Galen Radtke

About Me

Hi there. My name is Galen. I am married to a wonderful German woman, I am the Business manager and co-coordinator at the Cooper Point Journal, and I make boardgames in my spare time.

But I suppose what's relevant today is how I ended up in this class.

About four years ago a was a bit of a philosopher vagabond. Much to the teasing of my girlfriend (who is my wife today) I had been doing a thought experiment where I was trying to imagine a shape that couldn't possibly exist in reality. I wasn't having much success until a party on 4th of July. When the thought came, it literally felt like a punch to the brain. This thought awkwardly described in english, was a sphere where every point on it's surface was connected to every other point on it's surface without any distance between points. Something that theoretically would endlessly collapse in upon itself toward a single point.

I wanted to translate this idea to reality in a way that was applicable to human life and over the next few years I pondered this on and off. What took shape was a mass brainstorming pattern that resulted in many ideas from many participants, being reduced down into select ideas that were communicated or "amplified" to everyone involved.

While I had no idea what to do with this idea, it became large director in what I took interest in, namely, crowd intelligence and how it can be harnessed for positive social change. So, when I saw the description for this class, it resonated with me greatly and here I am.

Interests

Photography, Board Games, Interface Design, Psychology, Sociology, Crowd Sourcing...

Thoughts in Class

-Global data is revealing universal themes within all of mankind. In a theoretical global society, service to these theme should be the foundation of global government.

-GPS app to tell you when someone (a stranger) in proximity to you shares an interest with you.