"If I wanted to, I could add Siouxsie Sioux on Facebook. My 14 year old self would be ecstatic at the chance to ‘connect’ so easily with someone whose music shaped a lot of my teen years but at this point technology and changing industry standards has made the void between musician and fan so thin that the idea of a ‘music idol’ is obsolete. Via the medium of dissolving, re-ingesting and mutating our pop culture we’re slowly seeing what the future is going to be like: a looped cycle. Reinterpretations and micro-dissections of trends past and present; life through a sexualization/conceptualization lens, filtered through the digital corporeal….these are the best of times and they are the end of times because they are becoming One Time."
The Rise of Tumblr Culture & The Post-Physical Reality (via bashford)
Philip K. Dick, Martian Time Slip
“their light flashed here and there, and their voices could be heard, business-like and competent and patient.”
Ballantine Books, New York, 1964
4¼ x 7 inches (10¾ x 17¾ cm)
$20 PURCHASE
"It’s not quite the barbarians at the gate, but the stuccoed Knightsbridge headquarters of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising this week opened its doors to a man whose thinking is largely inimical to the industry’s day-to-day prejudices and practices.
The intellectual interloper was no creative renegade, indeed had no particular axe to grind on the business of advertising, how companies go about it, or even why.
Professor Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his work debunking the myth of rational decision-making that underpins so much of the “dismal science” and, indeed, broader government policy. Ten years later, his thoughts are finally lapping at advertisers’ shores."
That’s absurd.
Kahneman arrived unwelcome to economists who still believe in rational markets. But those who work in the communications industries (e.g., advertising) have been using Kahneman’s ideas since long before Kahneman articulated them.
Think Tank: Target consumers’ ‘unconscious’ and reap the rewards - Telegraph
(via slavin)(via slavin)
Posteverythingism
- Posteverythingism: /poʊst-ˈɛvriˌθɪŋ-ɪzəm/, n.; 1. literally: an after all that is (or all that is related) ism;
- 2. specifically: the belief that the western philosophical tradition has toppled and that no return to any part can re-establish a productive direction; that it is each generation's responsibility to look at the world around them and interpret it, e.g. do what the ancients did, don't read about it;
- 3. more generally: an anti-philosophical trend;
- 4. more specifically general: the posting of everything beautiful, insightful, incisive, timely or quirky.
"Elias typically lists very few references; indeed, frequently there will only be one, perhaps to an obscure book published many years ago. If one complained to Elias that he had failed to address the contemporary literature, or suggested that he was out of date, he would reply that you had a fetish for the new, that just because a book is old it does not mean that it may not still be the best treatment of a problem. And, conversely, new books did not necessarily represent an advance simply because they were new. It was the intrinsic cognitive worth of the book that counted, not whether it was currently a la mode. He worked within a very long scientific time scale, detached from current orthodoxies."
Richard Kilminster & Stephen Mennell - Norbert Elias (via thepovertyoftheory)
![futurescope:
Chip integrates chemical, logic functions
via kurzweilai
An integrated chemical chip that could control and regulate the signal paths of cells in the human body has been developed by Klas Tybrandt, a doctoral student in Organic Electronics at Linköping University, Sweden.
It creates the basis for an entirely new circuit technology based on ions and molecules instead of electrons and holes.
[read more @kurzweilai @gizmag] [Linköping University]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4umfzxB871r08k60o1_500.jpg)
Chip integrates chemical, logic functions
via kurzweilai
An integrated chemical chip that could control and regulate the signal paths of cells in the human body has been developed by Klas Tybrandt, a doctoral student in Organic Electronics at Linköping University, Sweden.
It creates the basis for an entirely new circuit technology based on ions and molecules instead of electrons and holes.
[read more @kurzweilai @gizmag] [Linköping University]
(via emergentfutures)
Philip K. Dick, The Turning Wheel and Other Stories
“Radiation, certain death, a world blasted and lethal”
Coronet Books/Hodder and Stoughton, Great Britain, 1977
4¼ x 7 inches (10¾ x 17¾ cm)
$20 PURCHASE
Clouds by Jonathan Minard and James George is a computational documentary featuring hackers and media artists in dialogue about code, culture and the future of visualization.
