Technology & Society
Bold predictions about the future in The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, recently released by legendary inventor Ray Kurzweil, are causing reviewers to marvel in awe or disbelief. But while Kurzweil’s forecasts are fascinating, the book’s analysis of
Here’s a great piece from Kevin Maney at USA Today on new diamond technology that has the potential to significantly change the computing world. He quotes me as saying that I’m awed by the technology, and I really am. The
Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s controversial mayor, was in the spotlight again this week as he and his staff contemplated which lucky company will get the rights to provide WiFi access around the city. The real question is, why is government
I was at a fundraiser last night for the charity Best Buddies — a group that aims to help mentally disabled people by providing opportunities for friendship and employment. The group is run by Anthony Shriver, the brother of California’s
San Francisco and a number of other cities are considering getting into the broadband business, but that would be a disaster for consumers, small business, and communities. Read the Municipal Broadband Compact here and PRI’s comments to SF city here.
The 9th Annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference took place this week at Lake Tahoe. Officially, the theme was “the Singularity,” an artificial intelligence term denoting the emergence of transformative technological change. But the main meme revolved around a slightly less sexy
Chinese officials recently announced they will no longer consider death tolls and other relevant information about natural disasters to be state secrets. On the same day, China Telecom blocked Internet phone service from Skype. That left observers wondering whether freedom
China is not exactly a place where trademarks are effective, but nevertheless a Chinese bioscience company has registered trademarks for the new condoms it will make and sell. The names of the two condoms? Clinton and Lewinsky. Priceless.
The world’s oldest person is 115 years old, and while that might seem impressive, it’s only the beginning. Advances in technology are poised to usher in longer and better life spans, a reality the general public has been slow to
This is a neat tool to estimate how long you will live based on your habits and family history. And if you take into account the fact that it makes its predictions based on *today’s* technology, things are really looking
I was at a party tonight where I met the “most important Matt in the world,” according to Google. The 21-year-old works at Cnet, but he also happened to be the guy who created the software I’m blogging on. Thanks,
This editorial calling the Guardian’s editor and publisher on his “Brain Vomit” is enlightening and sharp. Bruce B. Brugmann must be really embarassed. A must read.
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is set to grow tenfold by 2010, but according to industry reports the leader won’t be the United States. Instead, countries such as China, France, and Italy are forecast to lead. It’s possible, however, that recent
A new threat to national security surfaced this week and if federal agencies fail to address it, they could hamstring important tools to catch terrorists. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported this week that federal agencies are breaking privacy and
This week, a group of legal scholars, high government officials, Nobel prize recipients and economic experts gathered for the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss e-government , telecommunications and intellectual property, among other issues. One of
If San Francisco City Hall can barely afford to provide residents the critical services that matter most, such as police, fire protection, and public transportation, why would anyone think it will be able to maintain a high-quality, cutting-edge broadband network?
Directly after the Senator Ensign meeting, I went to the airport, hopped on a plane, and 8 hours later I was in Iceland. The main city here, Reykjavik, reminds me of Edmonton, Canada (same type of trees and look of
I attended a small Lead21 gathering last night featuring Senator Ensign (R-NV). Topics we discussed included stem cell research (he supports working with adult stem cells), Iraq (he thinks Americans aren’t hearing the full story and that there’s some positive
The SF Chronicle quoted me on this issue today, and for whatever reason felt the need to say that PRI is funded by SBC, but of course they didn’t say by how much, leaving the false impression that SBC is
Today I led a discussion seminar at Command College on technology issues such as broadband, communications applications, privacy, security, intellectual property, nanotech, robotics, and biotech. The officers in the program were engaging and thoughtful — a good sign for the