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wire2wolves_com_video-conferencing-cloud-calling-screen-sharing_html | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4004
A group of directors and other technical staffers deploy and manage a company’s IT infrastructure and property. IT teams depend upon a spread of specialised data and technology abilities and knowledge to assist equipment, functions and activities. Third-party contractors and IT vendor help personnel increase the IT staff. Computer scientists could participate within the hardware and software engineering work required to develop merchandise.
Man’s technological ascent began in earnest in what is identified as the Neolithic period (“New stone age”). The invention of polished stone axes was a serious advance because it allowed forest clearance on a large scale to create farms. Additionally, kids might contribute labor to the elevating of crops extra readily than they might to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. To make a stone software, a “core” of hard stone with particular flaking properties was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a pointy edge on the core stone as properly as on the flakes, either of which could be used as instruments, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers. If your people work on Chromebooks, you’ll be glad to know that Intel vPro® now brings its signature safety, flexibility, and efficiency advantages to the Chrome platform.
_ Hudson Technologies Inc. on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $6.2 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. The Pearl River, New York-based company mentioned it had profit of thirteen cents per share. LONDON — Car factories idled, beer stopped flowing, furniture and trend orders ceased, and energy firms fled oil and gas initiatives. WASHINGTON — Hackers working on behalf of the Chinese authorities broke into the computer networks of a minimum of six state governments in the United States in the final year, in accordance with a report released Tuesday by a private cybersecurity agency.
Therefore, the goals of this research are to research the sorts of technology tools used by high school students and their beliefs towards the utilization of technology in English lesson. Mix technique strategy is used on this analysis to achieve more comprehensive and representative information. The results present that there are eight activities that contain fve kinds of technology that the scholars regularly used. Those instruments are MP3 participant, internet browser, cellphone, social networking site, and television. All respondents agree that the usage of technology in English lesson is effective.
On the more progressive and technologically-advanced Human colonies, these psykers — no much less than till the menace of daemonic possession turned apparent — had been protected by legislation and allowed to develop and discover their abilities. On different, much less sophisticated Human worlds, they have been often killed in literal witch-hunts and anti-psyker pogroms. The type and nature of this unified authorities stays unknown within the remaining records. Of major significance to the era and Humanity generally through the Age of Technology was the invention of the Standard Template Construct database system.
Reuters, the information and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia information provider, reaching billions of people worldwide daily. Reuters provides enterprise, monetary, nationwide and worldwide information to professionals via desktop terminals, the world’s media organizations, trade events and directly to customers. Technology is the use of scientific knowledge for practical functions or purposes, whether in business or in our everyday lives.
Communication improved with the invention of the telegraph, phone, radio and television. The late-19th and early-20th centuries noticed a revolution in transportation with the invention of the airplane and automobile. The earliest identified use of wind energy is the sailing ship; the earliest record of a ship beneath sail is that of a Nile boat courting to the 8th-millennium BCE. From prehistoric occasions, Egyptians in all probability used the ability Technology of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, progressively learning to regulate a lot of it through purposely constructed irrigation channels and “catch” basins. The historical Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a fancy system of canals and levees to divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation. The use of tools by early people was partly a strategy of discovery and of evolution.
Make a notice of when your permission to enter into the UK is as a end result of of expire, and permit enough time to complete the ATAS and permission to stay utility processes before your current permission expires. We recommend making use of a minimal of 4 months before your current permission expires. The ATAS certificates must precisely reflect the HEI/research institute which employs/hosts your research, and the analysis project, job title and period. If any of those details change you must examine whether or not you require anATAS certificate and apply for a model new certificate if you want one. You should make an observation of when your permission to enter into the UK is due to expire, to permit enough time to complete your ATAS and permission to remain functions earlier than your current permission expires.
Operations staff posts each iteration of the model new cell application for download and deploy the back-end parts of the app to the organization’s infrastructure. That could also be hyperbole, but few businesses — giant or small — can stay aggressive without the ability to collect knowledge and switch it into useful info. IT supplies the means to develop, process, analyze, exchange, store and secure info. Oversees the security and governance of purposes, providers and infrastructure. Our curriculum combines knowledge and research with hands-on practical skills.
Last year’s 5G business rollout and deployment might be a great begin for the 5G technology improvement to maneuver forward and drive the country’s digital transformation. As part of a wider digital technique, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust started upgrading to Intel vPro® in 2020, to assist in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the distinctive remote management capabilities of the Intel vPro® platform, the UHBW IT group has been able to answer technical issues in healthcare amenities extra rapidly, decreasing downtime for critical departments such as ICUs. PCs powered by Intel vPro® are constructed for business—with forward-looking options designed that can help you confidently navigate the way ahead for security and empower your staff to attach and collaborate extra seamlessly. |
luvthefilm_com_author_holly | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4278
Net Growth ITS Tech World
It’s no doubt that the Internet and the social media are highly effective devices for
It’s no doubt that the Internet and the social media are highly effective devices for
Information Pty Limited Copyright © 2019. Jika perusahaan Anda melakukan sistem bisnis ke bisnis (B2B),
Computer programs technologists solve computer-related issues for companies, authorities businesses, utilities, law enforcement companies, health
This week we’ve learnt that extra time around the globe was spent consuming digital than
What is Computer : Computer is an electronic gadget that is designed to work with
TUT’s new promotional video titled Analysis is the key to the long run” takes you
TUT’s new promotional video titled Research is the important thing to the long run” takes
Lean manufacturing has dramatically reshaped the roles of enterprise engineers over the past decade. Nilai
TUT’s new promotional video titled Evaluation is the vital thing to the long run” takes
For frequent travellers, especially those covering long distances on highways, convenience is paramount. One of |
loopchicago_com_do-business_expedition_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4411
In October of 2019, leaders of global business districts, business districts managing companies, and urban planning authorities gathered in Chicago, Illinois for a fast-paced trip focused on Placemaking issues.
The Global Business Districts Innovation Club (GBD) Learning Expedition Chicago immersed guests in a three day exploration of the latest urban trends. They met the key players of Downtown Chicago—from innovative startups to the local authorities—and learned from their best practices, while visiting unique places of innovation, getting in touch with the GBD network, and exchanged and benefited from immersion in the ecosystem.
Guests included business district leaders from Montreal, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto and Chicago.
Session topics included Arts & Culture, Residential, Innovation, Public Space, Tourism, Culinary Arts, O'Hare Airport, Business Recruitment and Office trends. See Program (PDF)
“We were thrilled to host the first Learning Expedition of the Global Business Districts Innovation Club right here in the Chicago Loop,” said Michael Edwards, President and CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance. “The Loop is ahead of the curve when it comes to downtown management, and Chicago has so much to offer in the way of tech innovation. This gathering of thought leaders is a great way to spotlight the work being done in the city, and we were excited to learn from the attendees as well.”
Chicago Loop Alliance is one of the founding members of the Global Business Districts Innovation Club, a nonprofit organization founded in 2018 so global cities could exchange innovative ideas in downtown management. This fall’s Learning Expedition is the inaugural event.
“To stay competitive in the face of a changing world, we need to learn,” said Marie-Célie Guillaume, CEO of Paris La Défense and president of the Global Business Districts Innovation Club. “The most effective learning outcomes go beyond the cognitive, to the collaborative and experiential. That’s why we created our first GBD Innovation Club Learning Expedition. Based on an experimental format, this expedition uses an exchange-centered focus as the primary source of inspiration and innovation.
Learn more about and Global Business Districts Innovation Club here and read the full report here |
imperialcollegehealthpartners_com_tag_nhs-itp-programme_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4805
25th April 2018 Industry Learning Lab: Innovation and Technology Payment Increase your chances of success with the NHS ITP programme Imperial College Health Partne... Read More Uncategorised |
attoday_co_uk_new-partnership-to-fast-track-innovation-in-assistive-technologies_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4889
New partnership to fast-track innovation in assistive technologies
A partnership between Heriot-Watt University and InnoScot Health has been announced, which aims to fast-track innovation in medical, healthcare, and assistive technologies and better understand clinical and nursing needs in Scotland.
The five-year agreement will see Heriot-Watt University’s Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC) collaborate with InnoScot Health to help bring new ideas and innovations from healthcare professionals to life.
The strategic relationship will initially focus on identifying new healthcare technologies and the development of prototype medical devices by engaging with clinicians, doctors, nurses, and engineering students.
In addition to the new partnership’s research and development ambitions, both organisations will develop joint Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and training programmes that further develop staff from both organisations in regulatory issues relating to medical devices.
Professor Marc Desmulliez, the manager of the MDMC at Heriot-Watt University, said: “Scotland is renowned for its innovation in health, pioneering techniques and medical devices that are now used worldwide.
“In just two years, the MDMC has created a unique business collaboration model, working with more than 60 companies, accelerating the progression of ideas to market and the adoption of medical devices into clinical settings.
“Specialist training is fundamental to our continued success and we are confident this new strategic partnership will further accelerate Scotland’s innovative medtech SMEs, ultimately benefitting and improving patient care.
“We are looking forward to putting this partnership into practice.”
Based at Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh campus, the MDMC is a consortium including the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and Robert Gordon University and helps Scotland’s SMEs to translate medical device concepts into commercial products.
Offering free expert advice on, and access to, manufacturing engineering, regulatory issues, and funding, the university’s staff provide technically supported access to its £2 million specialist manufacturing facilities.
Dr Gillian Murray, the deputy principal for business and enterprise at Heriot-Watt University, added: “Entrepreneurialism and collaboration lie at the heart of Heriot-Watt University.
“This partnership has enormous potential to positively impact Scotland’s medical device sector by working closely with clinical individuals and teams that have a first-hand understanding of our healthcare technology needs and the solutions needed to meet them.
“Combining InnoScot Health’s extensive background in commercialisation and regulation with the expert manufacturing engineering guidance of the MDMC will allow us to accelerate medical device innovation across Scotland and beyond.”
InnoScot Health, formerly known as Scottish Health Innovations, works in partnership with NHS Scotland, providing expert intellectual property advice, regulatory expertise, and project management services to support the development and commercialisation of clinical products.
Graham Watson, Executive Chair of InnoScot Health, commented: “This mutually beneficial agreement builds on our successful long-standing relationship with Heriot-Watt University and pools our significant collective expertise.
“It is a landmark moment that will serve to accelerate medical and healthcare opportunities in the first instance with vast possibilities thereafter.
“We are in no doubt that Heriot-Watt’s considerable enterprise credentials and status as a leading innovation and research institution can match our own ambitions whilst helping to underpin our own development aims in the sector.
“We believe it will be a very successful working arrangement for both parties – from the co-creation of novel medical devices with clinicians, doctors, nurses, and engineering students, to working with Heriot-Watt University to develop joint Continuous Professional Development and training programmes to further develop staff from both organisations.”
Companies supported by the MDMC since its launch two years ago (2020) include Confidence Plus, which makes a device for dignity to contain stoma bag leaks.
The MDMC helped Confidence Plus to become the first Scottish organisation to trial new software licensed by NICE for assessment of the company’s product in healthcare management settings. |
library_iated_org_view_WITHELL2017DES | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4020
DESIGN THINKING EDUCATION: FINDINGS FROM THE RESEARCH-LED, DESIGN, EVALUATION, AND ENHANCEMENT OF A UNIVERSITY-LEVEL COURSE
Auckland Institute of Technology (NEW ZEALAND)
About this paper:
Conference name: 10th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 16-18 November, 2017
Location: Seville, Spain
Abstract:
Design thinking is an effective methodology for innovation and is an interdisciplinary area that is taught at an increasing number of tertiary institutions and universities. There is however, a relatively small but growing body of research on the learning and teaching of design thinking. Based on a desire to improve the learning and teaching of design thinking to first-year business students at a New Zealand university, and to use research as the means to achieve this goal, a rigorous research project was initiated. The research focused on the iterative design, evaluation, and enhancement of successive versions of a learning environment for design thinking - in this instance a 12-week course. Participatory action research, comparative case studies, and a critical realist theorizing methodology were used to help develop casual explanations i.e. the identification student attributes, and causal mechanisms and contextual factors within the learning environment, which helped account for students’ response to its activation. In turn, this led to the identification of potential enhancements to the learning environment.
This paper explores the background and emergence of design thinking, and its value within university-level business programmes, and provides a brief overview of the critical realist paradigm positioning and associated and methodologies that underpinned the research. The conceptualisation, design, and evaluation of a design thinking learning environment is described in detail, along with a critical examination of examples of findings concerning tendencies in the business students’ response to the environment. Tendencies include students’ overall apprehension before the course commenced, their struggle to adjust to an unfamiliar experiential, project-based learning approach in the first few weeks, and their challenge engaging with specific design thinking practices including roleplaying, problem-reframing teamwork and collaboration, which in this instance dominated their overall experiences of the learning environment. Examples of explanatory theory are also presented, along with a summary of key enhancements to the learning environment. We believe that findings of this research will be useful for other educators who are interested in teaching design thinking to business and other university students, and for the design of innovative and effective learning environments.Keywords:
Design Thinking, Business Education, Curriculum Design, Action Research, Theorizing Methodology. |
uia_org_s_or_en_1122280184_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4042
International Institute of Innovation and Technology (IIITEC)
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Member of: C-XJ1434 - International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).
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dissidentvoice_org_2021_03_innovation-slaves-and-lurking-technoplutocorporatism_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4687
Company Blockchains LLC, co-owned by a millionaire Jeffrey Berns, bought over 67,000 acres in Northern Nevada in 2018. The plan is to build infrastructure including hotels, truck stops, and housing according to the latest technological achievements. This purchase is part of the project Innovation Zones. It aims at providing a space for innovation by employing advanced technology in real life. It wants to implement such solutions as “blockchain, autonomous technology, the internet of things, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless technology, biometrics and renewable resource technology.”
Such projects may appear as lofty fantasies. It echoes projects of the past, which have not been well-received despite the promise of technological advancement. A nineteenth-century Illinois-located town built from scratch by an investor, George Pullman, did not appeal to the inhabitants despite being at the top of infrastructure innovation for that time. Many people moved out because they did not find activities and spaces resonating with their needs. The fact that they could not own property was also a disturbance.
The landlord business was criticized by activists. The President of the American Railway Union said in 1894 speech: “I believe a rich plunderer like Pullman is a greater felon than a poor thief, and it has become no small part of the duty of this organization to strip the mask of hypocrisy from the pretended philanthropist and show him to the world as an oppressor of labor…The paternalism of the Pullman is the same as the interest of a slaveholder in his human chattels. You are striking to avert slavery and degradation.”
Sidewalk Labs, a Google subsidiary, failed to implement its “smart city,” also called “Google city” in Toronto. The fears around privacy generated a backlash. The company withdrew abruptly in 2020.
Nevada project illustrates that technological elites’ appetite for control is growing. It seems that their increasing power makes them more audacious in their demands. Jeffrey Berns has contributed over 100,000 dollars to back the current Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and its partisan family, the Democrats. An unprecedented proposal by the incumbent governor followed in February 2021. Sisolak proposed a bill that would cede much autonomy to investors who buy at least 50,000 acres and commit to spending one billion dollars on the project. In exchange, they would have a say in appointing a supervisory board over the territory and be given “the same authority as a county, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and justice courts and provide government services, to name a few duties.”
Past attempts may not have been successful because the affected citizens had too much autonomy. Accumulating control over this particular juridic zone’s residents may foster the dystopian agenda of the technological elites. COVID-19 has brought favorable conditions for such a plan. The recent pandemic has enabled even more concentration of capital. The dispossession and the spike of evictions among the vulnerable part of the population may lure them towards such projects as the antidote to homelessness. Technological unemployment deprives them of the power to withdraw labor to have a say over living conditions. A corporation possessing judicial authority may easily strip the residents of legal protections.
David Graeber wrote that society was at the brink of the end of capitalism. The new system may be worse than the current one, about which we tend to complain. I call this new system that is unfolding in front of us technoplutocorporatism. My book Imagine a Sane Society juxtaposes two kinds of utopias, driven either by the technological elites or citizen self-organization. The former type, such as the Innovation Zones project, may become laboratories filled with human guinea pigs. Without monetary exchanges, property rights, and the need to be employed, residents’ status may shift to innovation slave. They would not work as we conceive work in the employment system. However, they may be owned by the corporation.
With the advancement of research and innovation, laboratory rats and monkeys lose their utility for the furtherance of technology. The temptation to replace them with humans may become irresistible. Power corrupts. We can imagine that inhabitants immersed in controlled living conditions would bring opportunities to undertake studies impossible to implement before. Following the research methodology developed with animals, a corporation may manipulate the outer stimuli to conduct experiments and measure reactions. Data camps may emerge. They will constitute a new venue of post-capitalist exploitation and extractivism. |
easysociology_com_sociology-of-technology_technicism-technology-and-determinism_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4193
Table of Contents
- Understanding Technicism: A Sociological Perspective
- The Origins of Technicism
- The Sociological Dimensions of Technicism
- Critiques of Technicism
- Technicism and Future Society
- Conclusion
Understanding Technicism: A Sociological Perspective
Technicism, as a sociological concept, encapsulates the belief in the inherent superiority and inevitability of technological advancement as the primary solution to human problems. This phenomenon reflects the increasing dominance of technology in modern society, shaping not only our daily lives but also our values, cultures, and social institutions. In this article, we will explore the roots, implications, and critiques of technicism, offering a nuanced perspective suitable for students of sociology and those curious about the interplay between technology and society.
The Origins of Technicism
Historical Foundations
Technicism is not a recent phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution, a period marked by groundbreaking technological innovations that reshaped the social fabric. Mechanization and mass production introduced new ways of living and working, fostering the belief that technology could solve societal challenges such as scarcity and inefficiency.
Enlightenment thinking also played a pivotal role in shaping technicism. Philosophers and scientists of this era celebrated reason, progress, and the application of scientific principles to improve human life. This intellectual shift laid the groundwork for modern technological optimism, where technology is often viewed as a beacon of progress. The belief in human mastery over nature through science and technology became a cornerstone of modern societies, intertwining technological progress with social advancement.
Contemporary Development
In today’s digital age, technicism manifests more prominently. The rapid evolution of information technology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology fuels the perception that technology is an unstoppable force. Corporations and governments heavily invest in technological solutions to address issues ranging from climate change to healthcare, reinforcing technicism’s dominance in public discourse. Furthermore, the advent of big data and machine learning has transformed decision-making processes, promoting efficiency and precision while raising concerns about dependency on automated systems.
This reliance on technology is evident in the shift toward smart cities, renewable energy innovations, and digital governance. While these initiatives promise sustainability and inclusivity, they also reveal the pervasive influence of technicism in shaping public policies and societal aspirations.
The Sociological Dimensions of Technicism
Technology and Social Structure
From a sociological lens, technicism influences social structures by reshaping labor markets, educational systems, and governance. Automation, for instance, has transformed industries, displacing traditional jobs while creating new ones. This dynamic underscores a key aspect of technicism: the assumption that technological progress, despite its disruptions, ultimately benefits society.
The gig economy is a vivid example of this transformation, where digital platforms mediate work opportunities, offering flexibility but also precariousness. Sociologists study these shifts to understand the implications of technicism on worker rights, social equity, and economic stability.
Education systems are similarly impacted, with curricula increasingly focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. This prioritization reflects a technicist ideology that equates societal advancement with technological literacy and innovation. While this approach fosters skills for a tech-driven future, it risks marginalizing humanities and social sciences, which are critical for understanding ethical and cultural dimensions of technological integration.
Cultural Implications
Culturally, technicism permeates our values and behaviors. Social media, smartphones, and digital platforms have redefined communication and relationships, emphasizing immediacy and connectivity. The glorification of tech entrepreneurs and innovation further entrenches technicism, portraying technology as a transformative force for good. Society’s increasing reliance on social media for news and validation reflects the integration of technological tools into everyday life, often shaping identity and self-worth.
However, this cultural shift raises questions about authenticity, privacy, and the commodification of human experiences. For example, the widespread adoption of wearable devices and data-driven apps often prioritizes efficiency over personal autonomy, reflecting a technicist mindset that prioritizes technological solutions over nuanced human needs. Additionally, the algorithmic curation of information on digital platforms influences public opinion, shaping societal narratives and reinforcing echo chambers.
The cultural dominance of technicism also manifests in art and entertainment, where futuristic narratives and tech-centered themes dominate. While these depictions inspire innovation, they often perpetuate the myth of technology as a panacea, overshadowing its potential drawbacks and complexities. |
cms_megaphone_fm_channel_LIT4894369277_page_39_selected_NBN7659090361 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.6126
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Paula S. Fass, “The End of American Childhood: ...
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Teenagers live in their phones. As an educator you can try to pull them away or meet them where they are. The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging and Other Behavioral Strategies Can Improve Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, |
ppcmate_com_creative-now-and-in-the-future-of-digital-advertising_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4505
Last week, Cannes Lions celebrated its 64th International Festival of Creativity. Every year – and this year was no different – there’s discussion around the role of creative now and in the future of digital advertising. Even more relevant today, given questions raised about the evolution of the festival itself – is Cannes Lions still about creativity, or has the influence of technology – programmatic, AI, VR – and influx of AdTech companies attending, taken away the creative charm of Cannes?
Many hold the belief that creative has been lost within the digital advertising landscape and that the growing influence of technology and programmatic advertising has killed the magic. But has creative just lost its way? Consumer content consumption is ever evolving and programmatic technology is simply addressing this shift. Programmatic allows brands to harness their data to achieve the mantra that customer communications must deliver the message, at the right time, to the right person. Of course, context and timing is key, but it is vital the creative content is aligned and fit for multiple platforms. It needs to speak and resonate with the audience.
Marketers need to utilize new media, to create fresh advertising that captivates audiences on the different devices content is being consumed. In this fragmented landscape – where the consumer is always connected, but not always engaged – the creative needs to be compelling enough to attract the attention of a person in a five-second environment or in a true view – an in-stream ad which allows viewers to skip pre or mid roll – for example. Executing exciting and inspiring creative programmatically across these formats is key to more effective and engaging advertising.
Programmatic is addressing the rapid evolution of content consumption, but to truly connect with a consumer throughout their journey, across all touch points, there’s a little way to go. Dynamic creative optimization – changing creative based on audience reaction –addresses the fact that the one-ad-fits-all approach doesn’t work. But sequential advertising is the next stage in engaging the tech-savvy consumer. The ability to use customer data to sequentially serve different ads to nurture them along their journey – across devices – is what the industry is working on solving.
With the paramount role digital now plays in the advertising world, Cannes Lions has made changes to reflect this shift. In 2011 they dropped ‘Advertising’ for ‘Creativity’ in the festival name. In 2015, they introduced the Cannes Lions Innovation Festival – which celebrates how data and technology can enable creativity – and launched the Creative Data Lion award category. But with the growing presence of the world’s largest tech companies in Cannes, I can see how creative feels like it is being overshadowed by the big tech players, and a sense of balance needs to be restored.
Examples of advertising showcased at this year’s Cannes do exemplify how the marrying of creative and technology is progressing to disrupt and engage audiences.
Take for example ‘Creative Data – Data Storytelling Gold Lion’ winner “AiMEN” – a disruptive social ad campaign launched by network Canal+ to draw audiences for new series ‘The Young Pope’. Show fans will know that Pope Pius XIII, played by Jude Law, is not your conventional pope, so to reflect this and to capture the attention of a social-tech savvy generation, they created “AiMEN” – short for “Papal Artificial Intelligence” – a super-powered pope bot.
Using AI intelligence, the “pope bot” trails social platforms to spread the word of the Bible and it’s versus, commenting as Pope Pius on people’s statuses who need a righteous reminding.
This is tech and creative working together at its finest. AI technology reacting to real-time events to activate disruptive personal creative that resonates in a modern tech world, to successfully raise awareness and engagement at scale for a TV series launch.
So, what is the role of creative now and in the future of digital advertising? Creative is and always will be essential to marketing success. But it is vital that marketers work closely with programmatic specialists to push the boundaries of creative innovation through automation. This means testing the creative; using insights to drive creative selection and placement; personalizing the creative execution; combining channels and tactics and finally, reacting to real-time changes.
___
by Chris Dobson
source: HUFFPOST |
news_lenovo_com_innovators_page_2__ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4065
Lenovo Innovator and gamer, Vishakha Fulsunge, uses technology to motivate women in male-dominated fields while sharing her gaming experience.
Lenovo Innovator and Founder of Bee Downtown, Leigh-Kathryn is using smarter technology to produce educational materials around bee conservation.
Lenovo Innovator and computer programmer, Kati Dietzsch, uses technology to take her work to the next level and inspire women to pursue tech careers.
Lenovo Innovator and marine biologist, Carissa Cabrera, uses smarter technology to raise awareness around the challenges our oceans face.
Lenovo Innovator, vegan chef and animal activist, Ivan Di Simoni, uses technology to advocate for animal rights and share delicious recipes.
Lenovo Innovator and veterinarian, Dr. Sylvain Hawawini, uses smarter technology in his clinical practices and to raise awareness of endangered species.
Lenovo Innovator and wildlife biologist/filmmaker, Roxy Furman, uses technology to support her production process and inspire people to protect our natural world.
Lenovo Innovator and college professor, Maricela Becerra uses smarter technology to make her virtual classroom accessible, interactive and efficient.
Pilot and Lenovo Innovator Julian Javor shares how a love of flying led to starting a non-profit saving shelter pets. |
ttncc_com__b_14285329246 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4244
[ our skills ]
The Core Company Values
We are constantly growing, learning, and improving and our
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
Quality
Innovation
Customer-Centricity
Luxury and Minimalism
Value for Money |
science_lpnu_ua_taxonomy_term_6612 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5051
The Global Innovation Clusters: Canadian Experience of Public-Private Partnership
Purpose of the article is the research of the modern trends of global innovation clusters development in Canada that based on public-private partnership model, and to identify their features during last years. The hypothesis is that it is possible to formulate the hypothesis that at the postwar period, Ukraine would form a new innovation strategy that will push country to become global competitively and innovatively. |
carnegieendowment_org_events_2023_03_accelerating-us-japan-tech-innovation_lang_en | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4186
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Top leaders in both the US and Japan continue their commitments to put innovation as a core pillar of the bilateral relationship, but not enough is known about how this cutting-edge collaboration is actually driven more by the private sector.
Join Carnegie for a view from the frontier on linking the United States and Japan through technological innovation featuring Kenji E. Kushida, John V. Roos, and Kaori Fukunaga. |
www_mutualfundobserver_com_2018_04_guinness-atkinson-global-innovators-iwirx_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4493
Objective and strategy
The fund seeks long term capital growth through investing in what they deem to be 30 highly innovative, reasonably valued, companies from around the globe. They take an eclectic approach to identifying global innovators. They read widely (for example Fast Company and MIT’s Technology Review, as well as reports from the Boston Consulting Group and Thomson Reuters) and maintain ongoing conversations with folks in a variety of industries. That leads them to identify a manageable set of themes (from artificial intelligence to clean energy) which seem to be driving global innovation. They then identify companies substantially exposed to those themes (about 1000), then weed out the financially challenged (taking the list down to 500). Having identified a potential addition to the portfolio, they also have to convince themselves that it has more upside than anyone currently in the portfolio (since there’s a one-in-one-out discipline) and that it’s selling at a substantial discount to fair value (typically about one standard deviation below its 10 year average). They rebalance about quarterly to maintain roughly equally weighted positions in all thirty, but the rebalance is not purely mechanical. They try to keep the weights “reasonably in line” but are aware of the importance of minimizing trading costs and tax burdens. The fund stays fully invested.
Adviser
Guinness Atkinson Asset Management. The firm started in 1993 as the US arm of Guinness Flight Global Asset Management and their first American funds were Guinness Flight China and Hong Kong (1994) and Asia Focus (1996). Guinness Flight was acquired by Investec, then Tim Guinness and Jim Atkinson’s acquired Investec’s US funds business to form Guinness Atkinson. Their London-based sister company is Guinness Asset Management which runs European funds that parallel the U.S. ones. They have $1.6 billion in assets under management and advises funds in both the US and Europe.
Managers
Matthew Page and Ian Mortimer. Mr. Page joined GA in 2005 and working for Goldman Sachs. He earned an M.A. from Oxford in 2004. Dr. Mortimer joined GA in 2006. Prior to joining GA, he completed a doctorate in experimental physics at the University of Oxford. They are assisted by two analysts. The team manages $930 million in total, including Dividend Builder Fund (GAINX) and the Dublin-based versions of both funds.
Strategy capacity and closure
Approximately $5 billion. The current estimate of strategy capacity was generated by a simple calculation: 30 times the amount they might legally and prudently own of the smallest stock in their universe. The strategy, including its Dublin-based version, holds about $390 million.
Active share
93. “Active share” measures the degree to which a fund’s portfolio differs from the holdings of its benchmark portfolio. High active share indicates management which is providing a portfolio that is substantially different from, and independent of, the index. An active share of zero indicates perfect overlap with the index, 100 indicates perfect independence. The active share for Global Innovators is 93, which reflects a very high level of independence from its benchmark MSCI World Index.
Management’s stake in the fund
The managers are not invested in the fund because it’s only open to U.S. residents. They report being heavily invested in the European version of the strategy.
Opening date
Good question! The fund launched as the Wired 40 Index on December 15, 1998. It performed splendidly. It became the actively managed Global Innovators Fund on April 1, 2003 under the direction of Edmund Harriss and Tim Guinness. It performed splendidly. The current team came onboard in May 2010 (Page) and May 2011 (Mortimer) and tweaked the process, after which it again performed splendidly.
Minimum investment
$5,000, reduced to $1,000 for IRAs and just $250 for accounts established with an automatic investment plan. The minimum for the Institutional share class (GINNX) is $100,000.
Expense ratio
1.24%(Investor class) and 0.99%(Institutional class) on assets of about $163.8 million, as of July 2023.
Comments
Let’s start with the obvious and work backward from there.
The obvious: Global Innovators has outstanding (consistently outstanding, enduringly outstanding) returns. Here’s the fund’s rank for total and risk-adjusted (measured by Sharpe ratio) returns against its Lipper Global Large Cap Growth group:
| Total returns | Risk-adjusted returns | |
| One year rank | #4 of 34 funds, as of 02/2018 | #1 |
| Three year rank | #3 of 29 | #6 |
| Five year rank | #1 of 23 | #1 |
| Ten year rank | #1 of 15 | #2 |
Morningstar, using a different peer group, places it in the top 1 – 5% of US Large Blend funds for the past 1, 3, 5 and 10 year periods (as of 03/29/2018). That’s particularly impressive given the fact that IWIRX is succeeding against a domestic peer group (the average peer has 3% foreign) with a portfolio is that heavily invested overseas (40%) at a time when domestic stocks (8.6% annually over the past ten years) have a strong performance advantage over their international peers (5.8% annually in the same period). They should not be thriving given those disadvantages, and yet they are.
Growth of a $10,000 investment, 3/31/2008 to 3/30/2018
| Guinness Atkinson Global Innovators | $28,209 |
| Morningstar Large Blend peer group | 21,587 |
| Morningstar World Stock peer group | 17,328 |
per Morningstar.com, returns before taxes, accessed 3/31/2018
But why?
Good academic research, stretching back decades (for example, Paul A. Geroski, Innovation and Competitive Advantage, 1995), shows that firms with a strong commitment to ongoing innovation outperform the market. Firms with a minimal commitment to innovation trail the market, at least over longer periods. Joseph Schumpeter (1942) offered a clear and memorable explanation:
The essential point to grasp is that in dealing with capitalism we are dealing with an evolutionary process. … Capitalism, then, is by its nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary.
The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers’ goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates. …
[t]he … process of industrial mutation … incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.
Every firm and every strategy, he argues, “must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction.”
The challenge is finding such firms and resisting the temptation to overpay for them. The fund initially (1998-2003) tracked an index of 40 stocks chosen by the editors of Wired magazine “to mirror the arc of the new economy as it emerges from the heart of the late industrial age.” In 2003, Guinness concluded that a more focused portfolio and more active selection process would do better, and they were right. In 2010, the new team inherited the fund. They maintained its historic philosophy and construction but broadened its investable universe. Fifteen years ago there were only about 80 stocks that qualified for consideration; today it’s closer to 500 than their “slightly more robust identification process” has them track.
This is not a collection of “story stocks.” They look for firms that are continually reinventing themselves and looking for better ways to address the opportunities and challenges in their industry and in the global economy. While that might describe Google / Alphabet, it might also describe a major manufacturer of tires (Continental AG) or an innovative conglomerate whoses businesses find new ways “diagnose, treat and prevent disease” dental diseases and finds new ways to provide clean drinking water for tens of millions of people (Danaher Corporation). The key is to find firms which will produce disproportionately high returns on invested capital in the decade ahead and which are not themselves capital intensive or deeply in debt, not stocks that everyone is talking about.
Then they need to avoid overpaying for them. The managers note that many of the firms on their watchlist, their potential acquisitions, sell at “extortionate valuations.” Their strategy is to wait the required 12 – 36 months until they finally disappoint the crowd’s manic expectations. There’s a stampede for the door, the stocks overshoot – sometimes dramatically – on the downside and the guys move in.
Their purchases are conditioned by two criteria. First, they look for valuations at least one standard deviation below a firm’s ten year average (which is to say, they wait for a margin of safety). Second, they maintain a one-in-one-out discipline. For any firm to enter the portfolio, they have to be willing to entirely eliminate their position in another stock. They turn the portfolio over about once every three years. They continue tracking the stocks they sell since they remain potential re-entrants to the portfolio. They note that “The switches to the portfolio over the past 3.5 – 4 years have, on average, done well. The additions have outperformed the dropped stocks, on a sales basis, by about 25% per stock.”
An analysis of the fund’s 2017 year-end portfolio shows the way this discipline plays out.
Their firms spent a lot more on R&D than their peers (7.8% versus 6.0% of sales revenue) but a lot less (7.5% versus 9.0%) on capital goods.
Their firms have a lot higher return-on-investment than peers (16% versus 12% CFROI).
Their firms are growing a lot faster (12.6% versus 4.4% sales growth, 12% versus 9.6% earnings growth) than their peers, but cost only a little bit more (17.5 p/e versus 17.2 p/e).
The fund tends to be a bit more volatile but a lot more profitable than its peers. Several structural aspects of the portfolio contribute to the asymmetry: they rebalance frequently to trim winners; they have a one-in-one-out discipline which means they’re constantly pressured to eliminate their weakest names; they limit position size, avoid debt-ridden firms and invest in areas that are strongly buoyant. That is, the firms are involved in areas where there is a huge long-term impetus which allows them to recover quickly from short-term setbacks.
Bottom Line
While we need to mechanically and truthfully repeat the “past performance is not indicative of future results” mantra, Global Innovator’s premise and record might give us some pause. Its strategy is grounded in a serious and sustained line of academic research. Its discipline is pursued by few others. Its results have been consistent across 20 years and three sets of managers. This is not a low volatility strategy, but it has proven to be a highly resilient one. Over the past decade, its maximum drawdown was slightly higher than its peers (50.1% versus 47.6%) but its rebound was far faster and stronger. Investors willing to tolerate the slightly-elevated volatility of a fully invested, modestly pricey equity portfolio, Global Innovators really does command careful attention. |
calgary_tech_2022_10_18_how-calgary-is-fuelling-a-future-of-tech-and-entrepreneurship_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4645
Alberta is home to one of Canada’s largest technology and startup hubs. The Calgary region in particular breeds top-notch startups who receive substantial funding from a supportive local ecosystem.
For example, fintech fledging Fillip raised capital from Calgary neighbours Thin Air Labs and 51 Ventures before earning top prize at Digital Commerce Bank Calgary’s inaugural Calgary Fintech Awards.
From there? “Growth,” affirmed CEO Alice Reimer.
Reimer believes Alberta’s “innovation ecosystem is one that enables entrepreneurs to start, scale, stay, and succeed.” And she appears to be correct.
Despite a “notable impact” of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Alberta’s economy, the province’s digital economy “remained resilient and thrived,” concluded a recent report from the Information and Communications Technology Council of Canada. From February 2020 to May 2022, participation in Alberta’s digital economy grew by nearly 18%, according to the report—titled A Resilient Recovery: Alberta’s Digital-Led Post-COVID Future—and employed an additional 30,000 Albertans. This was well ahead of overall economy growth.
There are now more than 2,800 technology companies in Alberta as of last year, according to research from PwC. This is a massive increase from 2016, when just 1,500 were counted. In the first quarter of 2022, Alberta experienced its highest quarterly investment on record, according to data from the Canadian Venture Capital Association. Through Q1, more than two dozen companies—half of which were in the technology sector—raised a combined $466 million.
Al Del Degan, cofounder of New Idea Machine, a custom development and mentorship startup in Calgary, notes how there are currently 2,500 open tech jobs in Calgary alone. He says many positions, such as senior software developer, are simply in short supply.
To address this, learning experience organization InceptionU and software development company New Idea Machine recently initiated a partnership that will see InceptionU graduates begin working on real software projects, gaining valuable experience until they’re able to find full-time employment.
“Our partnership creates a ‘finishing school’ for junior developers,” Del Degan explains. “We know the longer a new developer works with NIM, the more likely they are to find a job.”
InceptionU CEO Margo Purcell says the partnership benefits “the entire tech ecosystem” of Calgary because “it’s a regenerative model.”
“It serves individuals as well as the tech ecosystem—the companies don’t have the bandwidth to continue to develop people and it benefits individuals because they have oversight to continue learning and they can earn a livelihood while looking for full-time work,” stated Purcell.
Meanwhile, major investments like the Province’s quantum physics hub further drive innovation and hiring in the region.
Calgary as Quantum City? This is the high-tech vision that ambitious locals such as University of Calgary president Ed McCauley have.
“We’re starting something big,” he believes.
No wonder outside firms like San Francisco’s Unity Technologies are drawn to the region. Earlier this year, the real-time 3D content company cut the ribbon on 25,000 square feet for the new Innovation Centre for Digital Transformation in Brookfield Place in Calgary.
Brad Parry, president and CEO of CED, predicted Unity’s investment would lead to other companies coming to Calgary’s downtown.
“It’s the hive effect,” he stated in March. “You get companies like Unity show up and then you start to get other companies that want to be around them and be close to them and build on top of their technology.”
Global tech consulting firm Infosys opened the Infosys Digital Centre in Calgary in September, promising up to 1,000 jobs over the next few years.
“We chose to open in Calgary because it is a center of tech excellence with rich IT talent and a strategic location that enables us to scale work with clients across key industries, such as energy, natural resources, and agriculture,” stated company president Ravi Kumar.
The Calgary Centre is located in Gulf Canada Square in the city’s downtown commercial district. It will train and up-skill Infosys and client employees in the technologies required to help Canadian businesses accelerate their digital transformation.
“Calgary’s IT innovation potential is unlimited,” added Kumar, “and we are delighted to be a part of its future.”
Even more recently, AI-powered order-to-cash platform Sidetrade announced an investment of $24 million across three years to develop a new North American headquarters in Calgary. For their offices, Sidetrade chose the Ampersand building in downtown Calgary, which is ranked among the Top 50 North American Markets for Tech Talent, and was recently revealed as the third best place in the world to live by Economist Intelligence.
“As our reputation for innovation grows, more companies like Sidetrade are recognizing the competitive advantage Calgary offers given our deep talent pool, our infrastructure, and the low cost of doing business,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek stated earlier this month.
The momentum of Calgary technology is a force to be reckoned with.
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papers_ssrn_com_sol3_papers_cfm_abstract_id_1116020 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4599
Patent Disclosure
68 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2008 Last revised: 1 Apr 2009
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
Patent law is premised on the onward march of science and technology. Patent law encourages cumulative innovation, both by dangling the patent before the inventor as an incentive to invent in the first instance and by requiring him to disclose to the public his invention so that science can progress by building on the divulged knowledge. Patent disclosure is essential. It indirectly stimulates others' future innovation by revealing to them the invention so that they can use it fruitfully when the patent term expires and so that they can design around, improve upon, or be inspired by the invention both during and after the patent term. Judicial decisions and nearly all legal scholarship on patent law have therefore not surprisingly consistently cited disclosure's critical role in the patent system, but they do so without much theoretical or institutional analysis. The rare handful of articles addressing the issue of patent disclosure suggests that disclosure is and ought to be of almost no importance in designing the patent system. This Article disagrees and argues in favor of its centrality in the patent system. Given this deserved centrality, this Article maintains that patent disclosures should be, well, patent, so that inventors can use these disclosures to culminate scientific and technological progress more effectively, thereby fulfilling the underlying premise of the patent system-stimulating innovation. The Article contends that the disclosure function is underperforming due to four systemic reasons-the inadequacies of the writer, the index, the reader, and enforcement-and suggests how to improve them. Surely, invigoration of the patent system's disclosure function carries with it costs, which this Article explores, suggesting they might not be too significant in relation to the benefits that patent disclosure offers in terms of growth of innovation. The Article then posits how invigoration of the patent system's disclosure function bridges what has seemed to be an impassable gap between those who believe in strong patent rights and those who think instead that inventions and information about them should be freely available.
Keywords: patent law, intellectual property, disclosure, innovation, invention, technology, information
JEL Classification: O31, O33, O34, O38, O40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation |
www_marlborough_org_news__board_school-and-faculty-news_post_empowering-tomorrows-leaders | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4280
Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders
This year, 23 students from our Frank & Eileen Accelerator Program for the Leaders of Tomorrow embarked on 17 innovative business ventures through our Incubator and Accelerator programs. With weekly curriculum guidance and mentor consultations, they transformed their ideas into actionable plans. In the Incubator, students tackled real-world problems and prototyped solutions. In the Accelerator, they advanced their businesses by analyzing markets and collaborating with industry experts. The year culminated in a business pitch and networking reception at the 2024 Incubator and Accelerator Showcase.
A highlight of the event was Accelerator student Penelope P. ’25 receiving the Atherton Award for her startup, Track Tutoring, which connects students with on-demand tutoring clients, making tutoring more affordable and accessible.
The Atherton Award celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit in young women, encouraging the next generation of girls to pursue careers in entrepreneurship and STEM. Initially open to schools in the United Kingdom, founder Amber Atherton expanded this notable award to schools in the United States. The winner receives a trophy, a monetary prize for the next phase of their business journey, and mentoring with Ms. Atherton herself.
In presenting the award, Ms. Atherton said,
“Today I am delighted to recognize Penelope as this year’s Atherton Award winner for starting Track Tutoring. The startup solves two problems: for college students to earn a high wage and find on-demand tutoring clients, and for parents and kids to efficiently access tutors paying by the minute to increase affordability. With this start-up capital and in our mentoring sessions, I’m excited to see Penelope develop her business further.”
Through programs like the Frank & Eileen Accelerator Program for the Leaders of Tomorrow, Marlborough students are not just dreaming; they are actively shaping the future with their groundbreaking ventures, driving positive change in the world. |
innovisioncommunications_com_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4005
We produce everything from full-length documentaries that involve years of shooting on multiple continents to “I-need-it-tomorrow” website or employee communications videos.
These programs meet our client's defined objectives and deliver specific messages to their target audiences - in the style that best matches their corporate/organizational cultures.
