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 Wednesday, August 25, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 2:26 PM   0 comments   

DATA IS THE NEW OIL (SOIL)



David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut, and it may just change the way we see the world.

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 Monday, August 16, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 5:47 PM   0 comments   

U.S. MOOD INFERRED FROM TWITTER



The plots were calculated using over 300 million tweets (Sep 2006 - Aug 2009) collected by MPI-SWS researchers, represented as density-preserving cartograms. This visualization includes both weekdays and weekends; in the future, will we create seperate maps for each. The mood of each tweet was inferred using ANEW word list using the same basic methodology as previous work. County area data were taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the base U.S. map was taken from Wikimedia Commons. User locations were inferred using the Google Maps API, and mapped into counties using PostGIS and U.S. county maps from the U.S. National Atlas. Mood colors were selected using Color Brewer 2.

Production Team
Researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University, studying the characteristics and dynamics of Twitter. Alan Mislove, Sune Lehmann, Yong-Yeol Ahn, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, J. Niels Rosenquist

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 Thursday, July 15, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 11:20 PM   0 comments   

FUTURES THINKING - ADAPTATION SCIENCE

How did we get ourselves into this mess? Continual wars and conflicts, climate change and economic crisis loom at the international level, while as individuals we continue, generation after generation, to inflict pain and suffering not only on other people but on ourselves. Why do we have such difficulty in learning what we most need to know to mitigate our most destructive behaviours?

Brain functions in such a way that we cannot see "reality" directly.
All we can ever know are the guesses or interpretations our mind creates about what is going on. To create these guesses, we can only draw on basic human neuroanatomy and on our past experience. Since no two people ever have exactly the same neuroanatomy or experience, no two people ever interpret anything in exactly the same way.

Take the Greek philosopher Epictetus, he commented on human behaviour this way:
"It is not things in themselves that trouble us, but our opinions of things."
Liar, liar: Why deception is our way of life



The Climate Change Adaptation Fuels conference was recently completed.
All presentations are available online:
Climate Adaptation Futures
The title "adaptation science" reminded us of the concept of "flow time" and the "metaphor of deep improvisation":
The Times of Cause and Flow
Resilience, Innovation and Sustainability
National Adaptation Programmes of Action


2010 State of the Future
2010 State of the Future
Ray Kurzweil statement on the 2010 State of the Future


Millennium 3000 Scenarios
The Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University in cooperation with The Foundation for the Future conducted a special study on collecting foreseeable factors that might significantly affect the future of humanity in the next 1000 years.
Millenium 3000, State of the Future at the Millennium


Scenarios developed by the US Air Force back in 1995 about the world in 2025:
Alternate Futures for 2025
The King Khan and Zaibatsu scenarios, or as they have been called "plausible future histories", share essentially the same themes with Kishor's line of ideas. The former scenario has a major element of domestic problems, including "economic depression" in it and the latter is based on "a relatively peaceful world" in which Asian "business conglomerates" (the meaning of Zaibatsu in Japanese) will hold the power and prevail.


Moral Judgements and the Future
Contractarianist, utilitarianist, deontological, and other theories of ethics often involve a futures perspective. Ethics imply standards of conduct, not just for the past and the present, but also for the future (Charnov, 1987, p. 4).

Contracts, for example, are often agreements to fulfill certain stated reciprocal behaviors in the future. Utilitarianism tells us to act so as to create the greatest good or happiness for the greatest number of people. Clearly, utilitarians judge their possible alternative acts according to their future results (Harman, 1977).

Deontological ethical theories, too, are linked to the future. These are theories that emphasize doing one's duty and giving respect to individuals. They are thought of as nonconsequentialist theories because they focus on the purposes for taking an action (i.e. one's intentions) rather than the results of the action. Take, for example, a formulation of Kant's (1958) categorical imperative: Act only according to the maxim that you want your action to become the basis of a universal law.

The categorical imperative deals with the future not only because an intention itself is future-oriented, but also because it does deal with a particular consequence: i.e. that the moral principle underlying your behavior "will" become a universal law.
Thus, by your acts you create the moral laws of the future.


