My son’s website idea, the future for kids, is finally up and seems to be working.
Not much content on the site yet, but it’s only been live for about an hour. If you have or know any kids, ideally aged 8-13, please ask them to submit some ideas.

The idea, if you remember, was to create a site where kids could share their ideas about what the future – the world they’ll one day live in – will be like.

Submissions can be words, drawings, photographs, videos or almost anything. We’ll add tags soon so people will be able to look at ideas by category – i.e. kids (and adults too) will be able to search future cars, future fashion, future sports and so on.

That link again….

A nice download here from Atos about the use of technology in sport (thanks Francisco). On a slightly related note, the latest argument over the school holidays is whether we should have 2 TVs in 2 different rooms so that each kid can watch their own programme. I said no.

One of the key problems with communal devices becoming individualized is that people get what they want. Nothing wrong with that you might think, especially if you don’t have kids, but my worry is creating a generation that cannot share or accommodate the views of others. Tough love baby.

Earlier in the year Science Focus asked 12 scientists to make a few brave predictions. Among the highlights were: use of remote sensing technology in archaeology, developments in quantum biology, finding out what colours the dinosaurs were, developments with Graphene (a one-atom thick sheet of carbon), the use of quasi-crystals to create hard-wearing materials and computer and device interfaces where individual human thoughts can be linked with individual machine actions.

I’m becoming increasingly interested in the idea of neo-feudalism. This came up in a recent MOD workshop and was also the subject of a comment made by Krista in relation to my recent post concerning the world in 2045.

What is neo-feudalism? I’m still trying to figure this out, but it seems to be the idea that modern society is reverting to a feudal structure as typified by life in the middle and late medieval period.

Classically, such a world would display a high level of polarization between the incomes and opportunities at the very top of society and everyone else. This characteristic also came up a few days ago on Radio 4, although unfortunately I was driving and couldn’t write down what was actually said. Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

For a fuller definition see hear.

So I’ve just moved house and lost just about everything including my mind. My office is currently paperless due to a lack of printer cable and I’ve had 2 days with no easy email access or internet. Oh, and did I mention that the kids are on school holidays and the dog keeps running off?

Last night we all went to the Olympics, which was interesting in that almost nobody in the crowd seemed to be taking pictures or video. They were actually watching what was going on direct. It was a live event and people appeared to instinctively feel that they wanted to experience it and everyone around directly. Sponsorship was also surprisingly low key (almost non-existent) inside the stadium and outside it was quite tasteful too.

What else is going on? My book ’50 Things’ is done and Future Vision (previously Four Seeable Futures) is getting close. I’ve also been working on an idea my eleven-year-old son had, which is a web 2.0 website for kids called…the future for kids. More on that soon.

Other than that I’m working at about 20% for a change due to the move plus the fact it’s August. Oh, and my new shed-quarters is coming along nicely to, but more on that soon too. You want more? Check out this then – the world in 2100 courtesy of the World Future Society.

Server farms generate 23% of all emissions produced by the ICT industry – ‘Accounting for the Energy Consumption of Personal Computing including Portable Devices‘ (Witchita State University).

OK, still up to my eyes. Writing something today on the customer in 25-years time for a short film. I’m going to post some of my notes on geo-politics in 2045 tomorrow (if I can remember), but a few things caught my eye today.

First is the news that Facebook is testing online banking, which would seem quite logical to me and a potential game-changer for the retail banking industry.  Second is something from Volkswagen about driving in 2028.

Good article in the Guardian two days ago about the looting of Barclays bank by those at the very top. Two statistics that really caught my attention were that Barclay’s top 238 staff took home £1.01 billion last year , which is £4.27 million each. Meanwhile, the bank carries £1.8 trillion in gross credit risk, which is more than the UK’s entire annual income.

You can spin these figures various ways, not all bad, but what stands out for me is how  a plethora of major public companies nowadays are seemingly run for the enrichment of senior staff. The true owners have lost control.

Full article right here

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Off to a conference about water today, one of my favourite subjects alongside oil (yes they do mix actually). Also, love this for some reason…a bit Blade Runner perhaps?