(via Henry)
Have you seen the New Aesthetic? Everyone in the Twittersphere was talking about it. Depending on whom you ask, it was a “shareable concept,” (James Bridle) a “theory object,” (Bruce Sterling) and a “weird, hot, movement” (Ian Bogost). Or simply “things James Bridle posts to his Tumblr,” as Bogost quips — and to which we might add, “which got really popular really fast and I wish I knew what it actually was.” Bridle’s Tumblr became a SXSW talk in March 2012. And then a week later, Bruce Sterling wrote a 5,000-word opus on the New Aesthetic for Wired. As if to a younger sibling, praising and cautioning in equal measures, he contextualized the New Aesthetic as not just a Tumblred accumulation but the art movement 21st century creatives had desperately been waiting for. The essay was a flash point, prompting a flood of responses. What better empyrean spark than the convergence of SXSW and, as he describes himself on his Twitter bio, “one of the better known Bruce Sterlings”?
BYOD Spells Doom For Enterprise Solutions
Cisco’s has recently shut down a short list of strangely named products — Eos (social blogging platform), Umi (video conferencing), and Cius (tablet) — and while the first two might be interpreted as Cisco backing away from consumer products, the third is the opposite: companies embracing consumer products. Apparently, companies aren’t provisioning their employees with tablets: they are letting employees bring their own.
Quentin Hardy, Why Cisco Stopped Making Tablets via NYTimes.com
It blames what the industry calls B.Y.O.D., or bring your own devices.
Cisco said it realized that 95 percent of organizations now “allow employee-owned devices in some way, shape or form in the office, and 36 percent of surveyed enterprises provide full support for employee-owned devices.” Cisco said the trend toward universally deployed devices “will continue to gain momentum.”
Cisco’s Cius was a nice piece of technology if you were looking for a corporate device that would hook into a Cisco IP phone, which was connected to (probably Cisco-run) Internet technology. It was a good product, designed for a company with an enterprise sales force that liked selling comprehensive systems. As Cisco itself noted, however, those big, comprehensive sales are less and less common. And, away from a Cisco-dominated environment, it lacked the functionality and fun of an Apple iPad or even a Google Android tablet.
Both iPad and Android products have picked up most of the market, but others will continue to find a place inside the enterprise.
The ill-fated Cisco Cius
A sort-of knee-bone-connected-to-the-leg-bone logic might follow from this, and spread into other areas of the enterprise. If businesses allow workers to use and provision their own mobile devices, won’t the mobile device users start deciding the software they want to use on them, too? Won’t they choose to use Yammer as a work media tool instead of Cisco’s Quad? And really: do corporations need a centralized telephony system nowadays, when most people would rather use their own cell, and they are away from their desks for most of the day?
Considering the maturity of today’s mobile devices, the sophistication of SAAS solutions, and the level of innovation in the open marketplace for software, the allure that enterprise solution providers like Cisco had for enterprise clients is waning. Companies don’t need someone to come in and roll out all that communication infrastructure, when people have an alternative in their pockets already. Yes, the company still has to provide internet connectivity but (leaving aside requirements for regulated industries) not much else.
I bet 75% of the products on Cisco’s website will quickly share the same fate as Cius.
(via rafaelfajardo)
Instagram and the Reproduction of Digital Inequality
(Image from the story linked above)
“Launched in 2010, the app was initially only available to iPhone users and those with iOS software. Its popularity became instant, and within a year, it had over ten million users. In April 2012, Instagram debuted their Android version of the app on the Google Play store, thus opening up its user base to those with Android smartphones. With this launch came an unexpected backlash from the original iPhone users, and a new form of class warfare began to arise on the internet…Digital inequality can become even more persistent as well because it ensures “that people’s socioeconomic status influences the ways in which they have access to and use information and communication technologies” (Hargittai 2008: 939). Even though Instagram was launched in 2010 through the iTunes store, Android users didn’t get to access until 2012. This two-year gap created a distinct user base and sense of entitlement amongst the iPhone Instagram community. The user base was even further isolated through the way in which Instagram acts as a social network. There is no online access to the app or photos through their website. The only way users can browse and share photos is through their cellphone. Therefore, Android users couldn’t access this “gated community,” allowing them to be further alienated and seen as unwanted intruders storming the gates of the sacred iPhone community.”
Two notes:
1. I can’t believe the above tweet. How can you tweet that statement and not realize you are being an over-priveleged, whiney racist techie asshole? To be fair, I don’t have the full context for that tweet but nonetheless I’m finding it difficult to not read it as offensive and classist if nothing else.
2. If you don’t read the Cyborgology blog, you are really missing out.
"What’s Modkit Micro? Modkit Micro is a graphical programming environment for microcontrollers. Microcontrollers allow programmers and engineers to add behaviors to everyday objects and electronic gadgets. We created Modkit Micro to bring the world of microcontroller programming to the masses. Modkit Micro helps almost anyone to make almost anything smarter through a simple, yet powerful visual programming interface. Modkit Micro is based on years of research at the MIT Media Lab including the popular Scratch project, so it will look familiar to the over 1 million kids and novice programmers who have already been introduced to Scratch."
