Futures Book Club

Just had a great discussion at the first monthly "Futures Book Club". This is a follow on of the Los Angeles Future Salon which has not met again since John Smart and Iveta Brigis left for SFO.

We talked about the internet's current and future influence on culture and society. We discussed how we learn, how our mind adapts, how our vocabularies are changing possibly making access to classical literature less accessible.

We covered computer languages, programmings as Haiku, and limits to servers hosting virtual worlds. We weighted the merits of security, trust, metrics, markets, entertainment, commerce, using social capital, viral presence, Trumors, and what a society needs to know vs. what a society thinks it needs to know. We also share our thoughts about what seems to be the problem facing todays schools teaching in a digital, interconnected world.

We mentioned the Singularity and what in technology makes it more difficult for governments to govern or makes it easier for them to control. We talked about the military's use of simulations and the changing mindset of a trained and/or highly trained soldier.

Randal mentioned how, in the past, HAM radio operators where similar to the internet users in that they spent long hours physically isolated and yet had an international relationships with a great many people sharing many ideas, often filtered through a three character "key code".

Some thoughtful questions raised:

• Twitter raised the important question: "What are you doing now?"
• "What is it possible to do in this culture and not elsewhere?"
• "What are we going to be in 30 years?"
• "In 5 years, will we, with a sensor attached to us, think to Google a query and receive the answer back?" and if so, "Would every MBA student see this as a business advantage at every business meeting and want one?"
  [Would a remote assistant monitoring by cell phone be able to do the same thing?]
• "What's our internet future?" Korea's CY World as an example of ~89% usage.
• "Will taking risks and constant change become a natural skill for the next generation?"

See you all next time.