Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - based, of course (loosely) on the infamous, real-life story of the Manson Family's murder of Sharon Tait and her friends story gives us a glimpse of the dark side of happy hippie culture - and how counter-culture-culture can turn into a cult. Recently, I was asked to co-author … Continue reading On cults, climate and culture
At the end of last year, I was asked to write a few thoughts on the most important, most disruptive technological milestones for each year of the last decade that will continue to have an impact in the future of the decade to come. Here follows the original version of that article, before it was edited … Continue reading Trend retrospective, a decade in the rearview mirror
When fallible human priests fail to fill the void, and reveal themselves to be more human than divine; we turn to man-made synthetic deities. Japan's robot priest confirms that we are looking for new gods for our new age - made in our own image, yet perfectly, and programmable. (And not all that different from … Continue reading (A)I Am
Following on from Sapiens, Homo Deus is as illuminating as its predecessor. This volume looks at transhumanism, that is the evolution of homo sapiens (that's us) into an entirely new species: Homo Deus, the first terrestrial species to emerge to have created itself, though a combination of biological, genetic engineering and technological enhancements, rather than to … Continue reading Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow
The first of Yuval Noah Harari's two best-selling books on the evolution of human society Sapiens, just like the book that follows it, Homo Deus (review coming soon), is a must-read for anyone interested in history or futurism. Sapiens tackles the same issues covered by Jared Diamond's (excellent) Guns, Germs and Steel, and Niall Ferguson's … Continue reading Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind
In many ways, common myths are the glue that hold human society together. This does not make these myths "true". It just makes them true enough for a large enough majority to believe in. When people believe in something, really truly believe in it, they will do almost anything to defend that belief, often to the … Continue reading The future of our shared myths
The blockchain makes Bitcoin work. It could make a few other things work better too. Here are just three ways the future is about to get a lot more interesting thanks to this deceptively simple technology: (FYI, Bitcoin itself, as in the currency, is a wonderful way to move your money around the world without … Continue reading Blockchain of all the things
The South African government has just tabled a bill that will make home schooling your children much more difficult - and much, much more expensive. For a start home-schooled scholars will become subject to annual state education assessments from state educators (which parents will have to pay extra for, of course). What is more, several … Continue reading What are they teaching you?
If it feels like somebody is watching you, well, it's because they are. Who is this somebody? Pretty much anybody who wants to, that's who: Skynet Your insurance company and medical aid have already sold you respectively on the "benefits" of letting them track your driving habits, through your cellphone insurance app, and your lifestyle … Continue reading Somebody’s watching you…
It appears academia is split. The brightest minds of our time cannot agree whether Artificial Intelligence is the best thing to happen to humanity yet - or our worst nightmare. Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook is on the pro AI team. He is exacted about all the cool technology we will soon be playing with. Yey! … Continue reading Is Elon Musk a Luddite?
