Digital news is a classic case of disruptive innovation - Arianna Huffington, May 2009

There was a time when newspapers were at the pinnacle of information technology. The influence of the newspaper on the evolution of human consciousness is not to be underestimated; for a start, its ability to be rewritten every day helped dilute the power and finality of the book to shape and transport human constructs of the world.  Despite intense lobbying from established news organizations, the information technology revolution will leave behind what is now an antiquated method for transporting the latest world happenings into the human mind.

How can incumbent news organizations compete for attention when the very nature of generation and consumption of information is in flux?

As bloggers gain traction, some papers seem to be aptly positioned to navigate the migration to a new paradigm -  The Economist, for example, has increased US circulation by over 150% in the last 10 years (50%+ is Europe) -  while other news organizations are lobbying for restrictions on internet access and bandwidth.

WATCH:

Arianna Huffington Testimony on the Future of Journalism, May 2009 (VIDEO)

This creative commons documentary on the history of news technology is in itself an example of the challenges facing traditional news media:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHvzQ82DNx8

Future News Technology

Sony’s work on flexible display technology:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bkmPjVF-k

The Amazon Kindle 2.0 allows you to subscribe to several newspapers, though news organizations are reluctant to accept a reported 70%-30% (Amazon-Newspaper) split in revenues:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAf4vxGEOAo

E-Paper demo:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHMpcfEIGBE

Related articles

• Rumors of a Big Screen Kindle (mediabistro.com)
• Will Amazon’s Kindle Rescue Newspapers? (time.com)
• Giant Kindle targets commuters and students (geeksaresexy.net)

Originally built by the US military, the internet is now an essential element of the developed world.

The EU Commissioner Viviane Reding, the EU’s Internet chief, called for the severing of links between ICANN and the U.S. government.

Currently ICANN operates under an agreement with the Commerce Department, and the United States is the only government with oversight of ICANN, which assigns Internet addresses used by more than 1.5 billion Internet users around the world.

“I believe that the U.S., so far, has done this in a reasonable manner. However, I also believe that the Clinton administration’s decision to progressively privatize the Internet’s domain name and addressing system is the right one. In the long run, it is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an Internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcE89yXbUc

This will not only be a test of President Obama‘s foreign policy, but also his belief in roles and responsibilities of the United Nations. Obama must juggle the emerging principles of global democracy with the security interests of the United States, as weapons of mass destruction become ever more digital.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRGHGb5axK4

The National Research Council is calling for a open national debate on the technological, policy, legal, and ethical issues of cyberwarfare, said the committee that wrote the report.

Insight into Cyber Attacks

Russia combined cyber attacks with military operations in its invasion of Georgia:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvP_x09cfU0

Background on the Internet

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1A9lYC3g-0

Related articles

• US needs ‘digital warfare force’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• EU urges US to drop ICANN (theregister.co.uk)
• EU to ICANN: ditch the US gov ties and become more global (arstechnica.com)
• Europe looks to wrest control ofthe web away from the US (guardian.co.uk)

New brainwave devices will go on sale for as little as $80.

There seems little doubt that the advent of brainwave reading technologies heralds a new age in human-computer interaction. The first commercially available devices are likely to be used to for gaming, but the potential uses for this technology are bound to elicit excitement and worry in equal measure.

Researchers have developed systems that read brainwaves – in the form of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals – in order to help people suffering from disabilities or paralysis control wheelchairs, play games, or type on a computer. Now, two companies are preparing to market similar devices to mainstream consumers.

In the coming months, cheap headsets that let you control technology with the electrical signals generated by your firing neurons will go on sale to the general public. Our relationship with technology – and our brains – will never be the same again. – New Scientist, Apr 2009

IMPLICATIONS FOR METAPHYSICS & SOCIAL RESEARCH

The emergence of brainwave apparatus for practical purposes confirms the fact that humans, and presumably other animals, have the ability to consciously emit energy fields (electromagnetic frequencies). The effects of individual and collective emissions has been largely ignored by the scientific community for many years.

The ubiquity and evolution of brainwave devices may lead to greater insight into the relationships between our physical and metaphysical existence.

TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

EVOLUTION OF BRAINWAVE TECHNOLOGIES

The trajectory of technological evolution suggests that brainwave interfaces will be followed by similar breakthroughs to those of the telegraph. Rudimentary human-computer interaction will be superceded with increasingly complex and ubiquitous human-human and computer-to-human brainwave-based interaction.

• Remote Control – Computers, television, home & work appliances
• Internet Pull & Push Technology – Access to maps, email & alert systems notification
• Realtime Sensory Systems – Enhanced driver alert, connection to artificial sensors

If interactive brainwave technologies eventually connect humans (and possibly other species) into a super-neural internet, what will implications for privacy and security?

And the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is to simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the country’s power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or freeze the financial markets — in an effort to build better defenses against such attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons.

Just as the invention of the atomic bomb changed warfare and deterrence 64 years ago, a new international race has begun to develop cyberweapons and systems to protect against them. – New York Times (April 2009)

RELATED ARTICLES

• Brain-Machine Interface from Japan (ivor-kovic.com)
• From Honda, a Mind-Reading Robot (businessweek.com)
• Star Wars Force Trainer Brains On: Is The Force With Me? – the force (VIDEO) (Gizmodo)
• In Cyberweapons Race, Questions Linger Over U.S. Offensive Capability – Series (NY Times)