Tag: Technology

The owners of the future [Articles]

Jaron Lanier, author of  “Who owns the future?”, says we’re being enslaved by free information. He explains in this interview.

Evgeny Morozov takes the opposite view – he thinks there are many simpler ways to protect the middle classes. Pushing technology companies to provide better working conditions — it was only last year that Amazon agreed to install air conditioning in its warehouses — and closing numerous tax loopholes would be a good start. Lanier’s solution, alas, is an odd and unfortunate distraction.

The participating Panopticon: The Internet of Things [Article]

Technology is the solution to the world’s problems, say many. Blind belief in technology may be our generation’s downfall, considering that we are blind to rest of the world’s beauty & its own coping mechanisms. Don’t get me wrong, I love this connected world. Bruce Schneier, writing in the Guardian, points out, Will giving the internet eyes and ears mean the end of privacy?.

The usual response to privacy is “Why worry if you’ve got nothing to hide?”. Here’s a few reasons

 Privacy involves the responsibility on the part of those who collect and use your data to keep it secure in order to prevent fraud and identity theft. We don’t say to an identity theft victim “don’t worry if you have nothing to hide.”

What if you live in a place that doesn’t appear on a map? [Article, Video]

What if you had to choose between school & survival? But what if you refused to accept your fate? 
In Future Cities, the BBC had a link about a group of 12 year old’s called “The daredevils” – who live in Calcutta’s Nehru Slum – which officially doesn’t exist. They dramatically improved health outcomes in their area using technology not much older than themselves. Watch this video called The Revolutionary Optimists – get your kids to watch it – share it –  incredibly inspiring.

Scott Adams on Technology & Etiquette [Article]

A hundred years ago, if two people were in the same room they would be . . .  in the same room. That seems straightforward.

Fast-forward to 2013. Now if you put two people in the same room, at least one of them will be texting someone who is not in the room.  The mind of the person doing the texting will be, for all practical purposes, somewhere else. That person has smeared space. His mind and body are in two completely different places.
Scott Adams wonders whether our behaviour is changing how humans are evolving.

Concentratus interruptus [article]

Don Marti collects his, & others’, thoughts on the subject of being constantly interrupted by mails & notifications & phones & other gizmos. Almost like, as he quotes Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 story, Harrison Bergeron, ” George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.”  Notifications and Interruptions: out of style?

Reign of the Techno-Nanny [Essay]

Jathan Sadowski argues that apps are like techno-nannies and essentially we are becoming too reliant on them. And not all of it is a good thing. It is a great, thoughtful and well argued essay. Reign of the Techno-Nanny. “We’ve all heard stories of people driving into rivers because their GPS told them to. We might laugh at them for so blindly following directions, but that’s only because it’s an over-the-top example of what we do every day. We tend to be quite adept at following the technological prompts we’re presented with. Not driving into the river is one thing, but knowing when to defer to the phone is not so as simple as resolving to make prudent, conscious decisions about the technology’s limitations.”

Hacker

As you read that word, did you think of someone taking control of your computer, getting into your online life, draining your bank account, & countless other endgame scenarios? You are not alone. The original meaning of the word hacker, before the media turned it into a pejorative, is “A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary”. This site is a bountiful example of all the hacks going on in tech-world that you’ll hear about in the next 2-5 years, while, in stark contrast, this article uses the same word to terrify, without giving any examples or evidence.