computers embedded into everyday life, when today's processing power is in the size of the wristwatch. what then?
the nature of the informational society is constantly revolutionary. things always change. by the second, by the hour.
creativity becomes nothing special, a trait taken for granted. everyone is creative.
manufacturing power democratized. nano-bio-tech democratized.
sometime in 2040?
dust-processing - literally, dust that has the processing power of today's supercomputer, using techniques we won't fully understand today.
i want to think of that society - how that will look like. but i can't. there's a barrier to being able to think like that.
hyper-individuals. innovation by the second.
when we figure out how to close our technical nutrient cycles.
Friday, 11 April 2008
the place for really crazy ideas
some crazy kerfunky ideas.
Twitter is such a useful tool. Microblogging aside, its a great tool to keep track of the thoughts being generated as you surf the web. Kinda cool, to be able to record your mental state and ideas. The second best thing to a mental recorder embedded in the head.
Today I had a couple of really vague ideas, and they centre around the notion of an informational society - that unless society and its individuals actively take part in, and create information content, only then the society can make a move towards innovation. Its an ongoing information revolution, about how information - blog, videos, podcast and all, how all these things are changing the very fabric of our lives.
The other idea I had was that I realised that I'm really a connector. I think I wrote down somewhere, that I would like to know everything, but since thats impossible, I connect similar things together, like the TED presentations I like, the books I read, the websites I surf, and how all of these connect together, first within themselves, then with each other. Towards ever more convergences, no matter how tangential they seem to each other. That's my driving force for the term 'tanvergence'. haha. right.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Connecting everything
I love to connect information and organise them into something more coherent. So why am I still studying chemistry? Oh well. Maybe I'll end up minoring in computer science. Who knows?
As it turns out, I really am interested in Everything. So I can't study Everything, but I can study how Everything connects inside. Studying the connections - thats what I really want to do. But I don't want to do philosophy and such. Maybe that's why I'm studying Chemistry and Political Science - both are essentially academic subjects which explains how things connect together. In chemistry - how atoms bond together to form molecules, and then on to more complex structures, and in Political Science - how people come together to form complex societies and how these things are run.
Maybe thats how things connect in my life. Maybe.
a wonderful video by al gore.
i thought this was a nice video!
Its like what I've said and thought before. This thingy is a generational challenge.
'History has presented us with a choice.' 'A sense of generation mission.'
What people say of us a thousand years hence?
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
introducing my wunderful projects
these are the projects that have been on my mind...
My wunderful projects
1. Combining Google Earth and Gapminder
Statistic mapped onto geographical data. Have seen Google Maps, not impressed by it. Lacks... interactivity.
Wanting users to know data only when they want to see it - leverages on the user's own curiosity.
2. OLPC in Singapore
-Bringing XO laptops to low-income families to help them escape poverty trap, then scaling it up to the entire country.
Meant to bridge digital divide in Singapore, and bring those lower-income families into the mainstream of Singapore society.
3. Bring ideas from TED, BIL, Seed, Edge, DLD to Singapore
Creating Singapore/regional set of Digerati (Edge people who have gone on to do a lot of other stuff), to propel region to a different phase of economic growth, intensely leveraging on technology.
To bring the ideas of these conferences to Singapore students to let them be aware of what actually goes on at the cutting edge.
4. Creating a geographically-based social networking site,
that deals heavily in maps, so you can literally see who loves near you. (Exists already, am told)
5. A social networking site that focuses on different areas of our lives, organising our relationships.
6. Networked HDB flats.
Integrating digital life with real life. For building better communities.
7. Digital control systems for construction? (a la Gundam, mechas, walkers)
8. Creating tools (digital or otherwise) that will enable the elderly to live more productive lives - a more concerted effort to work on GUIs and machines that will enable easier information input (better keyboards, mouses, Wii controllers)
9. A database of bus routes with pictures.
So that people will know exactly where they are going and match it with the landmarks they see.
10. Connecting people with blogs
Using blogs to connect people - creating a mapping of friend-blog networks.
We have never been this close to a turning point...
Perhaps in the attempt to bring some of these ideas, and in fact, through the implementation of some of these ideas, we might be able to form a network of people who are aware of the trends of the future, and work towards that future. We want to create a community of people who are also socially aware of the things going on in this world, who have a holistic mindset in dealing with the problems of our world.
carbon?? what carbon?
