Inspire

Paul Hawken on The Great New Transformation, Environment, Community, Spirituality and Immune Systems

Below you can watch the presentation by Paul Hawken on Fora.tv in The Long Now Foundation section. His latest book - Blessed Unrest - is already a bestseller.

Without any doubt this has got to be one of the best presentations I have seen so far. Style, form, content, originality of video inserts, it's all there. Inspiring and recommended ! The Q&A part is also very interesting due to questions on singularity, communities, natural capitalism and growth limits.

Take-away: right now there are more than two million separate environmental-social justice organizations around the world with 100 million people dedicating their lives to humanity. WOW ! More on the website WiserEarth. Soon I will be actively involved in one of the key Dutch initiatives to boost sustainability. So expect me to post more on environmental issues coming months. 

On BANG Convergence and Three Other Key Value Drivers in the Coming Decades

Global Business Network is one of my favorite sources. To me Peter Schwartz, Stewart Brand and Eamonn Kelly are leading thinkers. In this short PDF document Eamonn Kelly - author of the highly acclaimed (futuristic) book Powerful Times - sheds some light on four key drivers of value creation in the coming decades.

The reasons for posting this one are the importance of the Gift Economy (see also the recent remarks by Kevin Kelly, Yochai Benkler and Don Tapscott), the revitalization of the Physical Infrastructure Economy (creative new insight) and most importantly the coming BANG convergence. BANG convergence is bigger than the current Digital Convergence and it relates to Bits, Atoms, Neurons and Genes. This is one of my favorite topics for a very long time as a result of reading the book Complexity. A life changer to me ! After reading this book in 1993, I was lured to the Santa Fe Institute as an inspiring knowledge platform for BANG convergence. It inspired me to read great books by Stuart Kauffman and Ilya Prigogine. And when we watch all those outstanding videos on TED we can see by our own senses why the BANG convergence is the biggest value creator of our times. 

Tool: Particls - Advanced RSS Reader with Attention Data

This screencast from Particls shows us new functionalities like attention driven RSS feeds presented in different ways based on relevancy. It is similar to NetVibes, yet more advanced due to prioritization of feeds. It is about attention instead of just plain information. Clearly, in line with the current work and thinking on Intention Economy, Social Networking, Personalization and Attention.xml. And it can be integrated with the service of Jaiku which is similar to a lifestream - centered around users - with photos, twitter streams, locations, blog posts etc. In my view you can segment websites in different ways: themes/categories/verticals, user/people, time/historic/futuristic, location/places and data. Clearly, Particls is built up from the user inside out. What I like personally is the option to integrate granular LinkedIn search categories. Thanks to Jeremy Wagstaff from Wall Street Journal. The whole post is here. Recommended !

"Particls (www.particls.com) looks simple enough: a downloadable ticker that runs across the top of your screen, pumping you information. Nothing new about this; the difference lies in what information it presents, and how it appears. Instead of shoveling data at you, Particls tries to figure out what you're paying attention to. Enter a few keywords of things you're interested in and Particls scours millions of blogs and news sources to find stuff that matches them. You can then tweak this flow by raising or lowering the relevance of any particular feed or keyword (from strongly like to strongly dislike).

What I like about Particls is that it starts not from an "information" point of view but an "attention" one: matching and presenting the information according to the time you can give it, so the amount of information you receive varies, as well as the type of information. Particls doesn't so much grab armfuls of stuff for you as cherry pick it."

The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) : Milestone For All Of Us

Sometimes a new website is launched touching every cell in my body. Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is such  a website. As a nature lover I believe this is an excellent resource. Thrilling, exciting, moving, inspiring, important, enchanting and above all transcending as this is a milestone for the world, ecology and humanity. Great ! Thanks to E.O. Wilson and TED. The video below shows it all...

"Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity."

Second Life Revisited: Residents, Corporations, Competition and Its (Open Source) Evolution

Henry Jenkins interviews Wagner James Au (author of the popular Second Life blog New World Notes, his upcoming book will have the same title) in this post and this second post. Highly recommended as it elaborates on some key topics. I like the last part about porting different avatars for different virtual worlds while keeping one identity overall. This pops up a question: how will Google or Spock (the upcoming important and advanced people search engine) relate to this particular identity in different virtual worlds. Do they seamlessly integrate the user generated objects and activities in their search results ?

Below some quotes from this insightful interview. I totally agree with the statements on corporations investing in Second Life while not getting the culture and mindset of the active users. McLuhan said that the medium is the message. I think this applies to Second Life (and other virtual worlds) as well. You simply can't copy-paste successful RL products or concepts into Second Life and expecting success while ignoring the unique features, benefits and especially (transformative and participatory) values of its residents and its environment. Fully integrating all Web 2.0 features is a conditio sine qua non for success I believe. And its culture is perhaps even more non-monetary than monetary/commercial than most other web projects. Example: in my view corporations would be much more relevant and successful if they would supply tools in Second Life which enable and facilitate the user generated content production process by opening up (some of) their data for remix purposes. People like ideas, not corporations and products. Inviting them into creating and evolving ideas is much more effective in my view.