The Asia Renaissance
By Kishore Mahbubani
26 February 2009

Tehran is the new Shanghai

All of Asia is awash in a sea of modernity. The march to modernity launched by Japan during the 1860s as part of the Meiji Restoration has finally crossed China, Southeast Asia, and India to reach West Asia. The fastest-growing economies in the world are found in the region from Tehran to Tokyo. Trade flows are massive. Borders are open. A much-heralded automobile race from Tehran to Tokyo proceeds via Kabul and Karachi, north across Karakoram highway to Urumqi, finally reaching Beijing and Pyongyang and crossing to Tokyo. As competitors speed across this vast region, they view a landscape ruled by peace and prosperity.

The Arab world too is awash in modernity. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, founded in Saudi Arabia in 2009, has the largest R&D budget in the world. Young Arabs are the world's most optimistic youth, excited about their futures. Many visit the great exhibitions in Baghdad and Damascus to learn how the magic of the great caliphates is being restored.

During the late 20th century, many Western experts predicted contentious geopolitical rivalries between the rising Asian powers, especially between China and Japan or China and India. Instead, the great Asian cultural renaissance now reminds Asian societies that they were all part of one culture before Western colonization divided the region. Nalanda, India's ancient center of learning, which was founded more than 1,500 years ago, has once again become an educational center: the Harvard of the East. Scholars from Kabul and Samarkhand, Jakarta and Hanoi, Seoul, Beijing, and New Delhi once again flood to Nalanda.

In contrast to the geopolitical calm in Asia, Europe is now a tired, old continent that cowers before the Islamic renaissance. Each time the Arab League meets, Europe fears that new demands could be imposed on it to open its societies to Muslim migrants. In the face of an aging population, Europe has already “imported” 100 million young Middle Eastern Muslims; they are the region's most dynamic and economically productive population. Still, despite several high-level Christian–Islamic dialogues, the millennia-old division between the two civilizations and their populations continues.

Torn between its Pacific and Atlantic destinies, Russia finally decides to join the European Union and is welcomed in by a worried Europe. Decision making no longer rests in London, Paris, and Berlin. Instead, the Moscow–Berlin axis dominates. The British, like the Portuguese, can barely remember that they once ruled a global empire.

The only consolation the British have is that English has become the common language of the European Union, the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Central Asian Caucus. With the English language comes a common set of values concerning how nations and societies should behave toward one another. The principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have become truly universalized. The world becomes a more “civilized” place.

In 2035, the US Congress decided to adopt two official languages: Spanish and English. This facilitates the nomination of the great grandson of Fidel Castro as secretary of state in 2040. He has two major challenges before him: rising demands from Latin America for the United States to join the Latin American Free Trade Association, and an equally pressing demand to join the greater Asian sphere of peace and prosperity. The nation's still-growing Hispanic-American population demands closer ties with Latin America, while economic logic requires the United States to plug into Asia and avoid further global decline. In frustration, Fidel Castro IV cancels all trips to Europe, calling them a total waste of time. Only the assistant secretary of state for Europe visits European capitals.

In Africa, Nigeria and Sudan have broken into several states, while Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana have become success stories. A recent wave of investment from China and India has fueled the economic expansion of several sub-Saharan states. Most modern African leaders were educated in Asian universities, and they look to the East as they make their plans for the future. The president of South Africa proposes a new Indian Ocean zone of prosperity; as a first step, South Africa and Indonesia set up a free-trade area that revives historical maritime links.

Global leaders are now primarily concerned with truly global challenges. There are no more doubts about the dangers of global warming. The Maldives has disappeared beneath the sea and New Orleans has abandoned its dikes. New diseases rush across the planet. In response to the need for enlightened global leadership, the leaders of China and India have convened a conference to plan a new global architecture, declaring that the UN structure, dating to 1945, has become totally outdated. They commit themselves to creating a new global organization by 2045.

In a new version of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the world agrees that each region should have one permanent seat (with limited and controlled veto powers) and that only China, India, and the United States will have unlimited veto powers. The regions vested with veto powers in the UNSC are the African Union, ASEAN+4, the European Union, the Arab League, the Latin American Union, and the Central Asian Caucus (including Turkey and Iran). The council now has 9 permanent members (instead of 15); this new council declares its determination to put global issues ahead of regional and national interests. The UN General Assembly becomes a true global parliament, with each country represented by three votes: the government, civil society, and the private sector. Majority decisions must be adopted by majorities in all three sectors. The UN also creates a new Council of Civilizations to promote understanding across civilizations.

