Future by Design

Beautiful video illustrating how technology's purpose should be purely to elevate humanity and civilisation rather than dominate. Some lofty but achievable ideals indeed.

Tune Out, Switch Off, and Drop Out

I know what the original guy meant when he said, "tune in, turn on and drop out", but these days it seems we are tuning in to the wrong points. Yeah those all prevalent devices that dominate our lives like futuristic demons. You can really view this as one man's version of hell where human contact can only be mediated via a device or some artificial interface.

Getting the so called 'balance' right is not easy. I've managed to claw back precious time by remembering old work habits before the digital age. That is to always work in batches of tasks or windows as I like to call them. This way you ignore the incessant stream of mail and phone interuptions and return to a more civilized and sedate mode of work a la the ancient answer machine way. Yes remember those days when you got on with your life and actually talked face to face to people and got home to be greeted by those reassuring little LEDs. Then you'd put aside 30 minutes or so to catch up with messages and friends. Great unh? Well here's a nice piece from a fellow blogger telling you how to do much the same.

Visions of the Future

BBC 4 is launching string theorist Dr. Michio Kaku's "Visions of the Future" this week in which he explores the possibilites that technology presents for humankind in the not so distant future.

Already technology has been altering our culture and behaviour, particularly through the mobile phone and internet, so just what impact will the technology of the future have on the way we live and interact with each other? This quote from Prof Rodney Brooks of Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the scariest in that the line between human and machine may become so blurred, who can tell whether the machine is more human than the person? Was that being born human or machine? Will we care?

"As a species, we are starting to put our information-processing technology inside our bodies – we're becoming a little more robotic. At the same time, our technologies are becoming more biological. Over the next 50 years, we'll see robots with more biological components and people with more electronic components"

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

As I sauntered into my sanitised local Tesco the other day, and spotted another alarming story on the front cover of the Independent. No not another sensationalist racial story, but this time a very scary environmental piece. The fate of the Indian Tiger. The story read that India's current Tiger population could be as low 1300, which conservationists say is just unsustainable.

When such a symbol of nature in all it's glory passes into the pantheon of formerly extinct species, what does this mean for us? Probably an increasingly sanitised Tesco experience, and not a furry friend in site. Hey no worry, I'll be all nice and cosy and totally detached from the outside world, in my Tesco house, with my Tesco electric car, watching the Tesco news on my Tesco branded TV. Paranoia you say? Well right now, I'm sure you've must have noticed what's going on down your local high street, and I'm writing this on my Apple MacBook, with my Google Blogger account, on my Orange broadband who also provide both my mobile and landline services. I once suggested to a friend the prospect of a T-Mobile branded home and he laughed. Well it's starting. The future's arrived, and I'm scratching my head right now, looking a little lost and confused.