Hypersociety.

Society was once highly uniform. Organised in top-down hierarchy, in pyramid like structures. At the apex lived the state, the church, the army, the university.

Underneath lay a large wall of homogeneous social blocks, with class as its mortar, and the family unit as it foundation. In this time, stability and centralisation was the scheme for the individual, the family, the firm and government alike.

Stability gave a predicable future, which encouraged the laying of plans and roots, with a sure knowledge that tomorrow would be pretty much the same as yesterday. Centrality gave everyone a place, everything a demarcation.

So in this old world prudence mandated the rules of the game, and of course efficiency the ultimate and absolute aim.

But now look? We live in a kind of network society, where ideas transcend borders at the speed of light via ubiquitous media from elementary comic book to live internet television.

Where the great wall of social conformance quakes and crumbles to mere rubble. Where hierarchy and deference is eroded by egalitarianism, where rank and title matters increasingly little. Where homogeneity and class is supplanted by diversity and multiidentity.

Suddenly we are confronted by a profusion of styles, ethnicity and brands. We are all - in the workplace, at play, at school, even within the privacy of our own home -progressively multiviewed, multilingual, multivalued, multifaceted and multichannelled.

A Hypersociety now swarms through and around us all......

Emerging Hypergovernment.

Government ideology, once obstinate and biased in the extreme. Idealism; them and us; you are wrong, I am right. The left verses the right, the middle takes on all. It was outright war.

But nowadays?.... Political dogma is all but dead. The potency of idealism is old and grey. So the absolute left steal ideas from the far right. The far right sits comfortably with the L-word. Ideas and all cells alike, have lost their sense of loyalty it seems. So communism adopts capitalist concepts to oil its wheels. Capitalism embraces socialism to soften its tone.

In a transdimensional reality, dogged political pragmatism pinches from wherever, whoever and whatever it must to achieve its ultimate aim - Hypergovernment.

The Power of Hyperscience.

Science, since its early origins, was held in separate, often totally isolated schools. The intellectual wars amid the disparate schools of thought that raged for hundreds of years, have at the very least slowed scientific discovery and innovation; at worst, stopped advance dead.

Now a sea change; a seed change even. At last the intellectual turf guarding is falling sway to the interconnection of ideas.

Ponder this:

To construct a new theory today, a hypothesis must stand with an astronomical number of findings, with many contradicting ideas. The reason? For a scientific discipline to reach maximum evolvability the number of idea interconnections needs to be very rich. As the number of connections goes up, so the possibilities for new discoveries increase.

And now think of this if you will:

To comprehend how life on earth emerged, you have to understand the complexity and systems theories; understand phase transition and thermodynamics; comprehend computational and information theory; grasp quantum and molecular mechanics; interpret microgeology, electro-magnetism and radioisotope decay physics.

You have to interconnect and interrelated each of these discrete science to begin to see how life may have emerged. Neglect or miss any of these disciplines and the answer to life remains a mystery.

The lesson:

Many of the most significant scientific breakthroughs, now and in future, will be a consequence of the interconnection of diverse and often unrelated scientific discoveries and innovation.

The New Hypereconomics.

Economic systems used to be exclusively rationalised and planned via giant macroblocks of data (income, interest, tax and unemployment).

It said that resources where so scarce that you could have one thing or the other, not both. It viewed national economies as autonomous, where outcomes were predictable and controllable.

But what happened? Well, the world began to interconnect on all levels, plans and markets fragmented, all expectations increased, then demand began to customise.

So the old way of managing and sustaining economies is defunct. The new way, the bright way, is the network way. Where billions-upon-billions of tiny variables chaotically swarm around each other interdependently. Where concrete fiscal value is an effect of synergy amongst such energetic dancing dependence. Where the most significant resources are imagination and knowledge, that are, in effect, limitless in scope and potential. Where your competitors become your partners, your customers, your stockholders all at one and the same time.

Hypereconomics is with us now.

Hyperlanguage

Human language, in a most rudimentary plan, first emerged around one million years ago.

Of course, since then language has continued to advance and diverge into many distinct lingua. But it is the rate and interconnection of change in language today that captures our attention here.

Knowledge of the fact that at least three-thousand distinct tongues have disappeared over a period of three generations, among with the cultures they represent, is perhaps softened by the associate fact that at least one-third of the words in any modern full volume English dictionary are less than twenty years old!

The reasons? In part due to the amazing pace of scientific progress and technological advance (bosson, toxinal, cynoacrolate, C++, hyperlinks, simplexity: new science simply need new words). Lately, global media and brands have spurred novel vernacular (digerati, MTV, yarhoo, raves, nike, nokia.

WAP textlife brings new gist (CU@10...!). Mass-mood changes due to shifts in social dynamics and habit require new words (Nanostalgia, the yearning desire to see a repeat of Star Trek that was only shown the day before. Ampathy, the ultra-intense feeling of unity people experience at a rave. And Edutainment, meshing of fun with learning.

Languages have also evolved because of mass migration (Brazilian-Portuguese is quite different to native Portuguese...why?...Neo-tribes means new ideas; new ideas needs new language).

Fundamentally, and most of all, languages have come and gone as a consequence of the multidimensional interconnection of words. For example, as English language flows across cultural boundaries it can not help but eat-up the colloquial phrases of say Hindi to produce a new language now known as Hinglish, often seamlessly combining two different tongues in mid-sentence, even mid-word.

English, the king of predatory lingua, preys on inflections and phrases from literally every known and available language on the surface of this planet. One hundred years or so from now there will dozens of version of English, each seen as a separate language in their own right.