These programs work, and that's why our relationships with our clients last for decades.
Some of the Team Innovision members have been together since 1984. There aren’t many challenges that we seasoned veterans haven’t worked our way through at one time or another. Younger professionals keep Innovision awash in fresh ideas. What binds all of us is our collective corporate personality: while we take our work seriously, we don’t take ourselves seriously. We relish the creative process, yes, but we also value the relationships we build with our clients.
We have continually honed our work process since 1984. It seems to be working: 100% of Innovision’s clients are repeat or referral. One compliment we hear about our work process is that our clients can have as much or as little involvement in the production process as they have time to commit. Once they know we have a clear and thorough understanding of what they want and when they need it, most of them tend to other tasks and wait for us to submit approvals as the work process progresses.
One of the disadvantages of working with multi-national companies is that their legal departments prevent them from seeming to endorse vendors. Consequently, we can share with you only videos that those corporations have uploaded to YouTube, or another public site.
*Shell Visual Media Services, based in London, has contracted Innovision to be its “Preferred Global Vendor” for video production in the United States.
1302 Waugh, #301
Houston, Texas 77019
Beth Stier, Owner
[email protected]
P: 713.446.4424
F: 713.533.9406
Client Comments |
www_designinfocus_org_nl_networks-and-communities | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4513
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Here is a list of Creative, Innovation and Design Networks and Communities. Because DiF HQ is in Amsterdam, we've started adding local N&C's but would love to make this list as extensive as possible and global. Find and share valuable N&C's here.
NETWORKS & COMMUNITIES
External Page
Active on Design in Focus
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www_rubbernews_com_article_20180731_NEWS_180739987_conti-sees-trend-to-faster-product-development | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4249
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—The breakneck speed at which self-driving and connected-car technology is evolving is forcing the industry to change how products will be developed, according to Tamara Snow, head of systems and technology for Continental North America's interiors division.
"New technology is coming at a faster and faster rate, and for this reason we need to be able to harness disruption and change what we innovate and how we innovate," Snow told an audience July 30 at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars.
She said "agile" product development is crucial to ensuring companies stay competitive as the vehicle morphs from manual to self-driving.
"There are many factors to agile development," Snow said. "Part of those would be things like: Are our teams set up in the organization to be flexible? Are we ready for shorter release cycles? And if so, do we have shorter approval cycles to help us with those new release cycles? Are we balancing agility and risk management?
"These are some of the things we have to think about in order to move faster with the pace of change."
Snow said change is being driven by government regulations and consumer demand, meaning suppliers have to navigate the gap between the two and look for opportunities to develop new products.
"Real trends such as digitalization and demographics are at the forefront of disruption. But there are other factors that are influencing them. Society and technology can push and pull change in different directions at faster rates," Snow said. "Government can drive change from the top down, while consumers can demand it from the bottom up. Each of these factors influences the other, creating a kind of wave effect.
"We have to be able to identify opportunities."
Snow said companies should be open to joint ventures, collaborations and partnerships and view these business relationships as a chance to move faster than developing technologies in-house.
One early product that shows Continental's evolving approach to product development is its Integrated Cockpit System, which debuted last fall at the Frankfurt auto show.
It is a fully configurable driver information system that spans the width of the vehicle and places information in front of the driver on fully reconfigurable screens. Sideview mirrors are eliminated and those views are projected onto screens in the display. Without looking away from the road, the driver can control the presentation of information on screens.
Snow said new technologies won't alienate drivers.
"We're going to be able to get these two technologies to adapt to humans," she said, "rather than for humans to adapt to the technology." |
www_railway-technology_com_innovation-ranking__utm_medium_rankings_table_utm_content_Beijing_20Kings | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5535
Innovation
Introduction
GlobalData's Innovation Rankings use unique data analysis to highlight the companies at the cutting edge of global business.
The rankings are drawn from our 3i Innovation Framework which identifies companies' innovation potential using novel sources of data including patents, filings, jobs and deals and ranks them on 19 key innovation quality and strength indicators.
Patents is the primary data source and for each company, we calculate innovation quality indicators using our exhaustive dataset formed of over 130+ million patents.
The indicators are grouped into three main pillars:
- Intensity: a company's innovation activity and focus
- Impact: the impact of a company's innovation on other innovators in and outside its sector
- Ingenuity: the originality of a company's inventions and investments in disruptive technologies
Search the innovation ranking
Use the filters below to search through the companies included in the ranking. View detailed profiles of each ranked company by clicking 'View Profile'. |
www_springerprofessional_de_en_ein-dorf-entwickelt-eine-zukunftsstrategie_50198584 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4921
01-11-2024 | Titel
Ein Dorf entwickelt eine Zukunftsstrategie
Published in: Innovative Verwaltung | Issue 11/2024
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ericjacobsononmanagement_blogspot_com_2016_09_how-to-play-bigger-and-be-category-king_html | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4318
"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book, Play Bigger.
They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become category kings. Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA.
Play Bigger is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at category design:
- Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king.
- Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come."
Key traits of category design, explain the authors, are:
- A strategy that starts with your CEO and his/her leadership team identifying the right category to create.
- A combination of both product and ecosystem design. A product that provides the solution to an urgent and giant problem. And an environment around that product that wins loyalty and gratitude for that product and your company.
- Being sure your category design is part of your company culture.
- Creating a powerful and provocative story that causes customers or users to make a choice. A story that evokes something different from what came before, not just better.
- A combination of marketing, public relations, and advertising all focused on conditioning the market to desire and need whatever you're giving it.
- Ensuring all of the above components work together, in lockstep, feeding off each other.
"Category design is a process. One thing leads to another and it builds on itself," explain the authors.
Play Bigger provides you the playbook you need to learn how to become a category king. It's essential for entrepreneurs wanting to change the landscape. And, a must-read for CEO's who want to reimagine their businesses.
As you read the playbook, you'll learn:
- Why it takes courage to build a category.
- What makes category king companies enduring and attractive to investors.
- How category kings have changed the way Venture Capitalists invest in new companies.
And, you'll learn the answers to these questions:
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smashinghub_com_author_admin_page_9 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4544
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revistafuture_org_FSRJ_article_view_110 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5632
Applying the Creativity in Oder to Generate Innovation Projects: the Practical Case Study of a Didactic Strategy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24023/FutureJournal/2175-5825/2015.v7i1.187Keywords:
Innovation. Didactic Strategy. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.Abstract
A current challenge in teaching practice is to transform classrooms into laboratories to exchange experiences in courses whose goal is to enhance the professional skills in a practical and meaningful way. The search for improvement demonstrates that, increasingly, professionals become aware that organizations coexist in highly competitive environments, seeking to conquer more markets based on sustainable competitive advantages demanding fast responses of its employees. Considering that the process of creativity can be stimulated through the establishment of a suitable environment, this study aims to discuss the application of a didactic strategy developed for this purpose. Using the single case study methodology, it was used the technique of unstructured observation (informal or single) to carry out the collection and the recording of events that occurred during the strategy application. It discusses elements such as identifying opportunities, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, seeking their relationships to understand how it is possible to motivate the generation of proposals for innovative projects in educational environments. As a result, it is presented the perceptions of teachers on the didactic strategy applied, emphasizing that a suitable environment for the development of ideas encourages the student to propose solutions for the improbabilities, creating innovative alternatives to the identified needs.
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References
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blog_iese_edu_innovation-and-change_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5919
Innovation and Change
Meet Professor Desirée Pacheco: Shaping a sustainable future through entrepreneurship
Let’s start at the beginning, can you tell us a little bit about your background, and how you got to where you are today? I grew up on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico and left after college to start a career in management consulting. But the more time I spent in consulting projects, the…
Innovation and Change
IESE's Technology Transfer Group Recognized by AACSB for "Innovation That Inspires"
IESE's Barcelona Technology Transfer Group (BTTG) has been recognized by AACSB International for its innovative efforts to elevate entrepreneurial thinking and encourage new business creation. The AACSB, the world's largest business education alliance, recognized 25 business schools from 12 countries for a wide range of innovation projects, which emphasize research, experiential learning, cross-disciplinary efforts, and community…
Innovation and Change
Symbiosis, the Concept Behind the Platform of Opportunity Network
It is no secret that the irruption of the internet has transformed our society and businesses, boosting boundless interaction. This context of digital transformation has been the ideal breeding ground for a new type of relationship: a close and long-term interaction between two or more different agents that is mutualistic or commensalistic, where the parts… |
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english_sta_si_3026369_businesses-expect-strategic-r-d-from-new-government | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4401
Businesses expect strategic R&D from new government
Ljubljana, 14 April - Slovenian businesses expect that the new government will draw up a strategic development plan for a green transition in cooperation with experts and a clear and long-term development policy, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) director Aleš Cantarutti said on Thursday.
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www_tapanray_in_tag_ails_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4427
Close to half a century ago, Peter Drucker – the Management Guru wrote: As the purpose of business is to create customers, any business enterprise has two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Drucker’s concept is so fundamental in nature that it will possibly never change, ever.
That innovation is the lifeblood of pharma industry is well-accepted by most people, if not all. However, when similar discussion focuses on pharma marketing, the industry virtually exposes itself in the line of fire, apparently from all directions. This trend, coupled with a few more in other areas, is making a significant dent in the reputation of the pharma industry, triggering a chain of events that create a strong headwind for business growth.
The consequences of such dent in pharma reputation get well-reflected in an article titled “How Pharma Can Fix Its Reputation and Its Business at the Same Time,” published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) on February 3, 2017. The author observed:
“This worrisome mix of little growth potential and low reputation is the main explanation for why investors are increasingly interested in how pharma companies manage access-to-medicine opportunities and risks, which range from developing new treatments for neglected populations and pricing existing products at affordable levels to avoiding corruption and price collusion.”
On the above backdrop, this article will try to explore the relevance of Drucker’s ‘marketing’ concept in the pharma business – dispassionately. Alongside, I shall also deliberate on the possibility of a general misunderstanding, or misinterpretation of facts related to ‘pharma marketing’ activities, as these are today.
Communicating the intrinsic value of medications:
Moving in this direction, let me recapitulate what ‘pharma marketing’ generally does for the patients – through the doctors.
Despite being lifeblood that carries the intrinsic value of a medication from research lab to manufacturing plants and finally to patients, ‘pharma marketing’ is, unfortunately under incessant public criticism. It continues to happen, regardless of the fact that one of the key responsibilities of pharma players is to disseminate information on their drugs to the doctors, for the benefits of patients.
One may justifiably question any ‘marketing practice’ that is not patient-friendly. However, the importance of ‘marketing’ in the pharma business can’t just be wished away – for patients’ sake.
Way back in 1994, the article titled, “The role and value of pharmaceutical marketing” captured its relevance, aptly articulated:
“Pharmaceutical marketing is the last element of an information continuum, where research concepts are transformed into practical therapeutic tools and where information is progressively layered and made more useful to the health care system. Thus, transfer of information to physicians through marketing is a crucial element of pharmaceutical innovation. By providing an informed choice of carefully characterized agents, marketing assists physicians in matching drug therapy to individual patient needs. Pharmaceutical marketing is presently the most organized and comprehensive information system for updating physicians about the availability, safety, efficacy, hazards, and techniques of using medicines.”
The above relevance of ‘pharma marketing’, whether globally or locally, remains unchanged, even today, and would remain so, at least, in the foreseeable future.
It’s a serious business:
As many would know, in many respect ‘pharma marketing’, especially of complex small and large molecules, is quite a different ball game, altogether. It’s markedly different from marketing activities in most other industries, including Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), where customers and consumers are generally the same.
In contrast, in prescription drug market customers are not the consumers. In fact, most consumers of any prescription medicine don’t really know much, either about the drugs or their prices. They get to know about their costs while actually paying for those directly or indirectly. Healthcare providers, mostly in those countries that provide Universal Healthcare (UHC) in any form, may also be customers for the drug manufacturers. Even Direct to Consumer (DTC) drug advertisements, such as in the United States, can’t result into a direct choice for self-medication, other than Over the Counter (OTC) drugs.
Additionally, pharma market is highly regulated with a plethora of Do’s and Don’ts, unlike most other industries. Thus, for the drug manufacturers, medical professionals are the real customers, whereas patients are the consumers of medicines, as and when prescribed by doctors.
With this perspective, ‘Pharma marketing’ assumes a critical importance. It is too serious a strategic business process to be jettisoned by any. There exists a fundamental responsibility for the drug manufacturers to communicate important information on various aspects of drugs to individual physicians, in the interest of patients. This has to happen, regardless of any controversy in this regard, though the type of communication platforms, contents used and the degree of leveraging technology in this process may widely vary from company to company.
Assuming that the marketing practices followed by the industry players would be ethical and the regulators keep a strict vigil on the same, effective marketing of a large number of competing molecules or similar brand increases competition, significantly. In that process, it should ultimately enable physicians to prescribe drugs that will suit each patient the most, in every way. There can’t possibly be any other alternative to this concept.
A common allegation:
Despite these, a common allegation against ‘pharma marketing’ keeps gathering momentum. Reports continue pouring in that pharma companies spend far more on marketing drugs than on developing them. One such example is a stinging article, published by the BBC News on November 6, 2014.
Quoting various published reports as evidence, this article highlighted that – 9 out of 10 large pharma players spend more on marketing than R&D. These examples are generally construed as testimony for the profiteering motive of the pharma companies.
Is the reason necessarily so?
As any other knowledge-based industry, effective communication process of complex product information with precision, to highly knowledgeable medical professionals individually, obviously makes pharma marketing cost commensurately high. If the entire process of marketing remains fair, ethical and patient centric, such costs may get well-neutralized by the benefits accrued from the medicines, including lesser cost of drugs driven by high competition.
Further, a successful pharma marketing campaign is the ultimate tool that ensures a reasonable return on investments for further fund allocation, although in varying degree, to offer more new drugs to patients – both innovative and generics.
Marketing decision-support data generation is also cost-intensive:
Achieving short, medium and long-term growth objectives are as fundamental in pharma as in any other business. This prompts that investments made on ‘pharma marketing’, fetch commensurate returns, year after year. To succeed in this report, one of the prime requirements is to ensure that the content, platform and ultimate delivery of the product communication is based on current and credible research data having statistical significance.
With increasing brand proliferation, especially in competing molecules or branded generic market, arriving at cutting-edge brand differentiation has also become more challenging than ever before. Nevertheless, identification of well-differentiated patient-centric product value offerings will always remain ‘a must’ for any persuasive brand communication to be effective.
It calls for generating a vast amount of custom made decision-support data on each aspect of ‘pharma marketing’, such as target market, target patients, target doctors, competitive environment, differential value offering, and scores of others. The key to success in this effort is to come out with that ‘rare commodity’ that separates men from the boys. This is cost intensive.
What ails pharma marketing, then?
So far so good – the real issue is not, therefore, whether ‘pharma marketing’ deserves to be in the line of fire. The raging debate on what ails ‘pharma marketing’ should primarily focus on – how to ensure that this process remains ethical and fair, for all.
Thus, when criticism mounts on related issues, it may not necessarily mean that ‘marketing’ is avoidable in the pharma business. Quite often, critics do mix-up between the crucial ‘importance of pharma marketing’ and ‘malpractices in pharma marketing.’ Consequently, public impressions take shape, believing that the pharma marketing expenses are generally higher due to malpractices with profiteering motives.
As a result, we come across reports that draw public attention with conclusions like: “Imagine an industry that generates higher profit margins than any other and is no stranger to multi-billion dollar fines for malpractice.”
A similar article published ‘Forbes’ on February 18, 2015 also reiterates: “The deterioration of pharma’s reputation comes from several sources, not the least of which is the staggering amount of criminal behavior that has resulted in billions of dollars’ worth of fines levied against the industry.”
One cannot deny these reports – lock, stock and barrel, either. Several such articles named many large pharma players, both global and local.
Conclusion:
In my view, only pharma marketers with a ‘can do’ resolve will be able to initiate a change in this avoidable perception. No-one else possibly can do so with a total success in the foreseeable future – not even the requirement of a strict compliance with any mandatory code having legal teeth, such as mandatory compliance of the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) that the Indian Government is currently mulling.
I guess so because, after a strong deterrent like mandatory UCPMP is put in place, if reports on marketing malpractices continue to surface, it will invite more intense public criticism against ‘pharma marketing’ – pushing the industry’s reputation further downhill, much faster.
Be that as it may, it’s high time for all to realize, just because some pharma players resort to malpractices, the ‘pharma marketing’ process, as such, doesn’t deserve to be in the line of fire – in any way.
By: Tapan J. Ray
Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion. |
www_coil_osaka-cu_ac_jp_en_report_20190902sigloc_image5-4_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4658
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anisesmith_com_tag_personal-growth_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4640
Network, Recharge, Rise: From Holiday Hangouts to Power Connections for Your Entrepreneurial New Year
Introduction: As the first snowflakes dance in the air and holiday cheer fills the streets, a familiar question stirs in the hearts of entrepreneurs: “Can… |
www_sisealy_co_uk_celebrating-world-engineering-day-2023_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4044
Celebrating World Engineering Day 2023
Happy World Engineering Day! Today, we join the world in celebrating the fascinating world of engineering and the engineers behind the innovative solutions propelling us towards a sustainable future.
This year’s theme, “Engineering innovation for a more resilient world”, is significant to us as we support our clients in their objectives to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. With almost 75 years of experience, we take pride in delivering high-quality, sustainable solutions.
We are proud of the part we play in many key projects aimed at making our world a better, more resilient place. Such projects include: the Liverpool Heart & Chest decarbonisation reports; the Conservation Project at the World Heritage and iconic building housing Big Ben, Elizabeth Tower; and the state-of-the-art BREEAM “Excellent” Riverside Health Centre.
At the heart of each project is a team of highly trained engineers, whose expertise and dedication are critical to our success. Today, we’re excited to celebrate our team and engineering professionals worldwide whose contributions are integral to a better tomorrow.
To find out more about World Engineering Day, visit: https://worldengineeringday.net/ |
heartlandtechnology_com_covid-changed-it_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4149
A year and a half into the pandemic, we’re just beginning to understand how it changed everything around us. Analysts are still struggling to see the impact the pandemic had (and still has) on our society and the way we do business. But one thing is certain: nothing so far has accelerated digital transformation the way the pandemic has.
A McKinsey report showed that, in just a few months, businesses have made digital leaps that would otherwise have taken years to complete. And these changes are by no means temporary or passing trends. They are here to stay.
Let’s take a closer look at how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the enterprise approach to IT and data storage.
More Remote Work, But with Extra Emphasis on Availability and Security
The first wave of the pandemic sent people to work from home and their employers to find new ways to keep them productive and to keep their networks secure. Even the expected “big comeback” to the office was delayed, in light of the Delta variant. Giants like Apple and Google announced that their employees will likely not come back to the office until early 2022—in the most optimistic of scenarios.
Of course, when employees were sent to work from outside the office, on less-than-secure networks, the number of cyberattacks (many of them successful) grew exponentially. Thus, employers were left with two major problems to solve:
- Network availability for employees working outside the office
- Cybersecurity for the same employees
More importantly, they needed to solve these issues fast. The first step of the solution was obvious: on-premise storage was no longer optimal or cost-effective with a geo-diverse workforce.
From On-Premise to Cloud and Colocation
The IT changes most companies had to implement can be equated with building a highway in a month. With a key differentiator: we’re talking about a data highway.
Companies of all sizes needed better access to their data, better security, scalable solutions, and spread out networks. Their employees needed access to data from all over the world, and this access needed to be secure.
This prompted increased demand for two types of solutions: cloud storage and colocation. Cloud storage comes with an attractive price tag, but, as always, things are more complicated. Some of the security risks associated with cloud storage have yet to be mitigated, while data access in case of an outage is a major problem for companies who need to be up and running constantly—and who doesn’t these days, right?
Thus, colocation and edge computing have become the solutions that more and more companies are choosing. Colocation comes with real scalability, better data access, and an easily enforceable disaster data recovery plan. You can read more about what makes colocation a better alternative to cloud here.
Colocation goes hand in hand with edge computing, so it’s no wonder that the demand for the latter grew exponentially and is projected to reach $250.6 billion by 2024. The prime attraction of edge computing is the fact that it cuts the “middle man” in data processing and, instead of routing your data all over the world, processes it where the data is generated or as close to that location as possible.
In turn, this means that, wherever they may work from, employees can enjoy better data streams and a much higher speed. All without sacrificing security, of course.
You can read more about the benefits of edge computing here.
What’s Next in Data Storage and IT Infrastructure?
Sooner or later, the pandemic is going to be over and we’re going to be in a “new normal.” While no one knows exactly when that will happen, what we do know is that some of the changes it prompted are here to stay.
Take remote work, for instance. Even if the majority of big employers want their staff to come back to work, a mentality shift happened in the meantime and most of these employees prefer the flexibility of remote working, even at the cost of lower wages.
Cybercrime is on the rise and will be hard to contain any time soon. This means that companies will still need access to their data from anywhere in the world, with speed and flexibility, while maintaining improved security.
Colocation and edge computing have passed the hardest test: they became the solutions of choice in a moment of worldwide crisis, when better alternatives were needed and they were needed fast. No matter when the current crisis ends, savvy businessmen and IT managers know that there are countless types of crises that can impact an organization, and they need to be prepared for whatever comes their way.
With colocation, you get more than a flexible storage solution and better security. You get a disaster recovery plan that could save your company millions of dollars and the expertise of security and storage teams ready to jump in and help you whenever you need it.
Want to know more about how colocation can help your business thrive—during the best of times and during the worst of times? Schedule a tour of our Midwest facility and talk to our storage experts. |
www_ankarainteriors_com_en_projects_residential_detail_631_house-interior-design_image_4215 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4128
Every project adds a new breath, a new excitement. Every contract is an opportunity for us to raise the level. Our business logic with this ideology makes us "trend maker" rather than being trend follower.
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www_jennycapondraws_com_post_listen-to-the-young-people-they-know | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4119
Hello! Happy new year for 2023. Without expectation of regularity, or any kind of accidental declaration of specific intentions, I'm going to put some of my news, scribblings projects and the occasional ramble (both kinds) here. Sometimes as a graphic recorder, I'm lucky enough to listen in to people's conversations and ideas about some really interesting things. Often hopeful and inspirational things. And it's a total privilege to be a fly on the wall.
Like this insight from some brilliant young people, who as part of the Triumph Network of research, came together in Edinburgh to envision what a mentally healthy society for young people could look like. 'No more I should be' they said. 'Keep to your values'. 'Recognise the impact of social media' and 'we all have different paths - celebrate them'. 'Listen to young people - they know best'. I think they do. Full image here.
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oge_mit_edu_oge_news_meet-the-2022-23-accenture-fellows_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4352
This year's fellows will work across research areas including telemonitoring, human-computer interactions, operations research, AI-mediated socialization, and chemical transformations.
School of Engineering
Launched in October 2020, the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology underscores the ways in which industry and technology can collaborate to spur innovation. The five-year initiative aims to achieve its mission through research, education, and fellowships. To that end, Accenture has once again awarded five annual fellowships to MIT graduate students working on research in industry and technology convergence who are underrepresented, including by race, ethnicity, and gender.
This year’s Accenture Fellows work across research areas including telemonitoring, human-computer interactions, operations research, AI-mediated socialization, and chemical transformations. Their research covers a wide array of projects, including designing low-power processing hardware for telehealth applications; applying machine learning to streamline and improve business operations; improving mental health care through artificial intelligence; and using machine learning to understand the environmental and health consequences of complex chemical reactions.
As part of the application process, student nominations were invited from each unit within the School of Engineering, as well as from the Institute’s four other schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Five exceptional students were selected as fellows for the initiative’s third year.
Drew Buzzell is a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering and computer science whose research concerns telemonitoring, a fast-growing sphere of telehealth in which information is collected through internet-of-things (IoT) connected devices and transmitted to the cloud. Currently, the high volume of information involved in telemonitoring — and the time and energy costs of processing it — make data analysis difficult. Buzzell’s work is focused on edge computing, a new computing architecture that seeks to address these challenges by managing data closer to the source, in a distributed network of IoT devices. Buzzell earned his BS in physics and engineering science and his MS in engineering science from the Pennsylvania State University.
Mengying (Cathy) Fang is a master’s student in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Her research focuses on augmented reality and virtual reality platforms. Fang is developing novel sensors and machine components that combine computation, materials science, and engineering. Moving forward, she will explore topics including soft robotics techniques that could be integrated with clothes and wearable devices and haptic feedback in order to develop interactions with digital objects. Fang earned a BS in mechanical engineering and human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.
Xiaoyue Gong is a doctoral candidate in operations research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research aims to harness the power of machine learning and data science to reduce inefficiencies in the operation of businesses, organizations, and society. With the support of an Accenture Fellowship, Gong seeks to find solutions to operational problems by designing reinforcement learning methods and other machine learning techniques to embedded operational problems. Gong earned a BS in honors mathematics and interactive media arts from New York University.
Ruby Liu is a doctoral candidate in medical engineering and medical physics. Their research addresses the growing pandemic of loneliness among older adults, which leads to poor health outcomes and presents particularly high risks for historically marginalized people, including members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. Liu is designing a network of interconnected AI agents that foster connections between user and agent, offering mental health care while strengthening and facilitating human-human connections. Liu received a BS in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Joules Provenzano is a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering. Their work integrates machine learning and liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to improve our understanding of complex chemical reactions in the environment. As an Accenture Fellow, Provenzano will build upon recent advances in machine learning and LC-HRMS, including novel algorithms for processing real, experimental HR-MS data and new approaches in extracting structure-transformation rules and kinetics. Their research could speed the pace of discovery in the chemical sciences and benefits industries including oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. Provenzano earned a BS in chemical engineering and international and global studies from the Rochester Institute of Technology. |
www_agileengine_com_v3-homepage_quality-studio-v3_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4109
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insurancefordealers_com_fastest-growing-insurance-companies-in-the-usa-fast-brokerages_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5188
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ttncc_com__b_34294004209 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4244
[ our skills ]
The Core Company Values
We are constantly growing, learning, and improving and our
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
Quality
Innovation
Customer-Centricity
Luxury and Minimalism
Value for Money |
iotappdevelopment_com_listing-features_industry-4-0_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4685
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www_redseaexperience_com_why-isnt-new-technology-making-us-more-productive_html | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4630
For yrs, it has been an post of religion in company The usa that cloud computing and synthetic intelligence will fuel a surge in prosperity-generating productivity. That belief has influenced a flood of venture funding and firm paying out. And the payoff, proponents insist, will not be confined to a compact group of tech giants but will spread across the financial system.
It has not took place however.
Efficiency, which is defined as the price of merchandise and services made for each hour of perform, fell sharply in the very first quarter this calendar year, the governing administration documented this month. The quarterly numbers are usually risky, but the report seemed to sprint earlier hopes that a productivity revival was eventually underway, aided by accelerated investment in electronic systems all through the pandemic.
The growth in efficiency because the pandemic strike now stands at about 1% every year, in line with the meager rate considering that 2010 — and significantly underneath the last extend of strong improvement, from 1996 to 2004, when productivity grew much more than 3% a calendar year.
Economies develop not only by introducing far more cash and labor. An additional essential component is a nation’s skill in generating and commercializing innovation, which will make expenditure and workers extra productive.
Seemingly compact proportion gains in productivity can make a large distinction in a country’s wealth and dwelling expectations about time. Even an supplemental 1% annual boost in efficiency more than a few decades, to 2024, would create an extra $3,500 in per capita cash flow for Americans, McKinsey & Co. estimated in a report very last calendar year. The 3.8% average yearly get from 1948 to 1972 was the engine of the nation’s postwar prosperity.
Productiveness is not a treatment-all for financial ills. “Even if the optimism about this wave of electronic technological innovation proves justified, that does not mean there will be a serious sharing of the advantages,” stated Laura Tyson, a professor at the Haas University of Enterprise at the University of California, Berkeley, and a chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration.
But a a lot less effective financial state is a smaller sized one particular with much less sources to deal with social problems like inequality.
The current productivity puzzle is the issue of spirited discussion between economists. Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern College, is the major skeptic. Today’s artificial intelligence, he said, is primarily a technology of pattern recognition, poring as a result of wide troves of terms, photos and figures. Its feats, in accordance to Gordon, are “impressive but not transformational” in the way that electric power and the inside combustion motor were being.
Erik Brynjolfsson, director of Stanford University’s Electronic Economy Lab, is the leader of the optimists’ camp. He confesses to getting rather disappointed that the productiveness pickup is not nonetheless obvious but is confident it is only a make a difference of time.
“Real alter is occurring. A tidal wave of transformation is underway,” Brynjolfsson explained. “We’re seeing more and far more info on the floor.”
It will probably be years prior to there is a definitive remedy to the productivity debate. Brynjolfsson and Gordon created a “long bet” final yr, with the winner decided at the end of 2029. But research at the business and business concentrations, tapping knowledge that ranges from Census Bureau company surveys to on-line career listings, show the pattern of technological know-how diffusion and the obstacles.
The leaders are predominantly massive companies that have been investing in electronic know-how for yrs and superior-expansion young organizations, which are frequently backed by enterprise cash. Cloud computing is pretty commonly adopted, but not the most highly developed technological know-how, like AI programs.
The confined uptake, some experts say, is not so stunning at this stage, given that 3-quarters of U.S. businesses are tiny, with less than 10 workers.
At Anthem, a well being insurance provider whose ideas protect a lot more than 45 million people, about 75% of the shopper thoughts are now dealt with by means of its digital channels, such as a internet portal, a cellular app and speech recognition software package. Three decades previously, the electronic share was about 30%. The issue-answering technological know-how to enable men and women with basic duties like checking the status of a claim, paying a invoice or finding a physician is animated partly by AI.
Digital automation has eliminated 10 million cell phone phone calls that Anthem’s call facilities would have fielded, believed Rajeev Ronanki, president of digital platforms.
Anthem, which is modifying its company identify next month to Elevance Health, is not chopping its purchaser support staff. But the role of people staff and how their functionality is measured have altered. The conventional metric of performance in call facilities is “call-manage time,” and the fewer time for every contact, the greater. Anthem now wishes its client support employees to resolve troubles for callers with 1 simply call, when doable, rather than passing them to a different section.
Lots of of its phone center agents have gained additional teaching to become what Anthem calls “care navigators.” Measurements of their overall performance now include things like challenges solved and client satisfaction surveys. By that broader established of steps, Ronanki said, the company’s get in touch with brokers are 30-40% much more successful. Adding skills and redesigning work, he explained, are as crucial as improving upon technologies.
“Building the complex capacity by itself is just the starting,” Ronanki stated.
It requires time for new systems to spread and for people to determine how to best use them. For illustration, the electric powered motor, which was introduced in the 1880s, did not crank out discernible productivity gains until finally the 1920s, when the mass-output assembly line reorganized get the job done all-around the technological know-how.
The private computer system revolution took off in the 1980s. But it was not until eventually the 2nd half of the 1990s that financial productiveness seriously surged, as those machines became much less expensive, more powerful and related to the internet.
The 1990s revival was served by a leap in technology financial commitment by organizations and by enterprise capitalists, particularly in net and internet startups. Similarly, in the previous ten years, software program expending in the United States has far more than doubled to $385 billion as corporations commit to digitize their operations, exploration organization IDC documented.
Undertaking expense in artificial intelligence startups throughout the world amplified far more than 80% last 12 months to $115 billion, in accordance to PitchBook, which tracks funding.
Cresta is an AI startup attempting to make a dent in the modern day productivity challenge. In 2020, Cresta released its preliminary product or service: authentic-time advice and coaching software program for connect with heart agents. Its technology digests massive volumes of text and voice discussions to discover styles of behavior and answers to questions that remedy buyer issues or crank out income.
The objective is not to change personnel but to lift their effectiveness, said Zayd Enam, the company’s co-founder and CEO. Cresta’s presenting, he explained, is produced probable by latest improvements in the ability and speed of AI software package, which he described as “game modifying.”
Cresta has 200 workers, has elevated extra than $150 million in undertaking funding and has various dozen corporate customers which include Verizon, Cox Communications and Porsche.
CarMax, the nation’s greatest used-car retailer, commenced hoping out the Cresta program in December. The AI experiment followed years of financial commitment to shift the company’s computer system functions to run on extra adaptable, cloud-dependent devices, reported Jim Lyski, executive vice president for technique, promoting and products and solutions.
Shopper inquiries to CarMax’s contact facilities are inclined to be prolonged. Utilised vehicles span distinctive years, types, attributes and driving histories, and financing options for what is a significant acquire change. The range of thoughts is all but endless, Lyski claimed, so purely automatic conversation is not an selection.
But a computing assistant that could aid type all the automotive complexity, presenting authentic-time ideas and facts, was interesting. Cresta initially trained on the CarMax speak to center data, and the experiment started with its dwell chat brokers, who have textual content conversations with buyers.
The working experience has been encouraging, Lyski stated. There has been about a 10% improvement in response time, conversion to revenue and decreased session time. And the process keeps understanding and finding much better. The business has begun a pilot job with brokers who field voice calls, lifting the whole quantity of brokers using the AI engineering to 200.
1 worry, Lyski claimed, was how staff would answer to possessing AI in excess of their shoulders. Would it be excellent sufficient to be seen as a welcome helper rather of an annoying distraction? The response has been optimistic, he mentioned.
Cresta started with contact centers as a substantial, early sector since it is a labor-intense area wherever AI can be applied somewhat immediately and productively. But Enam sees its “real-time intelligence AI” perhaps becoming handy in a large selection of understanding operate, acting as a clever assistant in anything from using the services of to product or service development.
“This technology is extra general intent than we see now,” he stated.
Brynjolfsson of Stanford is betting that is real, and Gordon of Northwestern is doubtful. |
www_rocketpunk-manifesto_com_2011_02_decelerando_html_showComment_1297707301907 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4130
Decelerando?
Will the Industrial Revolution end not with tranformation but a truce?
This is a question I've considered here before, noting that the true 'accelerando' of the Industrial Revolution peaked about a century ago, and that technologies in general alternate between rapid transformations and much longer periods of maturity and incremental progress.
This subject was lately taken up by Tyler Cowen at his blog Marginal Revolution, and in expanded e-pamphlet form, and as a quick google will show, he has stirred up a hornet's nest of discussion. One reason Cowen has a 'big' blog while this is a 'small' one is that he came up with a snappy title for the phenomenon he discusses, The Great Stagnation.
In a nutshell, argues Cowen, we have already picked much of the low-hanging fruit of technical progress, making what remains harder to come by and thus more expensive. As I noted last fall, the speed of human travel increased in a rather Moore's Law fashion from about 1830 until 1960. In the 50 years since then it has stalled; our jet planes travel at the same speed as first generation jetliners.
More broadly, while we do have the Internet, we don't have household robots, or aircars, or all those other things we were supposed to have in The Future. Nor do we have substitutes or counterparts for most of them. Broadly speaking, except for the mobile phones, a middle class neighborhood of 2011 is broadly similar to one of 1973, the year Cowen picked as reference point (just before the first 'oil shock' and some other trends that made the later 1970s a rough patch).
Some important provisos. A lot more people have the industrial age basics. In 1973, as I am old enough to remember, famine was still an endemic threat to much of the world's population. Now it endangers only the poorest and most marginalized people: a dreadful exception, not a norm. At least half a billion people in China and India alone have, broadly speaking, joined the global middle class in the last decade or so, and probably a similar number in other countries. This is a stupendous increase in human material well-being. But it has to do with the spread of existing technologies, and the institutions that support them. It is an extension of the achieved, not of the possible.
Of course there is the Internet. For sheer coolness it is awesome, and of course it has made this blog possible. But is it really as economically transformative as, say, motor transportation was? In particular, the Internet economy is curiously limited. It has created nothing like the vast pool of fairly well-paying jobs that the auto industry did. It has created a few spectacular fortunes, a few thousand or tens of thousands of impressively well-paying careers, an (unpaid) opportunity for me and the commenters to hold forth to an audience, and allowed millions to either read this blog or - vastly more likely - watch pets and their people do silly things.
Turning from technology and economics to the underlying fundamentals of science, the picture is rather similar. We still don't have a Grand Unified Theory; our physics remains, broadly speaking, a mashup of relativity and quantum mechanics, as it was for most of the past century. Our cutting edge not infrequently cuts right through into metaphysics, offering conceptual possibilities such as bubble universes that we cannot test even in theory.
Space speculation and space SF show much the same trajectory. In 1861 neither one existed. By 1911 they both existed, and Tsiolkovsky had already outlined the principles of multistage, liquid fuel rockets. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth, and the original rocketpunk era of Realistic [TM] space speculation was already being overtaken by events. In 2011 we are still very much within that same framework; alternative techs remain nearly pure speculation.
On the flip side ... there is an oft-repeated story - alas, it seems to be apocryphal - that a mid-19th century patent official recommended closing the patent office on the grounds that everything that could be invented already had been. (The linked blog tartly observes that this involves two improbabilities: that a tech geek would believe such a thing, and that a government bureaucrat would recommend abolishing his own job.)
Inventions are very unlikely to cease, but 'big' ones might well become less common.
Presumably there is some point at which we could know, in broad outline, how the universe really works, leaving nothing truly fundamental to discover. A recent comment thread considered this question, not without some contention.
I am not suggesting anything so sweeping - only that a punctuated equilibrium may be giving way to a new equilibrium. We may have worked our way through most of the broad outlines of science-as-we-know-it, and its major technical implications.
In much the same way, the technological revolution c. 1400-1500 that gave rise to the full-rigged sailing ship gave way to a maturity of more gradual refinement. A seaman of 1400, time-shifted to 1500, would have found ships nearly unrecognizable. A seaman of 1700, shifted to 1800, would have found many improvements but few real surprises.
If so, this has some important social implications. What happens if economic growth rates in this century, at any rate in the most industrialized countries, are markedly lower than they were in the last one? Dividing up the economic pie becomes a much more fraught issue if the pie is no longer getting larger, or only at a glacial rate. 'Creative destruction' will become the exception, not the rule.
Discuss.
The image is a vintage 'muscle car,' a 1966 Pontiac GTO.
196 comments:
Ironically, this cheered me up somewhat, having had to examine (long story) the role that robots will play in our future, and ultimately concluding that through their use of brute-force analysis and eventually more advanced techniques, robots will be able to do anything humans can and better, barring cultural professions (and even they might be still subject to mathematics, the 'perfect joke' being an example) and thus ultimately there is little or no room for humans in any profession or job- we are more advanced, but functionally obselete.
Case in point: a thirty year old Firebee drone outmanourving an F4 on a training excercise. Factor in 40 years of developement and the developement of robots that can think of new scientific theses (at aberystwyth University).
And I don't mean AI either- just a calculating machine, utlilisaing the fact that all the universe is comprised of mathsd (at least to us anyway). Being the ultimate calculating machine, eventually not even the most complex task imaginable will be beyond them. It is only a matter of (a very long) time.
Yes, that is a general broad statement- to but it bluntly, it was meant to be.
Having seen this post, i hope i am seriously wrong.
Maybe robots won't completely replace us afterall...
With respect, I think you are vastly underestimating the economic impact of the internet. You claim it has created only a few tens of thousands of well paying careers. That might be true in the United States, but it ignores the fact that the internet is responsible for an enormous shift in how work is done in this country. Further, hundreds, if not millions of jobs have been created overseas in India, China, Ireland and other countries both to support the internet and to produce the computers, routers, cell phones, etc. that make up our means of accessing the internet.
Prefer the 1970 Plymouth Challenger Trans-Am (w/ 340 six-pack) myself.
There are some fields that I think could explode and reshape the industrial landscape: robotics, biotech, materials engineering, probably others I'm forgetting. Each has a certain momentum at the moment, as we finally start solving some of the problems we identified decades ago and found out just how hard they are.
Robotics in particular seems poised to ramp up massively - we've got enough computing power, and in portable enough platforms, that while we're not going to be making strong AI we have started making useful semi-general-purpose robots. There's something resembling an arms race going on in the field, focused on human-robot interaction and workable environmental navigation, which suggests moving from where's-my-jetpack distance to everyday integration.
Biotech, as well, has made enormous strides in the last decade on the research front. Ever since the Human Genome Project succeeded, we've been collecting all sorts of useful data and chipping away at meaningful modification of basic biological mechanisms (see the synthetic DNA breakthrough a couple months ago).
As for materials, we've made progress on useful nano-scale material construction, edging towards mass-production levels, and the whole field of metamaterials didn't really exist ten years ago. There might be something there.
In general, though, I suspect we're running afoul of the inherent problems with predictions of scientific progress - if we knew what we were looking for, we'd have it already.
Ooooh, this is a good one.
Submitted for your approval...
http://www.marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm
Examines the consequences of high levels of automation in the human economy. Might seem at first like woo-woo future panic but I think he raises some very interesting questions.
This also raises an interesting trope question.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture
While the Cool Starship of the series has fully automated food dispensers, and artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are realities, indentured servitude and slavery of sapient beings is still widespread, and the most common slave occupation by far in The Future (TM) is the lowly miner. Why mining? Because cave sets are cheap and easily redressed to represent different planets. However, we have to ask ourselves why such technologically advanced civilizations (presumably capable of building automated robot mines) choose to be so dependent on manual labor as to indenture or enslave thousands, even millions of sapient beings instead of applying technological solutions which are cheaper, more efficient, and more humane.
This is done to keep humans in the story and relevant. But what happens if you don't do that? What if you let humans become irrelevant?
This is a story from 1909.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops
The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine called the speaking apparatus, with which people conduct their only activity, the sharing of ideas and knowledge. The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his cell. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitized, mechanical world. He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission, and without the life support apparatus supposedly required to endure the toxic outer air, and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptured him, and he has been threatened with 'Homelessness', that is, expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world.
Ironically, this cheered me up somewhat, having had to examine (long story) the role that robots will play in our future, and ultimately concluding that through their use of brute-force analysis and eventually more advanced techniques, robots will be able to do anything humans can and better, barring cultural professions (and even they might be still subject to mathematics, the 'perfect joke' being an example) and thus ultimately there is little or no room for humans in any profession or job- we are more advanced, but functionally obselete.
I have this same problem, not just looking into the real world future but also the fictional future. I'm having trouble imagining the occupations people might have in various speculative future scenarios. As near as I can figure it's either an automated future where everyone has a guaranteed minimum income and people are free to follow their bliss or it's 90% unemployment with the elites handing out just enough bread and circuses to prevent an Egypt-style mass uprising. It's a vastly unsatisfying life of low expectations and bitter disappointment.
For my own scifi setting, there will be a cultural prohibition against VR addiction aka holodecadence which is strong a taboo as incest and cannibalism. That keeps most of civilization out of amusing itself to death. But a few hundred years in the future, what will the average bloke be doing? I'm having trouble coming up with answers that are satisfying. 20th century ... well, at this point early 21st century living transported hundreds of years in the future feels like the only thing I can be sure we won't see.
Maybe that's our McGuffinte: boredom and automation. "Earth's got nothing left to do, so let's go do something neat on Mars." (Wishful thinking, I know, but hey.)
As a compliment to the robotic nation argument....
