Next?

The other day, while reading Ian McNeelys book, Reinventing Knowledge, I came across an interesting passage. In discussing the history of knowledge he mentions how the medieval monasteries by writing and copying manuscripts not only saved much of intellectual thought from the ancient Greeks but also set a new president for discourse that issues could not only be explored through dialogue as the Greeks had done but that they could be written down and recorded, transported and discussed for ages. This change in media paradigm is one of the things that made the Renaissance possible and basically most of western civilization possible. So as we reconceive media we create enormous energy for change and transformation. I wonder where this explosion in communication will take us in the future? Will we have the presence to see it as an epic moment of change in the world or merely as a parlor trick to share videos of cats playing piano?

Where is Oscar Goldman when we need him!

One of the things I love about the BBC is that their website has a Future section that focuses on new technology and what is on the horizon. While browsing the other day I came across an article about a new card reading technology that allowed cardholders access to the Tube by waving the card over a reader. The author took his card apart to find the radio frequency identification (RFID) chip located inside and removed it with the hopes of implanting it in his hand so that he could enter the Tube with just a wave of his hand. It seems that this is a growing movement of people who are looking to meld their bodies with technology, Transhumanism. Have we outgrown evolution or do we need to take things into our own hands and begin to merge our bodies with computers? Maybe the six-million-dollar man is not so far in the future.
Read the article “Why I want a Microchip Implant” here

the pulse of the universe

One of the early forms of music is Gregorian Chant- its a sacred based form of unaccompanied singing. The basis of the music is the alternating of two beats or pulses and three pulses. This alternating pulse or beat is the basis of this music and one of the foundations of western music. This pulse of alternating two and three made me think about binary code and the alternating pulse of 0’s and 1’s. This has become the basis of computer code and the basis of all the innovations that computers have brought. Now if you think that computers are in their infancy where will this alternating pulse take us. And if that is the basis of so two world-changing ideas shouldn’t we give a bit more respect to the pulse – the simple rhythms around us? The pulse of alternating two and three, or one and zero or the pulse of the amazing machine that animates us, our heart..