Modkit Micro: The Easiest Way to Program Microcontrollers by Modkit — Kickstarter
Modkit Micro.
Programming for anyTHING*
*Modkit Micro helps you make (almost) anything smarter—the only limit is your imagination. From stuffed animals that respond to hugs, to window blinds that squint for you. Get started learning, teaching and making with Modkit Micro now. (via Modkit)
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks, 3rd Leonardo satellite symposium at NetSci2012
ON Tuesday, June 19, 2012
AT Kellogg School of Management on Northwestern University campus, in Evanston/IL, near Chicago/IL on the shores of Lake Michigan.
FEATURING keynotes Burak Arikan (NYC/Istanbul), Pedro Cano (bmat.com), and Miriah Meyer (Utah); contributors Marco Büchler (Leipzig), Nan Cao (Hong Kong), Greg Crane (Tufts), James G. Ennis (Tufts), Gerhard Heyer (Leipzig), Yu-Ru Lin (Northeastern/Harvard), Hoyt Long (Chicago), Eliah Meeks (Stanford), Richard Jean So (Chicago), and Katharina Anna Zweig (Heidelberg). In addition Maximilian Schich (ETH Zurich) will moderate a panel discussion featuring Albert-László Barabási (Northeastern), Petter Holme (Umeå), Cristián Huepe (Northwestern), Isabel Meirelles (Northeastern), as well as Dean Julio M. Ottino (Northwestern).
ATTENDING the symposium IS FREE of charge, but requires registration. Tickets are given out in a first come, first serve basis, to both NetSci2012 and WebSci2012 main conference attendees as well as external guests. Please be aware that registration MAY FILL UP FAST.
PLEASE REGISTER NOW at
http://ahcn2012.eventbrite.com/
FOR THE FULL PROGRAM and more information please go to
http://artshumanities.netsci2012.net
We have OTHER EXCITING NEWS regarding the Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks: our dedicated Special Section in Leonardo Journal, and our brand new eBook from MIT-Press.
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR LATEST SPECIAL SECTION IN LEONARDO JOURNAL at
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/45/3
… AND TAKE A LOOK AT OUR BRAND NEW KINDLE EBOOK at
http://ahcncompanion.info/ or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007S0UA9Q
We enthusiastically look forward to meeting you at Lake Michigan,
The Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks organizers,
Maximilian Schich, Roger Malina, Isabel Meirelles, and Cristián Huepe
artshumanities.netsci@gmail.com
Please forward this information to your respective audiences via email, or by
… retweeting the latest two posts from https://twitter.com/#!/schichmax
… sharing https://plus.google.com/u/0/103399765838700954517/posts/TWvcvdK7jSv
… Facebook-liking http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2527939134 or
… linking on LinkedIn via http://linkd.in/Jyemyd
How to Think About Our Networked World
On this Memorial Day weekend, Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton recommends you mix up your relaxation hours with some videos of smart people saying smart things.
We second that suggestion, and offer you (the above): a brilliant animated video by Manuel Lima, Senior UX Design Lead at Microsoft Bing, and founder of VisualComplexity.com, based on a talk he gave at RSA.
via RSA:
He visits the RSA to explore a critical paradigm shift in various areas of knowledge, as we stop relying on hierarchical tree structures and turn instead to networks in order to properly map the inherent complexities of our modern world. The talk will showcase a variety of captivating examples of visualization and also introduce the network topology as a new cultural meme.
Lima says:
Even more than the idea of repping these complex systems is the need for a new way of thinking. And this new way of thinking is about this pluralistic way of thinking that everything is interconnected, everything is interdependent. We are almost going back to the polymath, the Renaissance man mentality that it’s not just about being a specialist in one area, you need to know a little bit of everything. Or at least create outbound ties that you are able to learn from other disparate areas. And I think this is the most beautiful aspect of knowledge that we can take into consideration by looking at this networked thinking. It’s more important even that we make that mental shift because I think there is immense benefit that can come from this network outlook of the world itself.
FJP: GigaOm/paidContent 2012 had a lot to do with this same way of thinking—the theme this year was focused on convergence. (See our Storify of the event here.) I think Lima’s perspective on interconnectedness is useful not only to creators, professionals, and journalists, but to all of us, as citizens, siblings, parents, friends, listeners, speakers, and thinkers. See his talk here, and Twitter feedback here.
