RSSIs it time for technology to 'reboot' society?
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published June 25, 2008, 8:51 AM
Technology doesn't exist in a vacuum. The quickening pace of innovation can make big changes to human activities that extend to socializing, learning, earning a living, and catching law-breakers, said industry leaders at a Tuesday conference.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - In the United Kingdom, law enforcement officials are now looking at installing "cameras that can detect blood" to ferret out drivers who are trying to cheat on car pooling laws, according to Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard's Berkman Center for Society.
Zittrain was among the speakers at Tuesday's "Rebooting the System" conference, part of Personal Democracy Forum 2008, which took place Monday and Tuesday.
Why detect blood from a distance? British car pooling scofflaws are driving around with inanimate "dummies" in the passenger seat, a scam that's also been pulled in some places in the US.
Still, laws usually need some sort of grassroots support in order to really work, acknowledged Zittrain, quipping that he can hardly wait until someone tries to fool the system by placing some sort of farm animal in the passenger's seat.
Meanwhile, the stellar success of text messaging as a social tool casts doubt on the marketing savvy of some phone companies, suggested another speaker at the conference, which was sponsored by the Personal Democracy Forum.
By and large, telcos once "dismissed text messaging as a side show," contended Mark Pesce, the inventor of VRML (Virtual Reality Mark-Up Language). Due to the Internet, people are learning -- and sharing information and behaviors -- more rapidly than ever before.
"We can send out a call to find 'the others,' and we can watch as 3.5 billion people raise their hands," Pesce told the audience at the conference in Manhattan. "We're learning fast, [and our knowledge] is being 'hyperdistributed' globally. We don't know much about privacy."
Still, the "openness" of Internet communications is rather easy to subvert, indicated Pesce, who maintained, for example, that some key Wikipedia contributors conduct essentially "closed" discussions about articles over "back channels."
Without Web access these days, though, people would find it tough to look for a job, or even to vote, according to Van Jones, founder and president of environmental and economic advocacy group Green for All.
Right now, too much technology is in the hands of the "problem makers," as opposed to the "problem solvers," Jones argued. He proposed that the economic slump might be addressed through government-funded initiatives that create new jobs and use new technologies to fight problems like global warming, the energy crisis, and skyrocketing gas prices.
"If we could combine 'green' with 'technology,' we could have the country we want," according to Jones. "We could beat poverty and pollution at the same time."
I'd be more of the opinion of a complete FF&R.
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|Yeah Jones, and if we combine "socialism" with "political correctness", we'll have a New World Order that you and the rest of those green global warmist fascists so desperately want to be a part of controlling.
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|Other activities the public needs net access to do these days:
1. Get a free Sony Playstation 3
2. Purchase some v1agra
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|Links please.
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|The country they want is socialist with government in control of everything...including all forms of technology. Mans' technology is a tool. nothing less. People in general understand little to nothing about these tools. THAT'S THE PROBLEM. If the real problem doesn't get fix, government will step in and basicly control entire populations by using technology. What the world is headed for is more like some 70's or 80's sci-fi futuristic nightmare. A soilent green future not quite like the matrix but stronger than any middle-ages kingdom.
Yes, people are learning. They are learning that there are things out there. But, too few are learning that much of what's out there shouldn't be used.
Technology is NOT the be-all and end-all. It is not and never will be the cure-all. The only real fix is for people to learn and understand the technology they buy and use. That is not happening. What is happening is that people are leaving that kind of understanding to others. The general public just "wants it to work". No one cares about the how's or the why's. Too many people feel like they don't need to know or that they shouldn't have to know. "Leave it to the IT staff" mentalities are so pervasive. This is about alot more than just having a MySpace page. It is more about understanding why nine year olds should never be on MySpace to begin with. It's more than how to creatively thwart red light cameras. It's about understanding what those cameras truly mean with what they can do.
One Laptop Per Child is the perfect example of such ridiculous idiocy.
The "problem makers" they refer to is really those people that actually take the initiative to learn about the how's and why's that become powerful enough in themselves to NOT follow idiotic government controls why developing self-sufficience.
Things like "Green for All" make me sick with their lies, distortions, and half-truths.
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|"Without Web access these days, though, people would find it tough to look for a job, or even to vote"
1. I've never found a job by searching the Internet. It's always landed by knowing someone that gave me a leg up.
2. Where are they voting on the web "these days"? I haven't seen it anywhere.
Regardless, the discussion in this article meanders all over the place. The last paragraph seems like a complete departure from the first. What's the point? Technology will fix society? That's a good one.
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|Just because you live in 18th century, doesn't mean everyone else does. Millions of people have found jobs online. In the place I work for, the only way to get listings of jobs is to go online. As far as voting goes, I think he was talking about being able to find information that will help you decide on a candidate.
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|If that's what he was talking about, then that's what he should have said.
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|"Regardless, the discussion in this article meanders all over the place..."
Well, whacha expect!? It's by good ole Jaq!
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|There's always the old stand-bys:
Walk in and ask if they're hiring.
Pick up the newspaper.
No-one *needs* the internet.
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|"No-one *needs* the internet."
The internet helps a lot of people make a lot of money...without the internet, sure they can figure out a way to make money without it...but probably not nearly as much...which means they can't afford their mortgage or their childrens expensive college education....do they "need" the internet?
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|*LAUGHING*
...and they call *me* the Tool.
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