Amazing visualization of our environment

Someone hooked the real-time location of satellites around Earth into Google Earth. The result is amazing. I know this is a minuscule fraction of the available space around the planet, but you've got to wonder when we'll reach a tipping point with the number of satellites we have. I'm sure the amount of smog we produced from burning coal seemed tiny at one point. 

via: Boing Boing

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

On time for yourself

When most people say they want to be rich I think they really mean that they want to be free from many of the seemingly unavoidable traps of modern life. Doesn't it follow that you could become rich by refusing to participate in a lot of the social rituals take for granted? I'm a big believer in the Stoic school of thought that says a man who forged his own chains of gold is still chained.

What's an apparent anarchist in-potentia to do? For the last little while my strategy has been to laugh at the insanity of people, but I'm feeling more and more that it is possible to make a difference, even if only on a local level. Realistically, where else can one start? If you try and change a huge system without understanding the underpinnings, you're guaranteed to fail. If you're lucky, there won't be many side-effects. Bottom-up beats top-down in any group bigger than about a dozen people. I wonder if that has anything to do with our enjoyment of team sports. I don't know of any seriously popular sorts that have more than about a dozen people on the field at a time (per team). Our monkey brains have a hard time understanding anything greater than the tribe level, and that influences us more than we care to admit.

I like to think the incredible connectivity of the Internet will make our lives better, if the designers can make sure it still appeals to our monkey brains. Maybe I'll go buy some shares in FourSquare and Facebook; they seem like good bets in that sense.

I should probably also find out if they're publicly traded.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous

Government as a service is toxic

It's amazing what governments are able to get away with, and how easy it would be to change. The technology exists, it is too cheap to measure, and its advantages far outweigh the costs.

Why are we not pursuing a truely open government which enables innovation rather than squashing it? Because of those with vested interests, both in and out of office. We need to insist on a government that empowers individuals rather than pigeonholing them. If we keep expecting to just pay taxes and get results back we're going to be disappointed. If we get real time feedback from them it will be so much easier to alter our environment to get optimal results.

Please stop supporting the status quo, we can do so much better.

Posted via email from Iain's posterous