Are we not 1984 Sheep? We are Brave New World Rats!
Pervasive computing is like a giant Skinner Box.
I’ve been working all week on a post about the shift from mass-media-fueled propaganda to the operant conditioning environment of pervasive social computing. It’s taking a lot longer than expected, so for now, here’s one of the images I’ve been working with as I VizThink my way through.
The spark [...]
A Mini-Rant on Privacy and Identity
One of the peculiarities of the electronic environment is that people become so profoundly involved in each other that they lose that sense of private identity. Marshal McLuhan
The future McLuhan saw germinating in the late 1960s is growing like a weed today within the electronic garden of pervasive social networking. The identities we once fashioned [...]
Social Networks, Fast Food and Evolution.
Humanity has been subject to the laws of physics and the dictates of Mother Nature since the birth of the species. Evolution shaped humankind over hundreds of thousands of years to operate within the natural world. Human psychology is still embedded within brain structures that were optimized for the pre-technological past. So it makes sense [...]
Avatar Communication Within and Beyond Virtual Worlds
Last week, an intended post on the SLebrity phenomenon took us on a week-long detour exploring Second Life Subcultures and Communities of Interest (COIs). I tried to get back on topic over the weekend but got side-tracked again, this time on how information flows within and between avatar communities:
In-World Communication including local chat, instant messaging, [...]
The Blank Page as Sacred Space
The first thing I do upon waking these days is launch Birdhouse on the iPhone and write tweets. I face the blank page with complete trust in the Creative Source. Being still, waiting for ideas to emerge and transcribing them is a cycle of contemplative prayer.
Where do ideas come from? In one sense, they [...]
