Jamie Stanton

Is Responsive Design really the future of web design?

theeyethateats — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:39:20 +0000

Is Responsive Design really the future of web design? :

My recent blog on First Advertising about Responsive Web Design.

Matt Ridley makes an excellent and entertaining case for the...

theeyethateats — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:13:00 +0100

Matt Ridley makes an excellent and entertaining case for the Global Brain, and why the future is brighter than you think.

The Great CCTV Camera of History

theeyethateats — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:02:16 +0100

The Great CCTV Camera of History:

We are leaving behind such massive amounts of information about our lives, that genealogy of the future will be less like treasure hunting, and more like data-mining.

Fukushima and the Feedback Loop of Fear.

theeyethateats — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:28:00 +0000

Let me preface this by saying I am not an expert in nuclear reactors or nuclear physics. However, I do know a thing or two about the media. The situation in Japan is serious. Very serious. And it could get worse still. But it is not the doomsday scenario being peddled by the media.

A concerned friend recently sent me a new story from Business Insider about the recent developments at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The long, rambling article, which highlighted particularly scary phrases in red text, began by reporting that “The state of panic around the world is palpable”. It occurs to me that when you are repeatedly publishing news stories that cause panic, reporting that there is consequently a state of panic seems somewhat poor journalism. This is exactly the feedback loop of fear that is characterising this incident.

Today the media narrative shifted today to say that radiation is now “harmful to human health”. A cursory look at the headlines would seem to bear this out. However, scratching the surface we get a more nuanced scenario. Dr Paddy Reagan, a nuclear physicist at Surrey University said a few hours ago on BBC News that while it was true that levels were now harmful to human health, you’d have to be deep inside the exclusion zone, in fact he said you’d need to be standing next to the reactor for an hour to even get radiation sickness.

The media feeds on public ignorance of radiation levels and what they mean. What if I said that there had been a permanent increase in background of radiation of 36 µSv (microsieverts). Pretty scary yeah? Not when you consider that’s the equivalent of eating a Banana a day for a year (The deadly Yellow Fruit often triggers airport radiation detectors because of high potassium 40 content.)

That the Japanese authorities are telling to people to say indoors is equal parts caution and public reassurance, both to make them feel like they can do something and also to reduce the risk of a mass panic or be accused of a cover-up. And perhaps I am trapped in Groundhog Day, but for the past four day news outlets are reporting that Japanese officials have admitted “for the first time” there could be a partial meltdown. Partial meltdown was always a risk, hence the prolonged campaign to cool the reactor by any means necessary. The media reports this “for the first time” line as a way of making the situation seem as if it has escalated more than it has.

The word “meltdown” is another terror trigger as it is equated with the horror-story of Chernobyl. However, as re-iterated in a number of dry, technical, physics blogs in the past few days, such a meltdown is not possible at Fukushima. A partial meltdown is not exactly great news, and every precaution should, and is, being taken to prevent it, but it is not utterly cataclysmic either. It will certainly not be as devastating for the environment as the Deep-water Horizon incident, for instance.

I’d love to blame the (boo hiss) mainstream media for perpetuating this panic, but the alternative media from across the political spectrum is just as culpable in perpetuating lazy rumours, half-truths and hysteria. The anti-nuclear movement has whipped itself into a distasteful “told you so” frenzy and are doing their best to make things seem worse than they are. Of course, they claim there is a cover-up, because some of them desperately want this to be worse than it actually is because it would suit their political agenda.

The new-right, as characterised by Glenn Beck style conspiracy theories, are mirroring the left in claiming there is a massive cover up by the Japanese Government, despite the fact that covering up a huge nuclear incident is not possible (see Chernobyl) because of, you know, massive clouds of radiation and stuff. Conspiracy theory High Ayatollah Alex Jones, who is no stranger to fear-mongering (last week, he reported that the New World Order could kill you via the Television) - is claiming that this is “by far the worst” nuclear disaster ever, and that they hydrogen explosions at Fukushima were in fact some kind of other, unspecified, but somehow more terrifying type of explosion.

Human perception of risk is warped. Nuclear power is much like flying by plane. By and large, it is the safest option, but when it goes wrong, it does so spectacularly, and because of this, public perception of its dangers are heightened. The long term consequences risks of coal power is much worse than nuclear (a devastated planet is worse than a devastated square mile or two) but it is harder to grasp as its risks are not “event” based.