Western universities now complement the study of the great Greek and Roman thinkers with those from China, India, and the Islamic world. The Asian universities do the same. The mental framework of the world's global elite is no longer dominated by Western thinkers. Instead, when they meet, the world's leaders also speak of the caliphates and the Mughal rulers, the Tang dynasty, and the greatness of Genghis Khan.

These global developments lead to the eventual disappearance of interstate wars. Minor domestic insurgencies persist in the weaker states, but these do not threaten global peace and stability. The whole world is mesmerized by the prospect of a giant asteroid crashing to Earth in 2050, drawing humanity away from local or even national focuses. All this leads to a greater sense of common humanity, with all civilizations and societies declaring that they should focus on their future survival, not past discords. National anthems are done away with in favor of one common ode to humanity. The survival of the human race and planet Earth become the number one preoccupation of all humanity, and all past divisions now seem strange and irrelevant.

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 Thursday, July 08, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 10:25 AM   0 comments   

AUTO-STEREOSCOPIC 3D

Glasses-free 3-D effects are easier to produce on a small, portable screen than on a large, stationary one because the viewer can easily adjust the angle and position of the display by hand to take best advantage of the 3-D view. This easy, intuitive adjustment viewers can make is one of the reasons that this technology will probably succeed in the mobile space.

At a video game industry trade show last month in Los Angeles, Nintendo demonstrated a 3-D portable game device that requires no special eyewear. Nokia has demonstrated a 3-D cellphone, Hitachi is selling a 3-D phone in Japan and Samsung Electronics introduced its 3-D W960 touch-screen phone in May in South Korea (customers are already using it to watch TV shows and music videos, the retail price is about $150, but prices may vary among carriers).

The market for glasses-free, or "auto-stereoscopic" 3-D is small right now, but will grow rapidly as the technology is incorporated into laptops, notebooks, digital cameras, camcorders, digital picture frames and game devices. The estimates are that about 1.7 million glasses-free 3-D units will be sold worldwide in 2011, including about 1.3 million 3-D mobile phones.

Many companies are competing to be part of this projected 3-D wave. For example, 3M in St. Paul has developed an optical film coupled to banks of light-emitting diodes, or L.E.D.'s mounted within the left and right sides of the display, said Erik Jostes, director of the company's optical systems division. Light from the L.E.D.'s shines through the film to project images to the left eye and then to the right eye.

Source:
Did a Speeding Car Just Jump Out of My Cellphone? By Anne Eisenberg, NYTimes.com

 

 Wednesday, April 28, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 11:11 PM   0 comments   

COMPUTING A THEORY OF EVERYTHING



Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational - able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has no lesser goal than to model and explain the physics underlying the universe.

 


 Posted by Roberto
 11:00 PM   0 comments   

IMPLANTABLE ELECTRONICS

Tufts University biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto is developing implants made from silicon and sheets of silk, which dissolve away when no longer needed.


Implanted under the skin, an array of light-emitting diodes could signal the concentration in the blood of biomarkers such as insulin. Over time, the array will dissolve away, eliminating the need for surgery to remove the implant. Flexible silicon electronics (inset) are held in place with a silk film. Incorporating antibodies or enzymes into the film will allow devices to detect biomarkers. Credit: Bryan Christie Design

Dissolvable devices make better Medical Implants:
Implantable Electronics Article by Katherine Bourzac
Implantable Electronics Video

 

 Tuesday, April 13, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 9:30 PM   0 comments   

THE SIX EPOCHS FROM THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR

Ray Kurzweil is one of the world's leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a twenty year track record of accurate predictions.



The Singularity is Near - The Book

The Onset of the 21st Century will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil presents a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.



The Singularity is Near - The Movie

Singularity

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 Wednesday, March 17, 2010
 Posted by Roberto
 10:00 AM   0 comments   

AGGREGATING INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC FOR USE IN CRISIS RESPONSE

Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Reports were submitted via the web and mobile phone. This initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for realizing there was a need for a platform which could be use by others around the world.

Today, the Ushahidi Engine is a free and open source platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline.

Ushahidi

 
NERO wearing the Adidog shirt
 
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