Friday, November 14, 2003
BBC - Horizon - Big Chill Transcript of BBC TV programme on how climate change may affect Gulf Stream, leading to arctic Western Europe - ouch!
These BBC archives and transcripts are great, and more is promised...
These BBC archives and transcripts are great, and more is promised...
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Africa Reclaiming the Future:
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Spirit of a new Bandung
piece by Victoria Brittain in The Guardian Tuesday November 11, 2003
"What will Africa be like in 2025? Today's realities include civil wars running over generations, hundreds of thousands of child soldiers, street children, brutalised women, mutilated ex-soldiers, a brain drain; and life expectancies, economies, health and education dramatically set back by HIV/Aids....
"Last month in Cape Town, African politicians and academics met to discuss these ideas, focusing on four alternative scenarios, set out in a new book that sums up the work of this project.* The first, dubbed "The lions are trapped", is one in which the old pattern of looking after relationships dominates, but with no envisaged boost to productivity. The second, "The lions are hungry", is the hopeless picture painted by American journalists such as Robert Kaplan, of "lawless lands plagued by violence, wracked by hunger and poverty, adrift at the whim of warlords".
"The third, "The lions come out of their den", is more original. New generations of entrepreneurs and politicians will create new relationships between political and economic power, and commit to continent-wide economic integration. Meanwhile, religious institutions, emphasising individual responsibility, work, effort and savings, would reinforce this climate.
"The fourth scenario, "The lions mark their territory", is introduced by a quotation from Martinique's Aimé Césaire, poet, surrealist, intellectual leader of the anticolonial movement: "We do not wish to revive a dead society... We must create a new society... rich with all the productive capacity of today, warm with all the brotherhood of old." It looks to a leadership - political, religious and traditional - with a social vision rooted in the spread of information, training, the rule of law and pluralism. But the use of Césaire shows how far this is from a technocratic quick fix. ..."
· Africa 2025, What possible futures for sub-Saharan Africa? edited by Alioune Sall, Unisa Press, University of South Africa.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Spirit of a new Bandung
piece by Victoria Brittain in The Guardian Tuesday November 11, 2003
"What will Africa be like in 2025? Today's realities include civil wars running over generations, hundreds of thousands of child soldiers, street children, brutalised women, mutilated ex-soldiers, a brain drain; and life expectancies, economies, health and education dramatically set back by HIV/Aids....
"Last month in Cape Town, African politicians and academics met to discuss these ideas, focusing on four alternative scenarios, set out in a new book that sums up the work of this project.* The first, dubbed "The lions are trapped", is one in which the old pattern of looking after relationships dominates, but with no envisaged boost to productivity. The second, "The lions are hungry", is the hopeless picture painted by American journalists such as Robert Kaplan, of "lawless lands plagued by violence, wracked by hunger and poverty, adrift at the whim of warlords".
"The third, "The lions come out of their den", is more original. New generations of entrepreneurs and politicians will create new relationships between political and economic power, and commit to continent-wide economic integration. Meanwhile, religious institutions, emphasising individual responsibility, work, effort and savings, would reinforce this climate.
"The fourth scenario, "The lions mark their territory", is introduced by a quotation from Martinique's Aimé Césaire, poet, surrealist, intellectual leader of the anticolonial movement: "We do not wish to revive a dead society... We must create a new society... rich with all the productive capacity of today, warm with all the brotherhood of old." It looks to a leadership - political, religious and traditional - with a social vision rooted in the spread of information, training, the rule of law and pluralism. But the use of Césaire shows how far this is from a technocratic quick fix. ..."
· Africa 2025, What possible futures for sub-Saharan Africa? edited by Alioune Sall, Unisa Press, University of South Africa.
Friday, November 07, 2003
Club of Amsterdam - Shaping Your Future in the Knowledge Society newsletter, journal, conferences such as Future of Media, with such goodies as:
ð The Future of Music in the Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
"We are moving towards an era of software-based musical instruments, intelligent accompanists, and music as information",
ð The Future of Communications by Intel Research
"Analysts predict that by 2005 there will be 700 million mobile handsets and over 80 million WLANs in use world-wide, and nearly 13 million wireless home networks in place in the United States. Explosive growth of wireless networks and devices will have a huge impact on the core network itself. .."
ð The Future of Music in the Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
"We are moving towards an era of software-based musical instruments, intelligent accompanists, and music as information",
ð The Future of Communications by Intel Research
"Analysts predict that by 2005 there will be 700 million mobile handsets and over 80 million WLANs in use world-wide, and nearly 13 million wireless home networks in place in the United States. Explosive growth of wireless networks and devices will have a huge impact on the core network itself. .."