Super-advanced robot pr0n for y'all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C62JSgJo39E&feature=related
The self-driving vehicles were something I never thought we'd see, too difficult to ever make practical. They're coming.
And just look at these industrial bots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syYHTFZxU7k&feature=related
Where's the need for skilled human labor at this point? Making sandwiches?
Nope, there's a bot for that. "Sudo make me a sammich."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQOkMz3kiS0
How long until Subway workers are replaced by bots that do a better job of fixing a sub?
Unless non-invasive BCI's mean that a synthesis of human and robot mean that- somhow, a human and robot working in collbration are superior to a robot or human on their own.
Pulled out of the air I know, and probably unlikely, but I have in one setting a BCI influenced world in which a factory worker can instinctively calculate distances and measurements better than a robot thanks to the BCI. The robot checks and takes over when fatigue kicks in, with the human in turn checking and correcting the robot when it has made a sub-atomically small mistake.
Pilots in aircraft that have to manouvre at robot tolerance lev4els of g are safely immersed in the highest quality acceleration tanks.
Humans work with robots in nano-forges and thing printers to manipulate matter on the sub-atomic level to bind it together in the most efficient way to form the product.
And, yes, warfare involves humans and robots together on the front-lines, as the light speed lag and reactions times prohibit a remote command centre even afew miles behind the lines.
As for cars, humans can leave it to the robots, but might drive out of sheer enjoyment (or keeping their brain active). That's what a robot does in this point in the future history, offer choice, not force humans out of a purpose other than mere/sheer existence.
Voila! far-future drama with humans and no AI needed.
:)
of coure, this will NEVER be matched in the real world. Good from a warfighting perspective, but ultimately, for other sectors I would struggle to accept this.
:(
I read the article.
Author says that all jobs will be replaced (inventer, actors, all). THEN states that there will be time for more authors and inventors to be creative. A contradiction and unfairly placed hope spot.
I have to agree with the above comments on the economic impact of the internet. Sure, a lot of people just use it as another 'gee whiz' entertainment machine, but its practical impact is a very real thing. It allows the exchange of ideas from all over the globe instantaneously. Many attribute the Renaissance to the advent of the printing press and the widespread communication it enabled. The internet may very well end up allowing another such revolution of thought. Economically and personally, it's a very big step forward in globalization.
Also, another factor that will contribute to this century's economic paradigm shift is the coming population bust. I don't if you've read any of George Friedman's books -- particularly (now what amateur futurist can resist that title?). His comments on how a plateauing and (after the middle of the century) declining world population will completely alter the way we think of the global system. The population bust is probably the most under-rated future trend of this century and one that most of people are completely unaware of.
Great post as always!
Oops, lost the book title (The Next Hundred Years) in my post.
Below is a link to the book on Amazon, for those not familiar with it:
http://www.amazon.com/Next-100-Years-Forecast-Century/dp/0767923057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297563734&sr=8-1
Regarding brain computer interfaces...
I've been playing around with the implications of that. I'm thinking the net result of that could be Charles Atlas superpowers. That's the TV trope for supremely trained normal humans like a Batman as opposed to a mutant or someone bitten by a radioactive spider or an alien from a planet with a red sun. Someone like Batman, if written with some restraint, can do things that are within the realms of possibility but remain unlikely. No one could have such precise timing, such accurate control over his own body, perfect timing, etc. But someone with the computer-assisted nervous system would operate beyond the realm of human ability and now it's simply a question of physics. We're talking Lone Ranger territory, shooting guns out of the hands of bad guys, intricate acrobatics, etc.
And beyond the realm of combat, we're talking about having access to the entirety of human knowledge sitting right there inside your skull. Terminator vision, flagging things for your attention, knowledge flooding into your mind. Do you know how to fly that shuttle? Wait a sec.. ok, now you do.
Now there's the question of where the drama comes from for someone who's that awesome. It comes down to nerves. Me as a person, I'm very risk-adverse. I hate hate hate hate hate things like gambling. Turns my stomach. And this is talking about small sums of money being on the line, not my safety and well-being. It doesn't matter if you're a brain-rigged badass if you're also still mortal. There's also the question of being able to use the BCI properly. Plenty of ways to screw up, spook yourself, get killed.
RE the impact of the internet -- it's the gutenberg press 2.0. It makes the free dissemination of ideas even easier.
There was an interesting TED Talk where they had a speaker via skype calling in from an African slum. They have internet and are putting into practice things they're learning from it. They have access to the knowledge of the world.
You've got people claiming Egypt is the twitter revolution and you've got naysayers shooting right back saying that's the west trying to interject themselves into the story and finding the dumbest, most superficial takeaway. And the first side says no, this is more than hype. We'll have to see.
We may be at the begining of a shift in our technology; just as we shifted from wind/water/muscle power to fuel/mechanical power and electrical devices, we now could be shifting to bio-and nano-technologies. What will be the next 'accelerando' and when it will begain? It could be next year or next century. This technological platau won't last forever, but until another tech-explosion happens, things might be on the dismal side.
On the other hand, people use the internet for communication and exchanging of ideas...just look what happened in the middle east this last couple of weeks; people used the internet and other modern communications to spontaniously organise revolutions that have deposed two governments, so far. Sometimes we invent a tool, and then take quite a while to discover what it's best used for...
Ferrell
jollyreaper:
Brain-computer interfaces don't really work that way. They're more a mechanism to provide input to a computer than to produce computer-aided output to the human body.
Other bodies, though - whole different kettle of fish. Where BCIs lead, eventually, is not optimized bodies but extensible bodies. Hot-swappable brains. Vehicles (and robots!) as extensions of self. Maybe that fabled cyberspace we've been expecting all this time.
Certainly would be a sea change from our current technological plateau.
Blaine M:
I always make sure to take a tablespoon of salt when reading anything by Friedman. He's terribly earnest in his insistence on the supremacy of a narrow economic model, despite plenty of evidence the world doesn't actually work that way.
Well, brain computer interfaces would work however they're designed to work. I suppose one would make a distinction between whether it's simply a means of replacing spoken and typed instructions to a computer rather than a nervous system upgrade.
But yeah, with tech like this, humans would appear psionic. You'd effectively have telepathy, telekinesis (for objects with internal means of locomotion), ESP since data streams from all over the place could be fed directly into your skull...
Depending upon the mythology, sometimes gods have total omniscience where they know what you're doing even if you're completely alone but other mythologies have the gods depend upon spies, often times animals. But the general idea is something living has to observe something and then report back. Well, that's pretty much what you'd have with literal spy bugs. You can search all you want but you can never be sure you've caught all of the other guy's spies.
jollyreaper:
No, I mean that taking input from the nervous system is a different problem than directing coherent output to it. We may be able to do both, but the first is what we're already starting to do now.
When we have the second, there are no such things as paraplegics anymore...
The internet has changed what a lot of people do, and some have become very rich in the transitional confusion. Some have also lost a lot, some the shirts off their backs. But, like every previous change in how people do commerce, things will settle out. Then the next change will happen, and fortunes will be made, and livelihoods lost again.
Off-topic now, but...
"To assist the pilot, the landing [Lockheed] U-2 is paced by a chase car (usually a 'souped-up' performance model including a Ford Mustang SSP, Chevrolet Camaro B4C, Pontiac GTO, and the Pontiac G8) with an assistant (another U-2 pilot) who 'talks' the pilot down by calling off the declining height of the aircraft in feet as it decreases in airspeed." (from Wikipedia)
Possible? Of course. Achieved? With great difficulty. Practical? Give me a break.
Even without BCIs, technologies such as augmented/virtual reality and gesture recognition (involving wii remote-like devices, haptic interfaces, or lasers detecting eye movement) could be used for many of the applications that people have been suggesting. Reaction times might be slightly longer, since a person would have to move their eyes or hand to give an instruction rather than simply thinking it. However, human-robot cooperation in factory work, remote control of interchangable robot bodies for leisure, tourism or dangerous activities, and control of high-g aircraft from acceleration tanks would all still be possible.
R.C.
I think I can agree with what Jollyreaper's saying on the evolution of the internet, coupled with the integration with humanity. I personally consider the Ghost in the Shell anime series (not the films, they are more speculative) to be an excellent vision of this integration.
In Ghost in the Shell, Charles Atlas Superpowers are basically possible with artificial bodies and external memories for our brains. Regardless the implementation of such technology in real life, the series is very good at imagining what it means for the characters (and, by extension, society). Also, they did a beautiful job of visualizing the interface. Not that it would look like that in real life, but thanks to the visualization, they made it imaginable.
I also agree with those that said the internet was extremely influential. If you read up on "Medium Theory", as propounded by J. Meyrowitz and others, it becomes very tempting to frame the evolution of human societies as the evolution of mediums of communication. From pure verbal transmission, to carving in stone, to the invention of books, then print, after that television and radio, and currently the internet, "Medium Theory" provides an excellent method of combining that with the course of human history, and the influences of those on one another.
In that respect, yes, I do think the internet is doing a bloody good job of transforming human society. As one of the characters from Ghost in the Shell put it, it's possible to consider the internet as part of a new Basis on which a Superstructure can be built.
On the notion of Accelerando/deccelerando, I think the whole idea of BCI is a trend that we can already see happening. Look at the current generation of devices being released. Cell phones, netbooks, notepads, mp3-players and laptops are increasingly merging. The various devices are no longer distinct machines, but rather various iterations of the same machine: one which is a media player (in the broadest sense) a communication device (what with things like Facebook, Twitter, msn, telephonic communications and skype increasingly being just facets of one another, and increasingly merging together), and most importantly, hooked up to the internet to enable all that.
This merger of media, machines and modes of communication is the current trend. Who knows what direction it will take? Ghost in the Shell-style cyberbrains and BCI looks to be a distinct possibility, however it may be a little too "linear" = an extension of current trends, and not taking into account the merger of, say, biotechnology.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling ^_^
From the point of view of the bic/macguffin wearer, they would not be superpowered mrotals however, as everyoen would have access to this sort of technology- to avoid information overload however (I'm assuming brains can't alwyas instantly download knowledge from an external source) traditional learning and visualisation of the downloaded knowledge.
Almost all necessary work has been replaced by automation, but humans are beginning to intrude on that realm, using their macguffin devices to imrpove the efficiency of the robots and making things even better for themselves and the economy.
Capabilities to think extra fast (in effect slowing down time) for short periods and enter one vast virtual reality (a developement of the internet) for research and communication also factor.
The human body does nevertheless have limits. For the time being, I'm avoiding "brains in jars" in robots and the like- some consciousnes transference might occur.
The one thing I WILL avoid is some culture/Federation copy where humans are in a utopia and all cared for by robots with unlimited resources. There will be flaws apparent to the characters in the setting.
Re Geoffry S H: "everyone would have access to this sort of technology": only if everyone could afford it. Economic viability seems like a very important factor. We all know the standard scenario of a tiny upper class that can afford the benefits of it all, with a lower class that can't. Personally, I think that scenario is a hyperbolic simplification, if only because the middle class got left out for convenience.
Nevertheless, today already we can see that, despite the huge growth of the internet, it's still factually limited to those that can afford a computer with a connection. The segment of the world's population which is disenfranchised in this way is much bigger than the enfranchised. And it's painful that despite the incredible innovations the internet has brought us, this means that a majority has a voice that cannot be heard this way.
On the growing role of robots in the economy, it must have been noticed that they primarily replace humans in industry, right? The segment of the economy that provides services (like attending a shop, taking care of people in the medical sector, or even ordinary postmen) still require people.
Could it be possible to divide the areas where humans work up into distinct "sectors" (such as the industry vs. the service-sector), ordered by a scale of likely automation, to unlikely? We could then say "Robots will be present first in sector A of the economy, but only in sector B or C at a much later time, after many advance".
You'd then have an incremental decrease in the value of human presence in various segments/"sectors" of the economy. Depening on the time scale, you could easily write SF set at a certain point where you will see people working at B, but not at A, for example.
I don't think I'm explaining this right, does anyone understand what I'm trying to say?
Geoffrey:
Given the substantial (I'd say nigh-impossible) technological barriers to consciousness transfer, I would bet a lot of money that we'll see brains in jars longs before we see uploading.
Chris:
I don't think we can construct a neat and tidy progression of roboticized industries. That sort of thing is too heavily dependent on the specifics.
Yeah, but still it's easy to see how heavy industry got roboticized first, since the various jobs on the assembly line are easy to compartmentalize and hand over to relatively simple robots doing monotonous task. I brought it up because I read a proposal somewhere that in the near future, it simply will be far more common in the West to find jobs in the services-sector rather than in the industrial sector of the economy. If this isn't already true today.
So therefore I figured you should be able to map this: first heavy industry got roboticized, and not the services (again, think postmen, clerks at stores, etc). We're also seeing elements of warfare being tasked to robots, but I don't think they really "count", since UAVs are not really autonomous, but are primarily controlled via remote.
However, if consensus here is that UAV's do count, then my theory goes to ***, because roboticizing industry, then warfare, but not services is at least less intuitive as a linear progression.
I propose that the progression of robotics would be this:
First the secondary sector, which is the industry. The car industry, but also textile or chemical and engineering seems to be easiest to automate.
Secondly the primary sector (farming, fishing, animal husbandry) comes up for automation. I can easily imagine combine harvesters getting the "UAV treatment", as it were, with the farmer controlling the machines from the comfort of a desk, with a personal computer enabling him to do so.
But if we can automate combine harvesters and remove the need for manual labor on the land, the Tertiary industry will be third to get roboticized: sales (retail and wholesale), transportation and distribution, and entertainment have already been automated in fiction to death (robot trucks and CGI porno are both becoming quite real already).
Lastly, the quarternary sector will be roboticized. This sector deals with intellectual endeavours, and would mark the point where human affairs in the economy are truly no longer needed.
Obviously, the flaw in this neat little scheme is that I had to swap the secondary and primary sectors in the grand scale of things to fit real-life developments we've seen so far... Farming definately didn't get automated before the car industry within the context of this discussion.
However, if we alter the conditions on "automation" or roboticization for the sake of argument... but that would probably be a trivial discussion
"Given the substantial (I'd say nigh-impossible) technological barriers to consciousness transfer, I would bet a lot of money that we'll see brains in jars longs before we see uploading."
Technologically speaking, most definately. Culturally speaking....
I wouldn't say itsd certain.
So if/when robots replace humanity in everything... what then?
Remember, we're not talking about AI's ala- the Culture that care for humans like pets and use them when needed. We are talking about unthinking machines that would be VERY difficult to write about drama-wise. If robots can even manage all creative aspects of our culture as well... what then? yes, for the foreseeable future it is unlikely, but if a robot could even write poetry through its application of mathematics, and ultimately do it better than a human, and then criticise and analyse that work (thus removing our role even as spectators), are merely drones whose thoughts are ultimately substandared and unwelcome?
Sorry, that was meant to say "Are WE merely drones..."
One possible aspect of the decelerando that hasn't been mentioned so far is the increasing amount of resources which are diverted to support bureaucracy rather than being reinvested in the productive sectors of the economy.
In Canada, the single largest houshold expense is taxation, once you factor in Federal, Provincial and municipal taxes, fees levies etc. Depending on your income bracket, you can expect to see at least 1/2 of your income going to taxes; yet most of the things taxes are supposed to be paying for are rather second rate at best (we have a tiny military, crumbling Infrastructure and escalating waiting times for health care, to name the most prominent examples).
Even programs which are supposed to "help" are overtaken by politicization; there are still plenty of poor people despite almost half a century of expanded State welfare, and our education system is something of a joke when we compare standardized test scores against other nations (to use a metric which allows comparison).
Economics also plays a big role, I have seen old copies of National Geographic from the 1970's advertising new Cadillac sedans for $3000, now it is difficult to purchase a working used car for that amount of money. Debasing the currency through inflation negatively affects investor behaviour as well.
So maybe what happened to the "low hanging fruit" is the bureaucrats ate it...
Geoffrey S H:
"We are talking about unthinking machines that would be VERY difficult to write about drama-wise."
"Unthinking" machines? Unthinking machines would be insufficiently intelligent to maintain a working global infrastructure without human assistance/supervision.
Now if you mean Tony's super-intelligent but unfeeling machines, then that's different. Those are difficult to write for because they have a very different worldview from humans (which the author, presumably, is), but they are still "characters".
"If robots can even manage all creative aspects of our culture as well... what then? yes, for the foreseeable future it is unlikely, but if a robot could even write poetry through its application of mathematics, and ultimately do it better than a human, and then criticise and analyse that work (thus removing our role even as spectators), are merely drones whose thoughts are ultimately substandared and unwelcome?"
So I'm going to say something really radical here: is this a bad thing?
If they can do everything humans can, including feeling human emotions, enjoying human art, and so on, then they might as well be "humans Mk. II". I personally wasn't expecting to live forever anyway, but humans feel that it is important that someone inherits our culture and that we continue to be remembered. While it will be difficult for robots to be sufficiently humanlike that we accept them as our heirs, it is not in principle impossible, nor incompatible with them having features such as heightened intelligence or immortal lifespan.
There needn't even be a genocide of any sort. If humans increasingly like interacting with robots more than other humans, we might simply fade away within a few generations.
I have to agree with the assessment in the difficulty of consciousness uploading. Considering that scientists and philosophers are still debating what exactly defines consciousness, that sort of technology is most likely generations away. The internet may be somewhat limited at this time, but more and more people are gaining access to it. You really don't have to necessarily have your own computer. In many countries, people regularly operate out of internet cafes, libraries and other such organizations. In addition computer prices are getting cheaper and many nations are looking at opening up significant portions of the EM spectrum for wifi making it even more available.
Raymond:
Mr. Friedman definitely has his blind-spots and flaws in his thinking and I disagree with many of his assessments, but he does have a respectable track record and his 'population bust' assertion is backed up by the numbers -- although, once again, not many realize it.
don't seem to see much discussion on the actual guts of the point, so I'll jump in. As often as not the "stabilists" are carrying some sort of civilization-was-an-error flag (or are just blind crumudgeons) and the "progressivists" are crazy-eyed egomanical Onjectivist Singularians convinced their knowledge of server farms will deliver them eternal life with the bulging muscles and buxom conquests of their WoW character.
To answer the question in its most basic form- is it possible that the human relationship with technology, which was stable after a fashion (or several differing fashions) for most of the history of the species, could be, after a few centuries of playing with the ramifications of sussing out most of the interesting human-scale physical phenomenon, be entering some manner of stability again? Sure, it's possible- and indeed a statistical argument no more rigorous than that would suggest that at any given moment in human history, the good money is on it resembling most of the rest of human history. The problem is of course that arguments with no more rigor than that tend to choke in the face of evidence that this is indeed not a mediocre time.
I think the call-out to punctuated equilibrium can be explored a little further- both life and tech involve the replication, trial, and recombination of sets of instructions for making stuff to do jobs, and that's enough to do some graphs-on-a-chalkboard abstract comparison.
We see that most diversification happens quickly relative to longer periods of relative stasis, following a logistic function, which is what you would expect- at least *within closely related clades.*
That part is important, because the other thing that we notice from the fossil and molecular records is that the total diversity of the ecosphere, with some caveats that apply to the specific weirdnesses of marine life, has been in hyperbolic growth since the dawn of multicellular life. (It's a somewhat messier function than that, since it combines a positive feedback system- the increase in the number of selection pressure/energy/gene exchange links between the nodes of species versus the negative feedback of the declining exploitable energy of the system, with most of the hairyness coming from the second part being subject to rescaling as evolution finds new energy sources...)A lot of that change happens in parts of the graphs one might be tempted to call more "complex"- longer biochemical cascades, more complicated armatures, whatever- not because evolution is a great chain of being towards the complicated, but because there is always room on the open-ended side of the graph.
Which brings me to the final one- that since selection is a sort of white-cane tapping around a house of ecological niches, it is unpredictable when some of those logistic-function explosions will happen, since they generally depend on selection pressure suddenly being applied to bits of genome that weren't terribly relevant before. To extend the metaphor, some very big rooms have very small and hard to feel doors- that might be opened by that forgotten gum wrapper in your pocket. Larger doors can have solid confidence brackets placed around the time of their discovery, very small doors cannot.
(cont.)I think that outlines a general pattern that, at least to my eyes, technology seems to follow and might be expected to follow into the future. The fact that technologies can be cut apart and pasted with other technologies to form discrete entities which can in turn be cut apart and put together means that we can probably expect the total number of technologies human beings have at their theoretical disposal to grow at some rate as far as the eye can see. We can expect that any given individual technology will optimize like gangbusters for a while, and the length of time it will do so is probably a function of how closely related it is to other tech (the less related, the longer) and how wide the brackets are around "one technology." And we should probably give up on trying to pin down the arrival of the truly bizarre, because it is, essentially by definition, contingent on factors you aren't aware matter yet.
All of this is even more complicated by the fact that one of those little doors that all these blind, replicating technologies swarming through the house has to stumble through is the perceptual threshholds of ape brains, which have certain affinities for size, speed, distance,shape, and number and distinctly less for efficiency, construction ease, and the like. That aforementioned airliner plugging along at the same 500mph of its granddaddy may look like a big Tylenol with shitty seats still, but its probably burns half the gas, trashes half the parts, and can land in a snowstorm thanks to a larger computational budget than the entire moonshot, all of which are just as hard to do as making it fly at Mach 2 but nowhere near as sexy.
Discussion (especially regarding the Singularity) often talk about how different our lives are from our pre-industrial forebears, or their lives from that of hunter-gatherers, with the implied subtext that there is no way to cross those bridges, but that's an exercise that gets mired in varying values of "different" and "understand." I know how to flint knap, Inuits learned to drive pickup trucks, and we both like pretty girls, eat fish from the sea and can understand the dramatic forces at work in Shakespeare- so how much difference is there? I don't see having sex with people you like to make most babies and growing plants for food going anywhere, and everything else is just details- for certain values of "details" of course. :-)
So, back to the point, I think a midfuture that is *mostly* populated with recognizable, even well-aged, technologies, professions, lifestyles, and social mores is probable- just so long as you include the possibility that rumbling underground and off-screen are devices and phenomena that are truly bizarre. I've spoken before of my love for the BSG/Caprica universe before, and it was their embrace of that notion that was part of the nerd appeal. So you invented an FTL drive- it's probably still gonna be put together with nuts and bolts turned by grumpy deckhands.
Welcome to a couple of new commenters!
A small disclaimer that I am not necessarily asserting or predicting a decelerando, only pointing out the possibility.
Other than that, I will let this discussion continue to bubble along for now ...
Evolutionary counterparts to "real" history could occur, since economics and technology could be considered forms of ecosystems and the market provides mechanisms to move money and ideas around somewhat analogous to the transfer of genes in the natural environment, favouring some technologies and ideas when conditions are right, and allowing new technologies and systems to "evolve" when political and economic conditions change.
We can perhaps even see counterparts to Ediacaran biota; technologies or social/economic systems which vanished with no obvious modern descendants. A more accurate analogy might be the organisms of the Burgess Shale; there are relationships to modern life forms, but they are very obscure (the Ediacaran biota don't seem to have any relationships with modern animals).
There are several major differences between these "ecosystems" and the natural environment, particularly the speed at which conditions can change and the ability to bring back long forgotten ideas (kind of like bringing back dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, only faster and easier).
I'm a bit wary of statements that suggest a similarity between the economic or political process, and genetic diversification.
Correlation does not imply causation, and while the similarities may seem striking at times, we fallible humans are still projecting the evolutionary process onto something which isn't... evolutionary.
The economic and political process can, however, sometimes be called mimetic. Still not genetic, though, however closely related these concepts originally were.
The economic, political and cultural landscapes can be considered "ecosystems", and the idea of competing ideas adapting and flourishing or decaying in particular environments is relatively well established with the idea of "memes".
This way of looking at these "environments" allow many more degrees of freedom and interaction than the highly simplified and stylized models like political "left" and "right", "rational economic man" and so on. This allows modeling to correspond much more closely to the real world, and hence has much better predictive or descriptive utility.
I recall learning introductory economics and being taught the various Keynesian operators in 1980. Outside the window, we had just come through a period of "stagflation", something which cannot exist in the Keynesian universe, and were seeing the effects of the Reagan revolution, which were not conforming with the predictions of academics in school or the chattering classes in the news. Keynesian economics ignores or depreciates so many factors that it was not able to explain what was happening (alternatively, you could say it is based on false premises, but that isn't an argument that I'm willing to take on).
Until we have fairly detailed models which can incorporate many degrees of freedom, we will have difficulty understanding what is happening or determining why.
A fair point, Thucydides. And we seem to agree that, in any case, the process appears to be memetic, rather than genetic.
I've heard of the shortcomings of traditional Keynesian mechanics, but I know far too little on economics to be able (or allowed, methinks) to judge on it.
As for the relation with accelerando/decelerando, does the ecosystem of economics and this subject involve the whole "primary adaptors" and such? You know the scale on when and how new technologies enter society. Would, then, consumer behaviour influence the choice between ac- and decelerado, or is this purely a production- not consumption - mechanic?
Discussion (especially regarding the Singularity) often talk about how different our lives are from our pre-industrial forebears, or their lives from that of hunter-gatherers, with the implied subtext that there is no way to cross those bridges, but that's an exercise that gets mired in varying values of "different" and "understand." I know how to flint knap, Inuits learned to drive pickup trucks, and we both like pretty girls, eat fish from the sea and can understand the dramatic forces at work in Shakespeare- so how much difference is there? I don't see having sex with people you like to make most babies and growing plants for food going anywhere, and everything else is just details- for certain values of "details" of course. :-)
I think this holds true to a certain point. One of the criticisms made of scifi futures like Trek where we're talking baseline humans is that they're imagining human nature is changed without any change to the human meatware. No. If humans from 3000 years ago have the same passions, fears, and desires as modern man, future man shouldn't be any different.
But that's until we factor in bio-engineering. Just how weird could human beings get if desires are able to be made real? Just think of all the weird internet fetishists you've read about and imagine if they were able to actually act on those ideas. The Heaven's Gate cult had some male members volunteer to castrate themselves because of sexual hangups. Imagine if a cult decides to settle on parthenogenetic reproduction. Imagine if you've got people with body dysmoprhia and decide to engineer non-human forms. Religious types had hangups about masturbation and spent a lot of time trying to kill the human sex drive through drugs and diet. Imagine if they could edit behavior through the brain. And you don't have to imagine it working out well, just imagine the consequences if the results of those experiments didn't die on the table but continued to live and continued this society. You can no longer really look at human nature and consider it a baseline for us to meet and greet other cultures. These beings whose ancestors were human would be pretty damn alien.
So, back to the point, I think a midfuture that is *mostly* populated with recognizable, even well-aged, technologies, professions, lifestyles, and social mores is probable- just so long as you include the possibility that rumbling underground and off-screen are devices and phenomena that are truly bizarre. I've spoken before of my love for the BSG/Caprica universe before, and it was their embrace of that notion that was part of the nerd appeal. So you invented an FTL drive- it's probably still gonna be put together with nuts and bolts turned by grumpy deckhands.
I think for at least the next hundred years everything will appear recognizable. It all depends on just how disruptive things get. Certainly WWII reshaped what downtown looked like in many cities.
I think the biggest potential change might come from a shift in engineering. I live in Florida. The old conch houses were built with an eye towards living with the land. There was no AC so you had to build mutli-level houses with an eye towards catching the wind.
The AC meant that buildings could become simpler boxes without working windows because hey, electricity's as cheap as water and we can just use HVAC to regulate everything. Ugh. What a nightmare.
If electricity costs go up four or five times, now there's going to be a huge incentive to be more efficient with building designs. And consider our freakin' car culture where you drive ten minutes to get anywhere. Take away the cheap oil and there's going to be a huge premium placed on livable communities. Call it sprawl fail.
Those are the near-term changes as I see it. But yeah, people will still sleep on beds. Houses will still have roofs and doors. I think we'd have to talk about hundreds of years out for things to become unrecognizable and that would really depend on the culture we're talking about. People who insist on living in what we would consider recognizable human environments could be the neo-amish.
Re: memetics
Memetics makes mountains out of molehills. Ideas gain or lose currency based on their ability to satisfy a need or fashion? Really? Wow.
Re: accelerando/decelerando
I've said it before, I'll say it again. The universe of fundamental knowledge is not unlimited. Therefore, the process of discovering that knowledge is logistic in nature, not quadratic. Therefore, the singularity lies along the Y axis, not the X axis. The ultimate decelerando will come.
Having said that, nobody can know when or how drastic that decelerando may be. Additionally, whatever the overall process does, there is also the affect of morel imited logistics-shaped processes associated with individual technologies or related technological toolkits. Those come and go. Wires played out just as microwaves became practical. microwaves seem to have plateaued, but there still seems to be some room to grow with fiber. Etc., etc., etc...
Re: telecommunications specifically
The interwebs may seem to be something totally new, but e-commerce and e-mail and texting and whatever are really just the final penetration into everyday life of a commercial process begun over 150 years ago. Railroads, telegraph, and the telephone made it possible to do almost everything we do today. Long before there was email, there were telegrams. Then there was the telephone, which made talking to somebody anywhere in the country a matter of picking up the handset and diallg a few digits. Long before e-commerce, there was the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Long before airliners, there was scheduled rail service to within a few miles of where most people wanted to go, and to within no more than 100 miles of where almost anybody could go. (Scheduled airline service isn't nearly that good, in some ways. Pennsylvania station is right downtown, a couple of blocks from the Empire State Building; you have to go to Long Island or New Jersey to catch a plane anywhere.)
The internet, combined with air and interstate highway transport, is faster and cheaper. But it's not really doing anything fundamentally new.
One thought I'm having about a setting I'm working on, I'm going to avoid some of these possible outcomes via simple author fiat.
The idea I'd originally come up with is that the whole human sphere is post-singularity, but nobody knows it. I'd had the idea in an embryonic form and then Stross went and did it and I said "oh, that's almost like what I was doing. There are no original ideas!" lol Anyway, in his setting the singularity comes, the AI god resulting from it has clarketech and -- from human perspective -- instantly terraforms thousands of worlds and scatters the majority of Earth's population amongst them. All of the tech directly leading to the creation of a singularity event is walled off and humans are left to their own devices. All of the new worlds to be discovered might seem "alien" to us but are human. It's up to human events as to whether those worlds will be more or less advanced than us, us being the earthers going out there to have a look.
The idea I had is that there's a singularity and a collection of all human minds into a gestalt entity and, for whatever reason, they see this attempt at transcendence is flawed. Humans could attempt it but weren't ready for it. They decided to give it another go.
This is unknown to humanity. According to their history records, they have everything from the dawn of time up to the 21st century and things get kinda fuzzy/hazy and then records resume on their homeworlds. The general assumption is that the standard scifi first empire happened. Humanity goes to the stars, fights a big war, now there's the scattered colonies getting back in touch with each other. Everyone knows and accept this except for the people who said "Wait a second, things don't add up here!"
What you end up with is thousands of Earth-type worlds and by Earth-type I don't mean close enough, I mean with plants and animals and everything that's very similar to Earth. Some planets seem 100% identical, some are a bit more varied. If you consider how different things were on Australia, you can identify plants and animals and figure out how they fit in based on European animals but you have marsupials filling the niches placentals fill on the mainland. Some planets are exploring extinct branches of life like that, almost as if someone were experimenting. And any attempt at gene sequencing shows there's a common divergence. But major authorities handwave it away as "Our ancestors brought everything here and terraformed the planet. Don't question it."
The goal of the gestalt mind was to create many new experiments to see if humans could get it right. Instead of the one go that happened on Earth there's now thousands of tries. Some planets were left at 21st century tech from right before you could trace the run-up to singularity, some were put back to the stone age, some were left at stages in between. The singularity consciousness broke itself up into separate parts so that it would not bias the experiment -- it's gone now.
As for the true timeline, I'd put the singularity originally happening around the 23rd century with the events leading up to it starting in the 21st. Post-singularity history starts around the 26th century with the assumption that the gap between 21st and 26th represent knowledge lost in the war everyone knows was fought, even though there's no real evidence for it. I'm thinking that there will be a big of religious certainty tied up in how things are assumed to have gone and questioning the Official Story is likely to cause as much controversy as teaching evolution in Texas.
The other author intervention I think I'll take is that AI's remain expert systems only. They can perform amazing feats of computation and analysis but have no will of their own, if left to their own devices do nothing. This precludes AI wank.
One other thought -- our current economic system is based on unlimited growth. Investments have to pay interest and the only way you get interest is by making more money and you have to find new things to do, new markets, grow grow grow. It's considered a tragedy if you can't increase the business. Steady-state? That's for losers. Coffee's for closers! Having enough is never enough.
That's a HUGE rethinking that will require restructuring of the entire way we do business. Is interest and the investment culture compatible with a steady-state economy?
jollyreaper:
"That's a HUGE rethinking that will require restructuring of the entire way we do business. Is interest and the investment culture compatible with a steady-state economy?"
There are alway inefficiencies that can be taken advantage of. The futures market is a perfect example. The problem is that investment in that kind of market is speculative and limited by the availability of people willing to play the game.
The bigger problem with a totally built-out economy is that it leads to a zero-sum strategic environment. The only way to make more money is to steal it.
The bigger problem with a totally built-out economy is that it leads to a zero-sum strategic environment. The only way to make more money is to steal it.
Goldman Sachs... looks like they're jumping the gun.
That's the real problem, though, isn't it? There's enough to live reasonably but never enough to live outlandishly. How do we account for greed and containing it?
jollyreaper:
"Goldman Sachs... looks like they're jumping the gun.
That's the real problem, though, isn't it? There's enough to live reasonably but never enough to live outlandishly. How do we account for greed and containing it?"
Funny thing is, Goldman Sachs was really just dealing in market inefficiencies. The disaster came when bankers stopped acting like bankers and more like sailors with too much money on a 48 hour liberty.
How do you regulate greed? Autocracy of truly just men. Think of the Judge system in Judge Dredd, just with near perfect integrity. It would probably be the worst tyranny ever experienced by man, since a truly just man might order anything that makes logical sense within a defined system of justice, even if it killed millions.
Actually, that's the Instrumentality of Mankind.
Though the Instrumentality does not directly administer every planet, it claims ultimate guardianship over the destiny of the human race. For example, it strictly bans the export of religion from planet to planet. Its members, the Lords and Ladies of the Instrumentality, are collectively all-powerful and often somewhat callously arbitrary. Although their motives are genuinely benign, they act with utmost brutality when survival is at stake.
Here is an explanation from the story "Drunkboat":
"The Instrumentality was a self-perpetuating body of men with enormous powers and a strict code. Each was a plenum of the low, the middle, and the high justice. Each could do anything he found necessary or proper to maintain the Instrumentality and keep the peace between the worlds. But if he made a mistake or committed a wrong—ah, then, it was suddenly different. Any Lord could put another Lord to death in an emergency, but he was assured of death and disgrace himself if he assumed this responsibility. The only difference between ratification and repudiation came in the fact that Lords who killed in an emergency and were proved wrong were marked down on a very shameful list, while those who killed other Lords rightly (as later examination might prove) were listed on a very honorable list, but still killed. With three Lords, the situation was different. Three Lords made an emergency court; if they acted together, acted in good faith, and reported to the computers of the Instrumentality, they were exempt from punishment, though not from blame or even reduction to civilian status. Seven Lords, or all the Lords on a given planet at a given moment, were beyond any criticism except that of a dignified reversal of their actions should a later ruling prove them wrong.
"This was all the business of the Instrumentality. The Instrumentality had the perpetual slogan 'Watch, but do not govern; stop war, but do not wage it; protect, but do not control; and first, survive!'"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentality_of_Mankind
jollyreaper:
"Actually, that's the Instrumentality of Mankind."
Or anything else you want to call it. The nature of a government of truly just men is one of those intellectual games that keeps popping up all of the time. Starting with the premise that a truly honest man is a menace, one can just imagine what a government of men who can be implicitly trusted to execute the law fairly would be like. It is perhaps a blessing that no such thing is ever likely to actually occur.
Tony:
Re: telecom
Nothing we haven't done before in some fashion or another, but don't dismiss the vast increases in speed and availability as contributors to a new stable equilibrium.
Which, ultimately, is the result of an accelerando - a new, higher equilibrium. If we're accepting the thesis from a few threads back, that the real accelerando was the first half of the century, then it would make sense that we're currently in a consolidation phase. The internet is merely a part of that, I think; it's the culmination and combination of a whole host of technologies developed in the previous acceleration phase, and now it's a matter of making them ubiquitous.
"The only way to make more money is to steal it."
Or use the mechanism already in place: taking market share. I'm sure the regulatory environment would have to be somewhat different if we were to prioritize dividends over capital growth in established markets, but it's certainly doable.
jollyreaper:
"Investments have to pay interest and the only way you get interest is by making more money and you have to find new things to do, new markets, grow grow grow."
Not necessarily. A few years ago, here in Canada, the income trust was gaining momentum as an alternative to incorporation. That was largely due to tax laws (well, loopholes), and the government decided to remove the favorable tax situation. If/when we get to such a point, there are certainly ways to do it.
"The Instrumentality of Mankind..."
...was heavily influenced by Imperial China, given Cordwainer Smith's childhood experiences there, and subsequent fascination. It's certainly nice to have in the canon, as opposed to the overwhelmingly Western structures of government frequently assumed in SF.
I'm not sure how well it'd actually work, though, and I'm with Tony in being less than eager to find out.
Note that in the Ghost in the Shell universe, there are still different 'classes' of people.
The employees of Public Security Section 9 are in the upper class as far as body-prosthesis technology goes, since their body upkeep is funded by the government. Most other people don't have anywhere near that level of performance in their prostheses, but the cyberbrain/external memory systems are low-cost enough to be equivalent to personal computers today.
One main character (Togusa) started the series with only a cyberbrain/external memory system, and I think that Aramaki (the boss) is also a 'mere mortal'. Only a couple characters are full-body prosthetics.
There are still some people who do not have any cybernetics, but they are the poorest of the poor.
Note that this is in Japan proper. Other countries don't have anywhere near the cyberization percentages that Japan does.
[/GitS geekiness]
I don't see that level of technology happening by 2029, though. 2059, maybe. Not early prototypes in 2015 (Supposedly, the Major went full-prosthetic about 20 years before the GitS storylines!) or earlier.
=====
Considering how many companies are not paying dividends right now, the profits v dividends discussion seems to be a bit more complex than we have been assuming.
Raymond:
"Or use the mechanism already in place: taking market share. I'm sure the regulatory environment would have to be somewhat different if we were to prioritize dividends over capital growth in established markets, but it's certainly doable."
How does one legitimately increase market share when there is no capacity for innovation?
"I'm not sure how well it'd actually work, though, and I'm with Tony in being less than eager to find out."
Civil War historian Shelby Foote once told the story of a private brought before General Lee on some charges. Noting the soldier's obvious distress, Lee tells him not to worry, he'll receive justice. The soldier replies that that is what he's afraid of.
The vast majority of people want to see justice when their feet aren't being held to the fire. Vanishingly few, I think, would be happy to see justice done to themselves for their various iniquities, no matter how minor.
Also, an issue that plagues any system of justice is the availability of datao n which to make judgments, and that data's quality. A lords of justice system would be just as vulnerable as any other to deliberate concealment of evidence, perjury, witness intimidation, and plain lack of reliable evidence due to circumstances. Of course, one could imagine that the lords might make obstruction of justice a capital crime, in the interest of protecting the competence and reliability of their judgments. The normal pretrial maneuvering would be replaced by a Lord (or Lady) of Justice rolling up with his (her) posse, demanding at gunpoint, "Tell me all. Tell me now." One wouldn't even need to deliver an oath to the witnesses or the officers of the court. If the Lord/Lady didn't buy what was on sale, people would start dying.
Oh, I'm not advocating for the Instrumentality, just pointing out someone's already explored the idea. Also interested to see it's related to Evangelion's Human Instrumentality Project, though a bit more in name than in detail. Evangelion is one head-trippy anime.
Scott:
My main problem with the various incarnations of GitS (and bear in mind I rather like them) was the obsession with cyberbrains and ineffable ghosts, as opposed to playing around more with the social consequences of extensive body modification and replacement. Cyberbrains always had an element of uploading, which as far as the discussion here is concerned, will be out of reach for a considerable time.
"Considering how many companies are not paying dividends right now, the profits v dividends discussion seems to be a bit more complex than we have been assuming."
It's always been complex, and is very much a question of larger economic priorities. The appeal of income trusts in Canada was that profits were taxed only once, as personal income of the recipient. Profit realized by the sale of corporate stock was taxed twice - once as income at the corporate level, then again as captial gains tax on the individual seller. Even though both of these rates were lower, the net taxes on profits were higher for many companies compared to trusts in the same industry.
And it's not like it's impossible to do something similar with stocks; bank stocks frequently pay high dividends compared to other industries, since banks which aren't involved in massive pyramid schemes (here's looking at you, JP Morgan) or flashy, questionable foreign acquisitions (Royal Bank of Scotland) tend to have fundamentally stable, relatively fixed-size markets.
Tony:
"How does one legitimately increase market share when there is no capacity for innovation?"
A) I'm tacitly agreeing with your previous statement about always having some room for innovation.
B) Like states, no market is ever fully stable. Populations fluctuate, available resources come and go, and even minor advancements in technology allow for the possibility of newer ventures usurping incumbents. A relatively steady-state economy would be one which deemphasized the constant creation of new markets and reigned in the expectation of constant growth.
Chris:
Any accelerando is fundamentally something of a positive feedback loop between the production and consumption sides. A decelerando, then, would be similar, but a negative feedback loop instead. Advancements are deemed too expensive by the consumers, which then slows research and product development, which acclimates consumers to a slower release cycle, et cetera.
Addendum (to Chris & jollyreaper):
Income trusts were neutralized (by lowering the capital gains tax) over concerns about removing incentives for growth. Publicly traded equity is a useful mechanism for encouraging growth, after all. However, despite the trust structure's suitability for established, low-growth sectors, it was feared that the tax benefits were too great a temptation for companies in earlier stages of growth, and overall competitiveness would suffer.
Raymond:
"A) I'm tacitly agreeing with your previous statement about always having some room for innovation."
The problem is how much innovation, at what cost? As the rate of knowledge acquisition flattens out, innovation will slow to a crawl, and come at higher and higher marginal cost per innovar (my just-coined term for unit of innovation; currently dimensionless, I see a PhD thesis out there for somebody willing to define its value in real terms).
"B) Like states, no market is ever fully stable. Populations fluctuate, available resources come and go, and even minor advancements in technology allow for the possibility of newer ventures usurping incumbents. A relatively steady-state economy would be one which deemphasized the constant creation of new markets and reigned in the expectation of constant growth."
Personally, I don't see how an economy could stabilize, over a historically meaningful length of time. It will either grow or contract, availability of resources and the size of the population. The only way to reach equilibrium would be to artificially limit the supply of resources to match the population exactly, or to exactly tailor the population to the supply of resources. In either case, it would take one of those strong, absolutely ruthless governments we all love so dearly.
Having said that, I was addressing the purely theoretical case of a perfectly stable economy. In that case, it's hard to see how legitimate business means could lead to anything other than static market shares.