I was thinking about biofuels and all when something hit me. All of these biofuels and talk of utilizing methane and all, well, aren't they simply releasing carbon still?
And talking about biofuels - it doesn't look very green right now, especially the corn ethanol. And how biofuels have actually contributed to rising food prices, simply because agricultural land that was originally used for crops are now being devoted to fuel production. Which sucks for the rest of us. Meanwhile an agricultural crisis looms ahead for all of us, partly contributed by bad weather which might be man-made, and by bad policies, which are definitely man-made.
We will need to rethink the way we think of carbon and carbon fuels. The only way to lower carbon levels is really to close the carbon cycle effectively. Currently its simply a one way street - we burn the carbon, it goes into the atmosphere, and thats it. Obviously we need technologies to somehow recapture the carbon for its cycling through the entire ecosystem.
I think the best way to actually reduce carbon levels is simply to plant more trees, or seed more plankton in the ocean.
oh well.
We are really facing 2 problems - the global climate problem, and the sustainable development problem, of which I think the latter is actually a much more serious concern.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
at the dinner table...
thoughts about the old world status quo and the birth pains of the new world.
Just as a starting thought, what if a dollar less on military spending today could actually mean 5 more bucks at the same rate in the future? What if the economic growth that results from investing more on education could actually result in more funds for the military in the future?
Investing in innovative, enriching, and empowering education would boost our economic growth so much, that it would result in more money to go around everywhere.
We should be thinking about an rearrangement of our government ministries, those that deal with strategic issues of people and development, and those about short-term acute-issues management. Short term 'tactical industries' would be defence, finance, manpower, interior affairs, trade and industry. Longer term 'strategic' ministries would be education, social, environment, community, development. With such a lensing or framework, it might change the way we look at budgeting. The more we spend on tactical ministries would mean less on strategic industries. This is obviously a dilemma that we face - how to balance short term needs with long term needs.
And I think we should be investing in disruptive asymmetrical military tactics. That means, more power projection capabilities. We might have less boots on the ground, but we'll leave one heck of a bootprint when we do. I think that should be our goal in mind. I think that conventional warfare as we think of it today, with armies and movements and tactics - that kind of conventional warfare is slowly changing, especially when even conventional warfare learns to fight like insurgents and guerillas.
Anyhow, on another note, every country is constantly racing against each other with regards to education and competitiveness. There is a new global construct that is being created. It's about the new forces of collaboration and cooperation vs the old forces of the status quo.
This new world would need more people in the basic sciences, and I'm looking at engineers who are working towards both innovative low-tech and high-tech solutions to the problems we face today, and to start thinking about creating and realising the possibilities of the future. The future is now, that better world is now. And we should start believing in it and in making it happen. Singapore has spent quite a lot of money already in the life sciences. Isn't it time we do a little bit of basic research in the other sciences as well? We need to move away from the money-oriented view when appropriating funds for research, and instead to think about the needs of the future. Our intermediate moves of IR and service orientation are but short-gap measures to the long term strategic problems that Singapore faces.
I'm thinking that Singapore is still stuck in the old world, and is only slowly trying to think of ways of how to get out of this old world. we have only just begun to explore the frontiers of this old world. I seriously think that we are not doing enough to empower students in this new age of creative work. This is a serious innovation gap with the future that we have to engage.
When I think about the more important trends going on in this world, I can only think in terms of the technological aspect - simply because it drives every other form of change in this world. And there are these two, that I think will shape the world in the decades to come. They are those of sustainability and collaborative, cooperative innovation. The future hereon will be one where everyone can create, and there'll be minimal barriers to stop people from creating. In fact, creating will probably be the only way to make a decent living in the future. And to do it in ways that'll be environmentally sustainable, and reduce our footprint. If Singapore can ride on these two things, I think it'll be largely set for another half-century.
If the young today are going to be the ones who will bear the consequences of the older generation, shouldn't they be the ones helming the dialogues, shouldn't the youth be the ones calling the shots on objectives and targets, instead of greying technocrats? Wouldn't it make more sense if the youths were the ones discussing the problems that they'll face? Its a weird weird world...