Blogging Kevin Kelly and Others at Masie

Scattershot notes from Second City
One of the techniques I use to have students experience dialogue is to have two students build a sentence one word at a time going back and forth. That way they need to pay attention to what the other person is saying and build upon it thus establishing what David Baum would call flow.

Second City communications just did a very cool skit called Dr. Know It All, three people lined up answer audience questions one word at a time. I will be sure to incorporate this into my repertoire.

Scattershot notes from Kevin Kelly.

“TV and Phone got married and had a love child called the internet and it is improving our choices and ability to communicate.”

If we can be whoever we want to be then who do we want to be?

Wikipedia was impossible in theory but possible in practice. We can do things with the collective that we could not imagine doing before. We know we can’t do everything that way but we don’t yet know what we can’t do. Can we build an airplane that way?

Historically, knowledge came from an authority. The way we learn things is changing. We have a process called the scientific method to help us make sense of things. I think the scientific method will change particularly on how we agree on what is true. Wikipedia says “consistent opinion is true.”

How to cut through collective ignorance: Wisdom of the Crowd versus the Stupidity of Mob is a delicate balance.

Doing less things as an individual through increasing tools of socialism, but it is not socialist because it is not about making everyone the same. Increasing power of group PLUS increased individual uniqueness and freedom. Cool thing is you can increase both.

Imagine companies with open salaries and open books. Expense Reports: You can do whatever you want but every employee has the ability to review your expenses.

Not about transparency from a governance POV, but this is transparency from a social point of view. So you get to see what is appropriate and it distributes training into the very fabric of the firm.

Science progresses us faster through tools rather than theory. Invention and dissemination of tools is what drives economy.

You clue takes Innocentive model to the masses and is run on Ning.

Kevin is optimistic that we can change on the environment. Response to ills and problems caused by technology should be better technology. We can make cars that get 1000 miles a gallon. So he is optimistic about being at piece in environment.

Designer have an approach to the world and to life that is different. “Build to Think…the first thing they really do is build a very quick prototype and iterate through the process over time. Try and do things as a way of thinking. That way do becomes think.”

Failure is the most important part of learning. What you want to have are lots of little failures to keep them constant and small rather than catastrophic at end. Bring them forward and manage them as you go along.

We tend to be too cerebral in design. We need to actually do it with our hands and our heart not just our head.

How would you redesign the learning function in organization? Learning and teaching are symmetrical. You become one or the other. Get people to become better at communicating what and how they have learned themselves is key. Make everyone a teacher and you have a learning organization.

Learning is like an addiction. He spends a lot of time thinking about his learning process. He tries to appraise the process and iterates on it.

Poptimistic: came from Hollywood. Happy cheerful free-color version of the world. People are basically good, color is free, lets make people happy.

What does technology want? Dawkins did this with the “Selfish Gene.” Helpful to ask technology what it wants. It wants increased diversity, general to specific (same arc as evolution), to become more efficient, increase in complexity. Similar trajectory to live. Technology is the seventh kingdom of live. Very similar in evolution. Technology extinction is never part of the equation.

Book: The Singularity is Near – He disagrees with it but that is why it is provocative.

Place on Earth to study more: China. Not just about cheap copying.

Election Process: Voting is a small part of democracy.

Next Generation Hope: That they will treat us well. Different kind of old. Baby boomers will create a new kind of old.

Movie to Impact World Theme: Optimism leads to better behavior. In the end you have to have hope that things will be better you behave differently.

Wired: Push…end of browser. Got that totally wrong.

His next book: How should I feel about technology? Is there some way to evaluate whether it is good for us or not.

Wow…final chart. The Global Economy is like a human being. Look at financial crisis and think of it as one missed financial heartbeat across the globe: