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 [...]
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culture,
future,
futurism,
predictions,
progress,
ray kurzweil,
singularity,
society,
speculation,
technology
The WikiLeaks story is really becoming a saga. It’s like a new chapter is added every week, with new characters and new ethical questions raised. The latest one helped me work out at least one big answer to move forward with. The answer hinges on trust. It used to be that knowledge was power: it [...]
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attention,
crime,
culture,
diplomacy,
feminism,
information,
institutions,
integrity,
julian assange,
justice,
keith olbermann,
michael moore,
news,
open government,
openness,
press,
rape,
society,
transparency,
trust,
wikileaks
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
Lately I’ve been missing the old sense of wonder and enthusiasm I once had for the future. It seems to be a natural development in the life cycle: it was easier to get excited “when I didn’t know any better,” or hadn’t “seen it all before.” I’ve been able to get some leverage on that [...]
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awe,
change,
emotions,
experience,
henry adams,
jacques barzun,
machines,
religion,
society,
technology,
utopias
If you’re in London Ontario this Saturday afternoon come to the Central Library for the Indie Media Fair. I’ll be doing a workshop at 3 pm on the convergence of social and independent media. I didn’t come up with the theme but it certainly resonates with me. I went to the fair last year and [...]
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culture,
groups,
indie media,
networked publics,
networks,
social media,
society
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 [...]
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development,
future,
generations,
generativity,
history,
innovation,
jonathan zittrain,
progress,
recession,
society,
twitter
Late last night I had a serious lapse of faith in social media — as we all must from time to time. We should have serious doubts questions about this stuff… Which is why I chuckle whenever I read editorials merely pointing out “there are hazards” and digitization “isn’t all good” — as if any [...]
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change,
communication,
community,
criticism,
deliberation,
democracy,
epistemology,
openness,
philosophy,
pragmatism,
social media,
society,
technology,
transparency,
web,
will to believe,
william james
With so many people claiming to be social media experts we just as often hear “there are no social media experts.” There certainly are a lot of people who can generate a whole bunch of verbiage, but social media presents such an all-encompassing, massive and dynamic shift that the “social media expert” label makes about [...]
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careers,
discipline,
epistemology,
expertise,
knowledge,
professions,
social media,
society,
web
Just finished perusing Douglas Rushkoff’s Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Note the villain is “corporatism,” not simply corporations. Even corporations themselves are victimized; they get tilted into self-destructive acts by decision frameworks that benefit nobody — only roughly satisfying some people’s abstract sense that “the market [...]
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advertising,
capitalism,
consumerism,
corporatism,
culture,
douglas rushkoff,
industrialism,
life,
life inc,
marketing,
money,
society,
sustainability
“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 [...]
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cultural evolution,
culture,
decisions,
heuristics,
learning,
music,
progress,
society,
technology
Props to TechAlliance and BIOTECanada for booking Adam Bly to speak at the launch of National Biotechnology Week. I’m very grateful to have attended; I came away rejuvenated with energy and ideas… Bly made the case we need to reorient “our collective ideology, our collective imagination,” towards science — towards “Big Science.” Some of his remarks [...]
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adam bly,
biotecanada,
culture,
data visualization,
infographics,
innovation,
knowledge,
love of learning,
mindsets,
national biotechnology week,
seed magazine,
society,
techalliance,
technology
