My favorite comedy take @ TED is Julia Sweeney's 'Letting go of God.'

Controversial?..... Maybe?

Funny?.... Absolutely!

And if ever you meet her, please don't touch her hair!

Click here to see Julia's TED sketch.

FusionGFX is a company based just down the road from where I live.

Fusion GFX are a Hyperinnovative concern that provide 3D visualisation and simulation equipment, including Real-Time Dynamic Immersive 3D Applications; Immersive Displays, 3D Laser Scanning, and Consultancy

They say:

'By 'fusing' together media from an ever-growing range of sources such as; print, photography, CAD, real-time databases, film, multi-media and the Internet, we are able to create dynamic interactive content to suit any requirement. Our extensive knowledge not only covers visualisation & simulation but the installation and management of the environments that they are used in. These range from Large Scale Immersive Environments such as; Domes, CAVEs™, Reality Rooms, Media Walls etc. to interactive web sites.'

Once again, by interconnecting ideas in n-dimensions you get an emergence that's greater then the individual parts.

Click here to view their website.

Tinker, Tinker Little Star, How I Wonder What You're Creating?

Do you (and if you have any) and your kid(s) tinker? Play around with stuff? Just get some old bits and pieces and make creative thing-up?

Play is the harbinger of creativity, and tinkering is at it root.

Click here to begin to learn the importance of tinkering around!

Serioussss Playyyy!

What's play all about?

Is it something grown-ups shouldn't? Should we all grow up and stop acting the kid?

Well a man called Stuart Brown says something quite different!

Stuart Brown has researched that notion and nature of play through research on murderers -- unlikely as that seems (glup) -- after he found a stunning common thread in killers' stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he's interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity.

With the support of the National Geographic Society he has observed animal play in the wild, where he first concieved of play as an evolved behavior important for the well being -- and survival -- of animals, especially those of higher intelligence.

Now, through his organization, the National Institute for Play, he hopes to expand the study of human play into a vital science -- and help people everywhere enjoy and participate in play throughout life.

"Finally, a good excuse to goof off … Brown builds a compelling case for the importance of recreation to success and creativity -- and insists that grown-ups need it too."
Discover Magazine.

Click here and watch his TED talk! (I'm off to play with my dinner!!!!)

World Friendly and Free!!!!!!

It’s the Ecology Stupid and I’ve been harping on about this for bloody years.

Reducing CO2 emissions - even if we had a magic wand and stopped it immediately - will not stop climate change and global warning.

CO2 does create a green house effect and does accelerate global warming. But even if emissions were drastically reduced, the climate will still march on upward by 2 degrees C over the next 30 to 40 years.

Why?

Because the ecology is dying due to the size of the human population. 7.3 billion of us chewing up the environment, turning green lands into deserts, pastures into barren waste lands – by the mega-square-meter per day.

So, reduce population growth dramatically, and reduce consumption not only by technological efficiency and innovation (as my blog), but by behaviour change. By changing our culture of progress lead by want want want.

By the (linear) projection trends by 2020 consumption will have doubled, and raw material demand and urbanisation will grow by a third. Again pushing the ecology to near deaths door.

A moon-shot-like project to make us reduce CO2 emissions wont work.

What we need is to bring about the equivalent of a 60s’ 'like' cold war competition between the superpowers to battle intellectually and innovativelly with each other on ecological efficiency and growth. Not a green movement. But an world wide bio-ecological boom.

Think about!!! Not World War III. But World Friendly and Free!!!!!!!!!

Scientists are only months away from creating artificial life, it was claimed.

Dr Craig Venter – one of the world’s most famous and controversial biologists – said his U.S. researchers have overcome one of the last big hurdles to making a synthetic organism.

The first artificial lifeform is likely to be a simple man-made bacterium that proves that the technology can work.

But it will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into cleaner natural gas, or algae that can soak up carbon dioxide and convert it into fuels.

They could also be used to create new vaccines and antibiotics.

The prediction came after a breakthrough by the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland USA.

Researchers successfully transferred the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it and then transferred it into another bacterial cell.

Read on, click here.

New Book: The Genie in the Machine.


Can you believe that we've reached the era of Artificial Innovation.

"We've entered the Artificial Invention Age, where programs can automatically synthesize new product designs given only a description of what's required. What's the invention here? Is it the new design? The program? The requirements? And which of these should be patentable? The Genie in the Machine lays out the choices for patent and invention policy with compelling clarity. It's an essential roadmap for anyone concerned with the future of innovation."

Hal Abelson
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We've come a long long way. Now machines are beginning to create artifacts. The book is clear, the designers of the now need to move on to this technology just as they did with CAD in the 1980s.

Well, what's next? I'll keep you posted.

To review the book click here.

6 Mega-Trends for the Future.

Forecast #1: The Race for Genetic Enhancements Will Be What the Space Race Was in the 20th Century—Genetic therapies and biomedical enhancements will be a multibillion-dollar industry. New techniques will enable doctors to change your DNA to revitalize old or diseased organs, enhance your appearance, increase your athletic ability, or boost your intelligence.

Forecast #2: Water Becomes the New Oil—Water desalination may soon become one of the world’s largest industries. By 2040, at least 3.5 billion people will run short of water—almost 10 times as many as in 1995. The huge demand, plus new more efficient desalination technologies, will create enormous profit opportunities and bring new life to arid regions.

Forecast #3: WiMAX Networks Will Soon Create Country-Wide Wireless Internet Access—Often described as “Wi-Fi on steroids,” WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) will cover entire countries with a vibrant, high-speed wireless communications network. Internet access and other data and video applications will be available anywhere with many applications for automobiles.

Forecast #4: By 2025, the Worldwide Average Life-Span Will Be Extended by One year Per Year—Only 15% of deaths worldwide will be due to naturally occurring infectious diseases.

Forecast #5: Bioviolence Becomes a Greater Threat—In the next decade, biological technologies that were once at the frontiers of science will become available to anyone with minimal scientific training. Emerging biotechnologies, such as genomics and nanotechnology, will allow bacteria and viruses to be altered to increase their lethality or make them more resistant to antibiotics.

Forecast #6: Invention Becomes Automated Tomorrow’s inventors won’t toil away in workshops painstakingly building, testing and refining their creations. Instead, the Edisons of the next decade will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then hand those descriptions to computers to work out the solutions. This technology has already designed a successful antenna for a NASA space mission and invented innovative consumer products. It promises to spark a revolution in innovation and allow non-technical people to become inventors. Click here a vistit the Automation Invention website.