NEOtropolis Big Idea

What's News? - The Convergence of Information - Part 2

[This article relates to Craig's (who?) appearance on the "What's the Big Idea?" segment of Western Reserve PBS's NEOtropolis, Tuesday 1-24-12 @ NEOtropolis.org]

On January 24, 2012 the "So What's the Big Idea?" segment of NEOtropolis dipped into the pool of information & news - to explore the Convergence of Information.

Just as technology has converged (you remember the Convergence of Technology - right?)... It looked something like:

Typewriter (+ paper + envelope + stamps) ==> Dedicated Word Processing (DWP) (+ printer + paper + envelope + stamps) ==> Email joins your DWP (eliminating the envelope & stamp) ==> Merging your Computer with your Phone ==> Smartphone becoming part of the Internet ==> (next?)

The Convergence of (news) Information looks something like:

• Jim writes an article for a news outlet. 
  
• Betty includes it in her blog, adding some thoughts and opinions of her own.
• Seven others add their comments and perhaps, additional articles. 
• Carl then tweets Betty's post (including the comments of others) - adding his own thought. 
• Steve cites the tweet in his article.  
• You read Steve's article.

Somewhere along the line - fact, opinion, news, information are meshed together.  Where does the one end, and the next begin?  Opinion looks like fact.  Fact appears to be opinion.  All at break-neck speed and in multitude of places.

How much and what information/news we put in out heads is as important as the food we put in out bodies.  That is what Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, contends. 

We would add, just as it is important to exercise the body, it's important to exercise the brain.  Smart.Simple.Mobile can help you do so.  Here's a couple resources for starters:

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson  

Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys by Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D. & Sam Wang, Ph. D.    

                                                         image by ralph solonitz 

SOPA and PIPA prove to us that it's essential we better understand what hits our in-box... lands at/on our front door step via print... or presents itself to our web browser when pressing "return" (Clay Shirky does an amazing job talking about SOPA & PIPA and helps us understand what we need to know).

craig arthur james - SeaJames 2012

Every Tuesday at 9:00 PM, live on Western Reserve PBS and live-streamed on the Internet: NEOtropolis - Making sense of the forces of change that impact our lives.

The above are not necessarily the views of NEOtropolis or Western Reserve PBS, but rather are the views of this author related to the topics he may have discussed on NEOtropolis as a contributor

The Merging of Man and Machine

Imagine Man & Machine, becoming one. 

Science fiction?  Not anymore.

The premiere episode of NEOtropolis Season-3 (Western Reserve PBS) aired live on January 10th 2012.  The "What's the Big Idea?" segment dipped into this provocative conversation.  To view the archive the show, click HERE

image:  Courtesy of Ralph Solonitz

Context:

• 5 million years ago, "technology" was about stone tools:  Hunt.  Eat.
• 2 million years ago, fire was discovered:  Let's cook stuff.
• 5000 years ago, the invention of the wheel helped us move things around.

Bottom line, for the vast majority of human history, technology has been about things - Making things, moving things, manufacturing things.  Then the printing press, telegraph, telephone, television and the Internet made technology increasingly about people, communication & information.

The industrial revolution began converging the worlds of "man and machine" - to a degree - but there's always been a clear distinction - a clear line.  Now the line is beginning to blur.

How so?  Imagine (links contained, within):

• Think-a-phone:  Simply think about making a phone call - and your phone goes ahead and does it for you.  IBM suggests that a number of mind-reading machines will come to fruition within the next five years 

• Think-a-bike:  "Hey, Mom - look.  No-hands!"  

• Contact-lens-Internet:  Imagine surfing the 'net while surfing the waves of the ocean - via Internet-connected contact lenses
  
  
• Augmented Reality:  Imagine driving down the street and seeing both the landscape and Internet-based information about the landscape - real time

Singularity & Transhumanism suggest that the human condition will be fundamentally transformed via technology... to the point where we may not know how to handle it.  These are the real technologies coming on stream.  The line is blurring.

The impact?  The consequence? 

You tell me.

craig arthur james 2012

Co-founder Cat-Strat.com SmartSimpleMobile and Adaptism

Contributor NEOtropolis - Episode-2:  January 17th @ 9:00 PM