To summarise, Japan has some serious problems on its plate. It just got hit by one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history, followed by a tsunami and at least one volcano. Aftershocks are still to come. The nuclear reactor problems it has on top of this - there is no other word - “clusterfuck” - are serious and should not be understated, but equally, they should not be overstated.

We do ourselves no favours by giving in to sensationalism.

What does neuroplasticity have to do with web design?

theeyethateats — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:06:00 +0000

What does neuroplasticity have to do with web design? :

This article first appeared on my blog on First Advertising.

The Information Age is putting increasing stress on our Stone Age brains. But how are the neurological consequences of this influencing how we design websites? And how can you avoid becoming a hunter-gatherer in the “electronic data forest”?

The Future of Augmented Reality

theeyethateats — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:14:00 +0100

When the final technical challenges to the mainstream adoption of Augmented Reality are overcome, the petabytes of data stored on the Internet will flood our immediate reality, opening up new frontiers for advertising and giving whole new meaning of the term “future shock”.

The first generation of AR tools, like the Layar and AcrossAir apps have given us a glimpse of what is to come, linking up the metadata of the Internet directly with the user’s immediate environment. The video below shows some of the practical applications.

But at present these are still little more than cool toys for early adopters. Although I desperately want to use such incredible technology on a daily basis, once the novelty wears off, you soon find yourself defaulting to the easier, handier, quicker means of finding things, such as Map applications, and of course, your own memory.

When ideas are ahead of their time, we do our best to actualize it using whatever technology exists at the time. Case in point: Tablet PCs. The first patents regarding tablet PC technologies go back as far as 1888(!) and it wasn’t until 2001 that Microsoft unveiled the first modern, technically viable “tablet”, which was basically a laptop with a clunky touch interface. It took a convergence of several other technological trends (cheap, powerful processors, 3G broadband, hi-res colour screens and multitouch) to finally make the tablet viable – a threshold passed with the Apple iPad in 2010.

Really there are only four technical advances needed to allow AR 2.0 to take off. 4G Mobile Networks that will allow much higher amounts of data to be transferred, while advances in Cloud Computing will allow that data to be uploaded and processed by supercomputers, removing the limiting factor of the handset’s power. Another relevant technology currently being touted by Google is “Autonomous Search” - delivering search results without you actually asking performing the search. This seeming paradox means that Google will proactively deliver you information based on your past locations, past search queries, data mined from your gmail account, plus and present location. The final advance, and the one that will likely take longest to perfect, are optical overlays such as Digital Glasses or Digital Contact Lenses that will offer a new place to put this information.

Digital Contact lenses are currently in the prototype stage, and big developments are expected in the coming years. The end goal is having a HUD style layer of information overlaid on top of your field of vision, merging Augmented Reality with your day to day existence. When these technologies converge, it is easy to see the next generation AR experience that will emerge.

Say you are heading home from work, services like Google and Bing know from mining your past search queries, locations and email corrospondance that you a) have a habit of stopping to grab a bite to eat on the way home b) have mentioned mexican food a lot more in your recent email and status updates. Autonomous search will then spontaneously shortlist three mexican restaurants within ten minutes walk of you on your current location, and display them on your Digital Contact Lens.

Hungry, you look at the one with five stars and see it is only seven minutes walk from your location, and you haven’t heard of it, so you decide to check it out. By selecting it either by voice (perhaps sub vocal commands) or from another device like a phone, the path to the restaurant is overlaid on your field of vision directly onto the road itself, like a guideline towards the next quest in a computer game. Red at first, the line will turn progressively green as you get closer to your destination. Taking a cue from subtle HUD systems from video games, this type of color based feedback avoids visual clutter and unnecessary intrusiveness.

However, on your way there, you see a second, branching pathway outlined in yellow. Curious, you look at the glowing pathway and as you do so, another panel fades into your periphery vision. This is a “Sponsored Ad” that is being displayed based on conditions like location and old fashioned keyword bidding. The panel shows that the restaurant currently has an early bird menu that will finish in ten minutes. You make a split second decision, and decide to go for Thai instead, and turn to follow the golden pathway. It will also be likely that the current craze for points and medals in location based services such as FourSquare will shift onto ad networks. Perhaps ad networks will offer you meta-loyalty schemes by earning points for going to sponsored locations.