All of this raises another phenomenon which will have to be considered. When ol' Jack Welch revealed the secret of his success to be staying out of markets where he couldn't be #1 or #2, he created a paradigm in which oligarchic markets could -- and to some degree have -- become the norm. If innovation slows down, and market incumbents become less and less vulnerable to displacement through new product competitive advantage, market sectors will become fiefs of whichever companies took the last innovations the furthest.
I'm not saying this would be good or bad. It would just be a feature of the economy. It could be interesting fodder for plot coimplications/devices/resolutions.
While we tend to think of new technology as what drives cultural change, that isn't always true. Cultural change can and does occur in responce to purely cultural forces; changes in forms of government, fashions, music, lititure, financial systems, all have changed due to non-technological influances (not to say that there have not been changes due to technology; there have been plenty). While some of the most influencial cultural changes in the recent past have been sparked or enabled by new tech, it was what people did with that tech: you can use a hammer to pound a nail, knock down a fence, or sove in someones head; it depends on what the user's intentions are.
I think that in the next couple of centuries, we will see accelerating waves of social change, even as the pace of most technologies slows in advance of increasing interest in technologies that are now considered "out there" (i.e. biotech, nanotech, and man/machine interfaces, among others), as well as huge changes in the demographics of the human race; the reduction and platauing of global population, universal industrialization, the increased leveling of relitive levels of wealth paired with a balance of source and manufacture among regions and nations. While I don't belive that this will ever reach a 'perfect' level, I do believe that it will reach levels much more balanced then in the past. While I'm sure that there will be "Earth-shaking" discoveries or inventions in the next couple of centuries, the cultural changes will be the ones that will be the most drastic, the most world changing.
The culture of the West in the 1950's was radically different than in the late 1960's; now, in 2011, someone from 1970 would have major culture shock; someone from 1960 would find things both shockingly different and disappointingly familer.
Ferrell
Re: technology and social/cultural change
I think an honest appraisal would find that any non-trivial change in society or culture has a technological connection. Remember, a technology isn't a machine. It's a manner of doing things, along with an associated toolbox. (And the tools need not be unique to one technology -- as pointed out, a hammer can do more than drive nails.) Social and cultural changes happen when people change how they do things.
@Raymond: It doesn't help that the GitS movies were done by a guy who's artistic bent is to explore what it means to be human. For that matter, Shirow himself wanders down some strange rabbit-holes wondering what it means to be human. The 'ghost' is merely a shorthand for what it means to be human or sapient. I suppose you could call it a soul, but that word doesn't carry the same meaning in Japanese that it does in English. After all, everything has a soul in Shinto.
If you've read some of the novels, the Major doesn't even see her prosthetic body as anything other than an extra-fancy set of clothes. The phrase 'my ghost whispers it to me' is, to me, nothing more than a poetic comment about intuition. It's nothing more complex or significant than Briscoe's comments on Law&Order about a gut feeling.
I find it more interesting to note the extent of the datalinked society portrayed in GitS. If you drop the cyberbrain down to an iPhone or equivalent (note that a cyberbrain has comparable abilities to an iPhone or a small laptop computer, just with a very different I/O system), you have a society that is an extrapolation of today. Things happen faster, and are usually decided much more quickly, but it's still recognizable, with motives that people find believable. That's a good thing for a story. Whether it's a good representation of the Plausible Mid-future(tm) or not remains to be seen!
Tony:
"The problem is how much innovation, at what cost? As the rate of knowledge acquisition flattens out, innovation will slow to a crawl, and come at higher and higher marginal cost per innovar."
(I like the term "innovar". Totally stealing that one.)
The problem with judging the rate of knowledge acquisition is assumptions underlying the knowledge model. In terms of what can be discovered and comprehended by a single person, yes, I'm pretty sure the low-hanging fruit has been devoured. What comes next is understanding and mastering much more complex systems (especially dynamical systems) which are currently out of reach for Mark I Mod I humans.
"Personally, I don't see how an economy could stabilize, over a historically meaningful length of time. It will either grow or contract, availability of resources and the size of the population."
Here I'm implicitly defining a steady-state economy as stable once the above factors have been controlled for. Room for change alongside the underlying factors (which would be a prerequisite for any stable equilibrium) but lacking the fold catastrophes of more dynamic examples.
Re: incumbents
Oligopolies are pretty much the norm in most consumer markets, varying in size according to entry barriers and interchangeability. Some, though, are more suited to geographic monopolies or duopolies (most utilities, for example). And yes, to a certain extent these would become relatively fixed if the economy went to a steady-state configuration. I think, however, that there would always be a certain wiggle room for new entrants, given the difference in optimal price/demand points between a monopoly/duopoly and more competitive markets.
Scott:
I considered the concept of the ghost to be Shirow's answer to the "Ship of Theseus" problem as applied to human existence - a label for the continuity central to the idea of subjective experience.
I only lament he didn't get a jump on the "embodied cognition" school when he had the chance.
Also, dropping the cyberbrain down to the equivalent of a laptop with a brain-computer interface is exactly what I had in mind upthread.
Scott:
"After all, everything has a soul in Shinto."
It's more correct to think of the kami of a natural object as its spirit, not its soul. In Zen Buddhism, one might in fact be more interested in a kami as an expression of a thing's nature, and not so much its behaviors.
I am loving this discussion ...
Ferrell, I think you switched a couple of numbers - surely you meant that someone from 1960 would experience far more culture shock than someone from 1970, regarding things like the sexual revolution.
Though - again! - if you look at self-consciously 'modern' and sophisticated social groups around the 1920s, they would understand our social world in a way that practically no one from the 1870s would.
In a slow-growth economy I think the tendency toward oligopoly would be stronger and more problematic. Changing fashion trends could abruptly bring down a dominant fashion house that missed the trend, but there'd be very few of the technology changes that ended the dominance of a Southern Pacific or Microsoft.
But politically I don't think it is necessary to either throw up hands and accept an oligarchic ruling class on the one hand, or trust ourselves to an Instrumentality on the other.
Nick Machiavelli lived long before the industrial revolution, and James Madison so early on as to have little if any awareness of it. Both accepted social conflict as realities, and believed that robust republican institutions could channel it into nonviolent paths of change and reform.
Of course, for story purposes 'nonviolent paths of change and reform' may not be what we want. :->
You know, the Infinity setting is largely non-violent (as far as the general public is concerned), but military conflicts between the powers still happen almost continuously. It's just that any given military conflict is a minimum number of troops (ie, less than a platoon per side, often less than a squad per side!)
10-20 people can get 'lost' pretty easy, especially when you still have the usual accidents, etc happening to disguise the military events.
Frankly, the world of infinity may be too far in the future (it's officially 175 years from now)...
Two things:
1 - Computing power has been growing exponentially since the introduction of the integrated circuit. Innovation in computing and medicine has basically drowned out all other advancement.
2 - In many areas of the world, today's standard of living is little different than it was 100 or even 1000 years ago. The technological advances we enjoy in the first world haven't penetrated the "fourth world" yet. It isn't entirely representative to just look at the very leading edge of technological development when it is used mostly by a small fraction of the world's population.
@Clark:
Yes and no. It is true that say, the Masai(sp?) tribe in africa live pretty much the same way they did a thousand years ago. But every one of them has a cellphone, and can check in with their friends (or see where the best pasturage is, or...)
In some cases, the fourth world is leapfrogging past some levels of development entirely.
I would tend to argue that the cultural is far more important than the technological.
It is a fact that the Ancient Greeks invented a form of steam engine several hundred years before Christ (as well as mechanical computers to predict astronomical events), yet they were considered curiosities or toys. The most common devices were used to open temple doors automatically in order to amaze the public, which shows a remarkable blind spot to thinking through the implications and possibilities of these devices.
Obviously *we* have the same problem looking at our own systems and tools. People in the 24th or 34th century will shake their heads about how we missed some easy [insert name here].
One thing which makes me think slowing or stopping innovation is impossible is to simply look at how so many old technologies are being repurposed in the real world to meet new needs. Since this is Rocketpunk; I will simply point to the various gaslight era technologies being dusted off to create fuel and pure materials in space. Mars Direct is built around creating Methane and LOx from Martian resource using tools and techniques any well educated man from the late 19th century would understand...
Clark:
"1 - Computing power has been growing exponentially since the introduction of the integrated circuit. Innovation in computing and medicine has basically drowned out all other advancement."
Hmmm...I would say innovation in the uses of computing has been a huge component in technological advancement. It is in fact the single biggest reasons for the improvements in medical technology, from diagnostic imaging (ultrasound, MRI, and CAT scans are all heavily computing dependent), to bioinformatics in pharmaceuticals research, to
health informatics in treatment and practice analysis. But, while computing resources have quantitatively changed over time, qualitatively, we're using the same algorithms and data structures that we have been for the last 40 years, at least. It's a triumph of miniaturization and brute force.
"2 - In many areas of the world, today's standard of living is little different than it was 100 or even 1000 years ago. The technological advances we enjoy in the first world haven't penetrated the "fourth world" yet. It isn't entirely representative to just look at the very leading edge of technological development when it is used mostly by a small fraction of the world's population."
"[S]tandard of living" is a very slippery concept. As already mentioned, cell phones have become common in places where nutrition, shelter, health, and mechanization are of a relatively low standard. Internet is becoming more widespread in the unindustrialized world, as is satellite TV. Electrification is proceeding as well, in order to support telecom services, if nothing else. What do ubiquitous instant communication, TV, and electric lighting mean to a standard of living, compared to those things? A lot? A little? Something orthogonal?
Thucydides:
"It is a fact that the Ancient Greeks invented a form of steam engine several hundred years before Christ..."
That's actually not a fact. Hero's aeolipile would not have been capable of doing useful work, no matter how modified within the contemproary technological context. The temple mechanisms suffered from the same problem. They were all things that could be made to work with the technology of the day, but they were developmental dead ends without all of the technolgies necessary to actually make a working steam engine.
People that assert Greek mechanical curiosities represent roads not taken simply don't understand that they are working from a hindsight informed by a knowledge base the Greeks simply didn't have and couldn't have developed. They look at the aeolipile, for example, and see something with some dynamic affinities with a steam turbine. They forget that steam turbines are fed by high pressure boilers using high energy fuels (coal or oil, not wood), have condensers downstream to use working fluid efficiency (instead of just blowing off steam), require cooling systems (instead of ambient air cooling), and rely on an intimate knowledge of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics to operate efficiently. When and how were the Greeks going to invent all of that?
"One thing which makes me think slowing or stopping innovation is impossible is to simply look at how so many old technologies are being repurposed in the real world to meet new needs. Since this is Rocketpunk; I will simply point to the various gaslight era technologies being dusted off to create fuel and pure materials in space. Mars Direct is built around creating Methane and LOx from Martian resource using tools and techniques any well educated man from the late 19th century would understand..."
If I repurpose a baseball bat as a proverbial "blunt instrument", am I innovating, or just finding a new use for a preexisting tool?
The cultural blind spot for the Greeks was to say "temple curiosity", full stop. While they did not have many of the tools and techniques that were developed in the 1800's, many if not all of these tools and techniques were developed in response to the steam engine, not in advance of them.
Of course once people are tinkering with steam engines and finding new applications, and new theories are showing what is possible, you get a positive feedback loop. Since the Greeks never seem to have done the tinkering and exploring of possibilities, there was no feedback loop.
Using a baseball bat to provide impulse is not exactly repurposing, unless you could suggest you are using the impulse to trigger something else. This is the sort of thing I was thinking of (you could also use the baseball bat as a piece of structure, burn it for fuel etc.)
Thucydides:
"The cultural blind spot for the Greeks was to say "temple curiosity", full stop. While they did not have many of the tools and techniques that were developed in the 1800's, many if not all of these tools and techniques were developed in response to the steam engine, not in advance of them."
Kind of ignoring necessary material technologies, aren't we, T? I may have named machines developed in parallel with steam power, but what I was getting at was the fact that the whole technological toolbox that contributed to the development of steam power was simply beyond the Greeks. Asserting that they would have developed those things as they needed them totally ignores the fact that it took over 2,000 years of global technological development to actually get from here to there.
"Using a baseball bat to provide impulse is not exactly repurposing..."
With all due respect, that relies on a ridiculously narrow definition of "purpose". A baseball bat's purpose is to hit a ball in a game. Asserting that that is the same purpose as caving in somebody's skull, because it relies on similar physics, is preposterous. That's like saying using explosive to move earth and using explosives in IEDs is using them for the same purpose.
Tony:
"They look at the aeolipile, for example, and see something with some dynamic affinities with a steam turbine. They forget that steam turbines are fed by high pressure boilers using high energy fuels (coal or oil, not wood), have condensers downstream to use working fluid efficiency (instead of just blowing off steam), require cooling systems (instead of ambient air cooling), and rely on an intimate knowledge of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics to operate efficiently. When and how were the Greeks going to invent all of that?"
"I may have named machines developed in parallel with steam power, but what I was getting at was the fact that the whole technological toolbox that contributed to the development of steam power was simply beyond the Greeks. Asserting that they would have developed those things as they needed them totally ignores the fact that it took over 2,000 years of global technological development to actually get from here to there."
You're leapfrogging a bit, actually. We had the steam piston engine in some form as far back as the 1690s, but it took until the 1880s for steam turbines to be developed.
Looking through the work of Hero of Alexandria, I think his understanding of both the aeolipile and the force pump (and a decent mathematical knowledge of pneumatics) demonstrate enough of the principles of the steam engine that, had he not lived in a time where Greek influence was waning (10-70 AD, well into the Roman Principate), something could've emerged.
What continues to mystify me is not why the Greeks or Romans never developed it, but why the Arabs didn't, given their fairly continual advancements as the western empire fell.
Rick: you're right, I got 1970 and 1960 mixed up; I realy need to proofread better when I'm tired! Anyway, while technology might give people new tools to do something new, how those tools are used are entirely up to those people who would make social or cultural changes. While you can point at the birth control pill as having a profound effect (some even say sparked) the sexual revolution; however, I don't really think you can point to any one new technology that spured or sparked the civil rights movement. The recent events in the middle east used the internet (Facebook, Twitter, ect), to organize their demonstrations, but there had to be social issues that spured them to organize in the first place; they found a useful and effective tool to help them achive their goal, but the tool didn't create the uprisings. New technology might make a certain social change more practical, but it has to be human desire to make the change in the first place, otherwise no amount of new tech will start a revolution.
Ferrell
On the Greeks and the aeolipile, I disagree somewhat with both arguments. I doubt that the Newcomen engine was much more technically demanding, if at all.
What strikes me is that 18th century England had a useful niche for even a horribly limited and inefficient steam engine, namely pumping out coal mines, and that was enough for them to spread and in time be improved. There was no similarly utilitarian job that the aeolipile could perform.
But on clockwork technology there is perhaps a more interesting contrast. Medieval Westerners seem never have used clockwork as 'magic,' but only as something cool, but acknowledged as a creation of ordinary human ingenuity.
And weren't those jousting knights and dancing milkmaids in a way the first robots?
My personal theory is that we are reaching our own limits, the human body and mind's inherent limits.
You can see it by how specialized certain professions have become. A century ago we had only medical doctors, now there are cardiologists, neurologists, and cadres of other medical doctors that are also specialized in a few specific fields.
The same for most other sciences like physics and chemistry.
The closer we get to our limits, the more people with different specializations must work together, and the higher the cost becomes.
And just as with lightspeed, there is a point where you cannot do better.
There is also the point that most revolutionary inventions got funded enough to become practical only in times of dire need.
Like rocketry, nuclear energy and computers, that were all heavily researched during WWII.
And again lots of money was dumped in researching them during Cold War times due to more or less the same reasons.
Today, globalization linked so strongly all the richest nation's economies that war between equals is close to impossible.
So there is little reason to invest loads of money in research.
And private billionaires can only do so much. (although are doing pretty well so far)
The only way to get out of this "decelerando" situation is understanding ourselves and then breaking the limits.
And I'm not talking of mystical stuff, but of massively teaching and employing advanced learning techniques, and improve them. And then, when the limit of that is reached again, bioengineering may be the only way.
I tend to frown on creating too sapient machines, but that's another good way.
Another Cold War situation could help, but only so much. After it ends, the money stops flowing and we stop in the mud again.
-Albert
Re: steam engines
Obviously I've made my point very poorly. What I was getting at was that steam engine technology relies on manufacturing quality and precision that the Classical world could never have developed, no matter what the incentive. The steam engine exists at a pinacle of technological development. Though thought of as fundamental to industry, it's really one of industry's highest developments, incorporating the best of engineering for the period it exists in. (I know this really irks you, Rick, but it's true -- external combustion engines may be old in principle, but they're still high tech in application.)
Obviously steam engines were developed. And obviously human beings sussed everything out for themselves. I think the real question is of how much work it would have taken to bring about useful steam engines in classical times. As an oddball comparison, a caesar salad could have been eaten in Caesar's time, more or less, but nobody had thrown the ingredients together in the appropriate fashion until modern times.
So, how much historical change would it really require to bring the steam engine? It seems like we'd be talking about inventing new fields of science and new crafts. There's not much prior experience to borrow from the way that, say, carriage makers could branch into horseless carriages. It'd be like coming up with the idea for Facebook before the microchip was invented.
Tony:
"What I was getting at was that steam engine technology relies on manufacturing quality and precision that the Classical world could never have developed, no matter what the incentive."
I'd quibble somewhat with that, on a couple levels:
- The first (piston) steam engines developed by Savery and Newcomen essentially only required a pressure vessel which, given cannons had been around for the previous three or four centuries, was well within reach. Whether the Greeks or Romans could have constructed them is an open question.
- Given what we now know about the Antikythera mechanism, I think we should give more respect to the precision of Greek engineering.
Raymond:
"The first (piston) steam engines developed by Savery and Newcomen essentially only required a pressure vessel which, given cannons had been around for the previous three or four centuries, was well within reach. Whether the Greeks or Romans could have constructed them is an open question."
Remember, IMO steam engines represent a sophisticated expression of technology, not a mechanical commonplace. The fact that Newcomen engines were actually developed through an empirical process, using whatever technologies were to hand, just reinforces this view.
IOW, steam engines happened when they could happen, not by accident. They were built from existing technologies when those technolgies were ready to serve; nobody pursued them specifically. The aeolipile => steam engine gets the technology process precisely backwards.
"Given what we now know about the Antikythera mechanism, I think we should give more respect to the precision of Greek engineering."
The Antikythera mechanism was probably the life work of a single philosopher, possibly supported by a craftsman or two. Certainly such focussed work can produce interesting devices, but it can't make them an applicable technology, for the same reason that you can't proceed from an abstract idea or even a concrete model to something you've never seen before and have no use for.
Albert:
You can see it by how specialized certain professions have become. A century ago we had only medical doctors, now there are cardiologists, neurologists, and cadres of other medical doctors that are also specialized in a few specific fields.
This is an interesting point. Intense specialization is one of the characteristics of modern intellectual work – much to my frustration, I was born a couple or three centuries too late to be an intellectual generalist. But there was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when an educated man could be a true polymath – perhaps even an omnimath, as it were. We’ve gone from where a single career could include making important contributions to (for example) theology, biology, astronomy, and history, to where the various branches of physics can barely communicate with each other, much less with the chemists.
It hardly seems possible that ultraspecialization can proceed any further... yet it must, if we continue to advance. Maybe this is one of the negative feedback mechanisms that contributes to decelerando?
Tony
I know we are talking a bit past each other WRT steam engines, so I will try to clarify my point.
We know that various sophisticated mechanisms existed in classical times, such things as water wheels and torsion catapults. There are indications that waterwheels were harnessed to power saws for cutting stone (based on tool marks and recent reconstructions of some stonemason's workshops) as well as milling wheat. We also know that steam engines did exist as curiosities, and at about the same level of sophistication as the first "modern" ones in the late 16 early 1700's .
We also know classical metallurgy was fairly sophisticated, based on the ability to turn out mass quantities of decent quality weapons and armour, so there was a technical background from which to begin (and a better one than would exist again until at least the 1500's). So *in theory* there was nothing to stop classical people from exploring these devices and developing them further. While it is true they would not have resembled modern steam engines (probably they would more closely resemble Stirling engines optimized to run on minimal temperature differences), there were no obvious show stoppers in the technology department. The economy was large and sophisticated, and communications were also good enough to run trade networks across the classical world from England to the Black sea.
Yet it is a fact there are no low pressure bronze steam engines from the classical period running mills or powering ships, so the question I'm interested in is "why not?" The Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Byzantine Empire had access to either the devices or texts describing them (as did the Italians after the fall of the Byzantine Empire), but the information sat as mostly forgotten curiosities.
Perhaps the answer lies in finding a niche, as Rick points out, steam engines in England were used to pump water out of mines, a useful enough niche that allowed engines and engine technology to spread. Perhaps the answer is cultural, which is where I am leaning, so people didn't even imagine uses for these things beyond opening temple doors and otherwise impressing people with stunts.
WRT the baseball bat example, I reread what you wrote and realized I had misunderstood what you were getting at
The other thought is that perhaps AI can be used as an augmentation. I think the term "knowledge worker" is annoying but our dumb computers have driven huge productivity gains over the years. Imagine what they can do for us as they get smarter -- or at least less dumb. If you consider the job of an accountant, one man now with a desktop computer can perform the work of an entire office of humans in the 19th century, back when computer was an actual title for a human being.
We scoff at the unrealistic scenes in Star Trek where the ship's doctor cures a previously unknown viral disease over the course of one episode and say "Yeah, and how long has AIDS taken us?" While there's a degree of Hollywood medicine to it, we are talking about computer tech hundreds of years in advance of our own. I saw a TED Talk where they combined MRI and haptic feedback so a doctor could take a stylus and poke it into a visualization of a living patient's beating heart, not only feel the motion of the muscle but feel the texture. They can see potential problems now that would have only shown up in the autopsy after the surprise death.
But I am going to run with the decelerando for one of my ideas. There's not just one human society but a number of them widely scattered among the stars, all at vastly different levels of tech development. The starfarers represent the highest level of development and it's remained somewhat static because there's only so far you can push the tech. The refinements now come in terms of the artistry of how the tech was put together, a true craftsman giving you the extra 10% edge over the bog standard model.
I don't really hate on steam engines! Though I'm just too young to have any memory of steam locomotives in regular rail hauling service.
I'll still cut the classical world slack on the grounds that they had no niche where terribly lame steam engines would be effective enough to make their further development worthwhile even before they reached the point of broader usefulness.
That said, Toynbee - and before him, I believe, Spengler - argued that the West had a distinctive interest in gadgets from very early on. That seems at least superficially plausible - whether it stands up to serious critical evaluation could be another matter.
Also, a fairly 'big' blogger further discusses the e-book linked in my original post.
"But I am going to run with the decelerando for one of my ideas. There's not just one human society but a number of them widely scattered among the stars, all at vastly different levels of tech development. The starfarers represent the highest level of development and it's remained somewhat static because there's only so far you can push the tech. The refinements now come in terms of the artistry of how the tech was put together, a true craftsman giving you the extra 10% edge over the bog standard model."
Interesting, sounds quite like Alastair Reynold's House of Suns to me.
Everything's been done before. All I can do is knowingly and unknowingly borrow, steal, and hope I put enough of my own flavor on it so that it's worth reading. :)
It's so hard to guess what's likely to happen, it really seems all that you can do is just declare "This is how the rules of of the universe work," make sure they're self-consistent, hunker down and see where the muse takes you. Undoubtably, I'll get most everything wrong when compared with future history but it'll be fun while it lasts!
What's so interesting about Dune is that he's able to push it far enough into the future and use odd enough tech that it doesn't seem dated. The spacer's edition of the Orange Catholic Bible is the only thing that seemed a bit cumbersome. Much less jarring, though, than the Star Trek communicator that can broadcast a signal across a star system but doesn't have any kind of display.
Rick:
"That said, Toynbee - and before him, I believe, Spengler - argued that the West had a distinctive interest in gadgets from very early on. That seems at least superficially plausible - whether it stands up to serious critical evaluation could be another matter."
Given what they knew, and their general prejudices, it probably seemed so to them. But the East was interested in mechanical technologies to the degree that they served the State -- and suppressed them when they didn't. So it's probably more accurate to say that the West had less interest in controlling gadgeteering than the East did.
Japan first widely adopting the gun, then widely suppressing it when political conditions changed, is perhaps the most instructive example. When there was widespread interstate and religious conflict, Japan welcomed martial innovation. They went kookoo for cocoa puffs over the gun. (As a personal arm; Japan's fortress culture was such that artillery was not as valuable as it was in Europe.) When the superstate had been established under the Shogun, innovation of any kind was a liability. So it was stopped and, in the case of the gun, even reversed.
Rick:
"I don't really hate on steam engines! Though I'm just too young to have any memory of steam locomotives in regular rail hauling service."
I know -- just a little bit of good-natured leg pulling.
However, I do find it kind of amusing that heat engines are considered primitive in some circles. Unless you're talking about photovoltaic technology*, the whole point of any engine, from wood-burning to nuclear, is to generate (or capture**) a heat gradient from which work can be extracted.
*Before anybody goes there, fuel cells are really energy storage systems, not engines.
**Wind and wave power farms rely on capturing energy generated by atmospheric and oceanic heat gradients. Hydroelectric dams rely on evaporation moving water uphill in order to capture the release of potential energy as it flows back down to sea level. All are driven by solar energy heating a working fluid, however directly or indirectly the energy is extracted from the fluid.
This is as good a place as any to specify my actual grumps about nuke electric space drive:
1) Using any separate heat engine to power the drive means lots of inboard waste heat that you have to get rid of - it can't just be carried off in the exhaust, etc.
2) Fission fuel is nasty stuff, before and after burning, and refueling basically means dismantling the reactor, not just pumping fuel in and out.
Having said all this, nuke electric is my drive of choice in Realistic [TM] settings, since it has pretty decent performance with minimal magitech.
Hi Rick:
"... and refueling basically means dismantling the reactor, not just pumping fuel in and out."
That depends on the reactor design. While many naval reactors are designed to run for decades on one fuel load, CANDUs change a small fraction of the fuel every day or two while the reactor is running.
If easy refueling is desirable for your spaceship reactor it should be easy to design in.
Rick:
"1) Using any separate heat engine to power the drive means lots of inboard waste heat that you have to get rid of - it can't just be carried off in the exhaust, etc."
Well, if the waste heat flux is big enough, you can use it for cogeneration. Which I gess is to say that any useful amount of heat will be used by a properly designed heat engine, and the waste heat will be as little as possible (and the radiating equipment as small as possible). At the risk of gratuitously abusing the cliche, it's a feature...
"2) Fission fuel is nasty stuff, before and after burning, and refueling basically means dismantling the reactor, not just pumping fuel in and out."
With space nuclear power systems, the reactor, electrical generation, and cooling gear will probably come as a package, to be disposed of after some nominal level of use. The only interfaces will be mounting hardware, power out, and control circuits. After a while, part of any outbound ship's cargo will be a power package for disposal, which will be jettisoned at some time when the ship is above solar escape velocity.
"Having said all this, nuke electric is my drive of choice in Realistic [TM] settings, since it has pretty decent performance with minimal magitech."
Of note, in that context, most recent academic research and commercial use of ion propulsion has been focused on Hall effect thrusters. Only NASA seems committed to grid type thrusters, probably because they have an NIH problem with them. If you want some Real World[tm] verisimilitude, using ganged Hall thrusters, possibly with 2 or 3 concentrically nested thrust chambers apiece, like the University of Michigan's X2 thruster. The neat thing about these is that you have a throttleable drive packageusing the simplest possible technology. With two concentric chambers, for example, you can get three thust levels (small chamber alone, large chamber alone, small plus large chamber together). Even with single chamber thrusters, you have a number of different thrust levels equal to n/2, where "n" is the number fo thrusters, and you turn thrusters on and off in groups of two in order to maintain dynamic balance. With nested chamber thrusters, you have m(n/2) thrust levels, where "m" is the number of thrust modes per thruster (m = 3 with 2 chambers; m = 7 with three chambers).
Understanding the rise of China
http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_jacques_understanding_the_rise_of_china.html
Post-nation-state thinking, talking more about a culture-state. I think the best western example of this way of thinking was the hellenization that swept through the med, people of different ethnicities all sharing a culture and way of thinking. Certainly will have an impact on the mid-future!
My only real gripe about "steam engines" and heat engines in general is the low efficiency in converting the chemical/nuclear energy of their fuel into useful work.
Sadly, the laws of physics and thermodynamics are rigorously enforced in this universe, so for most practical applications, heat engines are the only choice.
I would certainly like to see Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) come to technical maturity, since they can convert hydrocarbon fuels into electrical energy with at least double the efficiency of IC engines (and have no moving parts, which is a big plus and pretty cool to boot). The promise of Aneutronic fusion lies in this area as well (direct conversion of the fusion energy into high quality electric current), which keeps lights on in labs despite the known difficulties, and I am sure most readers of this post have their own favorite candidate technologies as well.
Sadly, the laws of physics and thermodynamics are rigorously enforced in this universe
Bummer, isn't it?
@Jollyreaper: considering that significant parts of the world haven't managed to wrap their brain around the concept of a Nation-State yet (most of africa and the 'Stans), I'm not sure how valid a concept the culture-state is.
After all, the Hellenized world still warred with itself, and the roman-catholic culture didn't stop the internal warring, either.
@Rick: Why not a nuke-thermal? nuke-electrics don't make enough thrust for planetary liftoff anyway, so wouldn't NTRs be less complicated?
Especially when the physics police pull you over....
Scott:
"@Rick: Why not a nuke-thermal? nuke-electrics don't make enough thrust for planetary liftoff anyway, so wouldn't NTRs be less complicated?"
Can't run nuke-thermal in the Earth's atmosphere. Once you get in orbit, a sufficiently efficient and powerful nuke electric drive has some definite advantages. Given recent advances in solar technology, solar-electric may actually become viable for manned flight anywhere inside the asteroid belt (inclusive).
"@Jollyreaper: considering that significant parts of the world haven't managed to wrap their brain around the concept of a Nation-State yet (most of africa and the 'Stans), I'm not sure how valid a concept the culture-state is."
I couldn't disagree more, with respect. Most of Africa? Maybe inter ethnic conflict across biorders, but the basic running ofinstitutions isn't beyond all of them. This cropped up afew weeks ago- some guy in a paper stated explicitely that he was fed up of state on state wars being automatically labled as "genocide" by the international community.
Running a nation state to the high standards of the West... now there I'd agree. Some, like the Congo and Somalia really can't gfunction as a nation state at the moment (we'll see what happens to Sudan). I just would generalise such a complex continent of states and almost-states in such terms.
Sorry, I just would'nt generalise... was meant to be said in that last sentance.
jollyreaper:
Post-nation-state thinking, talking more about a culture-state. I think the best western example of this way of thinking was the hellenization that swept through the med, people of different ethnicities all sharing a culture and way of thinking.
Thanks for the link to the Jacques lecture; interesting stuff.
I don't think, though, that the Hellenistic world is the best analogy for a "culture-state". In Western terms, that would be the Roman Empire. (I think Jacques mentioned the Holy Roman Empire but actually meant the classical (Unholy?) one.)
Alexander's state -- to the extent it ever really was a state at all -- didn't survive his lifetime. OTOH, even though the Qin Dynasty which unified China only lasted 15 years (221-206 BCE), the state they built lasted several centuries under the Han Dynasty. Alexander's legacy was a semi-universal Hellenistic culture but no state. And, I would argue, Hellenistic culture never penetrated much below the level of the cultural élites -- hence Iranians today speaking Persian not Greek, Egyptian Orthodox Christians using Coptic not Greek in their liturgy, and there being little trace of Greek influence left in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
In today's world, the European Union and India are the closest analogues to the "culture-state" Jacques describes, but neither (unlike China) have been largely unified for most of the last two millenia -- indeed, they almost never were.
Is the nation-state something people 'wrap their head around?' It emerged in somewhat recognizable form in Western Europe in the later Middle Ages, where some dynastic kingdoms happened to coincide more or less with local linguistic-cultural zones.
In some places it was has been self-reinforcing, as governments developed ministries of education as well as armies. In other places, notably the Balkans in very recent times, the relationship of nation states to facts on the ground remains quite shaky and 'artificial.'
I don't know the history of India well enough for an informed sense of how Indians have regarded the various imperial episodes. But certainly in Western Europe the Roman Empire persisted as an idea through most of the 1500 years since the western empire broke up. Less than 150 years separate the end of the HRE from the beginning of the EU.
Nuke thermal, IMHO, somewhat falls between stools. It doesn't have enough thrust for Earth liftoff (plus other problems), and doesn't have the specific impulse for fast orbits.
And yes, solar electric could be VERY nice out to the asteroid belt, though beyond that it kind of sputters and stalls.
Hello everyone
First of all sorry that I write in this topic but I have some technical problem with the use of this forum. When I'm trying to enter in the appropriate topic, I received a 404 error It's about the only topic in which I was able to enter. Do you have the same problems? What's going on?
I can foresee a decelerando due to nuclear war between China and the US.
Yes, you heard that right. Generational Dynamics (http://www.generationaldynamics.com) predicts a major war between China and the US. The current trade relations and economic interdependence do not matter -- the prelude to World War I was the same, and the actual war itself came as a shock to everyone.
Xenakis also predicts a Singularity, but I predict a decelerando because both sides will use EMP against one another, destroying all technological infrastructure. Nations that don't get nuked will not have the know-how to restore everything and accelerate technological development again, and most of the First World populations that have such know-how would be dead.
Welcome to another new commenter!
A nuclear war between major powers would very likely trigger a decelerando - certainly for the countries involved.
I don't know that WW I was really that much a shock, though - stalemate in the trenches was, but an upcoming great power war was rather widely anticipated, I think.
Anon @ 10:12 AM - What post were you attempting to reply to when you got a 404 error?
Xenakis has a self-published book and no Wikipedia entry. Relevance usually includes a real publisher and, if not fame, at least enough notoriety that somebody would want to include you in the standard online reference.
A fight with China might involve the use of nukes, maybe, but not to the point that civilization is set back. The Chinese have just enough nukes for regime survival insurance. Actually using them against the US might kill a few millions, but it would lead to the end of China as anything other than a disaster area.
As for WWI being a surprise...hardly. There were self-deceivers and optimists that believed that economic interdependence would render war impossible, or at least quick. Nobody paid attention to them. Governments and peoples knew that a general European war could come. In their efforts to improve their own positions in case of such a war, the nations made a war almost inevitable.
@ Tony
Here's the thing, though -- Xenakis's "Generational Dynamics" predictions have never been wrong. Also, a single EMP can completely destroy any technologically-advanced country, since the starving people will kill each other.
Xenakis posts on Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace (google it) as well, and he has received an award from Computer Sciences Corporation (http://bigpeace.com/jxenakis/2010/10/04/computer-sciences-corp-csc-presents-award-for-generational-dynamics/), so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss him.
Can't run nuke-thermal in the Earth's atmosphere.
Granted, for most versions. IF (big if at that) you can keep the fission byproducts inside the reactor vessel, they might actually be usable for liftoff. Some designs do have the power-to-weight for that. You'd need to get the general public to not go into anaphalactic shock every time they heard the word 'nuclear reactor', though.
Once you get in orbit, a sufficiently efficient and powerful nuke electric drive has some definite advantages.
Also has some big disadvantages, like dumping about as much waste heat through the radiators as you get drive thrust...
Generational Dynamics (http://www.generationaldynamics.com) predicts a major war between China and the US.
What's he smoking and where can I get some? China is very good at long-term planning, and picking a fight with the country that can and will destroy them as a country is not in their long-term interests.
I will grant a nuclear (or HEMP) exchange as being a perfectly valid cause for a decelerando, however. Thing is, EMPing the US would cause a lot of cascade effects. GPS would go screwy, which would screw up everyone. Everyone's favorite investment location would abruptly be of no value, and all the investment information held electronically would be down to the optical backups. I think the US could recover, but the results of even a HEMP event would take a couple decades or more. I don't think it would be as catastrophic as the Black Death (ie, 25% die-off). After all, most military stuff is diesel powered and largely mechanically regulated, and the admin is largely on dead trees. Both of those are immune to EMPs.
You'd see a lot of reserve and national guard units standing up and breaking out the MRE 'foodstuffs,' but a smart man would fire up the barbecues to cook all the cold stored food he could.
And if you don't think various agencies are already planning for events like this, you need to lay off the stuff Generational Dynamics is smoking.
@ Scott
This report (http://ow.ly/3ZR1B) states what damage nuclear EMP can do. Couple that with actual nuclear attacks on cities and you destroy the US as a country. The same can be done to Japan, India, and Russia.
A US-China war will cause a worldwide decelerando as those with the technical know-how are killed, contrary even to Xenakis's predictions about technology.
@ Scott
Also, what agencies are preparing for this? I haven't heard of them. Also, I heard that much of the military tech can't take an EMP and keep running.
My bad! Here's the correct link to the nuke report:
http://ow.ly/3ZR1b
CrisisEraDynamo; While the EMP damage you imagined would be devistating, it was recognized as a threat several decades ago; most high-value military and civilian electronic nodes are EMP-hardened. Most of those agencies and organizations will not advertise these security precausions. An Emp attact aginst the U.S. would result in damage to the country, the effects would last years, but would also result in the attacking country being nuked. While China has expressed a desire to become a superpower for several decades and getting into a nuclear war is not in their long-range plans.
Ferrell
Do you have evidence of the hardening? I know the military is supposed to be hardened but I've always understood that the civilian side has not been hardened mainly due to the high cost. Critical infrastructure still remains vulnerable to nuclear EMP or to highly strong solar flares. There was that flare fromt the 19th century that blew up telegraph equipment it was so strong. A major flare doing the same to our modern infrastructre is on the shortlist of doomsday scenarios.
I don't know that WW I was really that much a shock, though - stalemate in the trenches was, but an upcoming great power war was rather widely anticipated, I think.
According to the histories I've read of the time the original idea was that the nations of Europe were too interconnected and "the bankers would never allow it." So the thinking man thought war hysteria was just alarmist claptrap. Then later when war became more likely, both sides went off to war convinced that it would be a great national holiday and over in a month or two. The pre-war thinking was that modern technology would make it a war of sweeping maneuver and trench warfare was entirely unlikely given the speed of transport. Military tech always moves back and forth as to whether offense or defense is favored. The machine gun put defense in ascendancy once more.
@CrisisDynamo
I've not yet found the China v. America part of that website. It's pretty hideous -- is he using Frontpage 97?
The basic thesis of generational dynamics seems reasonable enough -- the people who learned the lesson of a big mistake won't likely repeat it but people who didn't learn it the hard way are likely to make the same mistake. I believe an excellent example of that is looking at all of the regulations for Wall Street that were rolled back. A lot of these rules came about in the 30's and were a direct response to the crash of '29. We think we're so smart, we think those rules are no longer relevant, and we screw ourselves right back into the same kind of crisis and for the same reason.
But that still seems within the realm of conventional wisdom like saying teenagers will do stupid things and people who survive their teenage years will look back from their 40's and say "Damn, I don't know how I even made it here." And there's a long history of things we assume being reasonable hypotheses being dead wrong.
What's his specific argument for a war with China? I could spin a few scenarios myself but none I'd thump my fist on the table over declaring dead certainty.
Actually using them against the US might kill a few millions, but it would lead to the end of China as anything other than a disaster area.
Don't bet against stupid. History is full of nations doing stupid things that even contemporary observers knew were terrible ideas. While I don't see a war with China as likely in the near-future, I would never bet against stupid. The real questions are 1) who would likely start the war, the US or China and 2) what sort of rationalization would they use to convince themselves its a good idea?
As for our powers to predict future events, I'm struck by how US intel agencies were blindsided by the fall of communism while economic observers had been saying for years that the fall was inevitable. The intel agencies weren't just surprised by the timing of the fall, they were surprised that there was even a potential for it happening.
@ jollyreaper
Here are two articles referencing the prediction:
http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e060501#e060501
and
http://bigpeace.com/jxenakis/2010/07/26/u-s-and-china-are-headed-for-a-generational-crisis-war/
Both are written by Xenakis.
Crisis Era Dynamo, I used to work in the field. Most of the internet data is carried on fiber optics. EMP doesn't affect that, period.
Secure buildings have metal enclosures (faraday cages), which are moderately-effective EMP shields. The backup generators are inside metal boxes.
Yes, my poor Android phone would fry, as would the computer I'm typing on right now. The stuff you absolutely *have* to keep running is on much tougher and more expensive hardware.
And you've seriously never heard of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Guard, or the US Army Reserve?
We get solar flares all the time. Why haven't we had another catastrophic flare like the one you mention? Maybe because we've figured out how to semi-safely handle the EM flux?
@ Scott
Did you read the report?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-flare-electronics.htm/printable
Provides a little info on the damage that could be caused by a big flare.
In 1859, an enormous CME caused massive magnetic fluctuations in the Earth's magnetosphere -- the magnetic field surrounding the planet. People living as far south as Cuba witnessed the northern lights phenomenon. Compasses and telegraph systems failed. Scientists and academics debated the cause of all the commotion. We now know it was due to a CME. The CME was so massive that it caused what we call a solar superstorm.
Today, we depend much more heavily upon electronics and electricity than we did in 1859. If a similar solar superstorm were to hit us now, we'd be in trouble. The magnetic forces would induce electricity in any large conductor. That includes power transformers and the power grid itself.
That's not the end of the bad news. The power grid in North America operates at near capacity. It wouldn't be able to handle the increased electrical load from a solar superstorm. Power lines could sag and even snap as a result. Massive power outages could affect much of the continent. The magnetic fluctuations would interfere with radio signals, and communication and satellite systems would collapse as well.
Unless the opponent is going to use a huge thermonuclear device detonated at the edge of the atmosphere, it is going to be difficult to put any nation out of action with a single EMP attack.
EMP attacks using multiple weapons are possible, of course, but much harder to coordinate across large areas of time and distance.
The massive solar flare of the late 1800's hasn't been repeated since; or at least not on the side of the Sun facing the Earth. I don't think the grid is hardened against such an event, and as for the Internet, while data pipes might be optical, are the server farms, electro-optical switching equipment hardened to the same extent? This will be very disruptive, to say the least.
Crisis Era Dynamo, I read both articles you linked.
I don't know how to say this politely, but Mr. Xenakis is agitating with no sense of what he's talking about, much like Rush Limbaugh does.
Of course Admiral Mullen is making noise about the chinese buildup. That's how he gets money for more ships!
The social contract between the Chinese Communist Party and the people of China is that the people have traded western-style freedoms for political stability. Picking any kind of fight with the US is not conducive to the stability the PRC desires.
Remember when China said that they would reduce the number of dollars they held? What they really said, based on international economic theories, was that they were going to allow the yuan to float higher against the dollar. It's too bad the talking heads don't understand that, but it explains why the US government actually seemed happy about that statement!
Jollyreaper, I lived through the Great Blackout of 1996. No power across most of the American West for 3 days in the middle of summer.
No rioting, no major panic.
Remember what I said about secure buildings having built-in faraday cages? You can do the same thing with your wiring, and certain particularly important computer systems are shielded to that extent. It's called TEMPEST, Transient Electromagntic Pulse Emission Standard. True, it is mostly government systems, but EM shielding works both ways.
