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.

Mobile Revolution in Africa

The mobile has been sweeping across the plains and towns of Africa for some time now. Mobile networks have been over taking stagnant infrastructure development and trailblazing how business, commerce and grass roots politics can be done. Much the same way as in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world. Paul Mason from BBC's NewsNight explores the story of Africa's mobile revolution and how it's transforming people's lives.

May you live in interesting times

My how apt this ancient phrase feels these days. I've been enjoying a series of films and documentaries BBC's Newsnight has been showing recently on democracy around the world and China. All the programmes possess common themes of change, upheaval and uncertainty in what seems like a tumultuous world right now. Ironic that the BBC itself is facing dramatic upheaval as it shows the films with the threat of the axing of 2500 jobs in a revolutionary cost cutting move to haul the institution into the 21st century.

Watching one of the China films I can't help but appreciate my fortune by being born just a few years later in England so that I didn't have to wait back in Jamaica like my brother. Xiao Zhang's little girl doesn't fare so well as I did, as her mother follows the 150 million migrants to China's coastal boom towns to seek a new life for herself and her family.

China: White Horse Village

White Horse Village - part one

White Horse Village - part two

Return to White Horse Village

Villagers Fight Redevelopment


Why Democracy?

Why Democracy? Japan

Why Democracy? Bolivia

Vote for me: Democracy in a Chinese classroom [watch]

Why Democracy? Kenya

Why Democracy? Pakistan

The Seductiveness of the Internet: Or how not to get caught in the Web

No I'm not promoting anyone's book, but this guy Andrew Keen is pretty much interested in the same things as me. Namely, the impact of the internet and wider technology on our culture and society. However, where I generally see both the positives of empowerment of the masses and the negatives of disconnection and dumbing down, Keen seems to promote a pretty hopeless picture, where authoritative integrity (if there was such a thing) is swept aside by the tide of individual opinions.

Whereas much of his argument is sound, I find it hard to wholeheartedly agree, as I feel the challenge of traditional business models a refreshing thing, since now the dis-empowered no longer have to face those old barriers to entry. Now anyone with an idea can put it out there, and in doing so, challenge the status quo. Thus, new forms of power are created which exist outside of the traditional's dynamic.

The internet or more generally, technology, is a good thing, if only we understand it's power and learn to shape it, rather than allow it to shape ourselves.

Scrumping and the moral question of free Wi-Fi

There was once a time not so long ago that despite being frowned upon, nicking apples from your neighbour's tree didn't receive such a severe reprimand. You would possibly get a clip round the ear for trespassing or even have to endure the shame of going round to do odd jobs for the old granny whose apples you had scrumped. Things would not be so bad, and you might get a piece of apple pie and a few pearls of wisdom from old Mrs. Davis from number 23. It seemed like a good trade. She got her place cleared up and some company, and you gained something in your moral development. After all, people may have been particular about trespassing on their property, but feelings were pretty moderate as this was a time we still left our doors open.

Fast forward to 2007 and a new kind of scrumping is sparking moral debate. Wi-Fi freeloading or line phreaking. Call it what you will, the issue seems to be the same as every other technological impact on society. Namely, the issue that the technology is far ahead of our social norms and current laws. Until the outcome of the moral debate in the meantime it would be good to ensure the following:

• Ensure only your computer can access your network
• Use a secure key to restrict data being 'sniffed' over the air
• If you see your internet L.E.D. going like crazy whilst your mac or pc is off then you know you've got problems

Happy surfing. I hope I haven't increased any paranoia here. I feel like having an apple now. ;)

Tech Hell: when did these tiny pieces of plastic become so indispensable?

Seriously considering buying a BlackBerry to meet the increasing demands of the business, and to capture all those fleeting thoughts and ideas. Maybe the BlackBerry 8800, since it appears to tick all the right boxes. But with my penchant for marathon MacBook sessions, will I succumb to information overload or device fetishisation?

I am not sure if we all would feel the same pain as poor Dennis Kneale, Managing Editor of Forbes magazine, but particularly for those urbanites amongst us, if you lost your treasured cellphone, you'd probably get that initial feeling of disconnection that you just never used to feel. My how times have changed?

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN BEFORE THE 80s

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound,no cellphones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms.........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes, walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age

Courtesty of my mate Dave. And yes, I broke my arm flying backwards from a rusty old swing. Those were the days eh. ;)

Big up Bristol's own...

The Importance of spotting a genuine Banksy

Have always stopped to wonder at this self styled urban guerilla artist's work back in my hometown of Bristol. Back then my fellow streetwise friends would always marvel at how I showed appreciation for Banksy's clever approach.

Now he's gone on to bigger things, including a visit to Israel's West Bank. I wish I could have ripped a few of those original pieces down. Who was to know they would be worth half a mill'.

Why Captain America had to die

Why Captain America had to die

The Bush regime has now taken one of its most iconic casualities. Its only natural that a hero that represented the traditional American values of truth, justice, and liberty would perish under a climate fostered by Bush and the neo-conservatives. A damning indictment of George Bush's America?

Captain America R.I.P.

The age of Hyper-Reality & do dolphins really have bad breath?

Had a sudden scary moment the other day. I suddenly thought, man we really are hurtling into the future. Can't recall exactly why that thought came about, but maybe it was due to a discussion I was having about the negatives of civilisation or more accurately, modern society. An age of mistrust. The death of common courtesy, where nobody queues for the bus anymore. You need martial arts skills or be a rugby player to get on one these days. This is the lighter side (if you can call it that) of things. We've also had more young deaths from street shootings recently. This all must have led me to think, if we are racing into an age where families eat separately, increased disconnection between people, then maybe this really is the future, and unfortunately, we've finally arrived. Not quite a Gattica-esque reality, but not far from it.

It seems that author of the phrase 'Hyper-Reality', Jean Baudrillards death was quite timely. Maybe Jean was right about the impact of new media and postmodern consumerism was having on our societies, that he felt it was time to check out. I think he was onto something. And for the paranoid among us, Adam Curtis serves up another one of his well constructed pieces on the notion of a more narrow freedom today. BBC2 - Sun, 11 Mar, 9pm.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2028464,00.html

On a totally separate note. My mate Dave recently came back from his first visit to Cuba. He really enjoyed it, but said that swimming with dolphins isn't all that. For one their breaths stink of fish. I was surprised, I thought they would smell of candy floss or honey and almonds. Oh well.

Well at least the abused ship workers off the Falklands, were in no position to complain. Many eye-witness reports claimed that after jumping ship to flee their task-masters, many men were saved by local dolphins. Validation of an old myth? Or do those dolphins know something we don't? Is it real? Did it really happen? Was it a Baudrillard simulation? In any case, it seems these dolphins haven't forgotten their common courtesies or their sense of humanity. Maybe we could learn something from our distant cousins. ;)

Bamako, Danny Glover, Ghana and world debt

Found another article on the new Bamako film in Time Out recently. Interesting premise, about the colonial powers being prosecuted for their crimes against Africa. Danny Glover is Executive Producer, and makes a strange cameo appearance in the film.

http://www.bamako-film.com/

Quite timely, as Ghana is currently celebrating its independence from colonial rule. The question is, when will Ghana and those African countries that followed with independence, stop being seen as an ex-colony?

Just a note. Channel 4, 8pm Sun Mar 11th, brings another interesting tale of discovery. As one man sets out to explore his African roots...