'Dead Words Walking' audition

I was thinking of Thomas’ presentation at SHiFT. He called it 'Dead Words Walking' and I want to add a word.

Good-bye

In today’s connected society and especially for me it has no real meaning. 'Good-bye' in my world means ‘Hello’.

I leave places and friends and people that I have just met but I am just on my way to meeting others. Let’s dump the word and not replace it with another useless variation.

I am going to give it up and just smile and say 'Thank you' when it’s time to move on.

SHiFTing down

Got up late this morning and missed the speaker’s tour. Shit - woulda liked to go on that. Maybe I'll see a few at the airport.

I like these conferences - takes me out of my regular world and puts me in an emospace where I don't get too often. I do too much but I like doing too much. That's a real dilemma. I should do a presentation about it :-)

This conference opened a bunch of new questions for me - but one of the low-lights was realizing again that some people don’t realize the importance of what they are doing. Society has a way of penalizing unstructured minds and discriminating against what cannot be fully defined.

Us.

OK - that sounds trite but the fact is that we are creating a brand new world. OK – that sounds even triter but we need to get around that.

Listen up - the old rules don't apply to us and every member of the audience IS making a difference whether they know it or not.

But they should know it. We live and work in a space that has to walls – no textbooks that we must follow – no traditions that must be upheld. This is a privilege and a dream for most of the 90% of the working population that are bound by ‘experience’.

As workers and members of established industries and cultures are conditioned to follow the ‘experience’ laid down to them by a previous ‘successes’ or ‘traditions’, we are creating new experiences and traditions that is creating a new society.

This is true. This is not to be understated. Be proud.

The world will see a clash in the near future between the two common approaches to change. Western plutocracy is maintained by the hydraulic model of give and take. As I take, you lose – it’s commonly called a closed fixed sum model.

Eastern cultures relay on a more fluid model based on the concepts of yin and yang. It is an open model that adapts quickly to changing forces. There is no start or end to change – it is always adapting. Sum rules are built to allow win-win as well as lose-lose situations. Losing = winning.

We have to learn this.

Any ways, this can get deep and I need to take a shower and head off to the airport.

If you saw my presentation - let me know what you think here. Thx to the SHiFT team - good show!

SHiFT reading list

Sitting at SHiFT and working on my presentation and here are a few sources that are pre-telling the dilema that we face with social change.


INTERNET EVOLUTION

A survey of technology thinkers and stakeholders shows they believe the internet will continue to spread in a “flattening” and improving world. There are many, though, who think major problems will accompany technology advances by 2020. A predictions can be viewed here.

Comment: Truely a bit flat and a bit biased towards short term thinkers but still a good read.


FUTURE HISTORY


This book describes:

• How human societies have alternated between centralized and decentralized societies
• Why globalization will destroy capitalism
• How automation will displace the capitalist and working classes
• What the society after capitalism will be like

The book is available here as PDF

Comment: Long term thinking that gets a bit over focused on capitalism but also a good read.


UNIBOMBER

In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters, some to his former victims, outlining his goals and demanding that his 35,000-word paper: Industrial Society and Its Future (commonly called the "Unabomer Manifesto") be printed verbatim by a major newspaper; he stated that he would then end his bombing campaign.

Comment: Excellent read. A MUST!

Connected

Tons of emails but this sorta stuck out for it's provocation:

Societies have alternated between:

• Decentralized societies with slow change that laid the basis of a radically new type of social and economic stage
• The resulting centralized societies with rapid economic growth and social development
• Following the above patterns, the next stage after capitalism should be similar to Primitive and Land-duty societies.

Therefore:

• Globalization will eventually result in capitalism's collapse
• Government and the economy will decentralize, becoming more local and more global
• Central government will have an enabling role rather than a controlling one
• Devolved self-managing small economic units will perform large-scale production
• Automation will remove the need for the working class's physical labor
• Some physical labor will remain for a long time and with it remnants of the capitalist and working classes
• The class that will dominate the next society hasn't formed yet
• This class is likely to be self-employed information product creators

Way to light and not totally thought out BUT it IS interesting ... I can see that the role of government is changing (becoming less valuable to todays societies) and the role of the UN, NGOs and private foundations are increasing their awareness campaigns and impact on developing societies.

Automation is coming at a speed that not many would believe - right in front of our eyes. Employment and the pre-war ideas about retirement and education are drastically changing.

Face it - what is above is there - but coupled together, the combination of what is above is shattering. The rapid intoduction of technology and fast information flow is quickening the pace.

Scary? .... email and let me know what you think.