from Open the Future Augmented Fluid Intelligence Can we survive the multitasking era? Okay, multitasking is hardly up there with global warming, pandemic disease and asteroid strikes as a civilization threat, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that multitasking reduces overall effectiveness and accuracy. Yet we’re forced to juggle more and more simultaneous activities in our […]
Read more "..Augmented Fluid Intelligence.."In my rant on The Imaginative Death of the Future I said I’d think about ideas I’d rather see being explored today. This is the first post in this series. The subject: BRAINS! Supplements like gingko and brahmi can help slow the degradation of the brain, but what technologies are available to actually provide human […]
Read more "Intelligence Augmentation"from PhysOrg Researchers find ‘large is smart’ when it comes to cities Cities are considered by many to be a blessing and a curse. Large cities generate considerable wealth, they are home to many high paying jobs and are seen as engines of innovation. But cities also generate pollution, crime and poor social structures that […]
Read more "..Researchers find ‘large is smart’ when it comes to cities.."from Telegraph Intelligence drugs could be ‘common as coffee’ It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: a new generation of drugs that make people more intelligent. But they are precisely the kind of mind-altering substances that students and businessman could be taking in the future to pass exams and boost work performance. Foresight, a […]
Read more "..Intelligence drugs could be ‘common as coffee’.."(via) Not too bad I guess. It’s certainly a shiny future-present they’re painting. I still don’t understand why we don’t have more text->speech conversions going on. Must look into that further. Be great to have a customizable/skinnable voice to the computer – that could read out blog posts while you’re washing the dishes or something. […]
Read more "Intel’s vision of the future ad"from Guardian Unlimited Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx’s proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe’s drops as fertility falls. “Flashmobs” – groups […]
Read more "..Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future.."Attention Conservation Notice: This is a long rambling post about what I think The Future means (and doesn’t mean) today. It also has some pics and trailer for the new Disney movie 😉 If we’re living in a science-fictional world, does this mean the future, as a concept, no longer exists? Was the “future” just […]
Read more "the imaginative death of the future"from BBC NEWS ‘Infomania’ worse than marijuana Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of a rise in “infomania”, with people becoming addicted to email and text messages. Researchers found […]
Read more "..’Infomania’ worse than marijuana.."from Time.com: Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free It might seem very odd to look to a long-dead Russian anarchist for business advice. But Peter Kropotkin‘s big idea–that there are important human motivations beyond what he called “reckless individualism”–is very relevant these days. That’s because one of the most interesting questions in business […]
Read more "..Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free.."from Bruce Sterling’s blog we learn: Technology Review: Billionaire Offers $25 Million to Save Earth! Billionaire Richard Branson is on a tear these days. Last year at Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative meeting in New York, Branson announced that he would spend $3 billion of his Virgin profits to research and develop renewable-energy technologies. Now he […]
Read more "why Industrial solutions won’t fix the problems of Industrialization"
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 