Mon, 05 Dec 2005

BrainJam, Dec 3, 2005

Last night, Mike suggested I might enjoy this "one day confernce kind of thing" at SRI today, BrainJams. Unfortunate name, but interesting enough looking as I needed a change of pace and some more socializing =)

It was fun. Basically, it ran as an extended brainstorming session. Lots of creative people who were into ideas jamming (the name was appropriate, though still, I believe, unfortunate) and springboarding on each others' ideas. Topics ranged all over the map, with many interesting conversations and people.

Rather than rehash it in digest form, I'll just spew some of the fun notions that crossed my mind while there:

• smiles per hour
• simulating privacy by spamming lies into the information space
• conspiracy theories as externalized business think tank
• web 2.0 as technophile social movement
• food is a catalyst for community building
• ubiquitous lack of privacy (complete transparency) and idealized society (no behavior outside one standard deviation from the norm in the control society) would be mutually sufficient and mutually causal (and probably a deeply scary distopia)
• group decisions on the internet generally reduce to everyone who disagrees with the loudest people leaving until there is concensus between those who remain
• there is a deep unmet need for greater physical community amongst internet-oriented geeks
• regardless of the societal norm, and hence laws, technological possibility will outpace them and define new expectations which will become legal once the majority is used to them (this means an eventual total lack of the current conceptualization of privacy)
• courtesy will replace privacy
• we need more old geeks to put us young geeks in our places when we step out of line

"Smiles per hour," is my favorite, the rest of the notions could wander away and I wouldn't be too sad. I'd feel a lasting loss at what I couldn't remember if I were to lose "smiles per hour."

writebacks...

Doug L.

Re lack of privacy: David Brin wrote a whole thought-provoking book about that. Re unmet need for physical community: I think that's one of the things meetup.com was (is?) trying to do. Re: Old geeks tend to teach by example, and occasionally to write about stupid mistakes we've made, rather than putting anyone in their place. It's mostly old (and not-old) idiots who decide that "this worked for me" means "this will work for everyone".

Doug L.

Oops, it silently ate the url. Brin's site about "The Transparent Society" is http://www.davidbrin.com/privacyarticles.html

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