Computer addiction

 

 

 

 

 

Cracked it. TEDx is done. It was either the sunshine, the deadline or the Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here) that did it. Personally, I’d say it was Welcome to the Machine mixed with some good coffee.

In other news (I’d say real news, but I’m not so sure in this case) I saw an article today saying that children as young as four are having therapy for addiction for compulsive behaviour caused by iPads. It was in the Daily Telegraph, so a bit of common sense and cynicism should be applied. Nevertheless, Dr Graham at the Caprio Nightingale Clinic in London has designed a 28-day “Digital Detox” course costing £16,000 (!) to wean teeny weenies off the hard stuff.

Now what did I say in Future Minds about computer addiction clinics? I wonder if they have the same issues in Australia? Maybe not. Every kid I meet last week seemed quite sane – addicted to either surfing or fishing.

Where’s Wally?

 

Sorry for the radio silence, but I flew on from KL to Sydney and then lost the means (and then the will) to post. Life as it should be (Sydney, not the missing blog). The water was warm, the fish was fresh and everyone seemed very chilled. Not quite sure what I made of going back this time. Disorientating, certainty, but it also opened up a bunch of questions about where I’d rather be, which, frankly, need to be put back in the drawer marked “Do Not Open”. Or maybe not.

Anyhow, I’m back, the northern spring has sprung, and I’m soon off to do a TEDx talk in Spain on the subject of Slow Leadership. The only thing is I have no idea what I’m going to say so I need some ideas – fast. Other news, What’s Next issue 34 is done and will go up in the next couple of days.

Emotionally aware machines

 

 

 

What if the screens that we look at all day could read our faces? I’m not talking about facial recognition, but rather software and devices that can read the mood of individual users or perhaps the mood of a large crowd.

Such technology already exists. In 2009 scientists from MIT created a project in which the facial reactions of volunteers watching adverts during the Super Bowl could be recorded using webcams. Data was then grouped by age to gauge reactions, by age, to certain types of advertisement.

In the future this could perhaps be done in real time and broken down by age, gender and a host of other factors for anyone and everyone watching an event on a screen. So a clever new tool for advertisers then? Yes, but think a little more broadly. The concept of giving people a non-verbal voice and, in particular, of assessing the emotion of a large crowd could be useful in politics, especially during elections.

It could also be valuable to authoritarian regimes interested in judging the mood of a country or perhaps in identifying small groups intent on disagreement. The technology that exists right now can can tell the difference between not only happiness and sadness, but between interest, disgust and contempt.

In fact it can even filter out joyful smiles from sad or frustrated smiles. There’s still a long way to go, because humans can read facial expressions and body language to a degree that machine still cannot, but expect such emotion-reading technology to develop, for better and for worse, in the decades ahead.

Jet Stream of Consciousness

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got fed up with the weather in England so I’m in Kuala Lumpur. That’s not quite true – I was going there anyway – but the weather was getting me down and it’s a nice opener for a sentence. Anyway, true to form I’m awake at 3.00am. Weird stuff. One thought was weather a country’s electrical system is a soft form of power. In Malaysia, for example, the electrical sockets are the same as in the UK, a legacy from its colonial heritage I suspect. Does this give the UK any form of political power? I don’t think so, but that’s the kind of thing I start to thinking about when I have breakfast at dinnertime and can’t sleep.

I’ve also been thinking about whether it’s just me or have newspapers, especially in the UK, got really bad recently? There never seems to be any news I can use. No analysis of anything meaningful beyond wild speculation about the EU and North Korea and no pure thought in the sense of thinking for the sheer hell of it. The New York Times is still good, but even here I’m struggling to find original material.

Malaysia, I should report, is buzzing. New buildings galore and lots of weird stuff (or maybe not) such as people photographing (and taking videos!) of their breakfast. Also women in heir fifties wearing t-shirts with the word Lexus on with the logo in fake diamonds.

BTW, if you’re recently sent me an email (e.g. Bradley) thanks but I’m having problems….

‘Big Sugar’

A sneak peek at something from the new issue of What’s Next…

We’ve had Big Tobacco and Big Banks, so is it now time for Big Sugar? Sugar, alongside salt and fat are becoming political, not only because they are directly linked with a number of serious – and expensive – health issues, but because poor people trend to be fat and rich people tend not. In other words, fat is a class issue. In the UK people are, on average, three stone heavier than they were fifty years ago and this costs the NHS around five billion pounds annually to treat.

The usual explanation for this state of affairs is that the masses eat too much and don’t do enough exercise. They are greedy, lazy and ignorant and snack throughout the day. In other words, it’s their fault. But this view is now being challenged by those who argue that while it’s easily possible to avoid cigarettes and alcohol, it’s not quite so straightforward with sugar. Sugar, you see, is added to food and drink often without the knowledge of the consumer. Labelling is weak and the situation is compounded by the fact that the food industry, which has been removing fat from convenience foods since the late 1970s, has been adding sugar in various forms to make the low fat food taste more appetising. And according to the research, sugar in whatever form is highly addictive, fattening and could even be toxic.

High fructose corn syrup, developed from corn, is a particular villain and while it’s presence is usually labelled most people have no idea what it is let alone what it might be doing to them. Again, you can say that this is just ignorance on the part of consumers, but try to buy anything other than fresh fruit, vegetable, meat or fish (all increasingly expensive) from a supermarket. It’s difficult. As to specific links between sugar and obesity, it looks as though the problem could be that when the body is fed sugar it craves more sugar and this perhaps undermines the body’s in-built over-eating defences by undermining a hormone called leptin that regulates appetite. Fructose in particular is linked with liver toxicity and a host of chronic diseases ranging from diabetes to heart disease and cancers.

A fat tax aimed at the food companies (but perhaps aimed at individuals too?) might be the answer to this, at least in the sense of paying for the future trouble created, but clear public health messages and labelling would go a long way too.

Is ADHD related to heavy screen use?

According to the New York Times, almost one in five teenagers in the US and 11 per cent of school children overall have received a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), US government data shows. The figures show a 41 per cent rise in diagnoses in the past decade. Two thirds of those diagnosed are prescribed stimulants like Ritalin.

The image above is UK prescriptions for Methylphenidate, used to treat attention deficit disorder, between 1991-2006 (latest I can find). The image below is UK internet access – households and individuals (ONS, 2012). I’m sure the similarity is pure coincidence.

Five Trends for the Future of Food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve just been sent this. It’s a talk I did at the Barilla Centre for Food & Nutrition in Milan towards the end of last year and is about what, where and how we’ll eat in the year 2030.

The video runs just under 20- minutes (in English) and covers five key food trends. These are; 1) Speed, convenience & portability; 2) Seasonal, regional & slow; 3) Health & well-being versus indulgence; 4) Food history & “Noshtalgia”; 5) Science & Technology.

Trends in Iceland

A study by Tinna Laufey at the University of Iceland has looked at behavioral changes in Iceland since the economic crash of late 2008. It reveals that all unhealthily forms of behavior (the ones they measured anyway, like consumption of alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks) have fallen since late 2008. People are also working less, more people are getting married and more are getting a good night’s sleep. So recession = good?