Sadly, you don't really need a big nuclear explosion to make a HEMP. The US tested several back in 1962's Operation Fishbowl, and the smallest blasts (Bluegill Triple Prime and Kingfish that gave EMPs were in the 200-400kt range. That's the size of currently-deployed US Strategic weapons. Starfish Prime, 1.4mt at 400km, did nasty things to the electrical systems in Hawaii, however, but I don't think there are any still-deployed warheads that large.
The good news is that you need to use a big rocket to get a 500+lb load up to 75km or so. That is a *very* obvious technology piece, which pretty much limits HEMP attacks to a nation. While the US has said 'never again will we be the first to use WMD', a single HEMP attack would result in *second-use* of a lot of the US strategic reserve. Needless to say, that would be very hard on whoever launched the HEMP, and the command links for the strategic forces were designed to work even if there were nuclear explosions happening when the orders were being given. We'd have about 30 minutes to prepare for the event, too.
I could not confidence in my eyes that I gave up so with both hands tied behind one's back deceived. When we arrived at the place it turned tangential prostrate that nothing in the bill was no direction to reality. All of the rooms, and ordered them together seven, were in disarray.
Still not passing the turing test there, buddy.
Just for clarification, jollyreaper is referring to a spam comment, which naturally I did not parole from spam jail.
Scott:
"You'd need to get the general public to not go into anaphalactic shock every time they heard the word 'nuclear reactor', though."
We've been through this here at least once already. Some nuclear risks are too great to justify the perceived benefits. Flying fission reactors around is one of them. A sober analysis of nuclear electric rocketry may find that it's too risky to send reactors on a one way trip to a high orbit. I hope that's not the case, but nuclear contamination, once you strip away all of the hysteria, is still serious business. You of all people should know that.
"Also has some big disadvantages, like dumping about as much waste heat through the radiators as you get drive thrust..."
Nuclear reactors generate so much energy per second of operation that it's not a problem, for practical purposes. (Caveat: the reactor has to be made with a high enough power density for spaceflight.) It may upset somebody's sense of elegance, but that's how the cookie crumbles.
Scott:
"Sadly, you don't really need a big nuclear explosion to make a HEMP. The US tested several back in 1962's Operation Fishbowl, and the smallest blasts (Bluegill Triple Prime and Kingfish that gave EMPs were in the 200-400kt range. That's the size of currently-deployed US Strategic weapons. Starfish Prime, 1.4mt at 400km, did nasty things to the electrical systems in Hawaii, however, but I don't think there are any still-deployed warheads that large."
One of the things that Starfish Prime demonstrated was that the effects of EMP are pretty random. There were some problems with electrical system malfunction in the Hawaiian Islands, but there were numerous US military vessels, aircraft, and installation (and maybe a Soviet spy ship or two) much closer to the event. Some may have had rudimentary electromagnetic shielding, but all seem to have come through without significant incident.
EMP has been a boogeyman for China threat mongers for at least two decades (that I can remember, but possibly longer). Both the questionable effectiveness of an EMP attack, and the Chinese not being insanely stupid enough to invite nuclear retaliation makes it highly unlikely that they'd ever seriously consider such a strategem, much less implement it.
I don't think the Chinese "traded" liberty for stability. A friend of mine who is well versed in China and Chinese culture points out the current "Red Dynasty" maintains the "Mandate of Heaven" by providing stability, food and jobs. Should the State falter, the masses will turn against the current "Dynasty". The names change, but many of the forms of traditional Chinese imperial governance and culture still exist.
Just yesterday, I read about calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China, which may be spurred by recent food price inflation. Economic growth is also slowing down, which may lead to increasing unemployment and other stresses. These stresses inside China (as well as longer term demographic changes) could lead to internal or external troubles, so the idea that fear or stupidity could spur a war or conflict in the future is quite plausible.
Tony "A sober analysis of nuclear electric rocketry may find that it's too risky to send reactors on a one way trip to a high orbit."
Before the reactor has been started, the radioactivity of the unfissioned fuel is negligible. It would be safer to send fission reactors to orbit than the radioisotope thermal generators that have already been launched.
Using a nuclear thermal rocket of some sort for surface to orbit travel may well be unreasonably risky, but starting the reactor in orbit is not.
Nuclear reactors generate so much energy per second of operation that it's not a problem, for practical purposes.
Well, it's a problem to the extent that big radiators and their associated plumbing are one more friggin heavy and expensive requirement of nuke electric propulsion.
But it can achieve an Isp of several thousand seconds, with acceleration of a decent fraction of a milligee, making it the 'least worst' available solution for outer system human travel.
The thing I wonder is why would any nation use an EMP attack at all? If you're going through the trouble of deploying nuclear weapons (and with nukes, if you're going to fire one, you might as well fire them all), you might as well go with the sure option of incinerating the target instead of hoping to disable.
When self defense using guns is taught, the overwhelming point is always: "shoot for center of mass. Yes, that is shoot to kill. If you don't want to kill the guy, don't shoot him."
There are a number of reasons for this, but chiefly because dickering about trying to shoot in the leg or arm is either going to kill the person anyway, or runs the massive risk of being ineffective (shot misses, doesn't hit anything important, etc.). Additionally, it's less defensible in court...at least in the jurisdictions I'm aware of, self defense is only applicable for "us or them" situations, and if you had time and wherewithal to "shoot to wound", you probably didn't need the gun at all.
EMP weapons are the nuclear equivalent of "shoot to wound", and really they're silly for much the same reason...anything they can hit, a conventional nuke can hit with much more certainty, and firing your EMPs will guarantee a nuclear reprisal anyway.
This discounts terrrrrrrrist actions, of course, but even then, I suspect they'd be more apt to light a (dirty) nuclear bomb than try to optimize for EMP.
In either case, I think people forget that people are in it for the experiences. Handcrafted goods still carry a premium over oftentimes higher quality mass produced goods, for example. And while mass transit may become automated, many humans still quite enjoy operating motor vehicles...we've seen a huge uptick in the popularity of sporty models in the last few years, for example.
We can put a hundred robots on Mars, but no one will care until we put 2 boots there.
A link to an article about how people might react to more severe forms of downturn:
Personal Responses To Large Scale Collapse
The term "collapse" covers a wide range of possible future scenarios, each with varying degrees of severity. For example, we could go thru a period of higher inflation all the way up to Weimar-style hyper-inflation. Or declining oil production could cause economic collapse, perhaps with revivals as part of a long descent. Or a massive coronal mass ejection from the Sun could cause a Carrington Event like in 1859. Such an event today could cause most of the electric grid transformers to melt (though we could mitigate much of that risk) and cities to become uninhabitable for months or years due to lack of electric power. Or a VEI 7 volcano like Tambora in 1815 would cause crop failures for a year or two combined with very cold weather with resulting food and energy shortages. Or a VEI 8 volcano like Toba of 74,000 years ago would cause collapse at a level that makes Weimar hyper-inflation a walk in the park in comparison. Still other civilization-threatening scenarios can be imagined.
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007920.html
You might also want to check out links like this:
Packing for the Apocalypse
http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,82673.0.html
Robots can make goods that are infinitely superior to handcrafted examples- or will one day.
"Human creativity" is just one big handwave.
Right now robots make cars, but you still pay a huge premium for handcrafted ones (ever price out an Austin Martin?)
A lot of this differential is also a function of supply and demand; in theory you could robotize the Austin Martin factory and churn out DB-7's like Volkswagens; but what is the fun in that?
I can see future handcrafting or low rate production as a deliberate attempt to manipulate markets and maintain high market rents
Geoffrey S H:
"Robots can make goods that are infinitely superior to handcrafted examples- or will one day.
'Human creativity' is just one big handwave."
It takes human creativity to give the robots the designs that they manufacture, to design the procudtion floor, and program the production process. Robot quality is a function of the repeatability and reliability of their functioning.
But robot quality is a feature of cheap goods. People will always pay a premium for hand-crafted items, precisely because they represent human effort beyond creative thought. Presumably someday in the future you could program a robot factory to turn out a thousand precise Davids a year. Each one would fetch the price of the marble + "labor" + overhead + profit. Michelangelo's David would still be priceless.
Human creativity a handwave? Sure, whatever you say...
Yeah, radioactive contamination is a horrible thing. Let's start with the uranium dust all over Iraq and Kosovo.
Fact is, as soon as anyone says the words 'nuclear reactor' in a media report, the NIMBY brigade breaks out the China Syndrome paraphernalia and starts having mass coronarys. I've gone over it here before, but NOT A SINGLE PERSON died due to Three Mile Island. The total radioactivity released at the edge of the fence was comparable to a month at the beach in Hawaii.
Enough flogging of that zombie horse, however.
Thucydides, that is a fair point, especially considering the effectiveness of the "Twitter revolutions" in the middle east. I don't know enough about Chinese politics to even hazard a guess about that, but *usually* when a country implodes it stays focussed on the internal stuff for about a decade. See also Weimar Republic.
ElAntonius: It's not easy to build both the nuclear device and the rocket to make it a viable High-altitude EMP (the only kind that matters for this discussion). Bluntly, any terrist getting an ICBM *will* result in the hosting country getting some 'rapid urban renewal' and a lot of glass self-lighting parking lots about 30 minutes after the launch of said weapon.
An EMP is a head-shot (or a Taser), to continue your self-defense analogy. In theory, it disrupts all the signals your enemy needs to send in order to attack you.
Scott:
"Fact is, as soon as anyone says the words 'nuclear reactor' in a media report, the NIMBY brigade breaks out the China Syndrome paraphernalia and starts having mass coronarys."
Nobody like that here that I am aware of -- just varying degrees of seriousness about the real risks of radioactive contamination.
"An EMP is a head-shot (or a Taser), to continue your self-defense analogy. In theory, it disrupts all the signals your enemy needs to send in order to attack you."
It may be intended to be a headshot in theory, but there's no evidence it would actually work that way. It certainly won't affect fiber optic networks, or edge systems behind protection. Since that happen to be a description of moder strategic and operational comm systems and their peripherals, it just ain't gonna work in a military sense. The target of an EMP attack may be in sad economic shape for a decade after it is over, but the initiator is going to be on the ashheap of history.
You must not live in the American West, then, Tony. Around here, nuclear power is da debbil! There was a company talking about building a power plant in my state, and the first response at the public meeting wasn't "where," it was "horrible radioactivity, TMI&Chernobyl!!"
ie, people who think that ANY radiation is too much, and who can't be bothered to read the documentation. Stupid bothers me, but you can teach them. The only cure for willful ignorance is death, unfortunately.
Tony: Any terrorist organization that gets their hands on a nuke won't bother with ICBMs, they'll just rig it up in the most portable framework they can and park it in the middle of a city.
The response to a nuclear terrorist action would be wholly different, but I still don't see them bothering much with it. EMPs are tricky business, and either way you're still setting off a nuke. Even if the nuke they get their hands on is primarily an EMP device, setting it off in a city via a parked van is going to be measured in Hiroshimas.
With regard to nations using EMPs:
EMPs aren't really a headshot attempt, though a taser attempt I'll buy. The problem is, it's like loading a gun with taser bullets, and then pointing the gun at someone who is armed. They WILL shoot back, and their gun will have real bullets.
But in either case: what country would want to cause widespread economic devastation in an opponent that ALSO wouldn't want to just vaporize that same opponent?
In the case of China, their economy is so dependent on the US that any hostile action crippling the economy would likely cripple them as well.
If anything, one has to wonder if scientists/strategists aren't trying to find a way to cripple a country's power structure but leave the economy happily humming along.
Re: Scott
I live in Southwestern Utah, and by "here" I of course meant this blog. I was trying to tactfully say that the level of discussion about nuclear power in these comment sections should be above the de rigeur "you just can't talk to them" complaints.
Re: ElAntonius
Since we were talking about the Chinese initiating an EMP sneak attack, what do terrorists have to do with it?
Tony: oops, think I read more than intended into one of your comments. You mentioned nuclear retaliation against the host country, which I agree would happen if ICBMs of any stripe were involved.
But if we're limiting discussion to sovereign powers, we're back to the glassed earth scenario...any nuclear weapon deployment by a nation will just invite overwhelming nuclear response.
Using an EMP just strikes me as pulling a knife while surrounded by a nervous SWAT team...not particularly a good idea.
My whole point is that EMPs _ARE_ part of the nuclear option, and I just don't see them being deployed in any context outside of Armageddon.
ElAntonius:
I wouldn't be so quick to think of nuclear weapons as being inflexible. It is certainly possible that in a strategic crisis nuclear powers might play an enormous game of chicken, trading shots to see who blinks first. Herman Kahn had a lot to say about that during the Cold War. He figured that no matter what a national leader's ideology might be, he would most likely be rational, and not initiate an all-out nuclear attack gratuitously, or before he had tried other options.
On a similar note, it has been more recently suggested that US nucelar weapons' greatest value is in making the world safe for US conventional superiority. Nobody can hope to trump the US hi-tech military by nuking it in the field or by attacking the US homeland with nuclear weapons. The retaliation would not be worth any imaginable benefit.
Finally, since we've been talking about the Chinese, it's not entirely out of the question for them to use nuclear weapons against US naval forces at sea. They could then go on the diplomatic offensive and claim that such an attack was a tactical act, limited to military forces alone, and that retaliation against the Chinese homeland would not be proportional. In such a situation, it's not at all clear that US nuclear retaliation could be initiated. Even if a Chnese military facility was attacked, it would be in or near a large civilian community, which would cause colateral damage that the Chinese intentionally and publicly avoided by targetting US forces on the open ocean.
Man, the level of stupid at school must be contagious... Either that, or they've found a new strain of foot-in-mouth disease. *shakes head*
Tony, I don't think I discount the risks of radioactive contamination, but you seem to consider the risks to be much higher than I do.
ElAntonius: What I was trying to say was that nations, even ones that support terrorist fruitcakes, have an interest in keeping terrist activities down to a certain level. No country wants to be the launching site for an 'acquired' Minuteman or equivalent, so every country is working to make sure that delivery methods stay in government hands.
It would be a safe guess that there are less-than-total nuclear strike packages and keyword orders to STOP, but everyone I served with considered that *any* use was going to quickly escalate to scorched planet.
I don't think the Chinese are likely to throw a nuke at even a US carrier group traveling in international waters. That just became a freedom-of-navigation issue, and the entire rest of the world just had a brown-pants moment. While there is a possibility that the US would limit itself to conventional strategic weapons, the political repercussions would be immense, as would the physical damage to China.
Scott:
"Tony, I don't think I discount the risks of radioactive contamination, but you seem to consider the risks to be much higher than I do."
Yes, but that's not a good enough reason to keep bringing up the antics of the hysterically anti-nuclear. That's not me, bra.
My approach towards nuclear contamination is strictly conservationist. Radiological contamination is not bio or chemo degradable. If we keep introducing contaminants faster than they decay, the higher the contamination level will rise. There is probably some maximum of contamination beyond which we should not go, or beyond which we would not want to go. Projects that use radioactive materials need to be evaluated IMO, not only for routine levels of release, but for the consequences of a worst case release. If the worst case could lead to too much contamination in the environment, or even to slimming down the margin too much in too short a time, then we need to think really hard about whether we really need to embark on the project.
"I don't think the Chinese are likely to throw a nuke at even a US carrier group traveling in international waters. That just became a freedom-of-navigation issue, and the entire rest of the world just had a brown-pants moment. While there is a possibility that the US would limit itself to conventional strategic weapons, the political repercussions would be immense, as would the physical damage to China."
Since when has freedom of navigation been a consideration in wartime? You're a former US submariner, right? What is your service's tradition WRT enemy shipping in wartime, military or civilian? Subs and targets, right?
WRT what the US could do to China with conventional weapons, I think your sense of scale is a bit off. China is a big place with a lot of economic nodes. In a few days or weeks, with conventional weapons only, it's not likley we could do much to impress the Chinese.
Although the sheer scale of a nation makes attacking with conventional weapons seem somewhat pointless, remember the Chinese actually claimed the threshold for their release of nuclear weapons would be the use of US "smart" weapons against Chinese targets. (I don't remember when this was exactly, but it was during the Bush Administration and I *think* it happened around the time the ruckus over downing a US surveillance plane off the coast of China occurred. Someone with strong Google-Fu should look this up).
Waves of "smart" weapons taking out fixed targets like transport and energy nodes could do a crippling amount of damage to China or any other nation. The Chinese government would feel forced to respond with maximum force, since crippling the energy and transport nodes would effectively dismember China and prevent the Government from feeding the population or keeping the economy going, which would probably lead to mass uprisings against the government and the rise of warlord states within the borders of China, meaning the end of the current "Red Dynasty".
Tony, fair point, but I will blame the crazy locals for my reactions and try really hard to not continue to drag them onto this board.
WRT China, please note that I said conventional *strategic* weapons. That would be the equivalent loading a Minuteman with training shapes (same flight characteristics as Mk4 RBAs but no radioactives at all), and putting eight 500lb bricks at near orbital velocities onto several someones' front porch. Nuclear-scale boom, no contamination.
After all, we gave the unclassified description of missile accuracy as follows: 1st generation missiles would hit within the parking lot of the Kingdome, 2nd generation missiles would hit within the stadium, 3rd generation would hit within the infield, and 4th generation would hit on any corner of the pitcher's rubber block you chose.
My point about freedom of navigation was that China attacking an American warship wouldn't just be an act of war against America. All the other maritime powers, and those nations that depend on the sea for trade
(ie, all the developed nations) would likely be compelled to do something about that attack. If they didn't, then how soon before China destroyed one of their (civilian) ships?
Scott, Tony: What I'm more trying to say is that an EMP attack just IS a nuclear attack, at least for the foreseeable future. (There are non-nuclear EMP weapons, but they are MUCH smaller scale and unlikely to be nation crippling unless launched in masses that might as well be considered Armageddon level warfare)
I'm given to understand that an EMP attack is for the most part a conventional nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude. That means that the only truly effective delivery mechanism is an ICBM.
The ramifications of even a single missile are enormous: a sovereign nation has launched a nuclear ICBM at the US...and frankly, if a single missile is capable of damaging US infrastructure to the point of existential threat to the nation, those reprisal missiles are going up regardless of whether the Chinese assure us it'll detonate 400 miles above the surface.
I just fail to see a scenario where EMPs might be strategically employed to cripple the US that do not result in a total nuclear exchange...I suppose if the offending country saw the incoming US retaliation and allowed their destruction without reprisal, but I'm a bit more cynical about human nature than to think that.
I honestly don't even think China (or any sovereign nation) could get away with nuking a carrier group. Let's be honest...if the two superpowers of today get to the point that China feels the need to nuke a carrier group...yeah, the world is toast.
Jeepers!
Okay...
It was the Russians that claimed the use of US smart weapons against strategic targets (either wepaons or sensor systems) would constitute a valid provocation for nuclear retaliation.
As for "waves" of smart weapons, what constitutes a wave in the context of Afghanistan or Iraq would hardly be a ripple in the context of China. The US and allied conventional weapons arsenals just aren't big enough to put even a respectable dent in China's economy. As always, amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.
A single nuclear weapon, regardless of how delivered, is not a sufficient provocation for massive retaliation. It's a catastrophe for the city that gets hit, but on a national scale it's just not sufficient to trigger Doomsday. As long as no large scale strikes are attempted, leaders would be constrained by numerous factors and values to respond cautiously.
Going back to the nuclear strike against a carrier group at sea...
An attack against a military target at sea is simply not a freedom of navigation issue. If one want to invoke history, The Firt contact at Jutland was caused by opposing scouting forces investigating a neutral Danish steamer blowing off steam. Even a world war and a known war zone were not enough to stop neutral trade. Likewise, if there was a war at sea between China nad the US, neutrals might proceed cautiously, or even stay away. But they wouldn't become directly involved. I seriously doubt the Chinese would refrain from using whatever weapons they thought best, simply because trade would be upset for a time.
As for the idea that a nuclear strike against a US fleet would cause an all-out exchange, one simply can't credit that. The Chinese could (quite correctly) characterize it as a strictly tactical act that threatened nothing but military targets. (The US would help in this in that US carrier groups tendto clear the seas around them when operating in a war zone.) Nuclear retaliation against Chinese homeland targets, even military ones, would kill tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of civilians. The US National Command Authority would think long and hard about that, and probably conclude that it would be best to suck it up and at most hit the single remotest Chinese naval installation or air base that's still plausibly in the war zone.
Finally, there is very little possibility that a nuclear exchange between the US and China would be the end of civilization. The Chiese would be able to target maybe a few dozen weapons to the continental US, while the US would attack with scores, or maybe a few hundred. China would probably be devastated, but the US would just be set back economically a decade or so, maybe less, depending on how reliable the Chinese delivery systems were, how accurately they attacked their targets, and what they chose to target. Say, for example, they targetted two weapons at downtown Los Angeles. One missile might not work and the second might miss and blow up Pasadena. Tough for the San Gabriel Valley, no big deal for the US economy as a whole.
Tony: Well yes, presumably a nuclear engagement requires rough parity to cause total nuclear annihilation.
But I disagree that a single nuked city wouldn't invite tenfold retaliation. An ICBM launched at a major population center would get ugly, fast, presuming the target has any capacity to return the disfavor.
For better or for worse, international politics are not governed by "eye for an eye". Look at the US's response to 9/11...we're still fighting multiple wars a decade later, and have demolished and installed two governments using that as a pretense. Regardless of anyone's individual stance on the US's actions in the past decade, I think we can all agree that the forcible removal of two governments is not at all the same thing as a terrorist attack on a pair of civilian buildings.
Regardless, this is all in context of decelerando, and specifically, EMP weapons doing significant damage to the US.
An EMP attack is either a WMD and a significant existential threat to the US, at which point MAD applies, or it isn't, at which point one wonders why anyone would bother at all, and thus it's just an existential threat to the launching nation and unlikely to cause global decelerando.
And again, why would China even bother? What could they hope to gain by disrupting the US so? We're their biggest customer.
Or, to put it another way:
"Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed."
Re: ElAntonius
The Chinese nuclear arsenal simply isn't big or deliverable enough for MAD to apply between the US and China. The Chinese arsenal is strictly regime survival insurance and (maybe) sufficient to dominate in a war between China and India. It couldn't be used to threaten the US with anihilation or even crippling damage. At best, it could be used by a really gutsy leader to bluff the US into nonintervention in Chinese initiatives, by threatening more pain than the US would want to accept.
As for the idea that one nuke equals totally nuclear war, please read Herman Kahn: Thinking about the Unthinkable in the 1980s. There are many sets of circumstances where trading punch for punch would be countenanced long before all-out attack.
I'm just relaying that all my shipmates considered that any order for us to launch meant that the world was already in the hurt locker.
A absolute minimal deployment is a single Minuteman (1-3 warheads), and those don't have the range to hit anybody but Russia. Land-based missiles generally don't have the range to hit most of china, which limits us to Bombers or Subs.
The next step up is a single Trident (max 8 warheads), but a single launch would likely result in the destruction of that submarine, and the remaining 23 birds. This makes single-launches unlikely.
Bombers have to get to their target, so there will be 'blast a path' attacks before the actual intended target, and 16+ warheads per plane times 3 or 4 planes per attack (based on the Linebacker raids, which used SIOP tactics).
The nature of the packaging needed to get one bomb to the target makes it very hard to deliver a 'limited' response for any delivery method. Even a single B52 could wipe out most of the cities on the coast of China, and we're operating in groups of 3?
That's why I consider any nuclear weapon the camel's nose under the tentflap. Sure, it might stop after a hundred warheads or so each direction, but even that is catastrophic damage.
And since an EMP requires a rocket launch to deliver (by current definition, an act of war by a nation), it is almost inconceivable that there would not be a 50-100 warhead response.
An EMP attack is either a WMD and a significant existential threat to the US, at which point MAD applies, or it isn't, at which point one wonders why anyone would bother at all, and thus it's just an existential threat to the launching nation and unlikely to cause global decelerando.
Haven't I been clear that an EMP attack is always going to be an existential threat to the launching nation, whether or not it's a threat to the target?
That's why I consider any nuclear weapon the camel's nose under the tentflap. Sure, it might stop after a hundred warheads or so each direction, but even that is catastrophic damage.
My gut reaction has always been that the first launch will be the one that ends the world. McNamara's idea of city-swapping with the Russians struck me as sick fantasy. But, as I said, this is a gut reaction, not an immutable law of the multiverse. My gut reaction from before the fall of the Soviet Union would be that the power struggle in the collapse of any nuclear-armed power would be a nuclear exchange, either against internal targets or with hardliner factions trying to to make an attack against the foreign enemy their last official act. I was happily soooo wrong in that regard.
Re: Scott
You're applying Cold War logic to a non-Cold War environment. For example, much of Manchuria could certainly be targetted from Malmstrom AFB, Montana. The great circle distance from Butte, Montana to Beijing, China is less than 6300 miles, while the Minuteman III missile has a reported operational range of 8100 miles.
But, if you wanted to fire a single missile from a sub, the idea that that would endanger the sub in any way is simply not credible. A Trident II could be fired from the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands and target points well inland of Shanghai. It's pretty darn hard to believe that the Chinese could prosecute an ASW campaign that far from home, and that close to Pearl Harbor, Hickam AFB, Kaneohe NAS, etc.
Re: Scott
The previous is totally ignoring the ALCM, which if launched from a 500 mile standoff could still reach 1000 miles inland.
I really don't think the US is handcuffed WRT limited nuclear options and China.
Smart weapons targeting transport and energy nodes is an attack on the nation's logistics, and I don't think that China has anywhere near the surplus transport or energy generation capacity that highly developed nations like the United States or Western Europe enjoy.
Even in the United States, food riots are "only three days away" since most people don't have large stockpiles on hand and supermarkets generally need to be restocked at least once a week, if not more often. Dropping a few American bridges or destroying a railway switching yard would have serious consequences, but there would still be plenty of work arounds here, via secondary roads and so on. In China, the infrastructure isn't as well developed so dropping the bridges or destroying the rail yard is not just serious, but a total disaster...
Herman Kahn style tit for tat scenarios strike me as interesting theoretical constructs, but the fundamental fact, it seems to me, is that any use of a nuclear weapon puts all potentially involved leaderships into a decision making environment where no one has ever been.
Cool headed rationality is not to be counted on - if it prevailed, you wouldn't get to the point of nuclear weapon release. And panicky people with H-bombs is an EXTREMELY dangerous situation.
Thucydides:
"Smart weapons targeting transport and energy nodes is an attack on the nation's logistics, and I don't think that China has anywhere near the surplus transport or energy generation capacity that highly developed nations like the United States or Western Europe enjoy."
Let's take a step back here. Iraq has a population of about 25 million. China's population is 50 times as large. There simply aren't enough munitions to signifcantly impact the Chinese economy overall, even if some targetted regions could be shut down.
Targeting China would be an interesting problem. Authoritarian regimes tend to be brittle and unable to respond well to rapidly changing events.
Using smart weapons to isolate a region of China through breaking the transport or energy grid would cause escalating ripple effects which would become difficult or impossible for the Chinese government to deal with. (just think of the effort the Chinese take to prevent a flood of people crossing the border of the DPRK. Now imagine the situation as masses of people attempt to flee from a Chinese province seeking food or shelter and beginning to overwhelm the resources of the neighbouring provinces, disrupting overstressed transport grids and diverting military resources and bandwidth.)
The introduction of escalating food and energy prices was enough to kick off the current wave of revolts in North Africa and the Gulf States (and there are reports of small demonstrations happening in China as well), so it isn't beyond the bounds of possibility to destabilize an authoritarian country with some additional stressors.
Thucydides:
Sorry, but I think you've been reading too many technothrillers.
Scott:
Haven't I been clear that an EMP attack is always going to be an existential threat to the launching nation, whether or not it's a threat to the target?
Yes, I'm generally in agreement with what you're saying.
Tony: If China does not have the level of weaponry to play MAD, then why would they launch any sort of nuclear device in the first place? Again, what would China hope to accomplish?
It's like shooting at a squad of police officers, and then crying foul when they shoot you back.
Nuclear weapons are very interesting in that regard...sure, unfired they are the absolute guarantors of national sovereignty, but once used, they are also the absolute destroyers.
My whole point is that any nation deploying nuclear weapons is going to face an enormous cost...the only way to reduce that cost is to ensure that the target nation is incapable of responding.
There is no "oops, my bad" with nuclear weaponry.
ElAntonius:
"Tony: If China does not have the level of weaponry to play MAD, then why would they launch any sort of nuclear device in the first place? Again, what would China hope to accomplish?
...
...the only way to reduce that cost is to ensure that the target nation is incapable of responding."
You've answered your own question. If the Chinese used a nuclear weapon against US naval forces at sea, in what way could the US respond with nuclear weapons that would be regarded as proportional by the rest of the world? Think about that for a while.
You've answered your own question. If the Chinese used a nuclear weapon against US naval forces at sea, in what way could the US respond with nuclear weapons that would be regarded as proportional by the rest of the world? Think about that for a while.
Context is king. Is war ongoing? If so, then China opening that particular Pandora's Box wouldn't end well.
Are they nuking a CBG during "peacetime exercises"? Ditto.
Nuclear weapons are, sociologically speaking, not just really big bombs. The last 60 years of human history are colored with the fear that someone, somewhere, will decide that it's once again a good idea to deploy them.
In either case, you're not answering my real question. Why would China do it? We're talking about the two most intermingled economies in history. Victory by one party would only be Pyrrhic.
But, proposing somehow the US and China do end up in a situation so pear shaped that destruction of a CBG is even being considered...how does nuking a carrier group really even help?
I just fail to see a scenario where China feels the need to nuke a carrier group that ISN'T already really, really bad. If the US is deploying "smart" weapons against Chinese infrastructure, that sounds like we're attempting some regime removal...in other words, China's ALREADY under existential threat. If they nuke a CBG that isn't involved in a military operation against them, then any nuclear or conventional attack against one would be an open declaration of war and would very quickly spiral out of control any way.
And furthermore, how is delivering a nuke to a CBG at all an existential threat to the US? We're talking about decelerando here...destroying a carrier might set us back quite a bit in the tactical realm, but in reality won't do much except potentially ignite whatever war is going to far more dangerous levels.
Re: ElAntonius
The context in which a US carrier battle group would be a threat to China would be something to do with Taiwan, or some other Chinese overseas initiative in the Western Pacific, perhaps against Vietnam or the Philippines. In any case, one need not imagine some great existential war. The nuke(s) would be used as an equalizer. The Chinese would calim the act as an act of the weak against the strong, and a lot of people around the world would be happy to believe them.
As for the intermingled economies argument, you really need to read up on your WWI history. Prior to that war there were people who believed that such highly integrated economies would never engage in war against each other. Others believed that the workers would never fight each other to achieve capitalistic and nationalistic goals. Still more believedthat even if a war started, it would have to be quick, because the various national economies couldn't long support the cost of total war. Ummm...yeah.
Nuclear weapons are, sociologically speaking, not just really big bombs.
Energy release/kg on order of 1,000,000x high explosives tends to have that effect.
I can picture scenarios that lead to a US/China nuclear war, but they all proceed from situations where one side or both are already facing catastrophe - say, economic collapse to the point of threatening the regime, so that attacking the yellow peril / red haired devils seems like the only way out.
Google Stuart Slade for some interesting discussion by someone who sounds knowledgeable on the subject.
World War I is a useful cautionary example regarding economic integration and the like, but no one went into WW I expecting 'regime change' to be a likely outcome - let alone personal annihilation of regime leaders.
Rick:
"Nuclear weapons are, sociologically speaking, not just really big bombs.
Energy release/kg on order of 1,000,000x high explosives tends to have that effect."
But that effect works both ways. If somebody uses a nuke against a clearly military target, away from all risk of civilian casualties, how does the government owning the military target respond? Nukes aren't just big bombs. You can't use tem to kill hundreds of thousands or millions when all you've lost is several ships and maybe ten thousand sailors. The sociological effect can in fact be inverted with careful, limited targetting.
"Google Stuart Slade for some interesting discussion by someone who sounds knowledgeable on the subject.
Ol' Stu has a pretty utilitarian attitude towards nukes. I wouldn't go looking to him for confirmation of the inescapable and inevitable MAD apocalypse.
"...but no one went into WW I expecting 'regime change' to be a likely outcome - let alone personal annihilation of regime leaders."
I think we can all agree there were a lot of things they didn't expect. That's why Bismarck made sure he had already won (by diplomatically isolating the enemy) before he started fighting. It's one whole heck of a lot safer that way. Bethmann-Hollweg and Wild Bill Hohenzollern didn't get that. Neither did the French hotheads, nor the Austrians, nor the Russians.
But it only took twenty years for everyone to make the same or similar mistakes all over again. So I wouldn't hold out much hope that anybody would take much heed of history today.
The last I heard (and my info is a decade out of date), the U.S. officially considered nuclear weapons to be fundimentally different than conventional weapons; ANY use of nukes would demand a response in kind. For your scinario of China nuking a CBG, we would be virtually reqired to nuke the Chinese Navy in response (the PLAN is about the size of a CBG or two). If the Chinese did nuke an American CBG and the U.S. President didn't respond in kind, then the American people would howl for his blood. I can only see that scinario happening as a last-ditch act of desperation, miscalculation, and full-blown panic.
On a side note, during the Cold War, the U.S. publicly said that nukes and conventional weapons were seperate and different and any use of nukes would require an overwhelming response-in-kind; the Sovite Union publicly stated that they viewed ALL weapons as being on a spectrum (pistols at one end, Tsar Bomba at the other), and even though both the U.S. and the Sovites knew what the other sides' view of nuclear weapons use was, neither side believed the other. After the end of the Cold War and military archives in the former East Germany were examined, it was found that the first use of nuclear weapons was to use low-yeald nukes to vaporize military bases in West Germany. The Sovites thought that the U.S. would only respond with the few low-yeald nukes they still had in theater, or simply accept that the Sovites had won...it never occured to them that the U.S. would respond to Sovite use of tactical nukes in Europe by launching a full scale nuclear attack against the Russian homeland. Thank god we didn't fight WIII in the mid 80's...
Ferrell
Ol' Stu has a pretty utilitarian attitude towards nukes. I wouldn't go looking to him for confirmation of the inescapable and inevitable MAD apocalypse.
That is exactly why I find his observations so interesting. From the previously linked bit:
The only people who mouth off about using nuclear weapons and threaten others with them are those that do not have keys hanging around their necks. The moment they get keys and realize what they've let themselves in for, they get to be very quiet and very cautious indeed.
To take on the particular scenario outlined, if the Chinese nuked a US carrier group, we could certainly find an isolated Chinese airbase to nuke, or an army base on the road to Tibet, etc. We probably have informed them exactly this, by some indirect means.
That serves the conceptual ball back into their court, and underlines the point that you cannot count on taking one step up the escalation ladder and having it end there on your terms.
Is this an absolute protection against human stupidity? Certainly not, but I believe that it is rather robust. The Cold War was, by pre-nuclear historical logic, pretty much a worst case scenario - a Great Power system reduced to two rivals playing for the imperial purple, and with mouth foaming ideological hostilities to boot.
Nuclear weapons are, among other things, extremely sobering.
Re: Ferrell et al.
It wasn't that long ago the suggestions were coming from within the DoD that low yield nukes, combined with penetrating bomb casings, would make a great bunker busting weapon, and wouldn't really count as a nuclear release, because it would be a controlled, tactical use, with limited above-surface effects. The DOE even did some initial development work for a few years.
Now, exploding a weapon in the open air is a step up from that, but if targeted at a strictly military target hundreds of miles out to sea in a declared war zone, it could rationally be portrayed in the same light that we would have portrayed the use of a bunker busting nuke -- just an equalizer, who can blame us?
And so what if the US public howls in anger? The President is caught up on the horns of the dilemma Mr. Slade identified. But Stu left out one very big caveat: the logic only applies if retaliation can be proportional. The PLAN (Chinese navy), without the threat of a carrier battle group, could disperse to the point that nuking any single ship of small groups of ships -- the biggest of which would be a destroyer -- would be seen as a lame response. As for nuking remote bases, it's highly likely that the Chinese, just like us, place medium and major military bases near fairly large population centers. Go ahead an nuke a battalion outpost on the Mongolian border, that's going to be really impressive. Even that level of attack would still be a homeland attack, which is a lot more serious business than even losing a carrier or two, escorts included.
See, nukes aren't absolutely rulled out, by us or anybody else. But one has to use them cleverly in ways that cannot be plausibly retaliated against without risking a wider war that nobody wants. I'm not saying that if the Chinese followed that logic things would go their way. But by the same token, and US Prsident faced with retaliating to a tactical use at sea would have a real problem justifying it, even against a remote, nominally military target.
This scenario seems horribly risky, because the outcome depends entirely on the US responding as China presumes it 'should.' What if the US instead flattens a Chinese airbase, notwithstanding extensive damage to a nearby town?
I agree that nukes 'aren't absolutely ruled out,' but like this scenario they depend a host of assumptions about the other player's response - and if those assumptions are wrong, you are up shit creek, but still downstream of a dam that just burst.
You know, using a strategic weapon on a non-strategic target would seem to some, (especially during the heat of a war that has just escalated into the nuclear realm), to be a waste; there are other, nonmilitary, strategic targets just as justifiable as a military base. Three Gorges Damn comes to mind. It may not be smart, or keep the war from escalating, but I can see it happening.
Ferrell
Nothing is without risk. But we have to remember that the Chinese are the people that gave us Unrestricted Warfare, in which the authors suggested that anything that works is a viable tactic, no matter how seemingly far-fetched or unconventional. The authors in fact claimed as a right any tactic that evened the playing field for the weaker side.
From that I adduced that the Chinese could see using a nuke against USN forces at sea as nothing more than an Unrestricted Warfare type tactic. Would they do it for real? I don't know. But I do know that the worst military disasters have always been the result of failures of imagination on the part of the sufferer, combined with the application of a bit of raw, unrefined nerve on the part of the attacker.
Which does prove that the Chinese defense establishment is not immune from its own crackpot equivalents of the arguments for 'bunker buster' nukes.
But on the final point, I could as easily argue - with support from Thucydides (the original guy, not the commenter here) - that the worst military disasters have resulted from good old hubris.
Rick:
"But on the final point, I could as easily argue - with support from Thucydides (the original guy, not the commenter here) - that the worst military disasters have resulted from good old hubris."
Yep...they won't use nukes on us because they're too afraid of what we'd do in retaliation, regardless of how carefully they could tailor the circumstances to make retaliation in-kind a political non-starter.
As they say in fencing school, touché!
Though I suspect the Chinese leadership would find itself less confident in this theory, because the price of miscalculation is both dreadfully high and dreadfully obvious.
... the price of miscalculation is both dreadfully high and dreadfully obvious.
And that, my friends, is why very few people actually consider using nukes. (much better said than I ever could)
The only ones that do consider the idea are those that truly don't think they would face utter annihilation. Like India and Pakistan, possibly Saudi and DPRK.
One of the points I was trying to make, that I believe was overlooked, is that this threat of utter annihilation is what convinces every country, even those that don't like the US at all, to keep tight control over delivery systems. You do not want to have someone who is not the head of state to decide to entangle the state in an annihilation event.
Despite John Ringo's otherwise rant-filled prose, the story 'Ghost' makes a point that I wish the US would go on record with: WMD are WMD. bio = gas = dirty bomb = nukes. Use of any CBRN weapon will result in instant sunshine at the country-destroying level.
If *any* attack on the US is an existential threat to the hosting nation, there will be no attacks on the US. Every other nation will make sure of that for America. I don't like ruling through fear, but murphy's 3rd law applies: If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.
The real problem with such self-assurance is that I've been asserting China's best case for nuclear use against the USN at sea. They might be willing to trade an air or naval base and a medium sized city for the neutralization of a carrier battle group, if that's a war-winning trade. Massive retaliation is simply not going to be considered by a US President, no matter what his theoretical convictions ought to be. Nobody likely to be elected President is going to countenance being the greatest murderer* ever just to prove a point.
*And it would be murder, because it would be so wildly disproportionate.
I think you greatly overestimate our civility. Depending on whose figures you trust, we've killed anywhere from 0 to a million civilians in Iraq and the leadership has studiously ignored the war protests. I think people gave up even trying to object to it.
If China made a nuclear strike on American carriers, I would not want to be sitting in their command bunkers waiting for the response.
Personally, I thought the whole push towards making nukes usable on the battlefield was insanity. Nobody's going to care about your definition of what is and isn't a WMD. I don't care if it's a sub-kiloton weapon or even if it's some wonder-weapon that weighs as much as a bullet and can hit like a 10 ton bomb. If you can describe it as a nuclear explosion, people are going to lose their minds. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging had to be renamed because of that.
1. It counts if it happens to Americans.
2. We don't care if it happens to others.
Can you honestly tell me that Faux wouldn't go off the rails if America got nuked and Obama didn't nuke back back because he doesn't want to be a mass murderer? Articles of Impeachment would be whipped up faster than you can say "intern sex."
Note: I'm not advocating a course of action, I'm not validating it. I'm just saying that I think it would be unlikely for China to do something like that but if they did, they couldn't count on the American response being reasonable or rational. Maybe everyone involved would surprise us but I wouldn't put money on it.
Re: jollyreaper
Who or what is "Faux"? If it's a partisan or politically motivated epithet, could you please stop? Gratuitously insulting editorial comments make you look small and silly, no matter who they are directed at.
WRT the subject, I think you're simply mistaken that a US President would engage massive retalialtion for a single, isolated attack against forces at sea. "If one flies, they all fly" is a Cold War logic, based on existential conflict between the US and USSR. That logic doesn't apply to the 21st Century.
WRT the subject, I think you're simply mistaken that a US President would engage massive retalialtion for a single, isolated attack against forces at sea. "If one flies, they all fly" is a Cold War logic, based on existential conflict between the US and USSR. That logic doesn't apply to the 21st Century.
The USSR had the ability to wipe the US off the face of the Earth. China could probably ruin our decade but not obliterate us in 20 minutes. So there wouldn't be the same necessity to catch their birds on the ground before they're launched.
But the political pressure of retaliating in kind, I don't think that could be resisted. If they sink a carrier group, we're going to have to hit them back, hard. Possibly confining the retaliatory strike to military targets, we might not jump immediately to taking out cities. But I would find it incredibly, extremely surprising to see the US nuked and not nuke back. If one of our cities got hit, we're going to nuke one of theirs. It wasn't all that long ago that western nations were willing to firebomb cities as a matter of course.
Johnson was willing to stay in the Vietnam War after he knew it was lost because he didn't want to appear soft on communism. We killed what, an estimated two million Asians in that war? I've heard people go back and forth about it but I think the dead GI's did more to sour the public on the war than the dead Asians.
As I said, if the Chinese launched a nuclear strike on American forces, I would not want to be sitting in their bunkers when America responds.
jollyreaper:
"As I said, if the Chinese launched a nuclear strike on American forces, I would not want to be sitting in their bunkers when America responds."
If I were the Chinese nuking US carrier(s), I would immediately hold a rally at the Olympic stadium and have the whole Central Committee there, daring the US to nuke downtown Beijing in retaliation for a carrier battle group.
