ItSeemstoMe

I am a Globalist

A thought came to me sometime today.  I am a globalist. Not in the sense of favoring huge, multinational corporate powerhouses, although I have no inherent problem with them as such.  But I am a globalist in terms of people. As a blogger, I speak with people in three, occasionally four continents every week and I just love it.  I love seeing how much we have in common on so many levels.

There's a combination of factors that have been going on this week, all kind of blending together into this thought.  I've been reading Thomas L. Friedman's marvelous The World is Flat. An elderly Jewish person I care about is growing uncomfortable with the influx of Afghani Muslims and Indian Hindus into her neighborhood. A guy in front of me in the bakery line told me that all of America's problems could be solved if we built walls around our borders to keep all outsiders, well, out.  A client was telling me about the amazing transformations going in Bangalore.  My friend Ivan let me know that the Singapore Library system would be buying 22 copies of my book.  My email repeatedly failed to reach a friend in China who had voiced objections to the government's suppression of a blogger. A pair of Christian evangelists came to my door, and when I told them that I was Jewish they smiled and said we're all God's children, when I suspect they thought I was really destined to burn in Hell.

I am a globalist, because I feel kinship with people all over the world. Because we share similar ethics, interests, passions, knowledge.  Sometimes I don't feel that kinship with my own neighbors. I think one of the great miracles of the Internet and blogosphere is that we can find people we share kinships with all over the world--at least if their governments don't get in the way.

I may not ever belong in a business larger than my home office can accommodate, which means my wife, my dog, cat and myself, but I have truly become a globalist.

China's Cute Internet Cops

Once again through Rebecca MacKinnon, comes a story of how China is intimidating Internet users to keep in line. A south China city introduces to lovable cartoon cops to let people see the police are watching citizens as closely online as they do offline.

Maybe They'll Outsource it to India

Panel Nixes NASA's Hubble Fix
By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News

Dec. 9, 2004 — NASA's plan to send a robot to do an astronaut's job is too expensive, technically risky and too time-consuming to develop, said a scientific panel that investigated a NASA proposal to outfit the Hubble Space Telescope for several more years of scientific research.

The space agency backed away from plans to send shuttle astronauts to repair and upgrade the orbiting observatory following the February 2003 Columbia accident

Bionic People

I read Bary Bonds leaked testimony to the grand jury investigating steroid administration to top athletes. He testified that he didn't know the drugs supplied by trainer Greg Anderson were illegal: "When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.' Somehow, this has the ring of truth to it, or so it seems to me, or maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. In any case, there appears to be little doubt that some of our most respected athletes have been taking human-enhancing medications. It seems to me, this is a practice that probably will not be stoppable and the real implications will be part of the course taken by the human race.

I attended PopTech 04 back in October and found it among the most interesting conferences I ever attended on my Conferenza beat. Numerous speakers examined technology new focus on enhancing people.

Joel Garreau, was among the conference favorites. He called said we have entered into “third evolution in which we will enhance our ability to shape ourselves” by re-engineering ourselves through four emerging technologies: Genomics, robotics, information- and nano-technology (GRIN). Garreau forecast: “Over the next 20 to 30 years, we will change the essence of humankind.”

Garreau presented a string of dramatic anecdotes supporting his case, showing film clips of a Duke University-housed telekinetic monkey that became addicted to a joystick-controlled computer game. Researchers implanted the monkey with a brain-wire device using 600 micro-probes to monitor muscle movements, letting scientists literally read her thoughts while she played. Then they disconnected the joystick from the console, and the monkey continued making moves in the video game, apparently playing by thoughts alone. Researchers then connected her through the Internet to a game console at MIT, 600 miles away, where her thoughts moved robotic arms to play the game with equal speed and skill. Was this real or special effects? I’m not absolutely certain.

DARPA funded the project. Why spend time and money on a telekinetic monkey? “Think of the battle advantages of flying an F22 plane with thoughts instead of pilots,” said Garreau. He said that the next step is to move from telekinetic to telepathic monkeys, and then to step up to developing the same capability in genetically-enhanced humans. His example: The dramatic body changes that occurred to Barry Bonds in his 30s. Just when most people get slower and weaker, Bonds mysteriously got stronger, faster and larger. Garreau wondered if in the future, there will be an asterisk beside Bonds’ name, saying he is no longer the same kind of human as Babe Ruth when he smashed through the long-standing home run record.

Garreau claimed every attribute of every comic book super hero is now under development in some laboratory, and we can expect those attributes to be attainable within the next 20 to 30 years. Will we someday deliberately alter genes to produce athletes or valedictorians? If Garreau is right, we have already gotten our toes wet with genetically-enhanced people. Work is underway to defeat disease, improve memory, upgrade cognition and even change eye color. You can hear his full 50-minute talk at IT Conversations, the increasingly valuable audio, or "podcast" site. You can also get the full Conferenza PopTech report by emailing me.

It seems to me that we are entering a new era in the very nature of humankind. What may be considered cheating by professionals today, may be treated tomorrow as nonchalantly as a jar of wrinkle cream or vitamin enhancements tomorrow. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen.

