Beyond The Beyond

Beyond The Beyond:

"Tim O’Reilly and the future of the Internet of Things. He rambles on for half an hour. It looks like he’s just telling disconnected alpha-geek anecdotes, in his customary, avuncular, visionary fashion. What Tim’s really doing is throwing lit matches into his network. And boy is he the guru when it comes to doing that. He can’t outguess the future and deliver a single coherent narrative, that’s not even possible."

BBC News - Today - A world without planes

BBC News - Today - A world without planes:

"Uncynical, unvigilant
Everything would, of course, go very slowly. It would take two days to reach Rome, a month before one finally sailed exultantly into Sydney harbour. And yet there would be benefits tied up in this languor.
Those who had known the age of planes would recall the confusion they had felt upon arriving in Mumbai or Rio, Auckland or Montego Bay, only hours after leaving home, their slight sickness and bewilderment lending credence to the old Arabic saying that the soul invariably travels at the speed of a camel."

Edge: THE REALITY CLUB: "DIGITAL POWER AND ITS DISCONTENTS"

Edge: THE REALITY CLUB: "DIGITAL POWER AND ITS DISCONTENTS":

"It seems apparent, alas, that Facebook, Twitter, etc. have not improved American democracy, and yet we expect these tools to promote democracy elsewhere.

The basic problem is that web 2.0 tools are not supportive of democracy by design. They are tools designed to gather spy-agency-like data in a seductive way, first and foremost, but as a side effect they tend to provide software support for mob-like phenomena. There are some nice mob effects, but the intensity of the failures is more profound than the delights of the successes."

Edge: DIGITAL POWER AND ITS DISCONTENTS — Morozov & Shirky: An Edge Conversation

Edge: DIGITAL POWER AND ITS DISCONTENTS — Morozov & Shirky: An Edge Conversation:

"The dreams of network utopians vs. the realists. Is the Internet is a medium of emancipation and of revolution — or a tool of control and repression? Did Twitter and Facebook have stoke the flames of rebellion in Iran, or did they help the authorities unmask the rebels? — Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"