Just noticed there’s a new documentary about Ray Kurzweil and his big ideas (transhumanism, artificial intelligence, technological singularity, etc.). The movie’s called Transcendent Man: … offering [Kurzweil's] vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent…all within the next thirty years. I saw him talk [...]
Tagged as:
culture,
future,
futurism,
predictions,
progress,
ray kurzweil,
singularity,
society,
speculation,
technology
I’ve heard great things about Zadie Smith’s work as a writer, but I had a hard time bringing myself to click on this link. The essay is about Facebook, and the generation that made it, and the movie that everyone’s talking about. It also references Jaron Lanier’s critique of the internet and adds to a growing [...]
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change,
evolution,
facebook,
future,
generativity,
meaning,
philosophy,
progress,
social media,
society,
technology,
twitter
Generativity: maybe the most important word we’ll use in the next 10 years. It applies to all aspects of the challenges we face: social, technological, cultural, intellectual, economic. There’s a big article in the newest Atlantic that got me thinking about it: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America: If it persists much longer, this [...]
Tagged as:
development,
future,
generations,
generativity,
history,
innovation,
jonathan zittrain,
progress,
recession,
society,
twitter
Literally! Out of all the things buzzing in my head for a “new decade” post, the idea I want to highlight most is the increasing importance of making stuff. It’s been germinating in my mind via MakerCulture in the Making by UWO + Ryerson’s online journalism classes. Last week it was crystalized by Umair Haque’s “Builders’ Manifesto” [...]
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00's,
goals,
happiness,
history,
institutions,
makers,
motivation,
organizations,
progress,
think21st
Reflecting on last weekend’s talk on creativity I worried that probably emphasized the “open” aspect of the creative cycle at the expense of the “closed” aspect. My gist seemed to be, “Don’t worry about anything… try everything, and fantastic creations will magically appear.” Given the circumstances, I’m happy I erred that way rather than the other. We [...]
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benjamin franklin,
bruce mau,
complexity,
creativity,
dennis dutton,
digital media,
discovery,
electricity,
epistemology,
evolution,
generativity,
history,
paradigms,
poetry,
pragmatism,
progress,
revolutions,
social media,
theory,
think21st,
thomas kuhn
“Heuristic” — an ugly word that everyone should know — is used differently in various contexts. It generally refers to a process of making open-ended, provisional decisions in order to get into a better position — “for now” — from which to act and decide better later: Let’s see how this works out — find [...]
Tagged as:
cultural evolution,
culture,
decisions,
heuristics,
learning,
music,
progress,
society,
technology
No I haven’t forgot about the little endeavour I launched in May: I started thinking we need someplace to just try stuff. If it works, then great: we can replicate it on our own sites or even develop something more permanent, public, and professional. If it doesn’t work, then that’s ok too: without actually losing [...]
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community organizing,
creativity,
development,
enterprise modelling,
initiatives,
institutions,
ldnbeta,
learning,
open democracy,
professionalism,
progress,
projects,
rapid prototyping,
relationships,
signalling,
social capital,
social media,
web
Another bit of a ramble (I love where it ends up), starting with this Time Q&A: TIME: How difficult was it to chart a history of a massive and diverse thing like blogging? Rosenberg: This is a phenomenon that starts small, then diversifies, then explodes at a certain point. At the small phase, it’s not that [...]
Tagged as:
blogging,
careers,
cultural evolution,
digital media,
evolution,
higher education,
history,
progress,
social media,
technology,
trends
I’m still posting more or less daily at Open/Conceptual, focusing on some special interest stuff there, but I haven’t been doing much for BrianFrank.ca lately. It’ll probably stay this way for a while. Lately I’ve been looking back at where I’ve come from. I actually forgot how non-blog-like my blogging was a little over a [...]
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autobibliography,
blog,
blogging,
learning,
open conceptual,
open/conceptual,
progress,
writing
All of the articles on this (e.g. at TechCrunch and O’Reilly) seem to have giant, static screenshots that don’t convey the essence of Google Wave. This is something you have to see in action to appreciate. Not everyone will want to watch the 80 minute demo, but keep it in mind for a rainy day. The nut of the idea is [...]
Tagged as:
'web 3.0',
communications,
generations,
google wave,
progress,
technology,
web
Thanks to Twitter I was able to catch some of an interesting conversation on Rogers 13 with LOLA organizer Andrew Francis. He suggested that the fact London Ontario is not where it should be… should be seen as an opportunity (I’m going from memory here so forgive me if my interpretation is a little skewed). [...]
Tagged as:
change,
cultural evolution,
disruptive innovation,
innovation,
leapfrog progress,
progress
[Originally written in March, 2007... It was the first complete & coherent thing I wrote outside of school. It's far from well-written, but the background behind everything I do is in here... somewhere (it demonstrates more than it articulates).] Contents: i. A Résumé, a story about itself, a creative consummation… ii. Common points of reference / [...]
Tagged as:
adventure,
autobibliography,
change,
discipline,
education,
freedom,
generativity,
leadership,
love of learning,
meaning,
motivation,
organization,
progress,
responsibility,
self-becoming
