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DAEDALUS
A private think-tank exploring the synergies among Art, Science and Philosophy. Policy and politics, media and education are also topics of study. Methodologies include holographic thinking, pattern recognition, scenarios and futurism.
Some members' writings are open to the public. Below are a few previously published selections as well as some from the Daedalus archives.
To work with DAEDALUS in your organization or on your projects, please contact us with your needs.
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In Greek mythology Daedalus was an architect and inventor working at the court of Cretan King Minos. Minos was the son of the mortal princess Europa and Zeus, king of the gods. Zeus had disguised himself as a handsome bull and carried the beautiful Europa away to Crete where she bore him sons. One of them, Minos, became king of Crete. In an example of sins-of-the-fathers family fate, Minos's wife Pasiphae had the bad fortune to fall in love with the same kind of creature as had her mother-in-law -- a bull. (That whole thing was arranged by Zeus as well, to punish Minos for keeping the bull he was supposed to sacrifice.) Unbeknownst to King Minos, Daedalus constructed a hollow cow so Pasiphae could climb inside and meet her paramour out in the pasture. The fruit of that assignation was the half-man half-bull Minotaur. One wonders if Pasiphae used the argument of recessive bull genes via Minos in her defense.
Whatever, it didn't work and the Minotaur was shut up in the labyrinth, a complex maze designed by Daedalus. Always the rebel, Daedalus gave the King's daughter Ariadne the means to help her new sweetie the Athenian prince Theseus get into and out of the labyrinth. Theseus had come along with the yearly tribute to Crete of seven youths and seven maidens who were doomed to the labyrinth as sacrifices to the Minotaur.. In return for a promise to take her away with him, Ariadne did as Daedalus had told her and gave Theseus a ball of red string that he unwound on his way in to the winding maze. Theseus found the sleeping Minotaur, slayed it with his bare hands and picking up the red thread, followed it back out to safety. Theseus and Ariadne sailed off back to Athens and had more adventures, but that's a different story.
King Minos was really upset by all this and imprisoned the court inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth. The labyrinth was so complex that even its designer could not find his way out. Ever the clever fellow, Daedalus designed wings of feathers and wax so that he and his son could fly up and out of the labyrinth. But being a typical teenager the cocky youth did exactly what his father told him not to do -- flew too close to the sun. The wax melted, the feathers fluttered away and Icarus fell into the sea. Though stricken with grief, Daedalus flew on to Sicily where he went to work for another king and continued inventing, building, and solving problems.
Some see the tragic death of Icarus as the downside of science and technology. Others note that Daedalus did most of his work for the powers-that-be in an early version of an industrial-political complex and caution independence for inventors.
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"WAR, HUH, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?!"
VOICES CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS series by Pamela Jaye Smith
Reprinted from VOICES magazine, Los Angeles CA
"I TOLD YOU SO"
"TIRESIUS"
"DON'T KILL THE MESSENGER"
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