FutureVigil (r) » futurist

WorldFutureConference Boston July 8-10

Jeffrey Newman — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:30:59 +0000

WorldFuture 2010, an annual conference organized by the World Future Society will be held from July 8-10 at The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel and the lineup of speakers and topics is awsome. Topics will inclde “The Future of Terror” and “Challenges and Opportunities in Space Medicine.” Other topics will include future corporate strategy. Allison Sander, Director of the Center for Sensing & Mining the Future at the Boston Consulting Group said that many corporations are recognizing the importance of planning 5-30 years ahead. Other topics include The Future of The Internet; The Future of Faith; Foresight in the Corporate World; Trends and Approaches That Leading Companies use to Navigate a Fast-Changing World; Creating Susatainable Futures; World Water Scenarios and much more. For a schedule see:http://www.wfs.org/2010futures.htm#Corporate.

Why Ipad is the future of computing

Jeffrey Newman — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:22:00 +0000

The Ipad embraces the ideas that photos, music, movies and documents of all kinds, will let you do everything you can imagine for work or play. It is going to become the universal information appliance, which defines the term user friendly.

The ipad or versions that will be like it will allow for one device to view movies, listen to music, communicate by videoconferencing and play video games on one device with rich visuals. This is the future of computing.

GOOGLE’S OUTAGES IN CHINA–THE END?

Jeffrey Newman — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:01:28 +0000

on Tuesday of this week, Google’s search engine site in China stopped working. Users in China received error messages for Google searches. Google also said that its mobile services were being partially blocked and that the Chinese government was definitely behind it. Beijing has expressed anger at Google for refusing to censors the site. Is this the beginning of the end for Google in China? If so, the company should be lauded for its courage and ultimately if other companies stood up to the goliath in the same way, it would change more quickly. The average modern chinese citizen wants to be more part of the modern world and the economic incentives for this abound. This is why I think the government will finally evolve on human rights and censorship issues–but no without prodding by such great companies as Google.

China Dispatch-A desire to know Americans

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:32:52 +0000

Yesterday, my wife and I were heading to the Shanghai Museum and on the way in a young Chinese woman in her early 20’s and her male friend came over and offered to take our photo. Her friend was a childhood buddy from their hometown a couple of hours a way and they both proceeded ask us questions about America and our interests and our films and books and also told us about themselves. They were so curious and wanting to show off their english (which is excellent), I found them refreshing and a delight to be around. They suggested that instead of seeing the museum, we should come with them to a nearby teahouse, which we did. Three hours later, we left the teahouse after an interesting discussion with them about everything under the sun. The young man was one year out of college and working with his father at his wig factory until he could figure out what he wanted to do. His interests are varied including an avid love for American films, lately Avatar, which he loved but also older films such as Titanic which he saw ten times. His hobbies are singing American songs in a kind of Kareoke experience in the evening with his friends, video games, reading science fiction (which he says is a growing trends in China), traveling to other countries and being with old friends. Both wanted to tell me the respect the Chinese have for Obama and the tough job they know he has. They are hoping for more integration between the Chinese people and Americans and how they feel that Americans would like their culture and history of which they are so proud. I was amazed at their facility with the English language and obvious their love of speaking it. I felt the fool for know so little Mandarin. That afternoon, they were heading fr the circus and afterwards to be with friends. The energy and love for life was so obvious and fun to experience. Now I mention this couple for a reason. First, they engaged us and really wanted to learn from speaking to us. They wanted is to know how the average Chinese citizen wants to learn from Americans and that there is an information void notwithstanding the internet. I felt like they were a kind of window into the future and when I left them felt more optimistic for some reason. China is such a dynamic place–not just the fact of growth and expansion here but a need to learn and grow and yearning for integration with individuals from other parts of the world. I know many of the problems of the Chinese leadership–the human rights violations, lack of rule of law, piracy of intellectual property etc. but all of that seems a glitch in the future of things as it relates to the incredible people i have met here. I now feel a desire to learn the language (my daughter is fluent) in order to better understand the people and their culture here. With al the problems in the world, there are none which cannot be overcome with a unified worldwide convergence of intellect and effort. This can and will occur. I am more convinced than ever before.

