We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
Do social media and cell phone technology lead to shallower, more fragile relationships or deeper, more intimate relationships?
Yes.
That seems to be the answer from Professor C. J. Pascoe in her article, Romancing the Phone.
I don’t talk romantic issues or dating stuff here, but her article helps understand what is going on around us.
She offers several stories of hurt that flows from use of technology. On that general trend: Continue reading “Technology making relationships more difficult?”
Daily I walk past a large group of honeysuckle plants that used to be about 30 feet long and about 12 feet wide. The aroma is wonderful while they are in bloom.
Over the last couple of months, something has happened to the plant bed. There are three big areas where there is now only dirt. The number of honeysuckle plants is about half what it used to be.
The ones left are pretty, growing, and fragrant.
However, that bed of plants is dying.
What is happening to those fragrant plants is happening to the book industry.
Amazing. The Boston Globe was sold for a negative sales price. The Washington Post is purchased by an individual for his personal portfolio.
An article in Slate, The Killer Robot War is Coming, describes a few areas of law that eventually will need to be addressed.
What are the limits on local governments using drones for occasional or even continuous surveillance of individuals? Continue reading “Issues with drones we need to address”
John Bredehoft ponders Striking the balance between freedom and privacy, and the other Empoprise rule
With almost everyone having a cell phone that can record video and audio, we need to work through the issue of balancing privacy right to *not* be recorded and the freedom to record things of interest.
As a society, we haven’t come to terms with that issue.
John has a suggestion: Continue reading “With cell phone cameras everywhere, here is one proposal for how to balance freedom to record and the right to privacy”
John Bredehoft expanded my discussion on the tech revolution just getting started.
In his post, Why are some revolutions imperceptible?, he describes the revolution in his industry from getting powerful PCs. The impact on the economy was tiny, if even measurable, because the entire industry was small in relation to the overall US economy.
To point out how small the publishing and music industries are, he looked at the Fortune 500 list of largest companies in terms of sales. He points out that the largest identifiable media companies are News Corp at 91 and Time Warner at 103.
Since I’m an accountant and like to quantify things, his post gave me an interesting idea. I went to the list and did a quick analysis to compare the size of a few industries.
Continue reading “Rough picture of how far the tech revolution has to go”
The music and publishing industries have been transformed by the technology revolution. Some signs are appearing that technology might remake health care.
The Wall Street Journal article, Midlevel Health Jobs Shrink, reports that several trends are reducing opportunities for people in health care with midlevel skill sets.
Here’s a great summary in the article:
Automation, outsourcing and other forces have eliminated many formerly secure jobs in manufacturing, clerical work and other fields. Now health care is following the same path with unforeseen speed.
Continue reading “Technology revolution becoming visible in health care”
A frequent comment at several blogs I follow and discussion on this blog is the dramatic improvement in life generated by technology over the last few decades. Look here, here, here, and here. For a longer term perspective, look here.
Don Boudreaux and Mark Perry expand the discussion beyond technology to explain the middle class is much better off today than in the 1970s. Check out their article in the Wall Street Journal – The Myth of a Stagnant Middle Class.
The claim they are addressing is the idea that only the richest people are better off over the last 30 years:
Continue reading “American middle class isn’t stagnating but is better off than in the ‘70s”
That’s the lead question in an article by Kevin Kelly at Wired, Better than Human.
He asks:
Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do?
Well, we’ve been there, done that. And thrived.
Stanford has an awesome site that shows time and cost to travel in the Roman Empire. You can find it at
ORBIS – The Stanford Geosptial Network Model of the Roman World
If you’ve read my blogs for a while, you know I am a member of the Protestant tradition of the Christian faith community. As a result, the Roman Empire is of interest, since that was the occupying power in Israel during the New Testament period.
You also know I am interested the impact of technology on the cost of everything, including travel.
You can only imagine what a delight it is to find a web site that overlaps travel costs and the Roman Empire.
Here is a description of ORBIS from its website:
Spanning one-ninth of the earth’s circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents.
Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.
For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.
Watch this video to see the impact of re-engaging a 10-year resident of a nursing home. He goes from barely able to answer yes/no questions to expressively describing music he enjoyed as a child and why music is so important to him. Look at the joy in his eyes.
All from listening to his favorite music on an iPod.
Ah, the blessings of technology. As Glenn Reynolds say, faster please.
If you’ve ever spent time visiting a nursing home, this will make you weep with joy for what is possible.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NKDXuCE7LeQ#t=0s]
Hat tip: CyberBrethren-A Lutheran Blog by Paul T. McCain