Scenarios like this are really only the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft have already showed Bing Maps AR capability to overlay video onto a specific point in space. This will allow historical video to be mapped onto your field of vision, directly relative to your point of view. Imagine being on holiday in Berlin and discovering a glowing video icon on the ground. Standing on it activates a video of the Berlin Wall falling, as it was recorded on that exact spot decades ago, relative to your own point of view.

If we assume a certain level of uptake (as ubiquitous as say, mobile phones are now) and certain Apps becoming more widespread that others, what we would have is new strata of virtual information existing in shared perceptual space.

In future, AR developments are likely to include digital cameras built into the contact lenses themselves (at present this is science fiction, but it is the next logical step for AR and hardly impossible) that would allow a “google goggle” style image search recognition as part of the AR experience. Stare at a flower and whisper a word, and you can bring up its wikipedia page. Look at a product and automatically search for reviews and user ranked meta-scores. The social, cultural and privacy implications of this is worth considering.

The Internet will start to break through into reality and become one with our everyday experience in a much more direct way. Not so much augmented reality as a hyper-reality, that will invoke - particularly in older generations and conservative movements, - a Future Shock that borders on revulsion, arguing we are effectively sacrificing what remains of our privacy, even our free will itself, for what they see as a faustian bargain with technology. Will they be right?

What are the implications to the first generation to grow up in a world where data drifts through space? Where everything we do, everything we look at is stored and tracked? Where technology tells us where to go, and what path to take? The consequences of fully realised AR are both exciting and terrifying, but when have we ever shrunk from developing technology just because of potential negative applications?

Life Levelled Up: The Internet and the Awakening of the Planetary Superorganism

theeyethateats — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:48:00 +0100

The Internet represents much more that just a technological shift or economic game changer. It signifies a phase shift in evolutionary complexity on par with the emergence of the Eukaryotic Cell. Yet we are so caught up with the consequences to society, business and government that we have scarcely had a chance to ponder its significance within the broader context of evolutionary history.

But how can we talk of the Internet - a collection of artificialities like computers and cables - in the context of evolution? In the terms of life? While we typically draw a sharp conceptual line between life and technology, the natural and the synthetic, we should also realise that our language impresses subjective notions of the granularity of the universe. Explore the borderlands of any concept and you will soon find the definitions slippery and elusive. At what point does an ape-like ancestor become a modern human? A planet a dwarf planet? Should we organise the natural world using Linnaean or Phylogenetic taxonomy? In the words of scientist / philosopher Alfred Korzybski, “the map is not the territory”. Conceptual distinctions between natural and synthetic only exist in the human mind.

So while language and categorisation have been immensely helpful for humanity, it has its limitations - as any Zen Master or Quantum Physicist will testify. Instead, we must look at technology as simply another manifestation of the a more fundamental process of exotropy, and like the rest of the cosmos, just temporary arrangements of matter rippling down through time.

“Our galaxy is a kind of ecosystem where gas is processed and recycled through successive generations of stars” explains Astronomer Royal Martin Rees ”the cosmos is part of our environment in a very intimate sense.” Everything our planet is composed of - everything we are made of - is just another arrangement of the molecules from those long dead stars. And although the mobility of animal life gives an impression of separateness from the rest of nature, it is still part of us as we are of it. The oxygen flowing through the troposphere is as much a part of us as a lung, the sun is as much a vital organ as our heart. And it is only in the last century with the advent of computers have we had the chance to even begin to grasp the extent of this interconnectedness, and identify the evolutionarily transitions that have given rise to this awesome complexity.

Although many philosophies have spoken of the world in such terms, it wasn’t until the 1960s we began to glimpse these intricacies in the language of science. It was NASA scientist James Lovelock who made the the first credible attempt to explain the world was a single, self organising system. His theory - the landmark Gaia Hypothesis - supposed that the trillions of organisms that constitute the biosphere are part of a single vast system that regulates the atmosphere by a complex process of chemical feedback. This self regulation allowed Earth to retain a more or less stable temperature - or “meta equilibrium” - for the last 4 billion years, despite energy output from the sun increasing by 25% during that period. So although the atmosphere has swung between hothouse and ice age phases, it has never reach a point that it would be fatal to all life.

At the other end of the scale were revelations about the origins of single celled organisms. In 1966 American biologist Lynn Margulis discovered that the Eukaryotic Cell - of which all complex life is composed - had emerged through the symbiosis of several previously free roaming entities including mitochondria and chloroplast bacteria. Endosymbiotic theory - which showed that symbiosis rather than competition was a key driving force in evolution - was rejected by her peers as preposterous. It wasn’t until the 1980s, when experimental evidence emerged to prove that mitochondria and chloroplasts have different DNA that that of the organisms that help constitute that her ideas were vindicated.

