Ramblings

The Arab Spring:

Parts of the Middle East and their current configurations are directly related to Social Media and the use of SMS technology. The uses of SMS technology, the changes in social behavior in the regions (The ability to have the phones etc are all related too) the behaviors and use of social media, the realization of some, allowed for extraordinary use of technology that by design should actually be considered “outdated” (Consider that SMS  technology was really introduced as a way to divide bandwidth in ways that helped the digital/analog cellular systems upgrade. It was also a good way to charge people a “for use” fee.)

What this point is supposed to illustrate is the power of the technology itself. In this region, the activities leading up to the overthrow of the various governments would/could never have occurred without the technology, and did in fact occur as a result of the circumstances the technology created simply by its acceptance and use in the region.

There have been a few papers written that finally give credit to the Arab Spring in this way, I think I’ve moved some of them over here from socialnomicsingularity.wordpress as well as Hey Achmed.

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Flash Mobs:

I’ve talked about some of the dangers associated with SMS technology and Social Media for  some time now.  And I’ll put this really simply.

“As soon as some idiot realizes that these situations can be caused by design, and at will, then they will and all hell could break loose!”

(YES! It’s written that way for a reason!)

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Tactical dangers:

Again, if certain people read this, … blue-tooth (covert) , real-time two-way communication (private, encoded, multi-channel capable, etc.)  networking software (utilizing GPS  for positional awareness of team, multiple communications options (conference calling, multi-tech integration)

Point being, these are powerful devices that are simply waiting for people to realize  new (or even old) ways of how to use/abuse them.

I’ve covered a bit of this here,

policetac.wordpress.com

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Morals, Values, and Ethics:

Quite simply, in no time in Human history have moral, social, ethical, values changed so quickly and in such dramatic opposition to themselves to such a degree that their impacts will be felt at some point as they all come together at various new points.

This is affecting every single area of Humanity. it will continue to impact areas of general society, economy, and governments, as well as the rest of the world in similar fashion.

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Law:

New laws about technology (privacy (rights of), copyright, GPS monitoring, social media, etc, etc, etc,…..

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Economy:

Ever hear of Disneyland Cash? Never really caught on, but in today’s virtual world, new ideas of currency are only as ridiculous as the current programming of the people.

Again,.. I struggle at saying too much for fear of these actually being acted upon, but…

Let’s say I actually DID feel the need to buy more poker chips to play my game on some social media site. Ok, they offer me 100 coins for the price of $1.00 paid via PayPal.  (That’s a 1 to 1 conversion rate by the way)  So I buy them and continue playing. But I’ve had a good game, and am now 500 coins ahead. (This equals $5.00 according to earlier conversion)

At this time, the company can make a choice.

Keep it at the level it is, where it’s kind of joke, still strange and not really convenient for much else,

Or it can do what companies do… GROW!

I now take my 500 coins to the virtual coffee shop and buy a Grande  Mocha and plain Biscotti.  This actually generates a QR code I scan with my Droid and show to the cashier in front of me at Starbucks as I walk out with my order.

Now it’s affected economy.

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3-D Printing:

Probably going to be one of the next most influential technological innovations of the current century.

It’s impacts are difficult to expect when applied to social and or cultural change as the changes possible are almost endless.)

All I can say is this…

“We all know how a dot matrix printer works. A drop of ink is placed on the paper, the printer head moves over one and if it’s required, drops another bit of ink, if not it goes on to the next. Eventually, after enough passes, a document is created.”

“Apply the same thinking to this: Drop of material, (say porcelain powder and some type of adhesive) Connect it to a personal computer that allows a picture of a sink and toilet to be downloaded off the Internet and used by the printer’s software. The printer now drops a drop of ceramic and adhesive. Moving on it chooses to add another drop or not at the next place, (behind it comes a heater used for curing) as it continues back and forth completing the document. Then it does it again… On top of itself…. Building up as well as flat… Until a sink and a toilet are created.

Now apply this to a bank of printers in Japan just after the massive flood that devastated that country’s ability to care for its human waste.

Could a technology as simple in design as this, that uses materials just as easily as described, change the way the world sees things?

(PS. It’s also virtually bypassed all the restrictions that most commonly would keep a technology like this in the commercial sector. Things like complexity to build or run, size, or material, etc. do not restrict this technology. It is moving quickly into the personal consumer market.

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Life on other planets:

The Kepler Space Telescope studies only a very, very, small area but does so continuously. Because of this, it has been able to identify over 2,700 different planets, many of which live in or near the “Habitable Zone.”

If we know pretty much how planets form;  (As a star is born, many pieces of matter will  not make it into the gravitational field that is creating the star for some reason or another. These particles of matter, some the size of continents or larger,  each with their own gravitational field, will attract each other to the point of collision, where the two pieces of matter then form a larger piece of matter, with an even greater gravitational field, until there is either no more matter available, or other forces stop the process)

Then wouldn’t it also stand to reason that almost “ALL” planets formed around a star have at least at some point, been within the “Habitable Zone?”  If so, wouldn’t that dramatically increase the odds of life forming within a given solar system?

What about our own?

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