• • Alvin Finkel@alvinf

  

  I invite all readers of The Landing, especially those who view themselves as progressives, to read Change Alberta and comment on topics that we discuss. Change Alberta played an important role in the provincial elections of 2012 and 2015 and since the latter election has attempted to counter the pervasive propaganda in favour of returning to a past where Alberta governments were puppets of big business and opponents of universal services and special help for the disadvantaged.

  Alvin Finkel June 21, 2017 - 12:51am

• • Jon Dron@jond

  

  2D like books and maps?

  Of course, our intelligence is and has long been tethered to and totally dependent on not only others around us but also the embedded knowledge of our forebears in the tools, products, and processes they create. It's not an optional extra - it is the nature of our engagement with the world and an inextricable  part of our very thinking. As we build more of that into the tools themselves there are huge potential gains - we get smarter and more powerful - and huge potential losses, including great risks of taking away our power to control the things that matter most to us. Power supplies and network dependence are very tangible frailties (and two that will hopefully be solved in the not too distant future), but we must inevitably become more and more dependent on others of our species too, sharing the cognitive load as well as the artefacts. That has been the essential thrust of the past few thousand years. I think part of the longer game is augmentation - at first, the clunky head-mounted or phone-based stuff but, later, a far more invisible and symbiotic relationship, in which we share in an enhanced and shared reality to which many contribute, and in which those 2D screens and separate information devices largely disappear from the physical space (though many will reappear virtually). Whether this turns us into the Borg (Mark Zuckerberg as the Borg Queen?) or whether we become a more connected, enlightened, caring species in the process hinges quite a bit on the decisions we make now. Interesting times!

  Jon Dron June 12, 2017 - 2:51pm

• • Steve Swettenham@stevesw

  

  @ Mary McNabb - 2D refers to the width and height screen interface that humans are currently using to view and navigate.

  An Australian researcher believes that she can create a quantum computer, which may qualify as a new form of computing; mix that with AI and robotics, and you have a recipe for homo sapien redundancy.  Hence, net app'd learners may be "freerer" of the digital accoutrements by developing actual survival skills (i.e., how to tell time, find your way, or understand weather patterns etc... when their Apple watch runs out of energy).

  Being tethered to an energy supply to access the digital world is tenuous compared to the ancient technology of rock paintings, clay tablets, and hemp scrolls; but being tethered to an app cloud (clouds come and go), is not independance for the enduser (rather a dependance that is reminiscent of an addiction).  As for your last question, would it not depend to some extent on the individual learners and societal interests? (i.e., a return to the Apple commercial of 1984).

  Steve Swettenham June 12, 2017 - 2:17pm

• • Mary McNabb@marymc2

  

  So @ Steve Swettenham - you're prompting several questions here.  Which two dimensions are you referring to in your response? And another question - could Net app'd learners be completely free of the digital appurtenances of the last century?

  Mary McNabb June 12, 2017 - 11:58am

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