These and other discoveries in fields such as systems theory led to a new view of evolution that put symbiosis and emergent, self organising behaviour at its core. While previous theories of evolution had emphasised competition between species as a driving force in evolution, this new view held that major phase shifts in evolutionary complexity came about through co-operation between organisms. What were once diffuse networks of organisms or molecules began that over time coalesced into self organising groups out of which a new type of intelligence, a new type of entity, emerged.

In their influential book Major Transitions in Evolution, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry argued that there have been eight major shifts in the complexity of life, all characterised by increased cooperation among parts, increased span of interdependence and increased complexity of informational flow. These were:

From replicating molecules to bounded population of molecules
From populations of replicators to chromosomes
From RNA chromosomes to DNA genes and proteins
From Prokaryotes to Eukaryotes
From Asexual clones to sexual populations
From single cell protists to multicelluar organisms
From solitary individuals to colonies
From animal societies to language-based human societies

In the view of Smith, Szathmáry and others, humanity is defined by cooperation and interdependance, enabled by complex exchange of ideas via language. In his 2010 book The Rational Optimist, biologist Matt Ridley argues the evolution of ideas is directly related to trade, which he sees as “prehistoric and ubiquitous” and a lubricant for memetic exchange. As trade networks grow, it leads to increased specialisation and increased interdependence between diffuse groups. Economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek called this Catallaxy, expanding possibility brought about by a fractal division of specialisation over time.

Increased specialisation leads to more innovation and diversification of technology, which leads to progress. It is simply not possible for small, self sufficient societies to operate independently at the same technological level when cut off from from what Ridley calls “The Global Brain” over successive generations. North Korea and Tasmania are only two such examples of societies breaking down because of isolation from the rest of mankind.

Ridley’s “Global Brain” is analagous with what Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin calls the “noosphere”, the “sphere of human thought” brought about by the interaction of human minds through the exchange of information.

The Noosphere or “Global Brain” - is the medium in which memetic exchange occurs. A vast ocean of competing ideas slugging it out to entrench themselves in human brains and from there, to compete for conscious attention in order to be replicated. Aided by neuroplasticity and high fidelity communication, our ideas have become multi-generational, spiralling off on their own evolutionary directions. And just as organisms have teamed up in symbiotic relationships in order to endure - memes have coalesced into larger conglomerations that we would call - in the terminology of psychologist Susan Blackmore - “memeplexes” - massive package of memetic information that comprise a certain worldview or perspective. Clustering into their own memetic species and subspecies, diversifying and thriving into elaborate new forms while others succumb to intellectual extinction events.

Traditionally, memes and memeplexes have had certain geographic boundaries - ideas bled across the surface of the Earth relatively slowly, from social group to social group via social events, from town to town via a trade routes. Sped up occasionally by mass migrations and wars, the latter of which often making a point of replicating certain species of memeplex. As transport methods improved over the centuries, and mass communication technology came to more and more people during the 20th century, this has began to occur exponentially faster. What the Internet facilitates - on a fundamental level - is the mass distribution of memetic information on a planetary scale. It has put conceptual and technological evolution into overdrive.

Teilhard saw the noosphere in an evolutionary context, moving towards a “‘etherised’ human consciousness… a single, organized, unbroken membrane over the earth”. H.G Wells also wrote of the “World Brain” where “The whole of human memory can be, and probably in short time will be, made accessible to every individual. This all-new human cerebrum can have at once, the concentration of a craniate animal and the diffused vitality of an amoeba”. Just as the interaction of diffuse elements gave rise to higher forms of intelligence during past evolutionary transitions, will the interaction of human minds on a global scale give rise to a form of collective intelligence?

Different organisms equipped with different sensory apparatus experience different subjective realities. The mantis shrimp for instance sees with 12 colour receptors in its eyes, compare to our 3. The Duck Billed Platypus can sense ripples in the electric field. Their awareness of the universe are markedly different from ours, and are based solely on their sensory “input”.

Humans do not posess excellent sight, hearing or smell. In fact compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, human senses are rather meagre. What we do have instead is a large brain and the sensory amplifier we call the noosphere - a second perceptual strata that has allowed us to greatly extend and augment the capability of our comparatively limited senses. Memeplexes are prisims with which to skew the data from our sensory organs into something comprehensible, but more than this, language has allowed us to use the eyes, ears and brains of the rest of humanity both now, and through culture, reaching back down through time.

