it at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pfmYknhH3UEEsvfvft3fpWg

I also tried mapping as many as I could on Google Earth. You can download the KMZ file from here. If you’d rather view the points on Google Maps (which offers reduced functionality, but might be useful), there is a KML file which can be viewed here.

Upper-Class Women from Slovenia

That peculiar phrase is my key for Choose Your Revolution.

I can’t tell you how it will start – it already has. The creator of that site has, just by getting people like me to sign up, already got it under way. People have been signing up over the last couple of days.

How it will grow is another question entirely. It will grow by people like me spreading the word, and more people signing up. People the world over, from numerous different backgrounds, all with the same aim. Changing the world. Not that that’s a new aim, there has probably always been people wanting to change things on a huge scale. But just maybe, in the current climate, given the right tools, we can work together to bring about the changes so desperately needed.

“You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right “

The beginning

I’ve created a couple of posts on my own site, but have decided that it might be better to have a dedicated blog for Choose Your Revolution. Of course, I couldn’t just have a dull old title for it, so “myf is revolting” was born. I do hope there’s space in this revolution for a bit of humour. If there isn’t, count me out…