WHEN CHINA RULES THE WORLD By MARTIN JACQUES

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:44:17 +0000

Soon I will be traveling to Kungming China with my daughter, who will spend six months studying the Chinese culture and the Chinese public health system. I figured I’d better read some books about China since I know dangerously little and what little I do know comes from our news media. Martin Jacques, a Professor, founder of a think tank and journalist wrote an interesting book theorizing that China will soon rule the world and it won’t be the same. By conservative estimates, by 2027, the Chinese economy will overtake ours as the world’s largest economy and by 2050 it will be twice as large as the U.S. economy. Jacques, who bases his theories upon his studies of Chinese history, says that China will come to control the world economy and will hold a strong hierarchical view of things which views itself as a superior civilization to all others. Mandarin, now spoken by twice as many people in the world than those speaking English, will become a primary language. Chinese Universities will, over the next two decades come to occupy positions within the top ten universities in the world, attracting scholars from around the world. China will take a more proactive and interventionist role in international financial affairs, Shanghai will become a global financial center, all of which will be hastened by the global crises we are now facing. This large book, filled with history, data and extrapolations, is not an easy read but it is a worthwhile read. The world is changing so quickly and in such fundamental ways that we need to reach out for well informed information in our daily lives. When I am in China, I will report daily on my observations and the translations of my daughter, who is 20 and fluent in Mandarin.

EARTH TO GET CLOSE SHAVE FROM NEW ASTEROID

Jeffrey Newman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:58:07 +0000

An asteroid 30 to 50 feet across will pass by the Earth at just more than one-third the distance between the Earth and the moon on Wednesday. That’s the closest near-Earth object approach currently known between now and the flyby in 2024 of a similar-size object known as 2007 XB23.

The new asteroid, called 2010 AL30, was discovered by the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program, and announced Monday by the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

It should be noted that an asteroid this small probably would not cause major damage were it to impact Earth’s atmosphere, and would probably burn up before it reached the planet’s surface.

Google: Glimmer of a Soul?

Jeffrey Newman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:36:58 +0000

Following on the heels of Google’s announcement that it may pull out of China, Joe Schoendorf, a Partner at Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm told the New York Times “Google has Microsoft on the ropes, and China is arguably the world’s most important market outside of the U.S. You don’t walk away from that on principle.” Mr. Schoendorf may be missing a critical point in long term corporate strategy. If Google is bold enough to take a stand now and close its operations in China, it will serve the establish the company as a leader on the world stage, placing it ahead of any other company in helping to formulate policies dealing with human rights and other legal issues. China, with its expanding role as a global economic power, has had few challenges by corporations or government intervention. Here we have the first glimmer of Google’s soul–what the company is at its heart. This will not be lost on consumers long term. Even publicly traded corporations cannot make decisions based solely on the best interests of its stockholders. Google would go a long way in establishing itself as the visionary company of our time if it pulls out of China. Other companies would do well to watch and do the same. The global arena of nations and companies cannot allow China to breach internation laws and human rights as it wishes. Th e long term ramifications to this are unthinkable, as China gains further strength. If Google wants to take its place as the greatest company in the world, surpassing Microsoft, it should stake its moral ground now.

Why Does Denmark Lead the Way for Digital Healthcare?

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:33:04 +0000

Denmark has spearheaded the use of electronic healthrecords and use of telemedicine via the internet to assist doctors in treating their patients. There are a number of telemedicine projects allowing monitoring patients in their home saves doctors an average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work. Apparently Denmark’s success may relate to its small size and homogeneous population as well as its regulated population. However, what it does is not complicated. One hospital uses IBM software that takes data from the patient’s records and superimposes it on a three dimensional image of the human body. This allows the doctor to quickly assess the person’s medical history and the doctor can click on ailments to get more info. Since most experts agree that institution of these systems will save money, lives and reduce time expenditure all with off the shelf existing technologies, the question remains is why the United States isn’t advancing more quickly like Denmark?

LEONARD COHEN “The Future”

Jeffrey Newman — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:27:20 +0000

“The Future”

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that’s left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don’t know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I’m the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
but love’s the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It’s over, it ain’t going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil’s riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide …

There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You’ll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin’

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide …

When they said REPENT REPENT …

Isaac Asimov on Threats to Society

Jeffrey Newman — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:44:49 +0000

Isaac Asimov, brilliant scientist and writer speaks about threats to humanity, including global warming in an interview, posted here at this writing.