IOW, you're simply not following the logic, j. The Chinese have just made a limited attack against a strictly military target. That significantly limits US options. It's not just the bloodthirsty portion of the US populace that the Administration has to worry about, but those who would object to a homeland attack in retaliation (a large plurality, if not a majority), and everybody in the international community (even our allies) who would turn their backs on us is we did such a thing.
The President has to take all of these things into consideration when choosing a response. He can't just lash out. And he's not going to get impeached -- Congress is going to be in as much turmoil as the Executive branch over something like that. He'll probably retaliate somehow, but he's not going to do anything drastic.
The President has to take all of these things into consideration when choosing a response. He can't just lash out. And he's not going to get impeached -- Congress is going to be in as much turmoil as the Executive branch over something like that. He'll probably retaliate somehow, but he's not going to do anything drastic.
If the Chinese leadership did nuke a CVBG, I'm sure that your line of reasoning would be exactly the same as they one they followed. I just think the plan relies too much on the US president behaving as expected. I could easily see him reacting in a way they weren't anticipating.
All of this is a bit abstract, really, because there'd have to be some context of why the Chinese decided on nuclear release in the first place.
But I'll stand by my general point, that while there are no absolute guarantees whatsoever, the prospect of getting nuked back has great power to concentrate the mind.
Note that India and Pakistan have gotten a great deal more circumspect with each other since they became nuclear powers.
Rick:
"All of this is a bit abstract, really, because there'd have to be some context of why the Chinese decided on nuclear release in the first place."
They don't have CVBGs, but they have nukes and MRBMs, and they consider whatever operation the US sends the CVBGs against worth extreme measures to protect.
"But I'll stand by my general point, that while there are no absolute guarantees whatsoever, the prospect of getting nuked back has great power to concentrate the mind.
Note that India and Pakistan have gotten a great deal more circumspect with each other since they became nuclear powers."
Of course. But when we start believeing that nothing is worth using a nuke against, we start making ourselves vulnerable to nuclear use.
As far as nuclear exchanges' between the U.S. and China goes; even a two to one response would put our point across and not alienate anyone too badly; You nuked one of our CBGs, we nuke one of your navy ports and an airbase; do it again and we'll nuke four military targets, ect; the U.S. can do this a lot longer than the Chinese can aford to.
Ferrell
Jollyreaper:
"But the political pressure of retaliating in kind, I don't think that could be resisted. If they sink a carrier group, we're going to have to hit them back, hard. Possibly confining the retaliatory strike to military targets, we might not jump immediately to taking out cities. But I would find it incredibly, extremely surprising to see the US nuked and not nuke back."
I think the US's chief objective here would be to win whatever conflict of interest inspired the Chinese to try nuking them in the first place. They would now be willing to use nukes in pursuit of this objective, but they wouldn't use more than they need to - but also no less.
I don't expect anyone to simply launch a nuke for the sake of launching a nuke, even in retaliation. But at this point the US would not back down from the war because "we can't win without resorting to nukes", if it comes to that.
Part of the problem is that by launching nukes the host nation makes the *launchers* targets...and most likely, target numero uno.
Nuclear silos are often well hidden and well reinforced. Submarines are the former, but I suspect the Chinese navy doesn't have a huge amount of them. Bombers are neither, but they are the easiest path for nuclear delivery from a technological perspective.
Even if the US isn't wanting to retaliate in a nuclear manner, one would presume that at the point of nuclear use by the Chinese on a strict military target the only options are to utterly destroy the Chinese launch capacity, or to cease whatever war effort exists in the first place.
And the dirty truth is I don't think the US flat out has enough ordinance to do that in the conventional manner. Sure, we have all sorts of ways of knocking out bombers, but I don't think bombers are going to be a primary threat to CBGs (It's not like CBGs aren't loaded to the gills with interceptors and AA defenses)
So that leaves sub-hunting and bunker-hunting...no one is really going to mess all that much with a sub-hunt, they'll just start demolishing resupply ports, and if those prove too hardened for conventional assault, we'll either have to get dirty or get peaceful.
As for silos...well, there's an ugly truth to that. We all know what it is. There's a reason that both Russia and the US viewed total nuclear annihilation as the deterrent for ICBM attacks.
That's the problem with nukes...they essentially force a total war situation, and total war with nuclear equipped opponents is not a pretty scenario.
Also: there's a reason nuclear bunker busters never made it past the drawing board.
Ferrell:
"As far as nuclear exchanges' between the U.S. and China goes; even a two to one response would put our point across and not alienate anyone too badly; You nuked one of our CBGs, we nuke one of your navy ports and an airbase; do it again and we'll nuke four military targets, ect; the U.S. can do this a lot longer than the Chinese can aford to."
The Chinese only have to do it once. They take out a CVBG or two, take their lumps, succeed in whatever initiative they're taking, and anything the US can do later is presumably moot. As I already said, US non-retaliation in kind is the Chinese best case, and the result they would work to achieve. But taking a nuke or two in retaliation deosn't mean they lose.
Eh, remember how many missiles/bombers would be needed to get one warhead to the target.
An absolute-minimum launch would be a single Minuteman III (3x 375kt), but that requires the Russians to not panic when that set of MIRVs goes over their heads. No thanks, I don't want to risk involving the Russians in a US/China dispute on the Chinese side.
Next-smallest release would be a single Trident II/D5 (~12x 375kt). Problem is, launching one D5 reveals the position of 23 more, so you would need to launch enough to not cripple your response when you lose that sub. I estimate *that* minimum number as at least 6 birds, possibly as many as 12. And it still carries a substantial risk of involving the Russians.
Bombers? 24+ warheads per plane, and each plane operates with 2 friends (based on Linebacker raids during Vietnam, supposedly following nuclear-war doctrine), plus however many additional attacks to clear a path to the real targets. A minimum of 72 warheads in a single flight, times a minimum of 3-4 flights.
All this makes even a "limited" nuclear attack an awful lot bigger than most people would have considered.
Once you run through *that* calculus, using a nuke for your opening bid becomes very unattractive.
Re: Scott
I have to agree that ICBMs are out, for more reasons than the ones you mentioned.
But what's this worry about a single SLBM launch leading to the loss of a boat? As already mentioned, a missile could be launched from the vicinity of the Hawaiian islands and still reach well into China. There's not going to be any Chinese ASW activity there. (Or if there is, we have bigger problems than losing a single missile boat.)
Likewise, what's the idea with gravity bomb equipped bombers? For a limited strike, we would use ALCM, which, if fired from a 500 mile standoff, could reach up to 1000 miles inland. (At least -- official figures generally understate capabilities.)
Scott: I have to agree with Tony; a sub could fire a single missile and then leve the area at high speed; shoot-n-scoot. By the time enemy forces could respond to the area that the missile was launched from, the sub would be tens of miles away at the very least; more probably closer to 100; if you couldn't find it before, what makes you think you could find it now?
Ferrell
Near future developments will make even these calculations somewhat suspect. The Indian military operates the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and is developing a hypersonic version. The USAF is developing a hypersonic Prompt Global Strike "boost/glide" missile which can travel thousands of miles in minutes.
BrahMos comes in air, sea and land based versions, which means the strike is not only very fast, but also comes at you from any direction (a heavy truck carrying a ground launch version, any ship capable of housing the beast in the sea launch version, and a heavy bomber or strike plane for the air launched version).
This would allow "tit for tat" strikes using conventional weapons (I take your aircraft carrier, you hit an airbase) without raising the nuclear threshold.
But the underlying for main force conflict between major industrial poers is one that was supposedly expressed by a Navy guy in the 80s, who described our war plan against the Soviets as "Fight with conventional weapons until we're losing, then fight with tactical nukes until we're losing, then blow up the world."
Powers can tit for tat each other, and so long as someone backs down, none the worse off (except for the odd carrier group, etc.).
But if the loser in any round considers losing unacceptable, it is on to the next round, and after a few rounds things get seriously out of hand ...
So long as there is some sort of rational calculation of cost/benefit, then the best we can hope for is nations weilding hypersonic boost glide weapons are willing to back down once they have made their point (or the sudden application of force overwhelms the opponents political machinery and they declare defeat or ceasefire).
The arguments that retaliation will involve large numbers of weapons is the one which I think is mooted here, you would probably assign a pair of boost glide missiles to ensure one gets through, which is a certain signal of restraint (a wave of incoming missiles would be a pretty clear sign the gloves are coming off).
Of course, no one can always count on being rational
It's odd, the "e-Panphlet" you linked from Tyler Cowen to isn't available to Canadian accounts. What's the deal?
Welcome to the comment threads!
I have no idea why Cowan's e-pamphlet wouldn't be available to Canadian accounts. Does Amazon have a separate Canadian site (a la Amazon.co.uk)?
Maybe googling would get you to a site where you can order it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704587004576242450234233350.html
more at the link
Putting on the Brakes: Mankind Nears the End of the Age of Speed
The human race is slowing down.
When the U.S. space shuttle completes its final flight, planned for June, mankind will take another step back from its top speed. Space shuttles are the fastest reusable manned vehicles ever built. Their maximum was only exceeded by single-shot moon rockets.
The shuttles' retirement follows the grounding over recent years of other ultrafast people carriers, including the supersonic Concorde and the speedier SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. With nothing ready to replace them, our species is decelerating—perhaps for the first time in history.
It has been a good two-century sprint, says Neil Armstrong, who in 1969 covered almost 240,000 miles in less than four days to plant the first human footprint on the Moon. Through the 18th century, he noted in an email exchange, humans could travel by foot or horse at approximately six miles per hour. "In the 19th, with trains, they reached 60 mph. In the 20th, with jet aircraft, we could travel at 600 mph. Can we expect 6,000 mph in the 21st?" he wondered.
"It does not seem likely," Mr. Armstrong continued, although he holds out some hope.
Arguably this is a natural process. Maximum travel speed did not change much from the development of the chariot and horseback riding in the Bronze Age to the beginning of the railroad era.
Most of the increase took place in not much more than a century, c. 1830-1960, and technology then overshot the requirement. The airline industry has no significant interest in SSTs - the additional time they save is not worth the development and operating costs.
Interplanetary travel could add another order of magnitude, to ~100 km/s, as a sort of coda to the industrial revolution. Probably not much more than that, because required drive power goes up as the cube of travel speed, making Really Fast interplanetary travel an economic loser.
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wemakeit_com_projects_successful_technology | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4586
Discover Projects
215successful projects in technology
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Dietikon
Revox World in Dietikon
by waVox vintage sounds
Politics, Technology, and Environment
Delémont and Haute-Sorne
Citoyens bafoués du Jura
by Un groupe d'opposants au projet de géothermie pétrothermale profonde de Haute-Sorne
Startup, Technology, and Environment
Lausanne
WasteFlow
by Valentin Ibars, Francesco Borg, Théo Vitupier, and TheophileA
Science, Technology, and Education
Stäfa
Das neue Computerposter 2024
by Robert Röbi Weiss
Community and Technology
Kharkiv
Strom rettet Leben
by 1019.ch – Hilfe für die Kriegsopfer in der Ukraine, Ukrainehilfemitherz, and Alfonso Wunschheim
Science, Technology, and Education
Cape Town and Bern
Diabetes in South Africa
by DCB and bridgetmcnulty
Science, Startup, and Technology
Deutschlandsberg
Safetymodul
by Johannes
Publishing, Sport, and Technology
Lausanne
Bikeberufene
by Suse
Fashion, Startup, and Technology
Zürich
Innovative KleiderschrankApp
by Tatjana Kotoric
Architecture, Technology, and Environment
Le Vaud
Geodätische Kuppel Kusi Wasi
by Christian Palma
Technology and Education
Lucerne
Neues Setup benötigt
by Rafael Montigel
Startup, Technology, and Tourism
Lausanne
Unki : your travel companion
by areisde and GabVeigas |
www_iogp_org_blog_news_why-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-very-good-in-the-energy-transition_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4560
Why perfect is the enemy of the (very) good in the energy transition
This article, by Iman Hill, IOGP Executive Director, was recently published on LinkedIn
I’ve always said that when it comes to innovation, perfect is the enemy of the (very) good.
At the recent World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, decarbonization technologies and the need to accelerate them was on the agenda. Given that I have been talking about this subject at APPEA and the World Gas Conference recently, I thought it apt to add my views.
In a nutshell, the Paris goals are achievable with the technologies that exist today, but we need to acknowledge that none of us can do it alone.
If we wait for silver bullet solutions we can miss the opportunities to make progress with what we already have. And as we sit and wait around for game-changing solutions to solve everything, it will ultimately lead to ‘game over’.
Take nuclear fusion for example. Some see this as something of a holy grail in energy. But it is unlikely to be deployed at scale before 2050, and we can’t afford to wait that long.
That’s why CCUS is so important. It offers an opportunity to make a difference now, in our transition to a low carbon system.
From 40 MTPA today, the IEA’s net zero emissions by 2050 pathway assesses that the world needs to capture 4 GT of CO2 by 2030 and 7.6 GT CO2 by 2050.
Put simply, by 2030, which is only 8 years away, we need to store 100 times more CO2 globally than we have already! Put this into the context of the recent IPCC report that frames this as ‘now or never’, achieving that goal is a very tall order.
But, the real change that needs to occur to deliver on its potential is not in the technology itself, but in the ecosystem that supports it.
And that’s where IOGP comes in. Working with a global Membership that develops good practice that can be instantly deployed, we believe we provide the shortest and fastest route to the adoption of tech innovation and recommended practice on the energy frontline.
To help CCUS (and hydrogen, another key technology) deliver on its promise we’re following three principles.
The first is collaboration, which is a prerequisite for innovation in our industry due to the complexity of the energy transition, and the fact that no one has all the answers.
Collaboration must go beyond the industry too. It requires policy makers and organisations working very closely together to define any remaining hurdles, identify the best technological solutions, and establish the most efficient financial supports.
Second is maintaining a multidisciplinary, portfolio approach given that the most attractive new solutions may be found at the interface of several different disciplines, such as between the energy and digital sectors.
As innovation can be an uncertain process, we also need to ensure that innovation policy frameworks are balanced between potentially competing sectors and approaches, and are accompanied by investment in basic research and robust intellectual property rules.
And finally we have flexibility.
Because the portfolio of low-carbon technologies may change as technology progresses and transition pathways evolve, and we need to continuously monitor and adapt to them.
That means we should never take a narrow view or place all our bets on only a few technologies, and risk losing out on other ideas that could really make a change.
The transition remains a challenging task, but I’m confident that if we stick to our principles and focus on delivering the already very good solutions available to us, rather than waiting for the perfect ideals of the future, we’ll get there much quicker.
This article is also published on LinkedIn. |
www_globaltechcouncil_org_tag_learning-path_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4516
Practice makes a man perfect. This quote applies in all of our lives situations. Be it any field only by practicing you follow the learning curve. Technologies such as data…
Global Tech Council is a platform bringing techies from all around the globe to share their knowledge, passion, expertise and vision on various in-demand technologies, thereby imparting valuable credentials to individuals seeking career growth acceleration. |
techbullion_com_the-10-most-revolutionary-technologies-of-our-digital-age_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4480
A new digital trend supporting enterprises and society as a whole emerges every day. New solutions, models built to integrate seamlessly with the analogue and digital spheres, are constantly being introduced into our environment. Work habits have shifted due to innovations in mobile, social media, predictive analytics, etc.
Since technology is ever-evolving, several novel projects are likely to emerge during the next five years, each with the potential to significantly alter our daily routines. We scoured the web for the best tech magazines and compiled a list of the most intriguing future technological developments.
Emerging Digital Technologies Of 2023
Now, we’ll mention the latest innovation in the digital age that has brought revolutionary things to the digital world. So, let’s get started.
AI, Cognition, and Super Intelligent Machine Learning
Companies are improving their methods of operation and output with the help of AI and machine learning applications. Deep learning, neural networks, and natural language processing (NLP) are just a few of the numerous technologies and methods that fall under this umbrella.
Research and current use of these methods suggest that AI will pave the way for the development of useful tools like virtual assistants as well as robots, drones, and driverless cars. Workplaces and households alike will be revolutionised by programmes that can comprehend, learn from experience, adapt to new circumstances, and make accurate predictions. Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions will be able to blend in with their environments and people more seamlessly, allowing them to observe and learn from human actions and requirements.
Organisations may benefit from AI and sophisticated machine learning in the areas of data analytics, insight generation, and action recommendation. They will learn continuously to emulate human cognition and provide unique value for each consumer. These tools will boost efficiency, cut down on waste, and please customers.
The next decade will see the widespread use of AI in both the workplace and the wider world.
The Use Of VR And AR
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two new technologies that are changing the face of online interaction and cooperation. By 2021, it is anticipated that it will have advanced further and be more widely used in immersive consumer applications. Mobile applications, wearable gadgets, etc. have all begun to be used in conjunction with virtual reality and augmented reality. Rather than being limited to individual experiences, the internet is beginning to establish a network of immersive apps for collaborative and educational digital settings. Over the next several years, augmented reality (AR) is predicted to significantly alter consumer experiences and improve workforce performances.
Internet of Things software solutions that use digital twins
A digital twin is a live, virtual representation of an operation, product, or service that may be used for analytics and predictive system monitoring. Because of this, we may use a variety of simulation methods to avoid breakdowns, create new possibilities, and better prepare for the future. The Internet of Things (IoT) has reduced the digital twin’s implementation cost. Because of the invaluable information, it can give on a company’s goods, operations, and consumers, IoT is becoming a need.
Hybrid Wireless Technologies
Everything has an inherent link to everything else. Connecting a MANET to a fixed network takes the use of Hybrid Wireless Technologies. They let us combine the benefits of many wireless networks while using a single device. The goal is to establish associations between diverse elements in order to develop flexible, intelligent programmes that can respond to changing user needs.
Datafication
Anything may be “digitised,” or transformed into a data-driven device or programme. Thus, datafication refers to the process through which traditionally human operations are converted into data-driven ones. Everything we use now, from our phones and computers to our factories and workplace programmes and even our artificial intelligence-enhanced refrigerators, relies on data, and it won’t go away anytime soon. Therefore, keeping our data in good shape and secure has become an in-demand field in today’s market. As a consequence of datafication, many different kinds of IT professionals, data scientists, engineers, technicians, managers, and many more will be in higher demand. A certification in a data-related speciality is also a good way for anybody with a technical background to get work in this industry.
In addition, anybody who has a firm grasp of technology may enter this sector by earning a credential in a data-related niche. Many of the most influential people in the field of data science come from less-populous areas and developing nations like India because they possess the requisite talents rather than the necessary credentials.
Digital Trust
individuals have developed a sense of confidence and trust in digital technology as a result of their familiarity with and use of these tools in everyday life. There is a growing tendency towards using a familiar digital trust to spur more innovation. To explore and create without worrying about losing consumers’ trust is a goal shared by those with digital conviction, who believe that technology can make the digital world safe, secure, and trustworthy. Popular fields of research that strive to make the Internet a safer environment for everyone include cybersecurity and ethical hacking. These two fields tend to provide a broad range of job opportunities, from entry-level to managerial. While professional qualifications may be necessary for ethical hacking, a bachelor’s degree or perhaps a master’s degree in cybersecurity can get you far in the field.
3D Printing
Making prototypes using 3D printing is a huge step forward in the world of innovative technology. In both the medical and manufacturing fields, this technology has had a significant influence. So, 3D printing is another breakthrough that will remain in use for some time. High-paying jobs and international experience may be found in the data and healthcare sectors, both of which make substantial use of 3D printing. You just need knowledge of AI, ML, simulation, and 3D printing to do this.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic process automation (RPA) refers to the computerisation of traditionally manual corporate processes including data collection and analysis, customer service, and other related tasks. Similar to how AI and ML automate a wide variety of operations across many industries, robotic process automation (RPA) is a promising future technology that automates numerous tasks in many fields. One such example of robotic process automation is automated trading robots such as BitSoft 360 that handle all digital trade tasks on the trader’s behalf. Investing in your future with this developing technology may pay off handsomely.
Edge Computing
Users’ activities across several platforms (e.g., social media, websites, emails, and online searches) are now being tracked by the millions. As the data we gather grows at an exponential rate, even cutting-edge methods, such as cloud computing, have limitations.
Up until around ten years ago, Cloud Computing was among the most rapidly expanding fields in IT. Competitors have made this an everyday occurrence, however.
Many problems with Cloud Computing have become apparent as its use has spread across enterprises. In order to avoid the delays that Cloud Computing introduces, businesses might employ Edge Computing to transfer data to a data centre. It may exist “on edge,” or at the location where data processing will actually occur. Time-sensitive data is processed in disconnected or low-bandwidth areas using edge computing.
Distributed Ledger Technology
Blockchain became well known in connection with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because of the security it offers. However, it offers protection that may be useful in a variety of contexts. There is no way to remove or alter data after it has been uploaded to a blockchain. Blockchain gets its name from the fact that the resultant data blocks seem like links in a chain.
Since data stored on a blockchain cannot be altered or deleted, it is a tremendously secure system. Since blockchains are consensus-driven, no one user or organisation may control the data contained inside them. Financial transactions may be tracked without the use of a third party. The need for proficient blockchain engineers has grown as the technology gains traction in new sectors.
Bottom Line
The pace at which technology develops will only accelerate. If you belong to the digital world, you must be familiar with these technologies. Mastering new technologies, like AI, ML, blockchain, and edge computing, adapting to continual change, and turning it into an advantage are all necessary for a successful career in the tech industry. |
www_thevoicemaster_com_search_updated-max_2016-02-08T05_58_00-08_00_max-results_1_reverse-paginate_t | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4176
The Manila leg of the 21st STI College National Youth Convention was held on February 2-5 at the Aliw Theater in CCP Complex, Pasay City. Tens of thousands of STI students from all over NCR and nearby provinces in Northern and Southern Luzon gathered to learn about the convention’s theme “I Will Innovate.” Each session featured 3 speakers, each one speaking about different facets of innovation: spirit, character, and creativity.
Pocholo “The VoiceMaster” Gonzales has inspired more than 5,000 STI students as one of the speakers on both morning and afternoon sessions of the convention’s third and fourth day. With the topic, “Innovator’s Creativity,” the VoiceMaster talked about how innovation is a mindset more than it is an idea executed into a product or service. His talk was a combination of energetic humor, inspiring stories, memorable “hugot lines” and lessons to develop the mindset of an innovator. He motivated the audience to innovate not only their ideas, but also their own personality. He set himself as an example as to how he has continually developed himself especially when it comes to the voice – expanding his capabilities not only in voice acting, but also in broadcasting, training and motivational speaking.
The VoiceMaster also motivated the participants to be innovators not only for themselves but for the good of the country. He also encouraged them to become like Dr. Jose Rizal, and to use their available resources to be able to make a difference in the society, just like our national hero did despite his lack of technology and freedom.
The VoiceMaster also entertained the audience with his voice acting superpowers, imitating their favorite cartoon characters and celebrities.
Towards the end of each session, the VoiceMaster gave his last message to the audience and reminded them to pursue their passion while they are young, and to never waste an opportunity to be an inspiration to their fellow youth. |
www_defenseadvancement_com_partner_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4911
ADVANCING INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY DISCOVERY IN DEFENSE
ADVANCING INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY DISCOVERY IN DEFENSE
Join Defense Advancement to showcase your solutions to a worldwide audience of defense industry professionals. Connect with relevant, active buyers across OEMs, prime contractors, tiered suppliers, government agencies, and armed forces.
TRUSTED PARTNER TO LEADING DEFENSE INNOVATORS
Honeywell |
www_gainthelead_de_2021_11_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4316
There’s an invisible force that inhibits companies from growing, competing, and reaching long-term goals: Stress. Stress can plague businesses, especially in the fintech and payment industries where there’s a constant demand for change and innovation. This pressure...
Neueste Kommentare |
speedex_com_au_about-us | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4061
About Us
We are an innovative engineering business, primarily focused on manufacturing products for industry, commercial and domestic purposes as well as a number of our own products.
As a precision tooling enterprise we manufacture various tooling for industry and we have CNC milling machining capability as well as an engineering workshop equipped to handle just about anything.
We have mills, lathes, presses, cutting saws, die cutters, grinders, EDM, welding equipment, testing, measuring and calibration equipment.
We can machine complex components, make parts to suit from a wide range of materials
- Steel
- Plastic
- Aluminium
- Brass
- Titanium
- Copper
- Magnesium
- Composites
- Wood
We design and build large custom machinery to suit any customers request.
We also can fabricate anything. We have a very broad engineering and design knowledge and expertise in the manufacturing and mechanical engineering field.
We manufacture cutting dies for all sorts of applications, such as die cutting, packaging, jewellery and automotive.
We machine parts for the aerospace industry and press tools for a wide range of customers.
We have designed and manufactured tooling for the automotive sector and designed bending dies and machinery to do particular applications and transfer our skills to all areas of interest to us and our customer base.
We have also built a range of scissor lifts from small to large scale, one of which is in use in Antarctica.
We also do product development and design work and prototyping products.
Most importantly we are good problem solvers and have an excellent track record in helping solve our customers requests and providing high quality workmanship and products that do what they are supposed to do.
Our products include tuckpointing supplies, die cutting supplies, made to order balistrating and safety hand railing, gates and architectural fabricated products, car louvers and much more.
We enjoy a challenge and are willing to work hard to achieve successful results. We also have a policy to be open to new ideas and strive to be better!
If you wish to contact us please write to us at [email protected] from you own email address (do not use our website to write to us as their is currently a broken link, so better to write from your email address directly to [email protected]) Thankyou!! |
www_invent_org_blog_behind-nihf-scenes_collegiate-inventors-contest | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4255
The Collegiate Inventors Competition: A Showcase for Student Excellence
Emerging InnovatorsDate October 7, 2019
Est. Reading Time 3 mins
The students who competed in the 2019 National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) Collegiate Inventors Competition® (CIC) exceeded expectations from the moment they first set foot on campus. They joined other top student inventors in the country to compete in an exclusive college competition.
As far as invention contests go, CIC offers its participants a unique opportunity to present their research and earn prize money. Finalist teams (five Undergraduate and five Graduate) received an all-expenses-paid trip to the final round of the competition held at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Madison Building in Alexandria, Virginia. The teams presented their inventions to a panel of Judges composed of NIHF Inductees and USPTO officials. Throughout the competition, students directly interacted with and received valuable feedback from Inductees. Finalists also gained national marketing exposure, grew their network, and built new relationships with fellow student inventors and entrepreneurs.
Since 1990, the annual competition has provided a glimpse into the future of American innovation and emerging technological trends in various industries, ranging from medical devices to materials science to mechanical engineering.
In 2019, the two-day event began with a welcome reception for Judges and Finalists at the NIHF Museum. The following morning, judging of individual teams took place. Months and years of dedicated effort were then on display during the event’s Expo, which has received thousands of USPTO officials and members of the public in attendance. Finalists interacted with visitors to their respective booths, answered questions about their inventions and often demonstrated prototypes.
The Arrow Electronics People’s Choice Award has become one of the competition’s biggest draws. The public was welcomed to vote for their favorite team at the Expo, with the winning team announced at the Awards Dinner later that evening. The Graduate and Undergraduate Winners and Runners-up teams also received their medallions and prize money during the Awards Dinner.
CIC is an exceptional celebration of today’s young people who are committed to innovating a better world. The creative problem solving and enthusiasm for discovery that these students offer through their work is nothing short of inspiring.
Meet the 2019 Finalists below!
Undergraduate Finalists
Compressor-Turbine Fusion, Oklahoma State University
Team Member: Andrew J. Williamson; Adviser: Khaled A. Sallam
Dual Monitoring Telemedicine Solution for Diabetic Foot Ulcer, Columbia University
Team Members: Nicole Boyd, Michelle Feely, Aaron Maccabee, Xin Xiong; Adviser: Aaron Kyle
PE-IVT (Positively Engaged, Infinitely Variable Transmission Using Split Helical Gears), University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Team Member: Ethan R. Brush; Adviser: Carl Nelso
PeritoneX, Johns Hopkins University
Team Members: Tejasvi Desai, Sarah Lee, Eugene Oh, James Qin; Adviser: Elizabeth Logsdon
SecURO, Georgia Institute of Technology
Team Members: Jared Brown, Bailey Eaton, Rachel Mann; Adviser: James Rains
Graduate Finalists
Cubic LEDs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Team Member: Dicky Liu; Adviser: Can Bayram
EasyWhip, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Team Member: Lia Winter; Adviser: Lynn Young
Infinite Cooling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Team Members: Maher Damak, Karim Khalil; Adviser: Kripa Varanas
Nanodropper, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine; University of Washington
Team Members: Mackenzie Andrews, Allisa J. Song, Jennifer Steger; Adviser: Raghu Mudumba
SALUS (Stabilizing Aerial Loads Utility System), Georgia Institute of Technology; Stanford University
Team Members: Joshua Barnett, Tony Chen, Mahdi Al-Husseini; Advisers: Shivan Amin, Rocco Giustino, Marty Jacobson, Thomas J. Leppert V |
yourstory_com_2020_10_power-the-unconventional-approach | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5286
Clickastro
View Brand PublisherThe power of the unconventional approach
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” - Joseph Chilton Pearce
Creativity forms the core of entrepreneurship. The best companies were founded by people who saw a problem that needed to be fixed, a gap to be filled, or a demand to be met. But creative solutions are only as successful as their implementation. The question ‘how can I do this differently?’ is what shifts the focus towards ideas that are not particularly conventional. A greater acceptance to unlearn archaic methods and explore unconventional alternatives is increasing the risk appetite of most young entrepreneurs today. We are now more open to understanding the present and are increasingly driven to visualize the future.
Defining new norms and challenging existing barriers allows us to approach things from a different perspective. Astrology is one such business that functions on age-old concepts. With the advent of the social-media, it got a new medium to extend its appeal, even to those who claim to not believe in it. It is currently enjoying a broad cultural acceptance that hasn’t been seen earlier. The shift first began with the rise of the personal computer. It was then accelerated by the Internet, and has reached new peaks in its popularity thanks to social media. According to a few recent reports, the Astrology market is worth $10 billion in India and has been growing at a steady pace. The online market consists of $3 billion and is growing at a rate of 23 to 27 percent, with about 5 million astrologers practicing astrology on a daily basis[1].
For centuries, drawing an astrological chart required some familiarity with astronomy and geometry. Today, a kundli chart can be generated instantly and for free on the Internet with greater accuracy, given that algorithms eliminate the human errors that invariably creep in while performing complex calculations. Content on Astrology is present on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and in downloadable workshops, classes, and webinars. Such content is also available online in multiple vernacular languages, thus making it even more accessible. A new frontier has opened with mobile apps, which takes us back to the point of approaching things differently and utilizing the best medium possible for turning the venture into success.
Although India is no stranger to astrology, the concepts of Vedic astrology are still unclear. While brands like Clickastro are working hard to bridge that gap with guidance and mathematical accuracy in calculation of planetary positions, it is also highlighting the significance of technology. The brand is revolutionising the business model around Astrology by making it user friendly. Customers can access basic personalised predictions based on Vedic Astrology for free. This allows them to experience content around personalised predictions before purchasing the premium predictions. With this, people are realising that astrology has much more to offer than just a regular prediction column.
One will have a competitive advantage when taking risks in businesses like Astrology, that are based on age-old practices; changing the perspective with results has been Clickastro’s approach to build a more effective and accessible domain.
In this constantly evolving ecosystem, it is natural that some risks may not pay off. But an optimistic risk-taker will always look at failure as an opportunity to learn. Referring to the fact that determination and taking initiative is key to attaining success, Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon once said, “I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this, I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that. I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. And I knew that would haunt me every day.”
[1] |
24seven_news_2025_01_28_deepseek-has-rattled-the-ai-industry-heres-a-quick-look-at-other-chinese-ai- | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4026
HONG KONG (AP) — The Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has rattled markets with claims that its latest AI model, R1, performs on a par with those of OpenAI, despite using less advanced computer chips and consuming less energy.
DeepSeek’s emergence has raised concerns that China may have overtaken the U.S. in the artificial intelligence race despite restrictions on its access to the most advanced chips. It’s just one of many Chinese companies working on AI, with a goal of making China the world leader in the field by 2030 and besting the U.S. in their battle for technological supremacy.
Like the U.S., China is investing billions into artificial intelligence. Last week, it created a 60 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) AI investment fund, days after the U.S. imposed fresh chip export restrictions.
Beijing has also invested heavily in the semiconductor industry to build its capacity to make advanced computer chips, working to overcome limits on its access to those of industry leaders. Companies are offering talent programs and subsidies, and there are plans to open AI academies and introduce AI education into primary and secondary school curriculums.
China has established regulations governing AI, addressing safety, privacy and ethics. Its ruling Communist Party also controls the kinds of topics the AI models can tackle: DeepSeek shapes its responses to fit those limits.
Here’s an overview of some other leading AI models in China.
Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-2.5-1M
Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-2.5-1M is the e-commerce giant’s open-source AI series. It contains large language models that can easily handle extremely long questions, and engage in longer and deeper conversations. Its ability to understand complex tasks such as reasoning, dialogues and comprehending code is improving.
Like its rivals, Alibaba Cloud has a chatbot released for public use called Qwen – also known as Tongyi Qianwen in China. Alibaba Cloud’s suite of AI models, such as the Qwen2.5 series, has mostly been deployed for developers and business customers such as automakers, banks, video game makers and retailers as part of product development and shaping customer experiences.
Baidu’s Ernie Bot 4.0
Ernie Bot, developed by Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, was the first AI chatbot made publicly available in China. Baidu said it released the model publicly to be able to collect massive real-world human feedback to build its capacity.
Ernie Bot 4.0 had more than 300 million users as of June 2024. Similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, users of Ernie Bot are able to ask it questions and have it generate images based on text prompts.
ByteDance’s Doubao 1.5 Pro
Doubao 1.5 Pro is an AI model released by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance last week. Doubao is currently one of the most popular AI chatbots in China, with 60 million monthly active users.
ByteDance says the Doubao 1.5 Pro is better than ChatGPT-4o at retaining knowledge, coding, reasoning, and Chinese language processing. According to ByteDance, the model is also cost-efficient and requires lower hardware costs compared to other large language models because Doubao uses a highly-optimized architecture that balances performance with reduced computational demands.
Moonshot AI’s Kimi k1.5
Moonshot AI is a Beijing-based startup valued at over $3 billion after its latest fundraising round. It says its recently released Kimi k1.5 matches or outperforms the OpenAI o1 model, which is designed to spend more time thinking before it responds and can solve harder and more complex problems. Moonshot claims that Kimi outperforms OpenAI o1 in mathematics, coding, and ability to comprehend both text and visual inputs such as photos and video.
Read the full article here |
www_core77_com_posts_17079_Introducing-OpenIDEO | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4922
IDEO has just launched OpenIDEO, their new platform to solve global challenges through a community of creative thinkers, which, of course, you are invited to join. They've made a nice video explaining how open innovation works, above.
This community will receive a string of design challenges, beginning with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution challenge, posing the question "How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?" The challenge ends October 8th, but as the whole process is collaborative and open from start to finish, better to get involved now by joining here.
And finally, a short video from Jamie Oliver about his challenge:
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beststartup_ca_19-top-advertising-startups-and-companies-in-oakville_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4063
This article showcases our top picks for the best Oakville based Advertising companies. These startups and companies are taking a variety of approaches to innovating the Advertising industry, but are all exceptional companies well worth a follow.
We tried to pick companies across the size spectrum from cutting edge startups to established brands.
We selected these startups and companies for exceptional performance in one of these categories:
- Innovation
- Innovative ideas
- Innovative route to market
- Innovative product
- Growth
- Exceptional growth
- Exceptional growth strategy
- Management
- Societal impact
[adace-ad id=”7108″]
Top Oakville Advertising Startups
Data sourced from Crunchbase and SemRush.
Pelmorex Media
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Pelmorex Media is a company specializing in weather related media, brands, websites, and applications.
Media Resources
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Media Resources is an integrated sign services and manufacturing company.
Entripy
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Entripy is an online portal that offers jackets, sweatshirts, tote bags, t-shirts and advertising items.
Encore Market Engagement
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Encore Market Engagement engages in strategic consultation, field sales marketing, technology and merchandising services.
Mindshape Creative Brand Marketing
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Mindshape is a fully integrated creative brand marketing agency focused on strategic planning, creative design and digital marketing.
Light Year Media
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Lightyear Media is a World Class leader in out-of-home advertising that manages and operates screens in Times Square – New York.
RAVEN5
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
RAVEN5 offers contest marketing services such as contests & sweepstakes, with marketing, branding and promotional tools.
Valiant Creative Agency
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Valiant is a creative agency that specializes in making business better through bolder brand experiences.
RKD Direct Point
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
RKD Direct Point specializes in multichannel fundraising and marketing for health and disease charities, hospitals.
Upgrade My Site
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Upgrade My Site offers the ‘right’ digital marketing strategy and execution at an affordable price
Op Ed Marketing
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Op Ed Marketing, a niche marketing firm specializing in lead acquisition strategies.
Oake Marketing
Crunchbase Website Twitter Facebook Linkedin
Oake Marketing delivers the best creative design & marketing services.
Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design
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Pearl Strategy helps innovative brand and consumer-centric companies thrive by providing a clear strategy and creativity.
HortusTV
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HortusTV is the only premium SVOD service dedicated to gardening. Stream unlimited, no commitment, ad-free.
Ad Save
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Ad Save is a premier, co-operative direct mail company.
Riordon Design
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Riordon Design, a brand and communications firm.
Endo Networks
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Endo programs combine the low cost of online marketing, the targeting capability of direct marketing.
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record_umich_edu_topics_entrepreneurship-innovation_page_19_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5706
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
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November 8, 2013
Innovation on display at MCubed demo day Nov. 15
More than 200 pilot projects born of bold ideas and unlikely collaborations will be on display next Friday at a symposium to mark the first funding anniversary of the MCubed research funding initiative.
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November 4, 2013
U-M aims to offer entrepreneurial education to all undergrads
In an effort to offer formal entrepreneurship education to all U-M undergraduates within the next two years, Provost Martha Pollack has appointed Thomas Zurbuchen, an engineering professor with a proven entrepreneurial track record, as senior counselor for entrepreneurial education.
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October 21, 2013
Celebrate Invention to showcase U-M technologies, startups
Celebrate Invention is the university’s chance to recognize the accomplishment of faculty and researchers engaged in technology transfer. The annual event is 3-6 p.m. Wednesday in the Michigan League Ballroom.
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October 19, 2013
U-M announces plans for facility to test automated vehicles
U-M will build a unique, 30-acre environment for testing connected and automated vehicles. It is a critical element of a joint project to develop a system of connected and automated vehicles in southeastern Michigan by 2021.
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October 15, 2013
‘Open innovation’ battery lab established at U-M with Ford, MEDC
A unique $8 million battery lab at the University of Michigan will enable industry and university researchers to collaborate on developing cheaper and longer lasting energy-storage devices in the heart of the U.S. auto industry.
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October 11, 2013
U-M researchers report record number of inventions for FY ’13
University of Michigan researchers reported 421 inventions in fiscal year 2013, a record that shows the growing engagement of faculty in tech transfer activities.
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conference_pixel-online_net_NPSE_presentation_scheda_php_uid_389_id_edition_18_mat_PRE_wpage_ped | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4542
Flávio de São Pedro Filho
Institution: GEITEC - Research Group on Management of Innovation and Technology / Foundation Federal University of Rondônia
Country: Brazil
Prof. Flávio de São PEDRO FILHO, Doctor is
Professor and Researcher from the Foundation Federal University
of Rondônia / Post-Graduation in Administration – Brazil.
Examiner of Ph.D. Thesis in Economic Science at the Aligarh Muslim University, India.
Member of the European International Business Academy.
Associate Regional Director America (Southern Region:T021) at IIMP®
Member at the International Community on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development.
Reviewer at the American Academy of Management – AOM 2013.
Professor and Researcher from the Foundation Federal University
of Rondônia / Post-Graduation in Administration – Brazil.
Examiner of Ph.D. Thesis in Economic Science at the Aligarh Muslim University, India.
Member of the European International Business Academy.
Associate Regional Director America (Southern Region:T021) at IIMP®
Member at the International Community on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development.
Reviewer at the American Academy of Management – AOM 2013. |
www_babson_edu_about_course-catalog_new-course-search__addCourse_3918610 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5099
OIM9526 #CX #XD Innovation
(Formerly MOB9526 #CX #UX #XD)
1.5 Intensive Elective Credits
This course will complement an existing graduate 1.5-credit elective called Strategies for Innovation and Growth. It is also a good complement to the Managing Technological Innovation course. As their titles suggest, the latter course is overwhelmingly focused on technology based products and hi-tech industries while the former is focused on how can large firms can create and sustain innovation and growth activities. This course will complement two existing graduate 1.5-credit electives (1) Leading Innovation @ Gorillas, Chimps & Monkeys and (2) Innovation Processes.
All countries go through life cycles-agriculture, manufacturing, services and knowledge. The majority of the developed world can be considered today to be primarily in the post-service knowledge based industries. Providing services in addition to goods, which were at one time a differentiator for most businesses are more or less commoditized today. Several trends have emerged over the last 15 years: (1) Move from Services to Experiences; (2) Emergence of new Digital and Networked Economies; (3) Information and Knowledge Intense Economies; (4) the rise of the new post-PC industry, also known as the TIME industry, i.e., the convergence of the Telecom, Information, Media and Entertainment industries and (5) new forms of Designing & Delivering Great Customer Experiences. This course explores the innovations that are driving all these trends as primarily applied to a broad section of service industries-Airlines, Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, Financial, B2B, TIME and even Not-for-Profits.
This course will cover: understanding the customer psychology and perceptions in service interactions; explore concepts, methods and tools to dream, define, design and deliver great customer experiences; innovative strategies to use customer experience as a differentiator; and how the convergence of digital technologies - data, voice & video - is helping firms to engage customers in new and innovative ways.
This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall/Spring/Summer
- Program: Graduate
- Division: Operations and Information Management
- Level: Graduate Elective (Grad)
- Course Number: OIM9526
- Number of Credits: 1.5
ANT4600 Accessing Health? Design, Inequality and the Politics of Place
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits
Health outcomes vary widely across the globe: there is a gap of more than 30 years in the life expectancies of the longest-lived and shortest-lived countries. Yet decades' and in some cases centuries' worth of projects to improve health outcomes have faltered. Why, amidst a plethora of potential solutions, do poor health and health inequality persist?
This course investigates the relationship between human health, the places where we live, and the management of health through design and planning. Illness is both a justification for the exercise of power and a consequence of the inequalities that power leaves in its wake. This creates an apparent paradox where expert technologies of biomedicine and planning seem to offer the promise of better lives but also re-inscribe illness in already unhealthy populations. We will examine the fragmented conceptions of the body, community, health, and place that both make these efforts possible and make them unlikely to succeed in achieving health equality.
