[political-research] The Missing Near Future
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: The Missing Near Future via The Technium on 11/17/08 Science fiction is an entertaining way to worry about the present. It uses stories set in the future to confront issues of today. Even when it is oozing marvels which have not yet been invented, those futuristic things can only be related in the way the current audience perceives them. Just look at decades old science fiction to see how old-fashion-y it considers the inventions of today – computers and the like. That’s what makes us giggle about yesterday’s visions of tomorrow. In the past they get the new gizmo, but miss the new context. It’ll be the same with the most edgy science fiction today. In the future they will giggle. Regrettably the bias of the creation date is indelible. The best scenarioists understand this. Here is contemporary sci-fi hero William Gibson on why much of his science fiction these days is placed in the here and now, or what he poetically calls the “ever-alien present”: I took it for granted that the present moment is always infinitely stranger and more complex than any "future" I could imagine. My craft would be (for a while, anyway) one of importing steamingly weird fragments of the ever-alien present into "worlds" (as we say in science fiction) that purported to be "the future". Of course not everyone is satisfied with the ever-alien present and craves some ever-alien future. Best would be the far future where true “otherness” lives. Where the beliefs and assumptions of today can really be tested. Hollywood, which has taken over the cultural center of science fiction, prefers the cinematic far future, and so we continue to devour the far future sagas of Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica, Star Wars, Firefly, and so on. But current science fiction of all types is leaving the near future a bit blank. As an audience we can believe an alien present. It’s like today, only more so. Maybe an alternative version of today. We can also easily be persuaded to believe in a far future. We feel sure that someday, somehow they’ll have massive floating cities, or highways in the sky, instant food, and all the rest. We feel certain about this despite the fact that we can’t fund fast trains between our cities today, or permit genetically modified insect-resistant corn, or take any unified step toward large-scale 21-century developments. Even returning to the moon next decade seems far-fetched. The near future – let’s peg it 2020 and beyond -- is a blank because there is almost no vision of a near-future that seems both desirable and plausible. Most stories, “worlds,” and scenarios of say the year 2050 are dystopian. Take your pick of nuclear self-annihilation, mortal pandemics, planetary floods, robotic overthrow, alien invasion, or fascist apocalypse. They are all very plausible, but not desirable. The advantage of the far future is we don’t have to be told the story of how we arrived there, of how we passed through the near future. It’s far away enough that the creators can punt past it. But the near future is such a conundrum that is it has disappeared from our culture. Computer scientist and inventor Danny Hillis, born in 1956, noticed that when he was a child the future was ‘far away’ in the year 2000, but that as he grew older, the future remained rooted to the year 2000, as if newness could not move beyond that boundary. He describes it as feeling as if the future was “shrinking” year by year until in 1999 the future was only one year long. Now that we’ve passed through 2000, the future has effectively disappeared – except for the far far future. This disappearance has been made more real by key science fiction authors, futurists, and the brainy, nerdy folks who ordinarily keep busy churning out visions of tomorrow. A common belief in this circle is that things are moving so fast and weird that it is physically impossible to imagine the future of 2050 and beyond. Many of these futurists believe this discontinuity, called the singularity, is eminently desirable, because it is sure to lead to great intelligence, greater wealth, greater heath and immortality. But because it is forecast to come about via the shattering of what we understand humans to be now, many others will resist this future at all costs. And others believe the singularity future is not only undesirable, but implausible. Either way, we are left with a blank for the near future. We have no story of progress that fits in the next century. There is no vision of 50 years hence that billions of people on earth would say, yes, that is what I want. Billions of people in the developing world know what they want tomorrow: clean water, free education, self-governance, cheap consumer goods, and hope for their kids. But beyond that, what? What do the billion in developed nations want? A clean environment and opportunities for meaningful work and ……? We have great difficulty imagining progress in this century because in the last
Re: [political-research] Here it is - search your web history with infoaxe
There are many ways to access, monitor and record one's every click and keystroke. Probably the best assumption to make is that one has no real privacy on the Internet. Regarding al-Qaeda: for an organization that is supposed to be the contemporary equivalent of Nazism or Communism, it is the most wispy and least concrete entity imaginable. Where are the major show trials of al-Qaeda leaders? --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Mark S Bilk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Mark S Bilk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [political-research] Here it is - search your web history with infoaxe To: political-research@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 7:44 PM The infoaxe FAQ says that every user's web history is stored on the infoaxe servers. This is a perfect way for the government to find out what any person is looking at on the Web. Why is it called infoAXE? Why not infotool or infomemory or infohistory, etc.? Could it be that it's a government axe ready to fall on anyone they're trying to gather evidence on of non-existent "terrorism" ? BTW, here's proof that the Al-Qaeda terror network is entirely fictional -- a Big Lie: The BBC documentary _The Power of Nightmares_ (3 episodes of almost 1 hour each) is very informative about the Neocons and the lies they tell purposely in order to manipulate the public into obedience. It also gives