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
GM crops UK Strategy Unit document on costs and benefits of GM crops - presents a set of scenarios where public attitudes and regulatory frameworks vary. Lots of other documents on website, including workshop and consultation reports.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | From 1984 to 2020: a vision of our future
Suimmarises paper by Liam Byrne warning Labour party of divided and divisive future.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | 2020 vision: "2020 vision"
Search for 2020 vision reveals other Guardian sponsored conferences, on issues like political participation and the voluntary sector. This one discusses a charity future where "People over 50 are forced to volunteer; charities account for 15% of GDP; and all charity tax breaks have been abolished." keynote speaker Michael Mainelli, from the management consultants, Z/Yen presents three scenarios of the charity sector in 20 years' time. first is 'control freaks',
Suimmarises paper by Liam Byrne warning Labour party of divided and divisive future.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | 2020 vision: "2020 vision"
Search for 2020 vision reveals other Guardian sponsored conferences, on issues like political participation and the voluntary sector. This one discusses a charity future where "People over 50 are forced to volunteer; charities account for 15% of GDP; and all charity tax breaks have been abolished." keynote speaker Michael Mainelli, from the management consultants, Z/Yen presents three scenarios of the charity sector in 20 years' time. first is 'control freaks',
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Life in 2020: solar power, hens in the garden and a robot in the loo Guardian extracts from an Environment Agency futures study, from a conference on 2020 Future Vision - will add details when located.
Meanwhile, some extracts:
Household windmill and solar panels generate surplus electricity to feed back into national grid, providing a small income
Pollution - Electromagnetic detector makes sure there are no harmful radiation fields from phone and internet masts
Radiation - Meter checks whether the family has exceeded its greenhouse gas allowance
Health - Toilet automatically analyses samples and digitally sends the information to the doctor's surgery
Children - Child, a girl, is adopted because chemicals have caused low sperm count and infertility in the father
Transport - Shared family car runs on hydrogen
Water - Toilet and household waste water sent to family water purification plant for recycling
Supplies - Smart fridge automatically orders bread, milk, yoghurt and other produce as the family runs short. The family keeps chickens for eggs
Communication - Father uses office phone operated by electricity generated by his brain
Deliveries - Morning food delivery made by a refugee from Tuvalu whose country was drowned by a sea level rise in 2017
Television - There are joint computer TVs in most rooms in the house
Meanwhile, some extracts:
Household windmill and solar panels generate surplus electricity to feed back into national grid, providing a small income
Pollution - Electromagnetic detector makes sure there are no harmful radiation fields from phone and internet masts
Radiation - Meter checks whether the family has exceeded its greenhouse gas allowance
Health - Toilet automatically analyses samples and digitally sends the information to the doctor's surgery
Children - Child, a girl, is adopted because chemicals have caused low sperm count and infertility in the father
Transport - Shared family car runs on hydrogen
Water - Toilet and household waste water sent to family water purification plant for recycling
Supplies - Smart fridge automatically orders bread, milk, yoghurt and other produce as the family runs short. The family keeps chickens for eggs
Communication - Father uses office phone operated by electricity generated by his brain
Deliveries - Morning food delivery made by a refugee from Tuvalu whose country was drowned by a sea level rise in 2017
Television - There are joint computer TVs in most rooms in the house
Monday, November 03, 2003
Neuro-IT roadmap -first version, comments requested - on FET website: roadmap1
ISTweb | Directorate F | FET | CORDIS : IST : FET : Communication Initiative#contributions This website contains documents from, and a report of, a brainstorming workshop on New Communication Paradigms for 2020
The final report of the workshop identifies several promising research areas.
Contributions received from the experts who had been invited to the workshop are available, entitiled;
Some thoughts about future scenarios
Future communications systems: 2020 and beyond
2020 vision, starting point
Thoughts on Meaningful Communications
Ambient composition of active documents
Future Communications Paradigms
Autonomic communications
Some thoughts on FET research outlook in networking
Ambience is the challenge
Notes on communications in 2020
Tools/learning balance and Risk Avoidance for Workplace Enhancement
Health care and living comfort for everybody "beyond 30"-
The final report of the workshop identifies several promising research areas.
Contributions received from the experts who had been invited to the workshop are available, entitiled;
Some thoughts about future scenarios
Future communications systems: 2020 and beyond
2020 vision, starting point
Thoughts on Meaningful Communications
Ambient composition of active documents
Future Communications Paradigms
Autonomic communications
Some thoughts on FET research outlook in networking
Ambience is the challenge
Notes on communications in 2020
Tools/learning balance and Risk Avoidance for Workplace Enhancement
Health care and living comfort for everybody "beyond 30"-