Consciousness was not an epiphany; there was no Eureka moment in the Pleistocene where a caveman announced to his or her bemused tribe that they were self aware. Consciousness evolved, and it did so through interaction with other minds and with the environment itself. Our road to self awareness was a gradual, group effort brought about by a collective understanding of the universe over time.

What happens then, when the Internet removes the limiting factors on memetic exchange? Where available information about the environment essentially becomes the sum of all information? Our society generates more information in a year that was generated between the dawn of time and 2003. A single human mind cannot possibly grasp this immensity alone. But the interaction between billions of them might. What we might call the Catallaxy of Consciousness will result in a world of increased specialisation in understanding of specific facets of our understanding of the cosmos, but with the important difference that these diffuse parts are now fundamentally interconnected and not isolated. Neural connections in the Global Brain can now be made almost instantaneously.

This is the final step in the symbiosis of multi-cellular organisms and technology. Whereas before technology has augmented us physically through machines and tools, the Internet is now augmenting our minds. In the near future, the Internet will become to our minds what fire has become to our stomachs. We have used fire so long - roughly 1.8 million years - that is has changed us biologically. While other large mammals either spend hours chewing food with large molars or use muscular stomachs to wring nutrients out of food, humans outsource this task to fire. In doing we freed up crucial evolutionary resources to spend on that big, energy hungry brain. In augmenting our brains, we will free up resources dedicated to memory to analysing and sorting information and establishing new connections between previously unrelated phenomenon.

In this sense, humans and technology have long been symbiotes. What is happening now, is we are reaching critical mass, making a transition into something greater than the sum of its parts. Philosopher and futurist Kevin Kelly calls this the Ninth Transition of Evolution, where humans and machines move towards “a single thinking/web/computer that is planetary in dimensions.” It is a nervous system for a planetary organism out of which will emerge a new form of intelligence.

We are synaptic connections in a Global Mind that uses the sensory organs of supercolliders and radio telescopes to see into the deepest realms of matter and the edges of space and time. The primal impulse of the planetary superorganism is to replicate, to send seeds of its ecology to distant worlds it can terraform in its own image. It is the future of life in he cosmos, and after billions of years stirring to life, finally, it is awakening.

Illuminatism: First Religion of the Information Age

theeyethateats — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:37:00 +0100

Are Conspiracy Theories Giving Birth to a New Religion? In the nine years since 9/11 conspiracy theories about the Illuminati have grown from fringe notions held by religiously inclined paranoiacs to mainstream beliefs championed by former governors and major celebrities. With unshakable beliefs and fanatical adherents, perhaps what we’re witnessing is not the unmasking of a grandiose conspiracy, but the dawn of a new religion.

Over a decade ago I met a guy in the pub - a friend of a friend - who was reading a book about the Illuminati. It was the first time I’d ever heard of them. Seeing I was interested, he elaborated on the fantastic yarn about a plot to rule the world that began in ancient Egypt and is going on this very day in Bohemian Groves and Bilderberg Groups around the world. I was captivated, especially at the claims that Clinton, Bush Sr. etc would be spending the Millennium Celebrations in the pyramids at Giza where the missing Golden capstone would be added at the structure’s apex for an occult ritual, or his dissection of a dollar bill for all the Masonic symbolism.

To top it all, he ended his rant by telling me the book had since been recalled, and all copies destroyed.

In the following years I read books and books of conspiracy literature, watched videos and scoured websites guzzling information. I was determined to get to the root of the ancient conspiracy, to find the true “secret history” of the world. Naively, when I began my research I had assumed there was one definitive truth about the history of the Illuminati. After studying a little while it soon became apparent that there were many competing theories as to who they were, and major differences as to their origin, intents and goals.

It took me many years to figure out what the Illuminati actually represents: the roots of a future religion, currently rife with theological differences waiting to be ironed out.

You can find many parallels with the emergence of Christianity in the First to Third centuries. In the first century especially, there were extraordinarily diverse views of who Jesus was, on notions of the afterlife.Was Jesus a man? If he was, how could he be resurrected? Then was he a spirit? If he was a spirit then how did he suffer on the cross? Was he a god? If he was a God, how was he also the son of God? Were they the same person? And so on. Much of this was eventually settled with the advent of the Trinity doctrine (a theological kludge) some 400 years after Jesus died. You even had Christian Gnostics who thought the universe was made by an evil god; polytheistic Christians and a kaleidoscope of other weird and colourful cults.