"Is there a tension between the corporate colonization of Second Life and the "gift economy" which underlies a vision of the space as a new kind of participatory culture?

For the most part, there is no tension, because the native participatory culture hardly knows the corporations are even there, or care all that much that they are. Residents have scant or limited interest in their "colonization", which is a strong word for what's really going on: big name brands on dozens of private islands that few visit for any extended period of time. Consistently, grassroots, user-created events and sites are far more popular.

Take the argument that a traditional role-playing game is more compelling than a social game. With Second Life, it's not an either-or proposition. There are numerous user-created roleplaying games *within* Second Life, actually, many with substantial followings. The first, Dark Life, an old school mini-MMO in the World of Warcraft mode, was created by a professional game developer back in 2003, and still has a following. In the last few weeks alone, my games correspondent has covered several-- here , here and here . I'd estimate that 25% or so of Second Life's active users (25% of 1.000.000 active users at this moment, that is) regularly play one or more of the world's mini-MMOs, or engage in other RPG/gamer activity. The quality of these games have gone up tremendously, in recent months, so I expect those numbers to grow.

What do you see as the long term implications of Linden Lab's decision to open
up the source code of Second Life?

The decision is monumental. Recently, for example, CBS committed $7 million so a metaverse development company could make worlds like Second Life more accessible to mainstream users. Much of this development will almost certainly take advantage of the open source initiative. The decision, I should add, applied only to Second Life's viewer software. However, just last week, Linden's Technology Development VP announced that the company will open-source the back end so servers can run anywhere on any machine . "SL cannot truly succeed," Joe Miller told an audience of executives, "as long as one company controls the Grid." Again, this is a vision of a world that is not a niche product, but the Web in 3D.

There is right now one web with many participants, yet there are competing worlds in the multiverse space and there are apt to be even more competitors. Doesn't this fragmentation of worlds pose a challenge to those who might imagine something like Second Life as a future for the web?

Yes, this threatens to lead to a fork in the metaverse, where user base for online worlds remains divided into numerous, incompatible worlds according to interest/preference: Google Earth, Multiverse, Croquet, Areae, traditional MMOs, revamped Asian online worlds, and the recently announced worlds from Sony and MTV. The one which succeeds most, I suspect, will be the one that's most like the Web, with open standards and interoperability. SL is heading in that direction, as is Areae and Croquet. Most likely, there will be portals between several of these open- sourced worlds, suggesting a kind of multi-metaverse where individuals maintain several avatars and a universal substrate identity."

The Pentagon and CIA on Global Warming

Global warming is not only a spiritual, humanitarian, environmental and economic issue but also one of 'national' security. It is evidently the most salient topic of our time (see also the World Economic Forum this year). More information on this issue in this post from the International Herald Tribune. Clearly, this is a very important piece of information as it will probably boost the actionability of the US in this respect despite the Kyoto protocol.

"The CIA and the Pentagon would for the first time be required to assess the national security implications of climate change under proposed legislation intended to elevate global warming to a national defense issue. The effort would include pinpointing the regions at highest risk of humanitarian suffering and assessing the likelihood of wars erupting over diminishing water and other resources.

The measure also would order the Pentagon to undertake a series of war games to determine how global climate change could affect U.S. security, including "direct physical threats to the United States posed by extreme weather events such as hurricanes."

Institute for the Future (IFTF) and IEEE : Survey on Breakthrough Technologies

David Pescovitz (a.o. from BoingBoing) on a short survey done with the IFTF and IEEE on the next fifty years of innovation. When will 3D-TV and the universal language translator become mainstream ? And what about quantum computing, cold fusion, speech recognition, virtual 3D worlds, ubiquitous/pervasive computing, mass space travel, robotics, genetic/DNA profiling, solar energy, nanotechnology, 3D printing/desktop fabs, RFID, brain-machine interfaces, simulations of all human senses and fuel cells ?

As the IEEE is at the very forefront of many technological advances, this is an important survey. They rave about RFID and ubiquitous computing just like I did in Q1 2005 in this post.

Below a quote from this survey on virtual 3D worlds. This strikes me as it is strongly related to Transformation and Serious Gaming/Simulations. In fact, it is a very powerful combination of these trends on personal/individual level in a real sense. In my earlier post on Identity, Authenticity and Creativity and in this one on Parallelism you can read similar thoughts. We have learned by playing Sims and other games that there is "un-do button" to boost tactical and strategic learning. Now, we can soon extend this functionality into our real lives beforehand. Amazing ! This will increase self awareness and the current health trends.

"Most Fellows believe that within 10 years, interactive computer graphics will be so lifelike that it will be hard to distinguish on screen between what is real and what is “virtual.” Everyone will be able to do sophisticated simulations that let them see, hear and even feel inputs and outputs. Computing pioneer Alan Kay believes that we are at the dawn of a new type of literacy—simulation literacy. Imagine running simulations of your own life, say, by asking how you would look if you lived on a vegan diet or ran 16 kilometers a day."

