Technology can do many amazing things, but no GPS unit or CatCam can tell us what questions we should be asking in the first place.
— Alexis C. Madrigal (The Atlantic)
1 month ago
April 8, 2013
8 months ago
September 16, 2012
reblogged via 
To Parsons, maps can be so much more than maps. They can be all the information that exists in physical space, and then a layer of intelligence that can put that information to use. He says in the interview, “How can we almost predict the sorts of information that you’re going to need in your day to day life? Can I say, uh well, this morning you’ve got an extra 20 minutes to have your breakfast cereal because the train you normally take has been delayed. You haven’t asked me that, but I know because of what you do usually, and I’ve got these various feeds of data that are contextual. I can start to make those decisions for you.” Of course, he notes, Google’s going to have proceed with caution as it rolls out these kinds of services because “there’s kind of a fine line that you run between this being really useful and it being creepy.” That’s going to be pretty tough to get around.
10 months ago
June 30, 2012
reblogged via 
The 100-Year March of Technology in 1 Graph
- In 1900, <10% of families owned a stove or had access to electricity
- In 1915, <10% of families owned a car
- In 1930, <10% of families owned a refrigerator or clothes washer
- In 1945, <10% of families owned a clothes dryer or air-conditioning
- In 1960, <10% of families owned a dishwasher or color TV
- In 1975, <10% of families owned a microwave
- In 1990, <10% of families had a cell phone or access to the Internet
Today, at least 90% of the country has a stove, electricity, car, fridge, clothes washer, air-conditioning, color TV, microwave, and cell phone.
1 year ago
April 8, 2012
reblogged via 
#ADA11 Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day from Adafruit Industries
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.
Features hackers, engineers, makers, producers , artists and much more
1 year ago
October 7, 2011
reblogged via 
I believe the single skill that will, above all others, distinguish a literate person is programming literacy, the ability to make digital technology do whatever, within the possible one wants it to do — to bend digital technology to one’s needs, purposes, and will, just as in the present we bend words and images. Some call this skill human-machine interaction; some call it procedural literacy. Others just call it programming.
1 year ago
August 8, 2011
reblogged via
In project after project, the lesson was the same: information technology amplified the intent and capacity of human and institutional stakeholders, but it didn’t substitute for their deficiencies. If we collaborated with a self-confident community or a competent non-profit, things went well. But, if we worked with a corrupt organization or an indifferent group, no amount of well-designed technology was helpful.
— International development: Technology is not the answer The Atlantic (via somethingchanged)
2 years ago
April 20, 2011
reblogged via 
Does Technology Make Us More Productive Workers?
Technology has many benefits, one of which is to make us more efficient workers. And throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, productivity has increased as technology has made it easier for us to work faster and connect with our fellow workers.
» via GOOD
2 years ago
September 15, 2010
reblogged via
On “Mind Over Mass Media” By Steven Pinker
Likewise, Facebook — as a way for college kids to meet and greet one another — was a terrific program. As a mirror through which young people forge an identity, however, the program is lacking the nuance of real life. Facebook — more than a program to be feared for its code — is a business plan to be feared for its ubiquity. The object of Facebook is to monetize social interactions. This is the bias of the program, and a bias of which most people are painfully unaware.
Meanwhile, the positive effects of new media — such as their destabilization of centralized currencies and challenge to the forced monopolization of value creation — will remain unrecognized until we move beyond our artificially polarized reaction to the tools, and engage in a more qualitative study of their influences in different circumstances.
The real power of our computers and networks to expand human capacity, promote a global consciousness, and catalyze the evolution of our species will only be realized if we rise above this endless tit-for-tat between “pro” and “anti” technology camps, and instead begin to reckon with the very real biases of these media, as well as how they amplify or diminishes the biases of the systems in which they are operating.
Douglas Rushkoff (via Edge: THE REALITY CLUB)
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