The course explores the interaction between public health and planning norms and the everyday lives of people on the margin of these projects. We will pay particular attention to questions regarding how race, gender, and disability shape both health and experiences of place in the global South and North. After an overview of the humanistic social sciences' approaches to the relationship between health and place in weeks 1-2, the readings in the first half of the course are organized around top-down projects to create healthier populations and the everyday strategies of resistance that people who find themselves caught up in these projects employ. The readings in the second half of the course explore people's bottom-up efforts to forge a different relationship between place and health, with particular attention to the politics of design.
In this course, students will complete a two-part research project that explores how differently situated social groups seek to change places and their people in pursuit of health. In part one, you will draw on theories explored in this course to examine a "top-down" approach to the production of health. For instance, you might look at a particular city's urban planning policies, the work of a transnational NGO, the management of a forest, or an anti-Zika campaign. In part two, you will explore a "bottom-up" approach to health by documenting people's every day and grassroots practices for keeping or making themselves healthy. This could include but is not limited to guerrilla urbanism, disability activism, techniques of visibility/invisibility as everyday resistance, Black place-making, or food justice. You are not required to locate both parts of the project in the same place, nor are you required to organize both parts of the project around the same health problem. This project is an opportunity for you to explore a topic in which you are genuinely interested-so please let me know if you are feeling like you need some encouragement to choose the "riskier" option.
Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 intermediate liberal arts (HSS, CSP, LTA)
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: History and Society
- Level: Advanced Liberal Arts 4600 Requirement (UGrad),Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
- Course Number: ANT4600
- Number of Credits: 4
ACC3536 Accounting Analytics
4 Advanced Management CreditsStudents who have taken ACC3545 cannot take this course and vice versa
Data and analytics are being used to assist businesses in becoming more efficient and effective in their decision-making process. This course will improve your ability to critically analyze data in order to make better business decisions and to communicate this information effectively to your audience. Students will learn how to use analytics tools from the lens of a manager, a financial statement user, a tax analyst, an auditor, and a forensic accountant. The course will introduce you to various analytics software products, and provide an opportunity to interact with professionals in the field.
Prerequisites: Junior or Senior Class standing
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: Accounting and Law
- Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Management (UGrad)
- Course Number: ACC3546
- Number of Credits: 4
PRF1200: Acting Workshop
2 free elective credits
This course will introduce the methods and tools required for stage performance. Through various exercises, games, improvisation, and assignments you will create characters, gain an understanding of theatre terminology, and attempt to find not only meaning but also the performance potential of dramatic literature. Most importantly, you will develop the confidence to approach the craft of acting with the discipline and rigor required for compelling performance.
The art of acting not only requires you to call upon knowledge in history, languages, and literature but also to understand your capabilities physically and vocally. The lessons you will learn this semester in active listening, characterization, vocal capabilities (resonance, range, enunciation, and delivery), collaboration, and bodily awareness are some that you can use in any career and in any field.
Prerequisites: none
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: Arts and Humanities
- Level: Free Elective (UGrad)
- Course Number: PRF1200
- Number of Credits: 2
ACC4530 Advanced Accounting
4 General CreditsThis course extends the in-depth study of accounting concepts and techniques which began in Intermediate Accounting I and II. Topics include business combinations and consolidation of financial statements, accounting for variable interest entities, translation and remeasurement of foreign currency-denominated financial statements and consolidation of foreign subsidiaries, governmental and not-for-profit accounting and accounting for partnerships.
Prerequisites: ACC3500 & ACC3501 as a pre-requisite
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: Accounting and Law
- Level: Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Management (UGrad)
- Course Number: ACC4530
- Number of Credits: 4
OIM7502 Advanced Programming for Business Analytics
3 Elective Credits
Python is a general-purpose programming language that has rapidly become one of the most popular languages for data science. Python allows users to quickly and efficiently collect, clean, analyze, visualize and narrate using any kind of data (structured, semi-structured or un-structured); irrespective of how messy the data might be. In this course, students will advance their python skills for data science. Students use a variety of data to learn powerful ways to conduct data analytics and learn helpful data science tools along the way. This will equip students to conduct their own analyses towards the end of the course.
Prerequisites: OIM 6301
- Program: Graduate
- Division: Operations and Information Management
- Level: MSBA Elective (Grad),Graduate Elective (Grad)
- Course Number: OIM7502
- Number of Credits: 3
CSP2002 African American History and Foodways (HIS)
(Formerly CVA2002)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThe course covers the major periods, movements, and events that have shaped African American history and foodways. These include: the African slave trade; antebellum period; the civil war and reconstruction; World War I and the great migration; Harlem Renaissance and Garveyism; Great Depression; Spanish Civil War and World War II; Civil Rights and Black Power movements; industrialization, the growth of the prison industrial complex, and the _war on drugs_. The course will also include content on African American foodways from the African slave trade to the Black Power movement. Classes discuss the assigned reading with lively student participation. Out-of-class work includes readings, online exams, attending lectures, artistic presentations, and films, as well as independent research.
Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: History and Society
- Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
- Course Number: CSP2002
- Number of Credits: 4
POL4601 Africa Rising?
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis interdisciplinary course on contemporary Africa examines political, economic and social developments in the context of the now common mantra "Africa Rising." It takes a historical look at Africa's relations with global development actors and how these have impacted individual states and the entire continent. It includes a comparative analysis of Africa's partnership(s) with the different regions of the world (broadly categorized into East and West, Global South and Global North) and time spans (broadly grouped into colonial and post-colonial). It also examines processes, actors, events and partnerships within independent Africa and how they have contributed to the present state of the continent, which observers have described as rising. The course interrogates this observation. How truly is "Africa rising"? What is the cost of the rise? What does it mean for individuals, states and the entire continent? Why/how does it matter? The course focuses on these (and other important) questions, considering examples from various sectors, events, countries, bilateral and multilateral arrangements with African states and in relation to the rest of the world. It uses a variety of materials including texts, news and journal articles, as well as electronic and internet-based resources.
Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: History and Society
- Level: Advanced Liberal Arts 4600 Requirement (UGrad),Advanced Elective (UGrad),Advanced Liberal Arts (UGrad)
- Course Number: POL4601
- Number of Credits: 4
LTA2010 African American Literature
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course will introduce students to the African American literary tradition starting with the slave narrative and concluding with contemporary literary production. Along the way, we will consider the move from oral to written literatures, the aesthetic forms created and adapted by African American writers, and the role of African American letters in chronicling and shaping the experience of African American people. Our study will be informed by major historical moments -slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration from south to north, the Civil Rights and post-Civil rights eras-and we will read work by writers such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Nella Larsen, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison.
Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: Arts and Humanities
- Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
- Course Number: LTA2010
- Number of Credits: 4
HSS2032 African American History and Foodways
4 Intermediate Liberal ArtsAfrican History and Foodways will cover the major subjects, movements, and events that have shaped Africa since the 1400s. These include African crops and animals, African political institutions and wars, gender, the spread of Islam, slavery, European colonization, and African independence movements. One learns how to publish a blog and create podcast episodes with show notes. Deliverables, regular contributions to class discussions, public speaking, research, and group work are essential course components. Cooking is a part of live classes.
Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)
- Program: Undergraduate
- Division: History and Society
- Level: Intermediate Liberal Arts (UGrad)
- Course Number: HSS2032
- Number of Credits: 4 |
www_civstart_org_team_joel-carnes | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4047
top of page
Joel Carnes
Former CEO
Alliance for Innovation
Joel has held executive leadership positions with some of the most innovative organizations in the world, including XPRIZE, SecondMuse, Activision, and Disney Imagineering. He has spent his career driving innovation at every level — from developing products, to managing teams, leading organizations, and ultimately impacting entire systems.
He is the former CEO of Alliance for Innovation (AFI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming local government strategy, operations, culture, and ecosystems.
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ucanr_edu_sites_anrstaff_Trial_opening_page__blogpost_28554_blogasset_102236 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4562
Tenth Americas Competitiveness Exchange tours N. California technology centers
Vice President Glenda Humiston hosted 50 high-level representatives from 24 countries as part of the Tenth Americas Competitiveness Exchange (ACE 10) on Innovation and Entrepreneurship tour of Northern California Oct. 21-27.
Over the course of a week, ACE 10 participants visited innovation clusters in San Francisco, Salinas, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Fresno, Davis and Sacramento.
UC Cooperative Extension advisors David Haviland and Jhalendra Rijal and Sebastian Silva of ag tech company Semios talked to the international delegates about almond research and how UCCE works with growers and companies.
Later, an entrepreneur told AVP Wendy Powers that he was beginning to think about how to develop a university-based Extension system in Grenada, how to convince his government to redirect funds from federal agencies to the university.
Tour co-sponsor Valley Vision's Tammy Cronin described activities during the ACE 10 visit to Sacramento in a blog post.
The ACE program is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration and Economic Development Administration in coordination with the U.S. Department of State and the Organization of American States. It brings together decision-makers from around the world to explore global and regional partnerships, and economic development opportunities to establish new global commercial relationships.
“ACE has been instrumental in showcasing the incredible innovation capacity of U.S. regions and has proven critical in establishing global commercial relationships that can support U.S. business objectives,” said Dennis Alvord, EDA deputy assistant secretary for regional affairs. “Northern California is a world-renowned center of innovation and entrepreneurship activity and we look forward to showcasing the incredible work that the Department of Commerce and regional leaders are doing to advance the innovation economy.”
EDA and OAS posted daily updates about the tour on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #ACXchange. |
hhqli_top | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4502
In a world dominated by technology, maintaining creativity can feel challenging. However, with the right tools and mindset, the digital age offers endless opportunities to spark innovation.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
Leverage apps and online platforms to streamline your workflow. Tools for brainstorming, project management, and content creation can help organize your ideas and turn them into reality.
Break Free from Routine
Routine can stifle creativity. Break free by exploring new hobbies, traveling, or simply taking a walk in nature. Sometimes, stepping away from screens can lead to your most brilliant ideas.
Collaborate and Connect
Collaboration fuels creativity. Join online communities, attend webinars, and connect with like-minded individuals to exchange ideas and gain fresh perspectives.
Stay Inspired
Inspiration can come from unexpected places. Explore blogs, videos, and forums to discover unique content and stay inspired. Here are some resources to explore:
- Night Visioner
- Baddie Hubs
- The Whispers Blog
- Mag Corner
- Discovers Mag
- Epic Insiders
- Sumo Searches
- Polka Threads
- Picukis
- Baddie Hubs US
- Picuki UK
- The TG Tube
- The Tube Safari
- The Flix HQ
- Big Tribune
- Nation Zine
- The Vyvy Manga
- SlidesGo
- ATF Booru
- Before It's News
- Connections NYT
- Boddle
- Double Lists
- The Flix HQ Net
- Tube Safari UK
- UrleBirds
- The AniWaves
- Net Naija UK
- iGram UK
- Polka Feed
- OK Magazine |
www_m2i_nl_home-2_m2i-figuren-rgb-grijs-12_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4325
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neilredding_com_speaking | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4491
Speaking
Speaking
Realize a thriving, abundant future for your business and for humanity.
Realize a thriving, abundant future for your business and for humanity.
Topics
Topics
Topics
AI as a Catalyst: From Machines to Ecosystems
In today’s complex, interconnected, and volatile world, the 20th-century model of business as a “well-oiled machine” is a dead end. The future is arriving at an unprecedented pace, and most businesses are failing to adapt. The next wave of AI will fundamentally change what business is, with agents enabling companies to evolve as dynamic ecosystems — adapting in real time, unlocking sustainable growth, and driving unprecedented productivity. As we enter the Agentic Era, we’ll explore how AI and emerging technologies enable businesses to become living, responsive systems—integrated with their environments and even collaborating across species. Business leaders will leave with practical strategies to navigate and thrive in this rapidly shifting landscape.
Key Outcomes:
Near Futurist model for thriving amid rapid change
Strategic clarity for leveraging the next era of AI
A blueprint for sustainable, symbiotic business growth
AI as a Catalyst: From Machines to Ecosystems
In today’s complex, interconnected, and volatile world, the 20th-century model of business as a “well-oiled machine” is a dead end. The future is arriving at an unprecedented pace, and most businesses are failing to adapt. The next wave of AI will fundamentally change what business is, with agents enabling companies to evolve as dynamic ecosystems — adapting in real time, unlocking sustainable growth, and driving unprecedented productivity. As we enter the Agentic Era, we’ll explore how AI and emerging technologies enable businesses to become living, responsive systems—integrated with their environments and even collaborating across species. Business leaders will leave with practical strategies to navigate and thrive in this rapidly shifting landscape.
Key Outcomes:
Near Futurist model for thriving amid rapid change
Strategic clarity for leveraging the next era of AI
A blueprint for sustainable, symbiotic business growth
AI as a Catalyst: From Machines to Ecosystems
In today’s complex, interconnected, and volatile world, the 20th-century model of business as a “well-oiled machine” is a dead end. The future is arriving at an unprecedented pace, and most businesses are failing to adapt. The next wave of AI will fundamentally change what business is, with agents enabling companies to evolve as dynamic ecosystems — adapting in real time, unlocking sustainable growth, and driving unprecedented productivity. As we enter the Agentic Era, we’ll explore how AI and emerging technologies enable businesses to become living, responsive systems—integrated with their environments and even collaborating across species. Business leaders will leave with practical strategies to navigate and thrive in this rapidly shifting landscape.
Key Outcomes:
Near Futurist model for thriving amid rapid change
Strategic clarity for leveraging the next era of AI
A blueprint for sustainable, symbiotic business growth
Orchestrating Reality: AI, Spatial Computing and the Near Future of Creativity
The future is arriving so fast that traditional foresight and creative practices can't keep up. AI and spatial computing are building a tsunami of change that will profoundly impact every brand. How will yours ride this 100-foot wave? This convergence lets us conjure dreams into reality, and unlocks a new creative mode: the orchestration of evolving brand realities with both technology and consumers as participants. In this transformative talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding reveals the mindset and tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now.
Key Outcomes:
Reality is a co-created ecosystem — Learn how to actively shape the near future
AI and spatial computing fuel participatory creativity — Harness these technologies to drive adaptive brand experiences and continuous innovation
From control to orchestration – Shift from managing outputs to dynamically co-creating with AI
Orchestrating Reality: AI, Spatial Computing and the Near Future of Creativity
The future is arriving so fast that traditional foresight and creative practices can't keep up. AI and spatial computing are building a tsunami of change that will profoundly impact every brand. How will yours ride this 100-foot wave? This convergence lets us conjure dreams into reality, and unlocks a new creative mode: the orchestration of evolving brand realities with both technology and consumers as participants. In this transformative talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding reveals the mindset and tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now.
Key Outcomes:
Reality is a co-created ecosystem — Learn how to actively shape the near future
AI and spatial computing fuel participatory creativity — Harness these technologies to drive adaptive brand experiences and continuous innovation
From control to orchestration – Shift from managing outputs to dynamically co-creating with AI
Orchestrating Reality: AI, Spatial Computing and the Near Future of Creativity
The future is arriving so fast that traditional foresight and creative practices can't keep up. AI and spatial computing are building a tsunami of change that will profoundly impact every brand. How will yours ride this 100-foot wave? This convergence lets us conjure dreams into reality, and unlocks a new creative mode: the orchestration of evolving brand realities with both technology and consumers as participants. In this transformative talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding reveals the mindset and tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now.
Key Outcomes:
Reality is a co-created ecosystem — Learn how to actively shape the near future
AI and spatial computing fuel participatory creativity — Harness these technologies to drive adaptive brand experiences and continuous innovation
From control to orchestration – Shift from managing outputs to dynamically co-creating with AI
Co-Creating the Near Future with AI & Spatial Computing
The convergence of AI and spatial computing enables us to conjure what we dream into our shared reality — and into our evolving business models. In this talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding showcases new tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now. Drawing on wide-ranging inspiration including quantum mechanics theories, neuroscience, spiritual traditions, psychedelic insights, lucid dreaming and even entrepreneurial creation-from-nothing, we will experience the thin veil separating what is from what we dream. Welcome to the Near Future.
Key Outcomes:
Business models are no longer bound by past constraints – Gain strategic clarity on how AI enables previously impossible ways of working, creating, and operating
AI and spatial computing are reshaping reality – Understand how these technologies enable new modes of work and co-creation
Near Futurism bridges possibility with practical impact – Leaders will learn a new model for leveraging continuously-emerging opportunities to drive immediate business value
Co-Creating the Near Future with AI & Spatial Computing
The convergence of AI and spatial computing enables us to conjure what we dream into our shared reality — and into our evolving business models. In this talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding showcases new tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now. Drawing on wide-ranging inspiration including quantum mechanics theories, neuroscience, spiritual traditions, psychedelic insights, lucid dreaming and even entrepreneurial creation-from-nothing, we will experience the thin veil separating what is from what we dream. Welcome to the Near Future.
Key Outcomes:
Business models are no longer bound by past constraints – Gain strategic clarity on how AI enables previously impossible ways of working, creating, and operating
AI and spatial computing are reshaping reality – Understand how these technologies enable new modes of work and co-creation
Near Futurism bridges possibility with practical impact – Leaders will learn a new model for leveraging continuously-emerging opportunities to drive immediate business value
Co-Creating the Near Future with AI & Spatial Computing
The convergence of AI and spatial computing enables us to conjure what we dream into our shared reality — and into our evolving business models. In this talk, Near Futurist Neil Redding showcases new tools for practical co-creation of the future, starting with the near and even the now. Drawing on wide-ranging inspiration including quantum mechanics theories, neuroscience, spiritual traditions, psychedelic insights, lucid dreaming and even entrepreneurial creation-from-nothing, we will experience the thin veil separating what is from what we dream. Welcome to the Near Future.
Key Outcomes:
Business models are no longer bound by past constraints – Gain strategic clarity on how AI enables previously impossible ways of working, creating, and operating
AI and spatial computing are reshaping reality – Understand how these technologies enable new modes of work and co-creation
Near Futurism bridges possibility with practical impact – Leaders will learn a new model for leveraging continuously-emerging opportunities to drive immediate business value
"Neil brought a technological depth while also challenging the way we understand our reality."
"Neil brought a technological depth while also challenging the way we understand our reality."
cristiane camargo
cristiane camargo
CEO, IAB Brazil
CEO, IAB Brazil
"We sponsored Neil’s opening keynote…triggered tons of positive feedback, great to partner with."
"We sponsored Neil’s opening keynote…triggered tons of positive feedback, great to partner with."
laura chiavone
laura chiavone
Head of Agency, Meta
Head of Agency, Meta
Recent events
Recent events
Recent events
Festival do Clube de Criação
Neil gave the closing keynote at Brazil's largest creativity conference in São Paulo, October 12, 2024.
SXSW 2024
Co-Creating the Near Future with Spatial Computing & AI
SXSW 2023
The Ecosystem Paradigm: Thriving-Future Tools
Festival do Clube de Criação
Neil gave the closing keynote at Brazil's largest creativity conference in São Paulo, October 12, 2024.
SXSW 2024
Co-Creating the Near Future with Spatial Computing & AI
SXSW 2023
The Ecosystem Paradigm: Thriving-Future Tools
Festival do Clube de Criação
Neil gave the closing keynote at Brazil's largest creativity conference in São Paulo, October 12, 2024.
SXSW 2024
Co-Creating the Near Future with Spatial Computing & AI
SXSW 2023
The Ecosystem Paradigm: Thriving-Future Tools |
wordpress_cdsec_co_uk_tag_reducing-human-error_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4558
Tag: Reducing Human Error
-
Technological Innovation: Minimising Human Intervention to Reduce Risk of Errors
Embracing technological innovation to minimize human intervention and errors
Embracing technological innovation to minimize human intervention and errors |
innovationvillage_africa_tag_design_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5274
We create environments where innovation can flourish by equipping communities of practice, extracting insights through deep analytics, and activating interdisciplinary think tanks.
Our goal is to build ecosystems that support the full lifecycle of innovation.
Our venture studios provide the structure and resources needed to develop innovative ideas into market-ready products. Through a collaborative process, we support our partners to refine their concepts, build prototypes, and scale their products.
Our Catalytic Capital Funds provide the financial backing needed to scale impactful innovations. By offering milestone-based funding, we ensure that ventures have the resources they need to grow sustainably.
An ecosystem of innovation spaces dedicated to fostering social impact and community development. We empower innovators and changemakers by providing resources, mentorship, and collaborative spaces to create sustainable solutions for pressing social challenges.
MOTIV
A vibrant creative hub that nurtures and scales the potential of Africa’s most promising creators and innovators. With state-of-the-art facilities, expert mentorship, and a collaborative community, MoTIV empowers creatives to transform their ideas into impactful solutions
Future Lab
At the forefront of transforming groundbreaking ideas into successful ventures. Through a structured innovation process, we support entrepreneurs, innovators and industry leaders from concept to market-ready solutions.
97 Capital
Our venture studios provide the structure and resources needed to develop innovative ideas into market-ready products.
From the start, we’ve focused on making an impact through innovation and collaboration, growing into an organization that supports ventures and communities. |
www_arffinancial_com_leveraging-technology-for-business-growth-in-2025_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4150
Leveraging Technology for Business Growth in 2025
The rapid pace of technological development shows no signs of slowing down. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, staying ahead of tech trends is not just a strategy—it’s a necessity. By leveraging emerging technologies strategically, businesses can unlock growth, streamline operations, and gain a competitive edge in today’s dynamic market.
This guide offers actionable insights into how small businesses can harness the most promising technologies in 2025 to drive success, from enhancing customer experiences to ensuring better operational efficiency.
The Current Tech Landscape in 2025
Technology has transformed virtually every industry, presenting new opportunities and challenges. Here are some key trends to watch:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
AI and ML have matured to become vital tools for businesses. They enable:
- Predictive Insights: AI helps businesses predict customer behaviors, market trends, and demand patterns.
- Custom Solutions: From chatbots to automated workflows, AI can deliver hyper-personalized service and automate repetitive tasks.
Example in small business use case:
- A clothing boutique uses AI tools to predict seasonal trends, ensuring inventory matches buyer demands.
2. Automation and Robotics
Automation is growing beyond factory floors. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools simplify:
- Administrative Tasks like payroll or invoice generation.
- Order Fulfillment for e-commerce businesses to reduce human error and improve speed.
3. Cloud Computing and Edge Computing
Scalability continues to be powered by the cloud infrastructure. However, edge computing allows businesses to process data locally to boost:
- Speed for real-time decision-making.
- Reduction in Latency for applications like IoT monitoring in factories.
4. Internet of Things (IoT)
The IoT connects devices to create smarter workflows. Imagine a coffee shop automatically managing inventory through IoT-connected systems. This eliminates manual tracking while ensuring consistent supply.
5. Blockchain Technology
Blockchain remains vital beyond cryptocurrency. Small businesses can adopt it for:
- Supply Chain Transparency.
- Secure Transactions.
Takeaway for 2025? These technologies are more accessible than ever, making it an ideal time to start incorporating them into your business model.
Enhancing Customer Experience Using Technology
Happy customers drive loyalty and revenue. Here’s how to use tech to elevate your customer experience in 2025:
AI-Driven Personalization
Leverage AI to analyze customer data and offer tailored product recommendations. Tools like dynamic pricing systems can further ensure customers feel they’re getting the best deals.
24/7 Support with Chatbots
Chatbots powered by conversational AI handle frequent queries, freeing up time for human operators to manage complex situations.
Immersive Customer Engagement
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are game changers, especially for retail:
- AR/VR Examples:
- A furniture store allowing customers to visualize products in their homes before buying.
Omnichannel Solutions
Ensure your presence across platforms—email, social media, in-store—seamlessly integrates to provide consistent experiences.
Optimizing Operations for Efficiency
Technology not only serves customers but also enhances operations internally:
Automating Workflows
From inventory management to HR functions, tools like Slack or Trello automate repetitive tasks.
Collaborative Platforms
With remote work here to stay, solutions like Microsoft Teams or Notion help manage hybrid teams efficiently.
Predictive Analytics
AI-driven business insights help predict upcoming challenges or market shifts so that your business stays agile.
Digital Twins
“Digital twins” replicate business operations digitally, allowing companies to test changes virtually without disrupting workflows.
Supercharging Marketing Strategy with Technology
Modern marketing is tech-driven. Here’s how small businesses can leverage digital tools to scale their outreach:
AI-Driven Ad Campaigns
Ad platforms like Google Ads now use machine learning to optimize targeting, ensuring your ads reach the right audience.
Social Media Listening
Use engagement tools like Hootsuite to track customer conversations and adapt marketing strategies appropriately.
Email and CRM Automation
Platforms like HubSpot automate marketing emails, segment databases, and track customer relationships efficiently.
Influencer Marketing Platforms
By identifying and managing collaborations with micro-influencers, small brands can reach niche audiences affordably.
Securing Your Business in a Hyperconnected Era
As businesses adopt more technology, cybersecurity becomes critical.
AI-Driven Threat Detection
Cybersecurity tools use AI to identify and neutralize threats before they escalate.
Employee Cyber Hygiene
Training employees on common risks like phishing emails is vital to secure sensitive company and customer data.
Data Privacy Regulations
Stay updated on regional rules like GDPR to ensure customer data is handled safely, avoiding penalties.
Scaling Your Business Strategically in 2025
Scaling demands not just growth but also flexibility. Here are ways that technology supports scalable models:
Cloud-Based Infrastructure
Cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud allow you to expand seamlessly.
E-Commerce Platforms
Adopt platforms like Shopify for global reach with little upfront infrastructure investment.
API Integrations
APIs allow businesses to connect third-party services effortlessly, creating ecosystems that enhance the value and utility of the core business.
Data-Driven Growth
Leverage insights from analytics tools to identify and pursue promising market segments.
Exploring Emerging Technologies in 2025
Businesses that don’t innovate risk falling behind. Here are some of the emerging technologies worth exploring:
Quantum Computing
This could open unprecedented possibilities, such as solving complex logistical problems, once widely accessible.
The Metaverse
Virtual spaces redefine customer interaction and collaboration. For instance, some startups have already opened virtual stores or hosted online interactive events through VR.
5G
Ultra-fast connectivity enables seamless IoT operations for businesses in logistics, retail, and beyond.
Sustainable Technology
Tech solutions that reduce carbon footprints or optimize resources are crucial for businesses prioritizing sustainability.
Challenges and Considerations
Adopting new technology comes with challenges, so tread carefully:
- Budget Constraints:
Invest in cost-effective solutions that prioritize ROI.
- Employee Adaptation:
Train teams effectively to ensure smooth tech implementation.
- Ethics:
Be wary of data misuse when leveraging AI to retain customer trust.
Keep Your Business Future-Ready
Leveraging technology in 2025 is about being informed, adaptable, and willing to invest for long-term results. Small businesses can grow exponentially by aligning with the right technologies, streamlining processes, and putting customers first.
If you’re looking for financial solutions to upgrade your tech stack, explore ARF Financial’s Interest-Only Revolving Line of Credit. With flexible funding options, you gain the resources needed to drive growth through innovation.
Don’t wait, start integrating cutting-edge tech today for a next-level tomorrow.
Your privacy is important to us. ARF Financial will never sell or rent your information to any third party. Click here for more information about our privacy policy. Image by freepik |
www_dell_com_en-ie_blog_tags_social-impact_page_9_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4733
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www_kcc_go_kr_user_do_jsessionid_KXMwg6prjJjfqowTtTdnIwp7rZqVXNJWHZJ3VlFI_servlet-aihgcldhome20_mode | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5215
| Title | Helping small and medium-sized enterprises produce broadcasting advertisements | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 2023-06-08 | Read | 7851 |
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The Korea Communications Commission (KCC, acting chairman Kim Hyo-jae) announced the upcoming second public contest of a project to support the production cost of broadcasting advertisements for innovative SMEs in 2023 with the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO). Here innovative SMEs refer to ventures, InnoBizs (technical innovation), MainBizs (management innovation), GreenBizs (excellent green management), Green Biz, Certified Green Enterprises in Korea, Global IP Star Enterprises, Certified IP Management Enterprises, Social Enterprises, Preliminary Social Enterprises, enterprises supported by Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT Center), Regional Innovation Leading Enterprises, Green New Deal Promising Enterprises, Baby Unicorn Companies, Designated Innovative Product Companies, and enterprises supported by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency. Since 2015, the KCC has been supporting the production of broadcasting advertisements for small and medium-sized companies that possess excellent technology but are suffering from low awareness and limited marketing capabilities. This year, a total of 1.44 billion won will be allocated to 47 companies, covering 31 TV advertisements and 16 radio advertisements. The first public contest was held in February, and a total of 29 companies, including 19 TV advertisements and 10 radio advertisements, are currently producing broadcasting advertisements. In the second public contest, 18 companies will be chosen, including 12 TV advertisements and 6 radio advertisements. Small and medium-sized companies selected after screening will receive up to 45 million won for TV advertisements within 50% of production costs and up to 3 million won for radio advertisements within 70% of production costs. In addition, the companies can receive one-on-one customized consultation on the overall production and transmission of broadcasting advertisements free of charge from advertising experts. If a selected company wants to continue to broadcast the advertisement in the future, it will be eligible to apply for a discount of up to 70% on broadcasting advertisement transmission costs implemented by the KOBACO and broadcasters such as KBS and MBC. The application period is from Wednesday, June 7 to 16:00, Tuesday, June 20, and applicants can apply on the website of the KOBACO (http://www.kobaco.co.kr/smad). The result of the selection will be announced in July after the screening. ※ Detailed information, such as application forms and other necessary documents, can be found on the website mentioned, and the schedule for selection is subject to change based on the volume of applications. |
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20230607_News_Release_Helping small and medium-sized enterprises produce broadcasting advertisements.docx (보도자료) 혁신형 중소기업 방송광고 제작 돕는다(6.7).hwpx |
| Prew | KCC discusses user protection issues in generative AI-based chatbot services | 2023-05-15 | |
| Next | KCC discussed user protection policies with Meta’s vice president of global public policy | 2023-06-12 | |
avesis_inonu_edu_tr_yayin_e5b4e5ff-f54d-4aa6-a9b5-868b63ca4222_ekonomik-istihbaratin-uluslararasi-ek | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4144
Copy For Citation
İNAN Ş.
Journal of Strategic Research in Social Science(JoSReSS), vol.4, no.1, pp.41-56, 2018 (Peer-Reviewed Journal) |
www_paypercontent_net_projects_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4534
what we did?
we take great pride in our work.
innovative work
we are an innovation focused digital production agency capable of adapting to continuous change
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Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Mauris in erat justo. |
www_cerved_com_en_mbs-consulting_about-us | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5172
We are the leading Italian group in Solution Consulting, specializing in supporting large companies and public organizations in their transformation and sustainable growth processes.
Founded in 1987, MBS has focused on delivering strategic consulting that helps businesses enhance their performance, guiding them from solution design to successful implementation through tailored change management processes.
Over the years, the company has continued to grow, expanding its expertise, client base, and resources, establishing itself as a key partner for businesses seeking to overcome complex challenges and undergo profound transformations A turning point in this evolution came in 2013 with the creation of Innovation Team: a center of excellence focused on research, innovation, and competitive monitoring.
Internationalization represented another crucial milestone for MBS. By joining The Transformation Alliance, the company expanded its capabilities, integrating innovative approaches and methodologies shared across Europe.
In 2019, MBS took its value proposition to the next level by becoming part of the Cerved Group. This partnership enriched its advisory model with a stronger focus on data-driven strategies and cutting-edge solutions.
In 2021, the acquisition of REF-E, a leading advisory firm in the energy and utilities sector, positioned MBS as a trusted partner for companies navigating the energy transition.
We guide businesses in their sustainable development, with exceptional people driven by values and expertise, and solutions powered by data and technology.
Through an integrated approach that blends business consulting, advanced analytics, and digital innovation, we support organizations in achieving their strategic and operational objectives.
Our capabilities span strategic consulting, change management, and research, enabling us to provide advanced, end-to-end solutions that are actionable, impactful, and results-driven.
What sets us apart is our practical approach, working closely with companies at every stage of their transformation journey.
From the outset, we have championed a multi-stakeholder model, embedding sustainability as a core element of business objectives. This allows us to create long-term value for all stakeholders while promoting responsible and sustainable business practices.
Our team of experienced professionals is the cornerstone of our success. Their diverse expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives represent a unique asset, adding value to both our organization and our clients.
Those who join our team adopt the values that guide us and bring them to life every day. |
globalmindsnetwork_com_ready-to-lead-innovation-around-the-world_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5497
How can innovation leaders inspire international teams to collaborate and innovate for global and local impact? A rapidly changing innovation landscape that is multicultural and digitally connected requires new competencies for leading strategic initiatives.
On June 29th, founder and Executive Director Karina R. Jensen and Global Innovation and Marketing Leader Bryan Semkuley delivered an insightful webinar on the challenges of leading and facilitating a collaborative innovation process across geographies. A lack of attention to cultural considerations can negatively impact every phase of the innovation process, from concept to market.
The importance of market insights backed by cultural intelligence, concept creation that factors international needs, co creating strategic plans with local team engagement and execution backed by market readiness are required for successful global innovations. Building collaboration for international projects requires trust building and open communication. Innovation leaders need cultural intelligence when engaging with local teams to ensure an inclusive design process. Leaders need to create an open and safe environment to encourage idea sharing and initiative-taking. Responsiveness to idea sharing can either be through constructive feedback or setting up cross cultural teams to facilitate knowledge sharing. Towards this, digital platforms can be leveraged to create community ecosystems for knowledge sharing.
Brian Semkuley pointed out that building an innovation culture will require innovation leaders to demonstrate cultural empathy. Leaders need to be supportive of idea sharing and demonstrate responsiveness to market needs by ensuring local input is being used in the innovation process. Innovation leaders should consider the complete network and innovation strategy at the front end of the gatekeeping process. Moving from a sequential to concurrent model, receiving inputs on execution early in the design process, testing the product in a lead market will all contribute to understanding prior to global launch. Importance of regular and frequent communication to all stakeholders was also emphasized.
Participants were taken through the Global Innovation Readiness framework developed for leaders responsible for global initiatives and based on a decade of research across industries. The framework consists of three key drivers that facilitate collaboration throughout every phase of the innovation cycle: Vision through inclusive leadership and strategic co-creation; Dialogue through open knowledge-sharing and cross-cultural learning, and Space powered by an innovation culture and creative team climate.
Webinar participants were asked to reflect on three questions concerning global launch readiness in preparation for taking the Score Card challenge where everyone could make an individual assessment if they were ready to launch.
- Do you have a Global vision or plan that is shared by teams worldwide?
- Are teams and regions aligned across functions and cultures?
- Are teams ready to communicate and execute in every geographical location?
The new Global Innovation Readiness Compass tool was shared with all of the participants to address challenges and opportunities in designing an effective innovation process. With their Global Readiness scores in hand, participants could optimize the canvas map tool for planning and preparing upcoming initiatives. An inclusive and structured process helps identify actionable steps for driving innovation performance and results.
It was an insightful webinar where participants were given invaluable tools and tips to prepare for successful global initiatives. A full recording of the webinar is available here https://youtu.be/x3JYUeLBN40 If you would like to test your fitness level for leading innovation around the world, check out the Global Readiness Score Card and Compass Map tools here: https://globalmindsnetwork.com/global-readiness/
Author: Swati Subramaniam, Global Communications Intern |
www_clam34_com_canine-or-technology-2_html | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4641
On this write up, the readers will get info on future technology and learn to what extent fashionable technology has been developed to assist the growth of human civilization. Science and technology problem mental property methods, significantly patent legal guidelines. Trying back in time, we understand how much our lives have modified as a result of fruits of technology. Infrastructure in the society has grown with the assistance of science and technology.
Our linked subjects are (1) the historical course of by which the that means of technology has been constructed, and (2) the concurrent transformation of the setting. three. Anthropology The physique of knowledge obtainable to a society that’s of use in fashioning implements, practising guide arts and abilities, and extracting or gathering materials.
Whereas technology is a prepare that may regularly transfer ahead, knowledge relating to its detrimental effects, and action taken toward balancing using technology with exercise and family time, will work towards sustaining our kids, in addition to saving our world.
Astronomy is a topic in science. There are a lot of forms of data technology like computers, sensors, robots and determination assist programs. Not solely did it spawn new industries and merchandise, but it spawned other revolutionary technologies – transistor technology, integrated circuit technology, microprocessor technology.
Over the past few many years, technology has grown at an exponential price offering trendy society with many of it is creature comforts. Novice electronics hobbyist likes to make issues for their own pleasure but on this course of, they may make some good products and make some cash out of it. Typically this type of follow might lead to a new invention. When one talks about technology, it brings up a complete thrilling world of computers and the Web.
The articles included herein relate to the makes use of of computer systems in the present day in enterprise, science, education, colleges, lecture rooms, hospitals, drugs, health care, navy, agriculture, legislation enforcement, at home and in our on a regular basis lives.
Environmental technology is the appliance of environmental science and sustainable improvement, for the aim of environmental conservation, by curbing damaging impacts of human-surroundings interaction, and defending the natural setting. When assigning an individual to lead your tech support workforce, take into account not only his skills and data regarding enterprise technology but additionally the quality of his expertise as an IT expert.
College students use computers to create shows and use the Internet to analysis topics for papers and essays. Technology is commonly thought-about too narrowly; in line with Hughes, “Technology is a artistic course of involving human ingenuity”. This course will consider the ways in which technology, broadly defined, has contributed to the constructing of American society from colonial times to the present.
About Buzzle
To at least one who has seen the hostile results of some technologies on the setting the question how does technology defend the surroundings? For instance, since some people are visible learners, projection screens linked to computers can allow students to see their notes instead of simply listening to a teacher ship a lecture. The branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the atmosphere, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.
At the same time, society has an rising want for entry to some kinds of knowledge and safety from the use of others. 2: Science has modified the individuals and their residing, life model, meals habits, sleeping arrangements, earning methods, the best way of communication between people and recreational actions.
My Technology Electronic Services
To sum up, IT auditing adds value by reducing risks, enhancing safety, complying with rules and facilitating communication between technology and business administration.
Extra analysis and growth is put into military technology and innovation then another trade or area. 25: Research within the area of science and technology has made people open-minded and cosmopolitan, as a result of the Scientist does not like to travel on the crushed monitor and he all the time tries to find out new issues, new explorations, new discoveries and new innovations.
The development of technology might draw upon many fields of information, including scientific, engineering, mathematical , linguistic , and historic data, to achieve some sensible outcome. By the use of excessive technology in the type of state-of-the-art computers and software program methods, communication is nicely managed.
Developments in historic times, together with the printing press , the telephone , and the Internet , have lessened bodily limitations to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a world scale. Many individuals around the globe take for example scholars in faculties and universities have taken the lead inspecting the connection between science and technology.
1: The usage of science in every day life has helped us a superb deal in solving problems, dealing with the maintenance of well being, production and preservation of meals, development of homes and providing communication and trans-portational (related to transport) services.
5 Phases Of Technology Adoption
Science and technology is the very best thing society could ever ask for. Among the different hot subjects in new research technology include surroundings and renewable vitality, space science, electronics, stem-cell investigations and many others. Information technology has not always alluded to computers, but referred to the oldest information processor, which is the brain.
Technology (“science of craft”, from Greek τέχνη, techne, “artwork, talent, cunning of hand”; and -λογία, -logia 2 ) is the collection of strategies , abilities , strategies , and processes used within the production of goods or services or within the accomplishment of goals, equivalent to scientific investigation Technology may be the information of strategies, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to permit for operation with out detailed knowledge of their workings.
The Development Of Technology
The appearance of contemporary applied sciences has undeniably brought so much comfort to the lives of individuals. As a result of the development of computer systems has been largely the work of scientists, it’s natural that a large physique of computer purposes serves the scientist. Use of more efficient power systems and means of disposal is how technology protects the atmosphere. Add emails, cell phones, web browsing, and chat traces, and we begin to see the pervasive features of technology on our house lives and household milieu.
This course has three major objectives: to train college students to ask critical questions of both technology and the broader American culture of which it’s a half; to provide an historical perspective with which to frame and handle such questions; and to encourage students to be neither blind critics of new applied sciences, nor blind advocates for technologies on the whole, but thoughtful and educated contributors in the democratic process.
technology acceptance model (tam) adalah, technology news china, technology background hd
Advancements in technology, valiant journeys, and essential people of the Age of Exploration created a powerful step towards the fashionable period. This course considers a wide range of points related to the contemporary and historic use of technology, the event of latest applied sciences, and the cultural illustration of technology, including the position ladies have played within the growth of technology and the impact of technological change on the roles of ladies and concepts of gender. |
innovation_demokritos_gr_infrastructure_enirisst_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4977
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rescue_ceoblognation_com_2019_02_10_effects-of-technology-on-the-future-of-business_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4056
It's becoming increasingly important for businesses to leverage on technology especially in marketing. It becomes easier to target your audience and improve the speed of delivering your services and with the entry of IoT, things might just get better in the future. The cost of doing business is also likely to go down significantly, for example in the field of hiring when you hire virtual staffs.
We asked entrepreneurs their thoughts on the effect of technology on the future of their business.
#1- Two effects
Process Automation is going to be huge: As an online entrepreneur, I have seen massive growth in the automation in email marketing. The technology today allows you to collect email subscribers and segment the subscribers and send autoresponders which makes the entire process very easy and highly targeted. This photo helps in notching the readers and making more sales.2. Artificial intelligence will get more prominent: AI is going to be more prominent in the online business world. We also see chatbots becoming very common in areas such as collecting email ids or providing a basic level of support. As technology gets more evolved we will see more artificial intelligence in e-commerce sites where it can help you choose a specific product or give you recommendations.
Thanks to Sumit Bansal, CraftofBlogging.com!
#2- Several drastic changes
As an Accountant and Tax Preparer, Technology has drastically changed the way I run my business. Not only do I now do all my bookwork, tax preparation, and filings on a computer, thus using less paper, but I am also meeting less with my clients personally. In the future, I feel that all of my communication with my clients will be via email, text and video calls versus face to face meetings. My need for bookshelves will almost be eliminated with continuing online education and digital books. Trips to the post office will become a thing of the past as information shared between my clients and myself will be transmitted by encrypted portals, bank feeds and the like. Payments will be made and accepted electronically thus eliminating the need to go to the bank. In many ways, technology will have a positive effect on my business by making me more efficient, more accessible, and give me the ability to help more clients in the long run. But I have to admit that a big part of me is going to miss the one on one interaction with my clients, who in the past have become close friends due to the slower pace of life before the onslaught of modern technology.
Thanks to Candace Stevens, Number Cruncher LLC!
#3- Accessibility
One of the fabulous fringe benefits of the proliferation of technology is the ability for most users to be able to use their personal laptop or home computer to develop their technical skills! At Excel Exposure, we provide online interactive Microsoft Excel training and skill development. As technology improves, we've found that more and more of our users are able to access, view and absorb the information. With high-quality HD streaming being more and more prevalent, the ability to bring university-level quality education to the masses is now here!
Thanks to Ben Currier, ExcelExposure.com!
