Archive for the “things about which I am ambivalent” category

Some support for Schumpeter

by Luke Rodgers on September 2, 2009

The last book I read was Joseph Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Social, and Democracy, a book famous for coining the phrase “creative destruction” as a description of the process inherent to capitalism whereby old methods of production and commodities are incessantly obsolesced (…)

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Pascal vs. Callwood

by Luke Rodgers on June 15, 2009

If Callwood and Pascal had been pre-socratics, all would be either hate or love (respectively)

Ray Kurzweil on the Future of GNR

by Luke Rodgers on April 29, 2009

Minority Report + Jaxon X + Skynet = bad news?

Is HD a Schlimmbesserung?

by Luke Rodgers on February 9, 2009

At least for action movies, movies in HD is a step backwards in the viewing experience.

As the web gets smarter, will our anonymity evaporate?

by Luke Rodgers on January 18, 2009

One of the most exciting things going on in webland today, I think, is the myriad of technologies, user experiences, and computer-to-computer interactions that typically pass under the monikers of “Web 3.0” or “the semantic web.” There isn’t a lot (…)

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If it can’t be shared, it doesn’t count

by Luke Rodgers on November 15, 2008

Kevin Kelly on the future of the web, which he sees basically in terms of a movement towards the semantic web, or a web of linked data.
Kelly unfortunatley comes across a bit naive, as he discusses our inevitable dependance upon, (…)

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Bot-mediated reality

by Luke Rodgers on October 20, 2008

Having just spent upwards of 25 hours in a car driving between Peterborough, Toronto, and Pukaskwa National Park, one of the ways we passed the time was listening to a variety of podcasts, including Philosophy Bites, CBC Ideas, and the (…)

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Creepy female robot

by Luke Rodgers on July 31, 2008

I had to put this one in “robots doing good” and “robots doing evil” because she’s helping sell sunscreen, which is good, but she’s really disturbing, which is bad.