May 12, 2013
Naked Citizens – World is a documentary posted by JourneyMan Pictures.
The film poses many more questions than it answers. Then again, I wonder if we’ll ever have an answer to the privacy and civil rights issues that arise from a range of digital intrusions highlighted in the film. These range from amassing CCTV surveillance data for statistical analysis used to predict undesirable behaviors through the tracking of every indelible impressions left by my digital footprint.
I have to admit to being troubled that my merely mentioning Shaykh Anwar al Awlaki on this blog is enough to trigger a global security apparatus that cannot distinguish between by my citing a source and inciting Jihad.
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Apr 22, 2013
To those who have said bad things about Britain’s first women Prime Minister on her sad passing, I am reluctant to participate publicly in what might appear as tasteless disrespect. However, now she has been properly interned, I thought it fitting to memorialize Maggie the way so many of us will remember her.
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Mar 28, 2012
Informative and entertaining presentation from a high-flying Brit–no, not that Freddie Laker–obviously enamored with China. This globetrotting Freddie Laker delivered his presentation as part of the SXSWORLD expo. Enjoy…I did.
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Dec 28, 2011
The prospect of machines capable of following moral principles, let alone understanding them, seems as remote today as the word “robot” is old, Colin Allen, co-author of the book Moral Machines, suggests in New York Times Opinionator.
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Oct 31, 2011
Microsoft have unveiled their vision of the future in a slick tube imaginatively titled Productivity Future Vision (2011). While the video showcases Microsoft “innovations” [rather than an actual vision of the future] some of the comments are timeless, ensuring this glitzy promo will be talked about for all the wrong reasons…
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Oct 29, 2011
We all are familiar with mediocrity. It’s everywhere and growing rapidly. Here are seven reasons that are contributing to the alarming rise of mediocrity.
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Oct 25, 2011
In Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world the New Scientist cites a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology study, opening with this:
“AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
The study’s assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.”
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Oct 18, 2011
Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips.
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Aug 21, 2011
IBM have announced the development of a cognitive computing chip. This new technology is designed to transcend the current limitations of supercomputers, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, more closely replicating complex brain function. For what, I don’t know.
I was surprised that the news created quite a stir in me until I reflected on my own simple being. After all, I am primitive psycho-neuro-physical mechanism given to emotional outbursts and flights of fancy, not the stuff that tomorrows IBMers will be made of, or personal computers for that matter.
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Aug 13, 2011
I have been tracking the recent London riots with some interest. Having spent the first half of my life in London, keeping up with the comings and goings there seems like the right thing to do.
Particularly under circumstances such as these, when old haunts are seen being blitzed again, I take leisurely strolls down memory lane preferring my own sentimental journey to the path of degradation which has led to the present day blighting of Blighty.
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