Quote of the week
There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.
Articles of the week
- Pacific Standard: We Aren’t the World
A long and fascinating read about how culture affects cognition, and how the research of three academics is calling some of social science’s fundamental principles into question. The upshot: We are perhaps not all as alike as we think. - Wall Street Journal: Is Smart Making Us Dumb?
Evgeny Morozov classifies sensor technologies into “good smart,” which usually simply provide information and allow us to make our own decisions, and “bad smart,” which use external forces like peer pressure to push us to make certain choices. Here he describes his worries about “bad smart” tech, and what implications might arise as these types of product become more common. - The Borg Complex: Borg Complex Symptoms
Michael Sacasas recently defined the Borg Complex for “self-appointed evangelists of technological assimilation” who “would have us all abandon any critique of technology and simply adapt to the demands of technological society.” This list of symptoms is a good guideline and yes, we can see traits of the complex in ourselves. Acceptance is the first step… - desktop: New Publishing Hybrids
An interview with Dan Hill on the merging process of digital and print media, and the design considerations that need to go into media that move between physical and digital. - Wired: Freescale’s Insanely Tiny ARM Chip Will Put the Internet of Things Inside Your Body
Freescale makes tiny, tiny computer chips, that may have some interesting applications in a field that sounds a little outlandish: swallowable computing.