Book Heaven

State of the World 2012

• #111: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Tue 10 Jan 12 06:08
  This link, and quote from the video, were posted to a private email list I'm on:"We Will Force You to be Free" a documentary by Adam Curtis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFjCJFsbS0U&feature=relatedAlso refer to Isaiah Berlin's "Two Concepts of Liberty": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Concepts_of_Liberty"... negative […]
• #110: Ted Newcomb (tcn) Tue 10 Jan 12 05:17
  One future of new economics, from the ground up:http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/mf_neuwirth_qa/all/1White, gray, and black markets take to tech. May really kick in when 3D printers improve, makers communities, and creatives get involved. [Read entire topic] […]
• #109: From Kenny Mann (captward) Tue 10 Jan 12 01:51
  From Kenny Mann via e-mail:The obvious way to ridicule "No future," is to point out that we've had all kinds of no future for, like, centuries. (The future of no future can only get sillier, even if there isn't one at some point.) I'm just wondering why we keep wasting lives on pre-staging the occasional huge nearly-apocalyptic event […]
• #108: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 9 Jan 12 21:45
  I spent four hours tonight as part of a focus group talking about the future of something - I don't think I'm supposed to say what we were talking about or repeat what we said, but I can say that I sensed an optimism, resilience, and trust in the future within that group. Not that they didn't moan a bit and express occasional fear and loathing […]
• #107: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Mon 9 Jan 12 19:31
  People who don't tell stories think stories count for a lot. I'm something of a skeptic there. I'd agree that "point of view is worth 80 IQ points," but these ideological framing devices aren't the same thing as "stories." There aren't that many different "stories" in the sense of basic, compelling drama […]
• #106: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 9 Jan 12 14:55
  Why Do Nations Fail? http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/103766Re. Arab spring:"The big question is: Is this going to be a political revolution like the Glorious Revolution in England, which unleashed a fundamental process of transformation in the political system with associated economic changes? Ultimately, such political revolut […]
• #105: Ted Newcomb (tcn) Mon 9 Jan 12 13:26
  The Rise of the Megacity via Big Think.http://bigthink.com/ideas/41833?utm_source=Daily+Ideafeed+Newsletter&utm_campaign=bf9f288d0a-Daily_Ideafeed_January_9_2012&utm_medium=emailToday, 600 urban cities generate about 60 percent of the world*s GDP, according to a recent report by McKinsey Global Institute. By 2025, some of those cities will fall off t […]
• #104: Fron Anders Nygaard (captward) Mon 9 Jan 12 09:11
  From Anders Nygaard via e-mail:Interesting interpretation of nordic social culture @#88 - one I do not particularily recognize myself or any of my friends in :) Which brought on a thought. Gamification techniques appear to have proven to be extremely effective for some limited applications, such as the much-advertised AIDS protein breaktrough. (However, they […]
• #103: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Mon 9 Jan 12 07:13
  Here's a surviving "psychedelic dreamtime" pitch. It's about eating psychedelic mushrooms as a spiritual adventure. Interestingly, it's (a) mostly a historical lecture, (b) Dutch, and (c) framed as part of a Maker scene.http://www.mediamatic.net/page/233314/enhttp://www.mediamatic.net/page/230855/enPlus, given that it's from […]
• #102: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 9 Jan 12 06:16
  We often say that the Internet is rewiring our brains, changing the way we think. Here's an inventory of those changes: http://www.onlinecollege.org/15-big-ways-the-internet-is-changing-our-brain [Read entire topic] […]