The Terrorist Advantage

I just took my wife Paula's mom to the airport. It's the first time she's had to fly alone, since she had total hip replacement surgery a few months back. The new hip is a sure be to set off the security metal detector every time, which guarantees my 85-year-old mother-in-law will get a pat down search every time. She doesn't seem to mind. I suppose she enjoys the attention.

It means, that while she's going through this process, as her designated escort, I get to stand and chat with the security agents. Today's frisking went on a while and the agent and I began to chat. He talked about the old days before he became a recovering alcoholic, when he'd get bombed before flying (maybe, I shouldn't use "bombed" in this context). He'd occasionally end up in the wrong destination--once to his horror in tea-toting Salt Lake City.

"I suppose security has changed things," I said. "It's really hard these days to get on the wrong plane." He thought for a second, moving his head from side-to-side. "Not hard enough. The bad guys always have one advantage over us," he told me. "They don't mind getting killed and we do."

I told my mother-in-law to call me once she's landed at her destination.

Scoble, Bush & Jailed Journalists

Lately, my friend Robert Scoble has given me more plugs in his blog than I had in my old Schwinn Bike’s inner tube. But in Robert’s brilliant Corporate Manifesto , he advises against posting when depressed. For that reason, I have been less than prolific lately. Much of it has to do with the recent election. Hell, I'm not crying because Kerry lost. I didn't think much of him to begin with. It’s because George Bush won and that really scares me.

Much has occurred in a few short weeks to confirm my dark fears that the Bill of Rights is under assault—except maybe the gun control part. The First Amendment appears to me to be in the crosshairs of harm’s way. I love the flagship amendment's wording: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” I love its clarity. You’d think “no laws,” meant just that, but, it’s been a struggle to maintain its integrity since its inception, and now the dangers of losing all or part of it are mkost threatened.

Today in America—not the Ukraine or China—today, there are 12 reporters facing imprisonment for simply doing their jobs and refusing to rat out confidential sources. Two reporters have been sentenced, but remain free pending appeals. Jim Taricani , a TV reporter for WJAR TV in Providence, RI, faces up to six months in jail, after he was convicted Nov. 19 of criminal contempt. His crime: refusing to disclose who gave him a FBI videotape showing a city official taking a bribe.

If Taricani’s story scares me, the ongoing travails of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter is downright chilling. She’s accused of writing nothing at all, but of having talked to a few people regarding the outing of Valerie Plame , the wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson , 2003, who was revealed to be a CIA operative by conservative columnist Bob Novak who-you guessed it—“cited confidential sources.” Her situation is uniquely Orwellian. “I’m facing jail for something I never wrote,” she has been quoted as saying. The government wants to her to name an alleged source that she never quoted, and if she loses her appeal next week, it can be the slammer for Judith. Ironically, it does not appear, from what I’ve read, that Novak has been asked to reveal his source in the original story, although there is a national movement forming to “Bust Bob.”

It seem to me ironic that Bush and his supporters are the ones who complain about “activist judges .” If Congress can make no law to abridge free press, who empowered judges to do so? I think we are all endangered by the loss of one reporter’s freedom to ask back-channel questions and we all need to fear a government that watches too closely who speaks to whom and listens too closely to what was said.

I wonder if 48 months from now, I'll still be able to publish words like these without repercussion and I am not optimistic.

The Result of Bush-bashing

Through a comment on a David Weinberger posting, I was pointed to this eloquent, moving anonymous letter from "Sad American." I thought David's posting was funny. I thought Sad American's was important.

Election Reflection

Some of my best friends are Republicans.

None of them are right-wing religious fanatics. Nor, from what they tell me, do any of them favor the repeal of Roe v. Wade and, to varying degrees, they share my concerns over Patriot Act provisions, prisoner treatment at Guantanamo and a repugnancy over Abu Ghraib prison. I would guess they share my belief stem cell research in the US should accelerate. None has an NRA slogan sticking to his bumper.

My Republican friends, as well as my fellow Democrats, even agreed in this last election that all those issues were dwarfed by two over-riding larger issues: terrorism and extricating the U.S. from the lobster trap that is Iraq. On those, we disagreed, often with passion and acrimony about which candidate was the wiser-or less bad--choice. Privately, both sides conceded they didn’t think very highly of their candidate. They just feared the other guy worse.

Our central argument, on reflection, could be boile down to: “My jerk is better than your jerk.” Okay sometimes the language was stronger than that. In the end more people went with their jerk.

Winston Churchill said that in a democracy we always get precisely who we deserve. It seems to me that America and the world deserved better than either party offered us.

Maybe next time, we'll do better. Maybe not.

How Bush Won

Jason Kotke writes with wisdom and eloquence about how Republicans and Democrats get sucked into cheer leading for "our sides," how each side gets sanctimonious about its virtues and the others vices.

"Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid. We're convinced several times a day to do things that aren't in our best interests. We work too hard. We're drinking, eating, medicating, and smoking ourselves into early graves. We overextend ourselves on credit. .."

http://www.kottke.org/04/11/how-bush-won

http://www.kottke.org/04/11/how-bush-won

Post-election Commentary

Bummer...