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Lots
of discussion around Meme 19. Time to turn to Meme 20?
arthur
|
The
MEME
Pool |
;)
|
Drachma-Denarius
Applied Futures Research
and
Strategic
Planning |
July 21 2002
|
From: |
Raymond Bouchard |
|
To: |
Arthur Cordell |
|
Subject: |
Meme 020 |
Dear Arthur
Here's the latest edition of the Meme Pool, the newsletter
of web articles that 'deserve' to be repeated, re-used and re-cycled. Articles
of interest to futurists and strategic planners are presented once a week. They
highlight the appearance and disappearance of trends, technologies and
paradigms.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Many
subscribers have asked if the newsletter is archived anywhere. I am pleased to
announce that after thinking about it for over a year, I finally got around to
setting up a website. Archived articles can now be found at drachma-denarius.com.
I'd
like to create some useful reference pages on the website. For example, under
the links section, I've got a list of futures organizations. Anyone who has any
ideas of what might be useful additions should feel free to send me a
note.
Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno (NBIC) Convergent Technologies
The New Renaissance
"We stand at the threshold
of a New Renaissance in science and technology, based on a comprehensive
understanding of the structure and behavior of matter from the nanoscale up to
the most complex system yet discovered, the human brain. Unification of science
based on unity in nature and its holistic investigation will lead to
technological convergence and a more efficient societal structure. In the early
decades of the twenty-first century, concentrated effort can bring together
nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and new humane
technologies based in cognitive science."
Thus, boldly, begins the report
of the proceedings of workshop on Converging Technologies for Improving Human
Performance. The report is an important piece of futures research. Anyone
willing to crawl through all 400 pages of essays will have a good understanding
of what's going on at the frontiers of these technologies. Highly
recommended.
It is worth remembering that the Renaissance also gave us
Machiavelli and the Borgias. Of what use is it to increase human performance or
potential, if we live in a vacuum of purpose? A few of the essays touch on such
issues, but it is abundantly clear that our capacity to know how vastly
outstrips our ability to understand why.
[NBIC
Reports]
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
The
Devil's Playground
"Teenagers stream in and reach for bottles
of beer with both hands while a deafening band tries AC/DC covers with two
chords. The alcohol leads to cocaine and the party hits a fever pitch before
boys and girls begin to pair off for the night. This could be a typical high
school get-together if it were not for one striking characteristic: These kids
are Amish."
Cinematographer Lucy Walker has produced a film entitled
The Devil's Playground. In it she documents a rite of passage known as
rumspringa. At age 16, Amish teenagers are allowed to cut loose and
experience life devoid of the ordnung, the strict set of rules of their
society. Eventually they must make a choice, return to the community and its
standards, or go out into the world. In this battle for the soul, many return to
the fold, but as adults. They do not attempt to maintain their childhood into
their 30s and 40s.
[21C
Magazine].
AGRICULTURAL POLICY
Cornification
In the US, corn sells for $2 a
bushel and can be grown for as little as $3 a bushel. In order to do this
Congress and the White House emerge from a thicket of free market-free trade
rhetoric long enough to authorize $4 billion a year to corn producers.
An
Op/Ed piece in the New York Times shows how this policy distorts farming
decisions, hurts the environment, packs weight on Americans and may well lead to
disease in both animals and humans. This is a good example of how government
policies, once they get large enough and have been around for a while, create a
new economic environment. (This of course is not unique to the US. It happens
all over the world and can be a particular problem in developing
countries.)
[New York
Times]
IMMIGRATION
The Beurs Just Want
Some Woo-speh
The politics of France set the world on edge
recently when a right wing candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen got second place in
round one of the presidential elections. Among other things, Le Pen felt that
France had just too many immigrants.
Many of the immigrants are Muslims,
a legacy of France's colonial past. An article from the Weekly Standard
describes the clash of cultures in France. Among other things, France has a deep
tradition of keeping religion out of the state, and Islam is a religion that
believes it supercedes the state.
[Weekly
Standard]
INTERNET
Webby
Awards
If you like to surf the web, but find you waste time
going to ho-hum sites, consider browsing through websites that have won awards.
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences brings you the
Webby.
[Webby]
|
If you do not wish to receive THE MEME POOL, because you are already
swamped with too much information, let me know and I'll stop sending it to
you.
If you find the newsletter interesting, pass it along to your
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An introduction to the theory of memes can be found at
Principia
Cybernetica. |
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