21st Century Issues and Trends by 100 Thinkers

Prospect Magazine invites 100 thinkers from many fields to give their views on this century in this post. It concerns many views on politics, economics, sociology, environmental issues, religion, technology and science.

Below a quote from Brian Eno which resonates with me as it points out that underlying importance of technology (mainly biotech and IT) on this century.

"Globalists vs nationalists
How prepared are we to allow national governments the freedom to make decisions which may not be in the interests of the rest of the world? With issues such as climate change becoming increasingly urgent, many people will begin arguing for a global system of government with the power to overrule specific national interests.

Communities of geography vs communities of choice
At the same time, some people will feel less and less allegiance to “the nation,” which will become an increasingly nebulous act of faith, and more allegiance to “communities of choice” which exist outside national identities and geographical restraints. We see the beginnings of this in transnational pressure groups such as Greenpeace, MoveOn and Amnesty International, but also in the choices that people now make about where they live, bank their money, get their healthcare and go on holiday.

Real life vs virtual life
Some people will spend more and more of their time in virtual communities such as Second Life. They will claim that their communities represent the logical extension of citizen democracy. They will be ridiculed and opposed by “First Lifers,” who will insist that reality with all its complications always trumps virtual reality, but the second-lifers in turn will insist that they live in a world of their own design and therefore are by definition more creative and free. This division will deepen and intensify, and will develop from just a cultural preference into a choice about how and where people spend their lives.

Life extension for all vs for some
There will be an increasingly agonised division between those who feel that new life-extension technologies should be either available to those who can afford them or available to everyone. Life itself will be the resource over which wars will be fought: the “have nots” will feel that there is a fundamental injustice in the possibility for some people to enjoy conspicuously longer and healthier lives because they happen to be richer."

On the Environment, Ecology, Biomimicry, Janine Benyus, Kevin Kelly and Nature's Striking Beauty

This TEDTalk from Janine Benyus on Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired By Nature really hit me on many levels. It is about the way evolution and nature has solved different problems in ways which we can use for solving our human problems. Highly imaginative and recommended ! This is also the first TED video I have seen in which the speaker is encouraged to continue her speech after closing. Just like I felt watching it :-)

Ever since I read the classic Out of Control by Kevin Kelly in 1994 my professional view on nature has changed and my hunger for books, articles and posts on biology has increased steadily. The 21st century clearly is the century of biology (biotech, nanotech, bioinformatics, neurobiology of the brain). On top of that, in 1996 during my first 11-week trip in South East Asia I discovered the sheer beauty of nature. It was like the difference between looking and seeing. The seeing of nature and its beauty (rafting, diving, hikes, jungle trips, birding, views, sunsets etc.) enchanted and inspired me. There was a certain depth and emotion to it, living in the moment. Seeing nature for what it truly is, not rushing by, looking at it as if it were decoration only. And this great video from Janine Benyus shows that this openness and curiosity towards nature is crucial for cross-fertilization of ideas and solutions, especially in a world of increasing environmental issues like global warming, water management, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, loss of corals, air pollution and synthetic waste.

A landmark video !

On Sustainability, Ecology, Environmental Impact, Green Business, Transparency and Choice

The Institute For The Future (IFTF) - one of my favorite sources for deep views on our future - has a post on Green Business which I totally agree with. I would like to add two intertwining trends that reinforce the two trends stated below from this post from IFTF:

1. Increasingly, companies define themselves by clear values. Corporate identity is more important for all stakeholders, especially employees and customers. These values are more authentic, practiced and embedded relative to previous similar branding and positioning claims. Ecology, sustainability and green business are a key theme right now due to Al Gore, Clinton, IPCC, Stern and many others. During the last World Economic Forum in Davos sustainability was by far the number one topic for the decision makers in the world (Evidence by this great post by Peter Schwartz on Edge.org). Its both sound economic sense as well as humanitarian/ecologically/spiritually driven.
2. Increasingly, consumers and customers use mobile devices scanning products realtime for their environmental impact by means of barcodes, RFID tags, QR codes and other tags.

"The critical thing here is the proliferation of both knowledge about the environmental impacts of goods and services, and the growth of choices in how to deal with those impacts. And all the indicators are that consumers will have more of both in the future.

Now, however, consumers are slowly getting access to more information about the energy required to produce or transport goods, and the environmental impacts of goods and services. As an article on labeling notes, just as food products are labeled with calorie and nutritional information, consumer products are beginning to bear details about their environmental impact, like the amount of greenhouse gases produced in making, transporting and selling them. The evolution of the concepts of "food miles" and "carbon footprint" don't just represent a growing general awareness of environmental impacts of agriculture, industry, and modern life in general; they also reflect an attempt to make sense of information that wasn't easily available in the past.

Where the choice used to be buy or don't buy, other options are emerging. Utilities are starting to offer access to green power, subsidies for installing solar panels, or rebates for conserving energy. Expedia offers travlers the chance to buy carbon offsets with their airline tickets (and doubtless some airline will soon claim to be greener than competitors, thanks to their modern fleet of planes, in-flight trash reduction efforts, etc.). Terrapass offers drivers the option of zeroing out their car's emissions."