Sad news yesterday that Stephen Fry has had enough of the trolling and vitriol that he experiences on Twitter. I've no doubt that for celebrities with large followerships, the bile must be overwhelming. Given Fry's great openness about his own mental health challenges, one can imagine that the social networks, and Twitter in particular, are … Continue reading Failing the Turing Test
Category: Themes
There was a short exchange between a Twitter account run by the CBI and Minister for the Digitals Matt Hancock MP last week that in less than 280 characters summed up my concerns for what appears to be currently going on in the UK government: https://twitter.com/MattHancockMP/status/697811253385895937 Now I know that it's probably unfair and unkind … Continue reading Technoration
One of my favourite concepts from my years of studying sociology back in the 1990s was one from the quite frankly partially-hatstand French Postmodernist Jean Baudrillard. There was one book in particular (his 1988 "America") where he talked about how the images that we see on through the windows of a car could, in fact, as … Continue reading A Turing test for VR
I've spent the last couple of days mostly in the wonderful Names Not Numbers event in London, a festival of eclecticism that was timely given my recent thinking about the importance of diversity of thought. The final session I was able to attend yesterday was a debate about the impact of emergent technologies, and particularly the … Continue reading Technology doesn’t shape the future
"Paradigm shift" is a much overused phrase, coined originally by the philosopher Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn argued that far from being a series of linear progressions, the body of scientific thought tended to move in abrupt leaps - paradigm shifts. At times of a new paradigm emerging, established wisdom tends to double-down on the existing models … Continue reading A perfect storm
Worried about your business being "Uberized"? Concerned that your services need to get more like AirBnB? Well, hope you've got deep pockets... There is a pernicious meme that is well established in business that relates that the Internet is basically free. In turn, it relates that technology using the Internet (and mobile too these days) … Continue reading Digital poster children
Yesterday afternoon I happened to be meeting a chap, Jo, who helped to set up Mobile Monday, a community of people involved in the world of mobile technology (whatever the heck that means these days). Jo was recounting the work and effort involved in getting the group off the ground, and how much work there continued … Continue reading Freerange Gathering 1
Every so often I like to play around with some data. Call it data jazz... (that's only semi-serious). Anyway, yesterday I was looking at the Interbrand Top 100 brands, and was wondering how they have changed over time? I constantly hear factoids about how company lifecycles are getting shorter and the world is speeding up. But … Continue reading The rise of automotive
One thing: Ski jumping is a truly bizarre sport. Fling yourself down a big ramp to take off into thin air with only a vast mountain to break your fall. What's always stumped me is how one would work one's way up to the first jump. It's not like swimming where you can wear arm … Continue reading The ski-jump thing
Here's an interesting paradox: teams that include people with greater diversity of background (gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, language, academic level, academic subjects...) are likely to have greater diversity of thinking. Greater diversity of thinking is likely to lead to better decision-making, because if the people making the decisions come at things from multiple perspectives they'll … Continue reading Diversity of thought
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