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POPSParticipatory sensing:Powering Personal Choice for Global Impact "You care about the environment and factor it into your daily choices. But how do you know if your decisions actually make a difference? Knowledge is power: PEIR lets you see how your daily choices affect the environment and how the environment affects you." fascinating take..
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POPSThe Pragmatic (Internet) Optimist’s Creed by Adam Thierer "In sum, there are more reasons to be optimistic than pessimistic about the Internet and its role in shaping our lives, culture, economy, and society. But that doesn’t mean it will be all roses going forward." a highly important (and very good) read, go read all of it
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POPSBionic Legs, i-Limbs, and Other Super Human Prosheses You'll Envy at the end he says:""What is the obsession with looking human?" he says. "You think the only beauty is human? Bridges can be beautiful. Cars can be beautiful. Cell phones can be beautiful. They don't look biological. So why do you anticipate 30 years from now that amputees will give a shit about human beauty? They won't. Their limbs will be sculptures." I am fascinated by the idea of how we are almost imperceptibly changing our mind image of what is a human..
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POPSThe meaning of network culture "Digital culture, he observes, is fundamentally based on a process of abstraction that reduces complex wholes into more elementary units. Tracing this process of abstraction to the invention of the typewriter, Gere identifies digitization as a key process of capitalism."
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POPSDesigning emergent behavior "These are admittedly "toy" systems, but as synthetic biological circuits become more complex, the control of populations of cells in a precise way will undoubtedly be critical. Adding more rules and circuits that control different genes will lead to more complex and useful patters and a deeper understanding of the emergent properties of gene networks."
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POPSLike Convergence, Aggregation Is Better In Theory an interesting take, see what Louis Gray says at the end:" I have to believe that aggregation tools are interesting, and useful to a small minority of people. Lifestreaming tools are fun for individuals to highlight their activity. Sites are out there that do a good job, and more are coming, but I am thinking that "aggregation" is the new "convergence". It looks great on paper, and some people will carry a Swiss Army Knife with them everywhere, but most won't.
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POPS Learning’s online fate ,The digital age challenges teachers, teaching, books "This expansive, open age of digital information challenges the traditions of scholarship, learning, and even the act of reading. So what will be the fate of higher education in the digital age?" An important understanding concerning the changing face of higher education, we need more panels of this kind to fully realize the revolution taking place.
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POPSThe Possibility of Impossible cultures Heuser suggests that only humans have evolved four computational capacities, constituting a phylogenetic mind gap between humans and other animals. An important perspective, go read all of it
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POPSTHE SYNCHRONIZATION OF BRAINS JAMSHED BHARUCHA Professor of Psychology, Provost, Senior Vice President, Tufts University "An understanding of how brains synchronize " or fail to do so " will be a game-changing scientific development." Highly recommended, go read it all
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POPSThe Question of Freedom at the Open Video Conference "Benkler argued that Open Video was indicative of an “open democracy for everyone, everywhere, all the time.” Open Video Culture, he said, would usher in the possibility for “anyone to express oneself, be creative and innovative.” Benkler also claimed that because “millions of people are now looking at problems” we will thus find millions of, “distributed solutions.” In this “free” culture, he continued, “human creativity would move to the core.” Aside from the seemingly naïve conflation of terms, exactly which society, which “everyone,” and which economic system did Benkler have in mind?" A very important read
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POPSWE ARE ALL WRITERS NOW "True, much of what is written online is quotidian, informational, ephemeral. But writing has always been so: traditional newspapers line bird-cages a day later; lab reports describe methodology in tedious detail; the founding fathers wrote what they ate for lunch. And the quality of many blogs is high, indistinguishable in eloquence and intellect from many traditionally published works." an important read
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POPSOf Body and Mind, and Deep Meditation " Physiological tests also revealed significant changes. Compared with the relaxation group, IBMT subjects had lower heart rates and skin conductance responses, increased belly breathing amplitude and decreased chest respiration rates, all of which, researchers wrote, "reflected less effort exerted by participants and more relaxation of body and calm state of mind." Finally, researchers noted, IBMT subjects had more high-frequency heart-rate variability than their relaxation counterparts, indicating "successful inhibition of sympathetic tone and activation of parasympathetic tone ." Sympathetic tone becomes more active when stressed."
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POPSThe Great Designer Baby Controversy of ’09 This will probably become in the coming yrs one of the most heated controversaries we will come across as a species. we do not yet have the philosophy (and by implication ethics) to go with such technological advancements. having said that, the motion is inexorable and we need prepare our arguments.
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POPSPopulation and Sustainability "The sustainability benefits of level or falling human numbers are too powerful to ignore for long" The question remains however, in what fashion can we individually change the sustainability balance. important article.
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POPSWhy Are Humans Different From All Other Apes? It’s the Cooking, Stupid This is a fascinating and quite fresh view on a possibly groundbreaking view on the evolution of the human specie. “Cooked food does many familiar things,” he observes. “It makes our food safer, creates rich and delicious tastes and reduces spoilage. Heating can allow us to open, cut or mash tough foods. But none of these advantages is as important as a little-appreciated aspect: cooking increases the amount of energy our bodies obtain from food.” (emphasis mine)
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POPSWho Should Decide the Survivability of Newborns? This is an extremely important aspect of our new world, since technology now allows actions that were for all practical purposes impossible just a few yrs ago. the question is an ethical philosophical one, rushing to answer is not advised..
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POPSThe New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online A worthwhile article , KK explores the newly arising power of social networks, adhocracy and the newly emergent cyberculture. Though I do not resonate with his use of the term 'socialism', a deep forray into the web event of collaboration provides a different view of the potential for a change we all hope for. Open source is definitely the way to go.
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POPSThe power structure of Bronze Age societies was based on social networks I actually find this demonstration highly important and pertinent to our modern day situation on the web. It appears that evolution of civilization favors a society organized around the tribal concept (our modern day equivalent being the loosely knitted, groups or indeed tribes on the social networks). It seems that the future heralds a return to tribalism on a global scale via the web.
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