As English interconnects and gobbles up more and more words, it changes and diverges, but will remain a ravenous predator. The result? From street slang to the edge of the arts, media, science and technology the diversity of languages and never been so multidimensional.

Or is it Meist?

Here are some words I heard via the BBC this week:

'Healthily.'

'Moslemist.'

'Pottable.'

Not withstanding the above post, at the other end of the spectrum the English language seems to going to pot (Pottable?).

On the BBC’s Six O’Clock News: ‘Eat Healthily.’ Which not so long ago used to be ‘Healthy eating.’

On the BBC‘s Politics Show: ‘He is a Moslemist.’ Which used to be ‘He’s a Moslem.’

On the BBC‘s Snooker Grand Prix: ‘The ball is Pottable.’ Which used to be ‘the ball might just go in the pot.’

New words that describe new issues are necessary and important (as above post). In fact, it's an occupational delight for me. I enjoy coining new words, playing with sentences, and jiving vernacular.

But come on. ’Healthily.’ ‘Moslemist.’ ‘Pottable.' You’ve godda be joking me, an'it.

Have you ever heard of a 'Christianist,' or 'Hinduist,' or 'Jewishist?' It's an insult.

The English language is blessed with aesthetically pleasing grammar and flowing prose. To bastardise any language in this inane way, is nothing less than sacrilege.

So please, I beg, please try to resist the influx of ‘***ables,’ and ‘***ists.’

Or is it ‘Meist.’

Click to See Bee Movie Clips.

.


And talking about a play on words.

If you know me, you'll know my favourite insect is the humble bumble bee. Especially when they swarm. So when I heard about 'Bee Movie' I got excited (big kid).

Digital Terrestrial Broadcast: Not a Cock-up; but a Real Catastrophe Born of a Complete Lack of Foresight.

The big switch over has begun. UK Terrestrial TV is going digital.

How nice, how quaint.

You detect a hint of sarcasm.

No, it’s not sarcasm, it’s utter contempt.

Why?

Well the 20 years of planning (early meetings began way back in 1989) and the estimated £1 billion that has gone into R&D, infrastructure and switch over rollout is a complete waste and ultra-vein endeavour.

Why?

Nielsen's Law dictates exponential growth in Internet Bandwidth similar to the more established Moore's Law.

Comparing the two laws:

Moore's Law says that computers doubles in capabilities every 18 months: this corresponds to about 60% annual growth (or x100 over 10 years).

Nielsen's Law says that bandwidth doubles every two years (or x57 over 10 years).

Data supports Nielsen's Law:

The Internet backbone bandwidth in 1975 was on the order of 1000 bits per second (bps), by 1985 it was 1 million bps, by 1995 it had reached 100 million bps, and now in 2007 it is approaching 100 billion bps.

Going by the above trends, by the year 2014 most house holds in the UK will readily watch high definition documentaries, serials and films in real-time over the internet.

By 2018 high definition 3D TV programs with file sizes on the order of terra-terra bytes will be transferred in real-time over the Internet.

You wont want to get a signal over the airways, when you can plug your TV into the Internet and gain real-time, multiway, high definition TV and all that comes with it.

Terrestrial digital TV is biggest technological white elephant in recent history.

Failing the Way to Success!

People don’t like the word failure, let alone the actual outcome.

But tell that to nature.

Life has adapted to every calamity and catastrophe that has befallen the earth in the last 4 and half billion years.

So it's instructive that most of life’s ‘experiments’ are failures.

All species become extinct eventually. Most all mutations don't survive. Most all life’s designs don’t even get a chance to fail, because the don’t get a chance to live.

Yet the overall results are anything but a failure.

Nature has it all worked out. So what can we learn?

If you trip, blip, or bomb, take out a leaf from nature.

Try, fail, try, trip, try blip, try, bomb, try, learn, try, adapt, try, win....!

Promising Breakthrough Set to Revolutionise Crash Helmets and X-Sports Wear.

d3o (dee-three-oh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules.

The molecules flow with you as you move, but on shock the molecules lock together to absorb the impact energy.

Head protection has conventionally been provided by helmets with hard outer shells where the inner structure is energy absorbent and often sacrificed.

Although the protective qualities of tradiational helmets are undeniable, their cumbersome nature has prevented widespread adoption in many sporting activities.

d3o technology allows helmets to deliver better performance and fit, and for the creation of a completely new type of flexible headwear.

The 3do material is impression moulded into custom sheets, between 4mm & 10mm thick, then assembled (slid) between the headwear's inner and outer fabric.

The relatively thin d3o material is hardly noticable in situ, resulting in stylish, street credible merchandise....

....Skaters, Snowboarders and BMXers, et al, will love it!

d3o Video Link

d3o Impact Material Impression Moulding.

Pleo: Interactive, Emotions Learning Robotpet.

Tipped to be a big Christmas winner, Pleo is a ‘Robpet’ that mimicks a one-week old infant Dinosaur from the Jurassic period.

Design engineers @ UGOBE Inc have studied the extinct Camarasaurus, which lived in giant fern forests.

Pleo incorporates all the basic traits of autonomous life, specifically engineered to mimic a living animal and relate to the owner on a personal level.

Pleo is equipped with senses for sight, sound, and touch; learns as he explores his environment; exhibits genuine reactions to sensory stimuli; and eventually exhibits a unique personality.

He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance, and when Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy, goes to sleep, and even dreams.

Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!