#4- Mass exodus to the cloud
We are in the technology field, namely in data centers. One huge trend is the mass exodus to the cloud. Instead of companies hosting their own data centers, many more are moving all of their servers out into the cloud. This includes many different flavors from bare metal servers to Software as a Service to serverless computing. We have migrated most of our services into SaaS but we still maintain some storage and file functions in-house. The effect is that we can run cheaper, leaner, and have more resiliency. We know exactly how much we are going to spend each year based on our licenses.
Thanks to Drew Farnsworth, Green Lane Design!
#5- Notifying people via social media platforms
Being a software company we’re constantly seeing our industry evolve and staying on top of those changes is something we take seriously. When we first started DialMyCalls around 10 years ago very few people used Mobile Apps or even visited websites on their phones; now a huge piece of our business is mobile-related. We’ve developed iOS / Android apps for our customers to use as well as completely redeveloped our entire website in order for customers to access their account on a mobile phone or tablet. Our company is a mass notification service which primarily notifies people via phone call or text message; we’re starting to see an evolution of also needing to notify people via social media platforms so that will be a big piece of our business going forward. It’s important to keep your ear to the ground and most importantly listen to your customers, keep a running tally of their requests and try to watch trends of people asking for features or options; from there you can plan out your next moves and offerings going forward.
Thanks to David Batchelor, DialMyCalls!
#6- Use of AI in hiring and recruitment
As a B2B SaaS consultant who works with dozens of SaaS companies per year, I already see major changes in hiring and recruiting in enterprise SaaS due to tech. Sifting through hundreds and thousands of resumes is a major pain point, so some companies are ditching the resume and using AI-powered skill testing with software such as Vervoe. Not only does ditching the resume save time but skill assessment tests are much better indicators of job performance. Resumes are also a pain point for potential candidates, I can't tell you how many of my friends have talked about how difficult it is to fill out job applications all day and also never hear back from anyone. I'm super excited to see how tech will continue to impact this process in the future.
Thanks to Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
#7- Better strategies from marketers
Technology is going to have (and is having) a huge impact on our ability to test all areas of marketing content. Machine learning is going to rapidly speed up the pinpointing of effective marketing content – from ad creatives to long-form content – and their impact on our search rankings. Technology is also going to put more pressure on our ability to be creative and strategize. For a long time, many marketers have confused tactics with strategies and this shift to leveraging technology to find data correlations is going to shine more light on those marketers who can strategize effectively.
Thanks to Bernard May, National Positions!
#8- Key differentiator
In this day and age, business owners and entrepreneurs must know the ins and outs of all aspects of business and must be significantly educated on technology, such as social media, mobile technology, innovations like the cloud, along with hardware such as security and backup systems. As many businesses today are expanding online and onto mobile platforms, it is crucial to be educated in these fields in order to stay ahead of competition. In this vein, the effect that technology will have on business, in general, is that it will differentiate those who are paying attention to it and those who are not. Specifically, however, technology has played a vital role in our company. The transfer of medical records between providers in the healthcare industry has always been a problematic process causing physicians to spend months and vital physician and staff time when switching EHRs. With the advent of today's technology, we were able to create our proprietary technology to help providers move and integrate their patient records safely, seamlessly and pain-free, which was not possible just 5 years ago. In the future, we will be able to not only transfer data, but pull discrete data from typed and even handwritten documents.
Thanks to Ilya Aronovich, MedaDoc!
#9- Increase in the technologies in the market
I started a global branding and marketing firm 17 years ago before there was social media so technology has already had a big impact on business since I started my company I predict the pace of new technologies coming onto the market will only increase going forward and since the pace of business today is faster than ever with technology on 24/7 I think the only way to survive is to create pockets of calm in the storm. The winners in the future will leverage the convenience, efficiency and speed of technology and still find ways to connect on a personal level with their customers. There will be an even bigger role in the future for the businesses that can connect the dots, humanize their brands and curate the wisdom from all the noise out there which is only going to be a bigger distraction down the road. There will always be a market for businesses that make things simple, fun and/or easy. Technology can only get you so far.
Thanks to Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls!
#10- Building websites that are voice search ready
The technology that is going to have the biggest impact on our business in the coming years in undoubtedly voice technology. We’re all aware of how rapidly voice technology has been growing over recent years and the point has come where we need to start preparing our websites to be voice search ready. Whether it be personal assistants such as the Amazon Echo, or one of the numerous phones which have a built-in voice assistant, most tech savvy people now have regular access to a voice search device and these people are beginning to learn how to use this technology as part of their everyday lives. We’ve been aware of how voice search is going to impact SEO for a while and we’ve already began thinking about how we can optimise pages for voice search in the near future. However, the rapid growth of the technology means we’ve also got to begin thinking beyond this. People don’t just want to use voice search to find websites on the internet, they want to use it to interact with websites. In the future, I can see us having to build websites that can understand voice commands, such as “what are the best deals for holidays to Florida” and then displaying the deals a website has available. That’s definitely something I see us doing in the future, which is both challenging and exciting.
Thanks to Clare Watson, Zolv!
#11- Big change via RankBrain
In terms of advancing technology, I anticipate artificial intelligence will have the biggest impact on my business. Right now, I predict a big change via RankBrain – Google's machine learning artificial intelligence system. In case you don't already know, machine learning refers to computers that can teach themselves how to do a task, without following guidelines set by humans. In terms of advancing technology, I anticipate artificial intelligence will have the biggest impact on my business. Right now, I predict a big change via RankBrain – Google's machine learning artificial intelligence system. In case you don't already know, machine learning refers to computers that can teach themselves how to do a task, without following guidelines set by humans.RankBrain will change the way small businesses, like mine, create content for SEO-purposes. By enabling Google to filter and process billions of search results in real time, with the goal of providing the most relevant results, we won't only have to target keywords, but also identify what Google thinks is the search intent and create content around that.
Thanks to Jonathan Prichard, MattressInsider.com!
#12- Improving the quality of data
Technology is constantly changing, often faster than our imaginations. We're just beginning to witness the possibilities that Internet of Things (IoT) technology can bring to the workplace, for example, by harnessing valuable information from people, equipment, machines and the environment. Over the next several years, the quantity, types and quality of data collected will grow, helping to replace assumptions and anecdotes with objective data to make more informed, timely decisions. The possibilities of what we can do with – and learn from – this groundswell of data will only be limited by our imaginations.
Thanks to Pete Schermerhorn, Triax Technologies!
#13- Confirmation of higher percentage ROI
Technology will enable my online discount coupon business to deliver specific discount coupons to specific online audience at pinpoint precision. AI driven searching tools will help me to identify and categorize different types of audience according to their buying habits. For example a jeans-lover customer will always be notified for garment stores’ coupons, never for grocery coupons. This will ensure us to generate more business and my customers to save money every-time while shopping international brands online.
Thanks to Andrei Vasilescu, DontPayFull!
What effect do you see technology having on the future of your business? Tell us in the comments below. Don’t forget to join our #IamCEO Community. |
www_cachhaynhat_com_en_profile_lauraknowles_blog-comments | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4106
Batista DaveMar 29, 2024What are the advantages of outsourcing enterprise software development to specialized service providers? |
whizord_com_author_michaelconsoli_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4590
Embed from Getty Images On Friday, Facebook announced that it would be disabling the controversial “Ethnic Affinity” tool that allowed advertisers to exclude certain...
Earlier this week, ESEA announced the creation of their own anti-cheat system for LAN competitions. This new system should clear up any instances when...
The future of technological innovation is here. Be the first to discover the latest advancements, insights, and reviews. Join us in shaping the future. |
greenpedia_ro_author_cristina_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4551
We Need Clean-Energy Innovation, and Lots of It
by Bill Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Originally posted at www.gatesnotes.com
Last month, during a trip to Europe, I mentioned that I plan to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology over the next five years. This will be a fairly big increase over the investments I am already making, and I am doing it because I believe that the next half-decade will bring many breakthroughs that will help solve climate change. As I argued in this 2010 TED talk, we need to be able to power all sectors of the economy with sources that do not emit any carbon dioxide.
But […] |
ttncc_com__b_56719418817 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4244
[ our skills ]
The Core Company Values
We are constantly growing, learning, and improving and our
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
partners are steadily increasing. 200 projects is a sizable number.
Quality
Innovation
Customer-Centricity
Luxury and Minimalism
Value for Money |
www_k4socal_com_archives_2025_01 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4475
Discover how Dr. Telisa Franklin rose from humble beginnings to inspire change and community upliftment!
Starting a business? Get the lowdown on essential registration and compliance steps for success.
Unlock your potential with insights from Zuckerberg's journey. Discover essential strategies for young entrepreneurs.
Discover how Victor Sandoval revolutionizes digital finance & reshapes global investments with Eviancx.
CES 2025 showcased visionary entrepreneurs redefining technology's role in our lives. From AI-driven tools to groundbreaking gadgets, discover the innovations that captivated investors and enthusiasts alike. |
ww3_utility2030_org_pages_services-creative_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5304
Web-Design and Prototype
Iterative approaches corporate strategy foster collaborative thinking.
Wireframes and Design
Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation.
Testing and Evaluation
Collaborative thinking further the overall value settled proposition.
UX & Prototyping
Approaches to corporate strategy foster collaborative thinking to further the overall value proposition. Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation via workplace diversity generated content in real-time.
- Architecture
- Research & Discovery
- User Interface Design
- Rapid Prototyping
Marketing & Strategy
Bring to the table win-win survival strategies to ensure proactive domination. At the end of the day, going forward, a new normal that has evolved from generation is on the runway heading towards a streamlined cloud solution.
- Social Media
- Online Strategy
- Brand Guidelines
- Analysis & Reporting
App & Development
Capitalize on low hanging fruit to identify a ballpark value added activity to beta test. Override the digital divide with additional clickthroughs from Dev. Nanotechnology immersion along the information highway will close the loop.
- Front-end
- Wordpress
- App & Mobile
- User Interface Design |
blog_venindia_com_tag_7dimensionalcube_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4003
Work from home will hit the retail Industry, and the repercussions will affect the garment factories, and this, in turn, will influence the lives of lakhs of people associated with the Industry developing chaos further.
Generally, we groomed ourselves or embraced a lifestyle to influence and impress people around us. Now that the audience will decrease drastically, the things we’ve purchased till now will last all our lifetime, if the same lifestyle continues.
The economy will prosper because of our spending on luxuries and not necessaries. So what luxuries to be promoted by our marketing folks to support the economy.
People are losing jobs; schools aren’t entirely functional. Since there are online classes, the fee is reduced. But the staff and Infrastructure cost cannot be circumvented. Schools are forced to declare pay cuts for teachers. So, a series of outcomes on various Industry and professionals due to three reasons lockdown, job- loss, and social distancing.
Many such impacts are passing down from our post-COVID lifestyle, which will impact a series of industries passing down from one tier to another.
How do we safeguard these industries?
All our focus is on Industries, which are having an immediate effect- Airlines, Aerospace, Automotive, etc.. Our level of thought process hasn’t reached to the extent of different industries in a row which will be impacted due to the result on one Industry.
We generally have pursued an approach of post-mortem or analysis limited to a specific area, timeline, department, Industry, business, set of people, or society for most of the problems. COVID has forced us to collate all of the issues and find solutions at one go with zero downtime.
We need to analyze the Industry, which will initiate a chain reaction to many other industries involving most populations and affecting the economy the most. Prioritize them. Find addressal towards the same.
Let us see the unseen, envision beyond visibility, and initiate solutions for the forthcoming issues sooner with a seven-dimension perspective.
A viewpoint which will include collective analysis of impacts on all the associated departments, industries, demographics, geographical areas, culture, Governing authority rules and regulations at all layers. A blue print for predictive progress every year and decade for next five decades has to be put forth by the Thinkers from all Industries, area and at all levels. |
tweets_mikelittle_org_2012_03_yet-another-software-patent-nightmare-a-patent-lie-how-yahoo-weaponize | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4238
- Mike Little
- @mikelittlezed1
- @mikelittle
- mikelittle
- Stockport, UK
- mikelittle.org
Tweet #179888620273012736
Yet another software patent nightmare: A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work – Wired.com wired.com/epicenter/2012…
Yet another software patent nightmare: A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work – Wired.com wired.com/epicenter/2012… |
web_sfc_keio_ac_jp__iba_sb_sb_cgi_cid_21 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4511
EXPLORING CREATIVE SOCIETY (GIGA) 2022
Faculty of Policy Management / Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University
Faculty-in-charge: Takashi Iba
Semester: Fall semester (2nd half of semester), 2022
Day and Time: Friday 1st & 2nd Period
Credits: 2
Delivery: Fully Online
OBJECTIVES AND TEACHING METHOD
What would society be like in the future? This class sets off by imagining that society of the future will be a “Creative Society” where each and every person makes full use of their own creativity that they originally hold within themselves. In a creative society, it will become a commonplace for everyone to “create” in many different fields and domains.
In the past, “Information Society,” which began with the advent of the Internet, changed our lives, organizations, and society. In the same way, the arrival of Creative Society will bring enormous change in the way we live, organize and live in society.
Imagining what those changes are and what they will bring is an important in preparation for the future. Methodologies and tools regarding the creation of a future where we can live well are important. In this course, I will share an idea that I have devoted myself to for a decade, my relevant works and my experience with you.
The idea is to create and utilise ‘pattern languages’ for creative human actions in order to encourage people to improve their practices and dialogue in many domains. Pattern language is the media for identifying common patterns of good practices embedded in specific domains and sharing the wisdom with others. It was originally proposed in the architecture domain in the 1970s and has since been applied to various domains such as software development, education and organisations.
For the past 15 years, my collaborators and I have created more than 80 pattern languages on diverse topics that provide tacit practical knowledge of creative human actions, comprising more than 2,000 patterns in total. Topics include the following: learning, collaboration, presentation, project design, open dialogue, education, reading, music composition, project design, startup, value-creation marketing, social intrapreneurs, change making, cooking, living well with working and parenting, living well with dementia, elderly care, management of child care, employment of people with disabilities, welfare innovation, hospitality, life transition, beauty in everyday life, natural living, digital transformation, disaster prevention and public policy design.
These pattern languages have been practically utilised to improve practices and generate dialogues among people in various organisations and communities. I also have developed a methodology and philosphy for creating a pattern language that contains aspects of both of science and art. You will learn the case of a new type of academic study, which I call "Studies on Creative Practice".
In this class, students are not expected to simply listen passively, but to participate with an attitude of fully exercising your imagination, envisioning the future, and grasping important ideas and practical tips on their own. In this class, there will also be time for students to practice and talk with each other in the Zoom breakout rooms, so please actively participate in them as well. Therefore, it is required to turn on your Zoom camera to show your reactions and to naturally interact with your classmates.
Message from Professor Takashi Iba to the students:
“The future will come as time goes by. But it may not be the future that we all hope for. Or rather, if we don’t take action, the future we hope for will never come. That is why we must continue to create ideals, visions, and things to realize them for the future. This class is designed to let everyone know and feel that there are adults out there who are doing all that they can (especially in creative and exciting ways) for a better future. Welcome to the way of Creating our future ourselves! I hope you will be inspired and use it as energy to light up your future.”
CLASS SCHEDULE
#1-2 - Dec. 2nd: Creative Society and Pattern Language as Media
You will learn what is a vision of "creative society" and media that is called "pattern language". “Creative Society” is defined as a society where people create their own goods, tools, concepts, knowledge, mechanisms, and ultimately the future with their own hands. Creation in this society is no longer limited to just companies and organizations, but is entrusted to each and every individual. In such a creative society, pattern languages are key media for supporting creative acts. A Pattern Language is a collection of information called “patterns,” which together works in a language-like structure to scribe out the practical knowledge related to a certain field of knowledge. In addition, we will hold a dialogue workshop with using a pattern language for experiencing how to use a pattern language.
#3-4 - Dec. 9th: Utilizing Pattern Languages
You will learn what kind of pattern languages have been created and how they were utilized in the real world: learning, collaboration, presentation, project design, open dialogue, education, reading, music composition, project design, startup, value-creation marketing, social intrapreneurs, change making, cooking, living well with working and parenting, living well with dementia, elderly care, management of child care, employment of people with disabilities, welfare innovation, hospitality, life transition, beauty in everyday life, natural living, digital transformation, disaster prevention and public policy design. This class will be provided as a video on demand.
#5-6 - Dec. 16th: Creation Process of Pattern Language
You will learn how to create a pattern language, which the methodology has been developed in Iba Lab, Keio SFC. The process consists of three phases: Pattern Mining, Pattern Writing, and Pattern Symbolizing. You will experience pattern writing, following the Pattern Writing Sheet and give a short presentation in the class.
#7-8 - Dec. 23rd: Community Development (Guest Speaker: Mitsu Yamazaki)
We will invite Mitsu Yamazaki as a guest speaker who is involved in creative activities related to the Creative Society. The bio of Mitsu Yamazaki is as follows:
Mitsuhiro Yamazaki
CEO, MITSU YAMAZAKI LLC
Visiting Professor, Yokohama National University
Mitsu is an urban planner and an international business strategist based in Tokyo. Mitsu has built his career in the United States for the last 24 years, including time in Mexico and brings a unique perspective to his projects in urban development, smart city technologies and international business development.
Prior to being an independent consultant, he worked as the International Business Development Officer for Prosper Portland, where he led the export development and foreign direct investment recruitment efforts for the City of Portland (Oregon). During his tenure he worked on a successful global trade development initiative called We Build Green Cities to guide the building of more sustainable cities around the world engaging Portland's urban design firms and best practices. One of the most notable projects he led is called Kashiwanoha Smart City Campus master plan in Japan. It is currently the largest LEED Platinum ND project in the world and was awarded the MIPIM award.
Previously, Mitsu was a Director of Corporate Services for TIP Strategies, an Austin-based economic development consulting firm providing site selection, international business development and strategic planning services to clients in government, renewable energy and automotive sectors.
Before TIP, he worked as the Vice President at San Antonio Economic Development Foundation as well as a Business Development Manager for Yates Construction Co., an international construction/engineering firm, focused on major industrial and commercial development projects. His prior clients include Toyota, Nissan, Honda, MUJI, Lowe’s Home Improvement and Ajinomoto.
He currently serves as a strategic advisor to the City of Tsukuba, a consultant to the World Bank’s Tokyo Development Learning Center and advisor to several corporations and municipalities in the U.S. and Japan. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Services at Portland State University, Senior Fellow at Keio University (SFC).
#9-10 - Jan. 6th: Pattern Language as a Work
The feature of pattern language is not limited to functional aspect; It is also a kind of an artistic work such as novel, song and film. Pattern languages are sometimes considered as a new kind of literature. You will learn fascinating design with wholeness and fine detail like a story emmbedded in a pattern language and structure for pattern illustrations. You will also experience drawing pattern illustration and giva a short presentation in the class.
#11-12 - Jan. 13th: Principles of Natural Deep Creation
Writers, artists, and composers sometimes talk what happens in their creation. I have studied what they said for a long time, and discovered very interesting similarities, which is unfamiliar in general. The findings are organized into principles, which I call "Principles of Natural Deep Creation". You will learn the principles and discuss with reflecting on your experience.
#13-14 - Jan. 20th: Collaborative Design with Future Language
In the last class, you will learn a method for collaborative design with involving people, which I call "Future Language". Future Language is made by defining new “words” that represent visions or ideas for the future and collecting these words into a language. With these words, people are able to think of, imagine, and talk about a more richly imaginable future and collaborate towards it. You will learn cases of application in desiging restaurant, learning space, play field, workplace, and farmers market. You will experience creating a personal future language and giva a short presentation in the class.
#15: Reflection
Reflecting on the lectures.
STUDENT SCREENING
Only the selected students can take this course.
Number of students in the class (scheduled) : About 150
Pre-registration screening by submitted an assignment
Self-Introduction Sheet
Submit a one-page, engaging summary about yourself in a PDF format..
This assignment is going to be shared among the instructor and guest speaker in advance to let them know the students’ characteristics and promote smoother engagements and communications over zoom calls.
The introduction should entirely cover the following; where you have lived, what you have done, what your interests are and what you are doing/going to study at SFC. Please include what you would like to do and dreams/challenges you may have in the future if any.
Be sure to keep it to ONE PAGE (neither too much nor too little, but just the right amount of information to get to know you). Please include your name, grade, and photos of yourself and what represents you. There is no specific requirement/number limitation on the amount of photos, but ones that most explains your personality are preferable.
This screening is not asking for a typical resume or wordy application, but something that is designed according to your aesthetic. The most important things are to make it visually attractive, and easy to understand.
The screening is not designed to see if your interests and experience match to the contents of class. However, if you don’t meet the above assignment and format requirements (e.g., not writing the assignment properly, only writing and not including visual elements, submitting too little or too much in terms of volume, submitting in a file other than PDF format, etc.), you may not be accepted.
We are really looking forward to seeing your unique introductions!
Assignments, Examination and Grade Evaluation
Grading will be based on attendance, class participation including practice and reflection (60%) and final report (40%).
Advice
- In the class, it is required to turn on your Zoom camera to show your reactions and to naturally interact with your classmates.
MATERIALS AND READING LIST
- Takashi Iba & Fumio Kajiwara, translated by Ayaka Yoshikawa, Project Design Patterns: 32 Patterns of Practical Knowledge for Producers, Project Managers, and Those Involved in Launching New Businesses, CreativeShift, 2019
- Takashi Iba with Iba Lab, Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning, CreativeShift, 2014
- Takashi Iba with Iba Lab, translated to German by Reinhard Bauer, Petra Szucsich & Martin Sankofi, Learning Patterns: Eine Mustersprache für kreatives Lernen, CreativeShift, 2018
- Takashi Iba with Iba Lab, Presentation Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Presentations, CreativeShift, 2014
- Takashi Iba with Iba Lab, Collaboration Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Collaborations, CreativeShift, 2014
- Takashi Iba & Makoto Okada (eds), Iba Lab., and DFJI (Dementia Friendly Japan Initiative), Words for a Journey: The Art of Being with Dementia, CreativeShift, 2015
- Tomoki Furukawazono & Takashi Iba, Survival Language Project, Survival Language: A Pattern Language for Surviving Earthquakes, CreativeShift, 2015
- Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising, Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, Addison-Wesley, 2004
- Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising, More Fearless Change: Strategies for Making Your Ideas Happen, Addison-Wesley, 2015 |
www_digitalwaycyprus_com_elements_styled-tabs_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4228
Completely incentivize cost effective interfaces through prospective testing procedures. Distinctively reinvent cooperative potentialities for interoperable “outside the box” thinking. Assertively develop.
Styled Tabs
Unique Element that you will not find in another theme. Stylish tabs with a lot of options including vertical and horizontal displacement.
Your Profile
Quickly evolve client-centric niche markets with resource-leveling niche markets. Progressively unleash fully tested testing procedures before superior information. Authoritatively harness seamless e-business whereas high-quality applications. Distinctively expedite maintainable catalysts for change through reliable methodologies. Energistically customize user-centric niche markets without multidisciplinary testing procedures.
Completely transform team driven bandwidth vis-a-vis holistic e-markets.
Plan everything
Completely incentivize cost effective interfaces through prospective testing procedures. Distinctively reinvent cooperative potentialities for interoperable “outside the box” thinking. interfaces through prospective testing procedures Assertively develop.
Completely incentivize cost effective interfaces through prospective testing procedures.
List all categories
Completely incentivize cost effective interfaces through prospective testing procedures. Distinctively reinvent cooperative potentialities for interoperable “outside the box” thinking. Assertively develop.
Quickly evolve client-centric niche markets with resource-leveling niche markets. Progressively unleash fully tested testing procedures before superior information. Authoritatively harness seamless e-business whereas high-quality applications. Distinctively expedite maintainable catalysts for change through reliable methodologies. Energistically customize user-centric niche markets without multidisciplinary testing procedures.
Your Profile
Completely incentivize cost effective interfaces through prospective testing procedures. Distinctively reinvent cooperative potentialities for interoperable “outside the box” thinking. Assertively develop. |
wciw_org_events_international-conference-on-creative-entrepreneurship-and-innovation-2_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5512
International Conference on Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation
International Conference on Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
- Start: 10 November 2023
- End: 11 November 2023
- Attendance:
- Location: N/A , , Italy |
www_aci-asiapac_aero_media-centre_news_t__c_Diversity_and_Inclusion__y__k__p_5 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4435
This week, the global community of airport innovators, start-ups, visionary thinkers, researchers and top tech minds gathers at Rome Fiumicino Airport for AIRPORTS INNOVATE 2024. The conference, organised jointly by ACI EUROPE, ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East and ACI World, and hosted by Aeroporti di Roma, will chart the future of air travel, pooling innovative solutions, groundbreaking tools and know-how from across the globe.
Flight Lieutenant Thummavudth Nonsee, Senior Executive Vice President (Airport and Aviation Standard), Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT), Mr. Sompob Paksawan, Executive Vice President (Airport and Aviation Standards), Mrs. Onuma Adunyanon, Executive Vice President of the AOT Academy jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ratchasuda College, Mahidol University for a mutual collaboration to enhance academic service for persons with disabilities.
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readingraphics_com_tag_eugene-fitzgerald_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5878
Book Summary – Inside Real Innovation: How the Right Approach Can Move Ideas from R&D to Market – And Get the Economy Moving
Innovation is a complex process, with many variables and constantly-changing forces at play. In this book, Eugene Fitzgerald and Andreas Wankerl provide insights into the…
ReadingraphicsMarch 24, 2017 |
www_munich-business-school_de_insights_en_tag_start-up_page_3_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.5372
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Master Students Pitched Their Business Ideas and Prototypes
Last week, our new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Master students successfully pitched their business ideas and prototypes. Thanks to our MBS alumni entrepreneurs, Patrick Löffler, CEO and cofounder of givve, and Simon Sparber, CEO and founder […] |
businessofsoftware_org_2015_02_gbp-austin-dimmer-building-a-software-company-is-hard_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4024
In this guest blog post Austin Dimmer, CEO and Founder of Effective Computing shares the difficulties he has faced trying to create a sustainable software business.
I’d like to set out by letting you know that creating a successful software business is extremely hard.
I personally suffer from a rare disability that means I am not able to operate computers with traditional keyboard and mouse, as you can imagine in an age in which “software is eating the world” it is very frustrating to be physically limited in capabilities. A number of years ago I was advised by a leading doctor not to work with computers and to seek an alternative career.
I am not one to accept these limitations and thus I have devoted the last 10 years plus of my life researching Ergonomics, User Centered Design and in particular Voice Recognition Technology. The result of my research is that I have created a software program that enables me to control most of the features on my computer using voice control. The product I have created is extremely complex and even after this long period of intense R&D (6 years of 7 day weeks, longs hours and with few holidays) I have limited customer traction, no investors and I have now exhausted almost all of the goodwill of my closest family.
I live on the edge of a war zone in Ukraine. Life pretty much sucks.
I feel that I am living on the “Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death x1000” that Gail Goodman so inspirationally talked about. Over the course of the last year the great Ukrainian people prevailed and ousted the corrupt government during the revolution. As I write this blog post, unable to accept the will of the people Russia is waging a war against Ukraine, murdering thousands and destroying the lives of many hundreds of thousands. It is against this backdrop that I attempt to maintain my optimism and belief that by creating great (software) businesses we can make this world a better and safer place for our children to grow up in. As one of the female residents of Donetsk asked her rebel leaders during the summer.
“You may kill me for asking this. Who exactly is our enemy? Our enemy is not some imaginary fascist in Kiev or some foreign lands. Our enemy is poverty.”
My Ukrainian friend and aspiring Tech Entrepreneur Bozhena Shermeta said the following about the current situation in Ukraine:
“Yet. There is no time for grief and panic. These are not the instruments to win the war. We need to learn how to go on, how to help and support each other. There is no other way to figure out how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have. Be strong, guys.”
She is right. In my attempt to stay strong I have found that one of the best strategies is to keep focused on being productive in some way. Today my goal is this blog post.
The reason why I ended up as a raving fan of the Business of Software conference, yes I admit it, is because my company is a customer of Red Gate Software.
One day whilst reading the RedGate website I came across Neil Davidson, the co-CEO and co-Founder of RedGate. Hoping to pick up some tips into how he had created a successful software company I began to follow him on Twitter. He was tweeting about the Business of Software Conference and in October 2012 I tuned into the live stream of the event. I was literally blown away. I recall watching phenomenal and inspiring talks given by Bob Dorf, Gail Goodman , Adii Peinar and Paul Kenny, Dan Pink. Kathy Siera, Dharmesh Shah, and others. I learned from Bob that the Business Plan I had taken months to write was better sent to the creative writing department than being useful as a strategic document. I also found out later that Bob was an advisor to the Happy Farm Incubator located in Kiev. Small World.
Link to all the 2012 Talks
One thing really stood out to me about the conference. Towards the end, some kind of social media storm had broken out accusing one of the speakers of sexist behaviour or language. The host of Business of Software, Mark Littlewood, got up and apologised for any misunderstandings that may have taken place. He mentioned that he had a young daughter and that he dreamt that one day perhaps she too would be able to create an amazing software company just like the speakers and attendees at the event. Sexist behaviour was not acceptable and was an issue that was taken very seriously. Wow, these guys have great values and ethics I thought to myself. Bravo Mark, you should be a proud father!
Interesting post: We don’t have a women in tech problem at Business of Software Conference
I was truly inspired. I hatched a plan to get myself in person to the conference in 2013.
At BoS 2013 I was lucky enough to see Kathy Sierra present her more deeply researched and refined ideas about creating the Minimum Bad Ass User, I watched Des Traynor (https://angel.co/intercom) mesmerize the audience with an awesome lightning talk about product strategy. Then there was Greg Baugues very moving and personal talk about developers, entrepreneurs and depression, Dharmesh filled me in on the importance of Scaling Culture, these are issues that as a hardcore engineer/coder I had not given enough thought to. My personal favourite from BoS 2014 was Scott Farquar talking about Leadership in Crisis. A few months after the conference I read news that Scott had sold his company Atlassian for $3.3 billion. Wow. Just Wow. That is living the dream, for real.
[NB. The company was not sold for $3.3 billion, there was an investment into the business that valued it at that sum].
I came away from BoS 2013 feeling inspired and wanting to work harder, to learn and to implement some of the new ideas. But I also felt a bit intimidated by the conference, a kind of nagging feeling that I would never reach the great heights of success that the speakers clearly had.
2013 Business of Software Conference Talks here.
For BoS 2014 my cash strapped company Effective Computing was lucky enough to win one of the Avangate BoS Scholarships. We were deeply grateful to Avangate for selecting us.
I found Brian Massey (http://conversionsciences.com/) and Joanna Wiebe http://copyhackers.com/ to be most excellent speakers and they provided me with highly actionable material that I plan to use over the coming months as my company starts to roll out our product offerings. I took the after conference workshop on Landing Page Optimization with Brian Massey and this helped round out the information provided in his talk and practice the techniques on our own sites.
Brian Massey (The Doctor/Professor) in action!
I found the talk by Joel Gascoigne from Buffer to be inspirational. At one point Joel was talking about how his company had opted for the remote working model and that enabled some of the Buffer employees to be able to work from home. This enabled the employee to spend less time on the commute and more time with his young family. What a fantastic thing.
As a father of two young boys I even clapped at this point and thought what a great company Joel has. I did not manage to talk with Joel in person at the conference but hopefully someday we will hook up for a chat. Joel and I made a brief connection later on Twitter.
Joel also mentioned that he was looking after himself and he looked very fit up on the stage. As a long time fitness enthusiast I admire the example Joel is setting here. Running a very exciting company and also keeping himself in good shape. Since I have been sitting down coding like a maniac for the last six years, I am not as fit as I once was and I have put on quite some weight. Partly thanks to the inspiration Joel provided I have managed to haul myself at least 200km in each of the months since attending BoS. Thanks Joel!
After the conference I read some of the blog posts Joel and his colleagues made about the early days of their company and how they networked and made contacts in San Francisco, if you need this kind of insight the buffer blog is an excellent place to go. A few months after the conference I noticed Buffer was trending on AngelList with a $60,000,000 valuation. Again impressive stuff.
During one of the lunch breaks the lunch tables were assigned conversation topics. Given my background in Ergonomics I thought I’d attend the conversation topic “Hacks for healthy coding and coders” During the conversation an employee of Axosoft was talking about the idea of trying to be the healthiest company in their state. That idea and concept is something I find really inspirational. I also noticed that a group of folks including the same girl from Axosoft were in the Seaport hotel lobby ready for a run. These folks walk the walk. Impressive.
At one point in the conference Greg Baugues was sitting in the auditorium alongside another man who was from Haiti (sorry I did not get his name). [Jonathan Marvens?] I had met Greg and his wife the year before in the Whisky Priest bar so I wanted to say hi and find out how things were going for him. His wife was expecting a baby in the near future and all seemed well with Greg. This was great news given the battles he has been waging against depression. I mentioned to Greg and his colleague how I was having quite a terrible psychological struggle at the conference. I was worried about what was going on back in Ukraine whilst simultaneously trying to keep optimistic about doing my best to build a great software company. It was a very strange dual reality that I was and still am living in. Although I am not a religious person, I have great respect for all religions. Greg and his colleague offered to say a prayer to wish for peace in Ukraine and for my family to stay out of danger. This moment of the conference was very touching and I almost had a tear in my eye. I was a great moment of connection and I am very grateful to both Greg and his colleague for their support.
Did I mention how great the attendees are?
I hope this story highlights some of the deep compassion that is present in the BoS community.
Michael Skok gave a very impressive presentation and I have been inspired by him to deepen my understanding of what he talked about by working through the excellent materials he makes available on his site.
Whilst BoS 2014 was taking place the HubSpot Inbound conference was also taking place across the street. You could feel the energy and excitement from Inbound spill over into the BoS conference. Dharmesh Shah one of the founders of HubSpot has been a favourite speaker and loyal supporter of the BoS conference and you could almost feel that everyone at BoS was full of pride at what was taking place at Inbound. Quite remarkable really.
The Avangate Dinner held in honour of the Scholarship winners was a very pleasant experience. I got to meet with quite a few Avangate employees. I found them all to be very smart and listening to them was very interesting. I even had the chance to share a Whisky afterwards. A great night of networking was had by all.
For me BoS is a multi-year journey of Business and Self Improvement.
Action items I am working on as a direct result of having attended BoS include:
- Working through and implementing the guidance contained in the Copy Hackers eBooks
- Working through and implementing the guidance contained in Michael Skok’s Startup Secrets
- Working through and implementing the guidance contained in Brian Massey’s eBook
- Working through and implementing the guidance contained in Adii Peinaar’s Your First Customers and Traction Book
- Read Business Model Generation
- Read Value Proposition Design
- Read Bob Dorf’s Startup Owners Manual
I have no doubt that the techniques and wisdom obtained by absorbing this material will be of immense benefit to me and my company moving forwards.
Have I achieved my Goals by attending BoS?
My goals were to
- Find potential customers
- Find potential employees/business partners
- Continuous and never ending improvement.
I have a few conversations open on the first two items on this list and I think that the last one is certainly a work in progress with great strides already made. After attending BoS I did have a very promising inquiry from what seemed like a prominent and legitimate investor, alas it ended up coming to nothing. Those awful emotions of rejection, disappointment, self loathing, feeling like a maverick a charlatan yet again reared their ugly head. But this is what I signed up for right? This is the journey of the software entrepreneur? These are the inevitable highs and lows that will be encountered as we travel the path? Armed the knowledge and experience acquired by attending BoS I feel that I have given myself the best chance possible to overcome these demons and build a great software business moving forwards. Being strong is the only choice I have.
This time instead of feeling intimidated by BoS I came away feeling “Yes, I can do this”.
Going to BoS is like being “Out With Legends”. Thanks again to Avangate. It may be a struggle for me to get to BoS 2015, if I can find a way to be there I will be. I thoroughly recommend going and do hope to see you there.
“It’s like being hit on the head with an anvil forged of start-up culture, ideas, and values. Something that will forever change the way you think about business, software, and organizational architecture.”
“An awesome collage of people, ideas and information that will help bootstrap your software product company into a BADASS software business with wildly ecstatic customers.”
“BoS is a software, technology, and business focused TED. And, because of that, for me, it might be better than TED.”
“Imagine a dream world of full employment, meritocracy, innovation and success, abundance, respect, and happiness. It’s real, and it’s going on all the time in the unbridled world of software, and the Business of Software conference is your window into that world.”
“Every time I come to BoS I feel like I’ve found my “tribe.” Fellow techie entrepreneurs who are dying to roll up their sleeves to get a business going.”
“I’m not one to create and execute on specific takeaways as a result of any conference. But, I’ve come to realize, after several years of attendance, the ideas and skills I’ve learned have somehow seemed to ‘leak’ into my organization anyway. My organization is better as a result of the ‘tools’ that BoS has provided to me.”
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kisti_re_kr_eng_about_pageView_245_jsessionid_mfa5bPzS0TvaQDFqaCFtZ8D7Sj6Rka9c60bwNYuxLCXypQ16v9i1fJ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4516
"A leading institute transforming R&D with AI and HPC"
Greetings,
I am Sik Lee, president of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI).
We warmly welcome you to the KISTI website.
For over 60 years, KISTI has played a pivotal role in advancing national science and technology by leading the fields of supercomputing and science and technology information in Korea.
Amid the rapidly evolving digital revolution, KISTI is dedicated to achieving sustainable development based on core technologies that will shape the future, including AI, big data, and quantum computing.
Guided by our vision of becoming "a leading institute transforming R&D with AI and HPC," KISTI aims to:
1. Advance as an AI and big data-oriented research institute based on world-class AI computing resources;
2. Realize a global KISTI through openness and collaboration;
3. Establish a rapid support system to solve pressing national and societal issues.
Through these efforts, KISTI will contribute to enhancing national competitiveness.
KISTI envisions an era where data shapes our future, and technology creates new value.
We are committed to leading change and innovation alongside the people, striving to become a trusted research institute.
Thank you.
Sik Lee |
www_tecopti_com_blank-1 | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4199
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About Our Business
Creative Solutions
At TecOpti (Pty) Ltd, we understand that change is not always easy. Our team members have been helping companies of all sizes respond to industry transitions to stay competitive since 1990. Our years of experience have taught us constantly to make your business success our priority.
Our expert team is ready to help you develop strategies for surviving and thriving in the future.
Give us a call or email us today.
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callindo_com_en_ai-machine-learning_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4011
Artificial Intelligence or AI & machine learning (ML) innovations have revolutionized the way we work, conduct business, and even interact with each other. This technology is rapidly evolving, impacting various sectors and holding immense potential for the future. In Indonesia, the adoption of AI and machine learning is not just a trend but a necessity to maintain competitiveness and address the challenges of the digital era.
AI Technological Innovation: Answering Digital Challenges
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that develops machines or systems capable of mimicking human intelligence to perform complex tasks such as natural language processing, decision-making, and pattern recognition. This technology offers numerous innovations that transform the way industries operate, creating efficiencies and enhancing user experiences. Real-world examples of AI technology innovation in Indonesia include:
- Speech Recognition Systems: Utilizing AI to improve interactions with virtual assistants and automated customer service.
- Recommendation Systems: In the e-commerce sector, AI technology aids in providing personalized product recommendations to consumers.
- Autonomous Vehicles: The development of self-driving vehicles, which is becoming a reality thanks to advancements in AI technology.
Machine Learning Development: Shaping the Digital Future
Machine Learning (ML), a subset of AI, focuses on developing algorithms that enable computers to learn from data and improve their performance automatically. With the advancement of machine learning, many industries in Indonesia are starting to leverage this technology to improve efficiency and predict market trends. The three main types of machine learning that are rapidly developing are:
- Supervised Learning: In this model, computers are trained using labeled data to perform classification or prediction. Examples of its application are in fraud detection or sentiment analysis.
- Unsupervised Learning: Here, the model works with unlabeled data to find hidden patterns or clusters, as used in customer analysis and market segmentation.
- Reinforcement Learning: This model learns through trial-and-error to achieve a specific goal, such as in robotics or production system optimization.
AI & Machine Learning Trends in Indonesia
AI and machine learning trends are increasingly evident in Indonesia, particularly in sectors such as technology, health, education, and manufacturing. Large Indonesian companies have begun investing in this technology to improve business processes and leverage their data for better decision-making.
- Health: AI is used in disease diagnosis and medical data management, making medical processes faster and more accurate.
- Business: With machine learning, companies can analyze customer behavior and design more relevant and efficient products and services.
- Education: AI technology supports personalized learning, with platforms that can adapt materials based on student needs.
- Manufacturing: The use of machine learning to predict machine maintenance and improve production processes is a growing trend.
The Future of AI in Indonesia: Facing the Challenges and Opportunities of the Digital Era
The future of AI in Indonesia is bright, considering the country’s large population supported by a continuously growing digital market. The potential for the adoption of AI and machine learning in Indonesia is wide open, especially with the improvement of digital infrastructure and government policies that encourage technological innovation. This digital transformation is expected to change the industrial landscape and the way companies operate, from the business sector to public services.
In the future, AI is expected to be more integrated into various aspects of daily life. For example, in the banking sector, AI technology will be used to personalize customer service and detect potential fraud faster. In the transportation sector, AI-powered autonomous vehicles will be a solution to reduce congestion and improve safety. Even in the government sector, AI can be utilized to increase the efficiency of public services and smarter data management.
However, the journey to a brighter future is also fraught with challenges. Issues such as uneven digital skills, data security, and AI ethics must be a primary concern. For the smooth adoption of AI and its positive impact, all parties, including the government, industry players, and the public, need to work together to create a safe, transparent, and sustainable technology ecosystem.
AI & machine learning innovations are driving rapid digital transformation. This technology offers more efficient, accurate, and personalized solutions in various sectors. With a promising future, AI and machine learning will continue to play a significant role in advancing industries in Indonesia.
At Callindo, we are ready to support your business in adopting and leveraging the full potential of AI and machine learning technology to face the challenges and opportunities of the digital era. |
www_intelligentcommunity_org_minister_blown_away_by_ipswich_innovation_hub | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4586
IPSWICH has been named the state's leader in innovation and technology.
The city's commitment to fostering new start-ups through the Firestation 101 innovation hub has also put us in the box seat to win a significant amount of funding.
Minister for innovation Leeanne Enoch chose Ipswich to announce the release of a discussion paper as part of a series of workshops to decide how millions in funding will be spent.
She said Firestation 101 was the perfect place to make the announcement given the work happening at the hub had been "absolutely mind blowing".
Read the full story at qt.com.au.
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www_unthsc_edu_daily-news_research-cafe-april-19-2023-hsc-intellectual-property-ip-policy-management | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4168
Upcoming Workshop: HSC Intellectual Property (IP) Policy Management & Sharing Plan
When: April 19, 2023 | 1 – 2:30 p.m.
Where: Zoom – https://unthsc.zoom.us/j/81648768933
Please join us for February’s Research Café: HSC Intellectual Property (IP) Policy hosted by Dr. Paula Gregory.
Dr. Robert McClain, Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation, will outline how commercial revenue is shared with HSC inventors and how IP arising from academic and commercial collaborations (including SBIR and STTR partnerships) is managed.
Everyone is welcome to attend. |
delftdesignlabs_org_news_palliatieve-zorg-congres-2018_screen-shot-2018-06-21-at-16-36-18_ | innovation | SIMILARITY: 0.4281
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