the history of Islamic fundamentalism, and proves that "Al-Qaeda" does not exist, and never did -- the idea was fabricated by a prisoner, Jamal al-Fadl, who was paid and given witness protection. This proof begins at about 6 minutes into the 3rd episode, when Jason Burke, author of a book on Al-Qaeda, is first shown. The video is available in various formats (from small file low resolution to large file high resolution) for free and rapid download here: http://www.archive. org/details/ ThePowerOfNightm ares On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 04:31:48PM -0800, Sean McBride wrote: > Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Here it is - search > your web history with infoaxe via AltSearchEngines by Charles Knight on > 11/17/08 > > What exactly is infoaxe? > > infoaxe is your Personal Web Memory. You never have to remember a web > page by bookmarking, emailing to yourself etc. We believe that a Web > user has more important things to do while on the Web than to do these > other tasks which are basically, distractions. > > With infoaxe, whatever you ’see’ on the Web, becomes instantly > searchable for you. You carve out your space on the Web by the sites > you visit and infoaxe lets you search, manage and take this with you > wherever you go. You will never forget a Web page again. Ever. > > Why do I need infoaxe? Here are some sample scenarios where infoaxe > comes in handy. > > John had found a review about the IPhone a few months back that he > really liked. He wants to share that review with his friend Jill but he > can’t seem to find it again amidst the deluge of IPhone reviews on > Google. > > Since with infoaxe, you now have your Personal Web Memory, John can > find the IPhone review that he liked, very easily by searching his Web > Memory with infoaxe. > > Mary is hunting for apartments in Palo Alto. She has looked at many > apartments on craigslist and rent.com. She is finding it impossible to > keep track of the ones she liked. Bookmarking seems like a lot of work > for so many pages and an overkill since she is sure that after this > week she wouldn’t really be looking at these apartments again. > > Mary does not have to bookmark anything. If she wanted to revisit all > the apartments she looked at on University Avenue, she could just > search infoaxe with the query ‘university avenue’. > > You will also notice that with infoaxe, you can afford to be lazier > than with Google. For eg. if you wanted to revisit your friend John’s > blog but can’t remember the url. Finding it with google would most > likely involve a fairly long query to wade through all the other Johns > on the Web. With infoaxe, you can afford to just type in “John blog” > and you are very likely to see it right at the top. (assuming of course > that you have seen in it at least once before) > > What is Pivot? > > Here is a another slightly less obvious use case. Say, you wanted to > look at all the websites you looked at when you were researching grad > schools. This sounds almost impossible to accomplish with a general Web > Search Engine like Google. The right query is quite hard in this case > since there likely isn’t one single query which will give you all the > pages. You might have looked at other grad schools like MIT, CMU etc, > tips for writing good grad school essays etc. infoaxe helps you here by > letting you pivot around a Web page in your Web Memory. Think of this > as something like time travel. You can ask infoaxe to show you all the > web pages you were
Re: [political-research] Here it is - search your web history with infoaxe
The infoaxe FAQ says that every user's web history is stored on the infoaxe servers. This is a perfect way for the government to find out what any person is looking at on the Web. Why is it called infoAXE? Why not infotool or infomemory or infohistory, etc.? Could it be that it's a government axe ready to fall on anyone they're trying to gather evidence on of non-existent "terrorism" ? BTW, here's proof that the Al-Qaeda terror network is entirely fictional -- a Big Lie: The BBC documentary _The Power of Nightmares_ (3 episodes of almost 1 hour each) is very informative about the Neocons and the lies they tell purposely in order to manipulate the public into obedience. It also gives the history of Islamic fundamentalism, and proves that "Al-Qaeda" does not exist, and never did -- the idea was fabricated by a prisoner, Jamal al-Fadl, who was paid and given witness protection. This proof begins at about 6 minutes into the 3rd episode, when Jason Burke, author of a book on Al-Qaeda, is first shown. The video is available in various formats (from small file low resolution to large file high resolution) for free and rapid download here: http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 04:31:48PM -0800, Sean McBride wrote: > Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Here it is - search > your web history with infoaxe via AltSearchEngines by Charles Knight on > 11/17/08 > > What exactly is infoaxe? > > infoaxe is your Personal Web Memory. You never have to remember a web > page by bookmarking, emailing to yourself etc. We believe that a Web > user has more important things to do while on the Web than to do these > other tasks which are basically, distractions. > > With infoaxe, whatever you ’see’ on the Web, becomes instantly > searchable for you. You carve out your space on the Web by the sites > you visit and infoaxe lets you search, manage and take this with you > wherever you go. You will never forget a Web page again. Ever. > > Why do I need infoaxe? Here are some sample scenarios where infoaxe > comes in handy. > > John had found a review about the IPhone a few months back that he > really liked. He wants to share that review with his friend Jill but he > can’t seem to find it again amidst the deluge of IPhone reviews on > Google. > > Since with infoaxe, you now have your Personal Web Memory, John can > find the IPhone review that he liked, very easily by searching his Web > Memory with infoaxe. > > Mary is hunting for apartments in Palo Alto. She has looked at many > apartments on craigslist and rent.com. She is finding it impossible to > keep track of the ones she liked. Bookmarking seems like a lot of work > for so many pages and an overkill since she is sure that after this > week she wouldn’t really be looking at these apartments again. > > Mary does not have to bookmark anything. If she wanted to revisit all > the apartments she looked at on University Avenue, she could just > search infoaxe with the query ‘university avenue’. > > You will also notice that with infoaxe, you can afford to be lazier > than with Google. For eg. if you wanted to revisit your friend John’s > blog but can’t remember the url. Finding it with google would most > likely involve a fairly long query to wade through all the other Johns > on the Web. With infoaxe, you can afford to just type in “John blog” > and you are very likely to see it right at the top. (assuming of course > that you have seen in it at least once before) > > What is Pivot? > > Here is a another slightly less obvious use case. Say, you wanted to > look at all the websites you looked at when you were researching grad > schools. This sounds almost impossible to accomplish with a general Web > Search Engine like Google. The right query is quite hard in this case > since there likely isn’t one single query which will give you all the > pages. You might have looked at other grad schools like MIT, CMU etc, > tips for writing good grad school essays etc. infoaxe helps you here by > letting you pivot around a Web page in your Web Memory. Think of this > as something like time travel. You can ask infoaxe to show you all the > web pages you were looking at when you were looking at the Stanford > University Graduate Admissions home page. We think its more natural to > remember events than dates, and pivot lets you pivot around events in > your Web Memory. > > How can I delete stuff from my Web Memory? > > If you see something in your web memory that you want to delete, click > on the delete link that appears next to the search result snippet. You > have the option of deleting just that page or all pages from that site. > It will take about 2 minutes for the changes to take effect i.e. for it > to stop showing up in your search results. Source: infoaxe faq > > > Infoaxe - Never forget a Page Again! (Quick Demo) from Infoaxe on Vimeo >
[political-research] Here it is - search your web history with infoaxe
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Here it is - search your web history with infoaxe via AltSearchEngines by Charles Knight on 11/17/08 What exactly is infoaxe? infoaxe is your Personal Web Memory. You never have to remember a web page by bookmarking, emailing to yourself etc. We believe that a Web user has more important things to do while on the Web than to do these other tasks which are basically, distractions. With infoaxe, whatever you ’see’ on the Web, becomes instantly searchable for you. You carve out your space on the Web by the sites you visit and infoaxe lets you search, manage and take this with you wherever you go. You will never forget a Web page again. Ever. Why do I need infoaxe? Here are some sample scenarios where infoaxe comes in handy. John had found a review about the IPhone a few months back that he really liked. He wants to share that review with his friend Jill but he can’t seem to find it again amidst the deluge of IPhone reviews on Google. Since with infoaxe, you now have your Personal Web Memory, John can find the IPhone review that he liked, very easily by searching his Web Memory with infoaxe. Mary is hunting for apartments in Palo Alto. She has looked at many apartments on craigslist and rent.com. She is finding it impossible to keep track of the ones she liked. Bookmarking seems like a lot of work for so many pages and an overkill since she is sure that after this week she wouldn’t really be looking at these apartments again. Mary does not have to bookmark anything. If she wanted to revisit all the apartments she looked at on University Avenue, she could just search infoaxe with the query ‘university avenue’. You will also notice that with infoaxe, you can afford to be lazier than with Google. For eg. if you wanted to revisit your friend John’s blog but can’t remember the url. Finding it with google would most likely involve a fairly long query to wade through all the other Johns on the Web. With infoaxe, you can afford to just type in “John blog” and you are very likely to see it right at the top. (assuming of course that you have seen in it at least once before) What is Pivot? Here is a another slightly less obvious use case. Say, you wanted to look at all the websites you looked at when you were researching grad schools. This sounds almost impossible to accomplish with a general Web Search Engine like Google. The right query is quite hard in this case since there likely isn’t one single query which will give you all the pages. You might have looked at other grad schools like MIT, CMU etc, tips for writing good grad school essays etc. infoaxe helps you here by letting you pivot around a Web page in your Web Memory. Think of this as something like time travel. You can ask infoaxe to show you all the web pages you were looking at when you were looking at the Stanford University Graduate Admissions home page. We think its more natural to remember events than dates, and pivot lets you pivot around events in your Web Memory. How can I delete stuff from my Web Memory? If you see something in your web memory that you want to delete, click on the delete link that appears next to the search result snippet. You have the option of deleting just that page or all pages from that site. It will take about 2 minutes for the changes to take effect i.e. for it to stop showing up in your search results. Source: infoaxe faq Infoaxe - Never forget a Page Again! (Quick Demo) from Infoaxe on Vimeo Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to AltSearchEngines using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] A New Face-Finding Search Engine
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: A New Face-Finding Search Engine via AltSearchEngines by Charles Knight on 11/17/08 Today there are more low-quality video cameras–surveillance and traffic cameras, cell-phone cameras and webcams–than ever before. But modern search engines can’t identify objects very reliably in clear, static pictures, much less in grainy YouTube clips. A new software approach from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University could make it easier to identify a person’s face in a low-resolution video. The researchers say that the software could be used to identify criminals or missing persons, or it could be integrated into next-generation video search engines. For the full article, see the Technology Review by MIT Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to AltSearchEngines using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