Illuminatism is a fledgling religion, and 9/11 is its crucifixion.

Why a religion and not a serious theory? Because it relies rather heavily on dogma and belief, rather than facts and figures. Don’t’ get me wrong facts and figures are cited to death in conspiracy circles, but they are often used the same way fundamentalist Christians use facts and figures, as a way to support a conclusion they’ve already arrived at. Because of the belief that the Illuminati are in control of all major media, and a huge number of prominent media figures and politicians are under their direct control or influence, then all information from these sources are seen as lies spun by the Illuminati to condition us to the New World Order master plan. However, if the information from these sources supports the world-view, they are adopted into it, and used to strengthen pre-held beliefs.

I call these “anchors”, news reports, events, documents and even physical objects that provide “proof” of an intangible belief that can be referenced in reality and shared with others. We use them as place markers, associate our own particular meaning to them and over time, and build up a conceptual map of reality relative to belief in the Illuminati. One that is shared an enriched through communication, and evolved through debate that explains away internal contradictions and other nonsensities with all the vigour of Star-Trek fanboys explaining the sudden appearance of Klingon bumps. But that’s all it is, a map, and as all you fans of General Semantics already know, “the map is not the territory”, it’s merely a convenient and often crude approximation.

Belief in the authenticity of your map over others is an effective tool for dismissing things that don’t fit into it. Take Alex Jones and his dismissal of Peak Oil campaigners and Climate Change scientists. These people are seen as pawns of the Illuminati, stooges peddling lies so the Illuminati can pave the way for their microchipped big brother world government. Anyone who does not agree 100% with Jones’ conclusions are doing the will of the Illuminati, knowingly or unknowingly. That’s why I had to wince when Jones was interviewing Chomsky on his radio show, and called the 80 year old anarchist a “new world order shill” because of his views on gun control – a heresy.

Why has it become so popular? Because since 9/11 people are questioning things and not getting straight answers from the media, politicians or other icons like celebrities. People are looking for answers.

9/11 especially acts like a conspiracy “hook” into the Illuminatism world-view, and often encourages digging deep into the rabbit hole. You find out about the Bilderberg group and the Council of Foreign Relations, the Rothschild family and the Freemasons. Suddenly a whole new way of viewing the world, of viewing reality, begin to unfold.

There is a hand behind world events, and it is a malevolent one; much like Satan was blamed for everything that went wrong in Medieval society (disease, crop failure, sudden unexplained deaths), it is possible to blame the Illuminati for in ours (Bird Flu, Engineered Resource Shortage, the death of David Kelly). It’s rationalisation is a rich and voluminous, a complex tapestry of a thousand sources – what else to expect from the first mainstream religion of the Information Age?.

Depending on which route you go down in your research (which could be influenced by your previous beliefs), you can go down one of these following paths (not exhaustive). Each a Illumiantism sub-sect with its own particular focus and specialisation. If you follow it for long enough you’ll experience a complete paradigm shift, a totally new way of organising incoming sensory information.

Christian (Pro-Government)

Territory pioneered by Hal Lindsay and Pat Robertson in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The Illuminati is a Satanic plot to engineer the rise of the Anti-Christ and herald in the World Government. The United Nation is their primary tool. This movement seems to have split with the one below and become pro-Republican sometime in the late 80s. Believe Hilary Clinton is an Illuminati Witch.

Christian (Anti-Government)

Shares much in Common with the above worldview, except both Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same beast (controlled from London by secret societies). Aspects relating to the Anti-Christ are traditionally toned down and emphasis is placed on sci-fi aspects of the Illuminati plot such as microchipped super-surveillance societies and hi-tech mind control. Typified by one of the Grand Imam’s of the conspiracy world, Alex Jones and popular in survivalist circles. Illuminati often described as “communist”.

New Age / UFO

Shares much in common with the above in terms of practical details and organisational structure, however Satan is not the villain of the piece in this strange reality; it is the mysterious Annunaki. Strongly influenced by the strangely charismatic David Icke, this movement sees the Illuminati as being either trans dimensional or extra-terrestrial entities attempting to keep mankind in a spiritual as well as physical prison to use as labourers on a planetary plantation. Influenced by Buddhist thought and draws, somewhat haphazardly, from sources as eclectic as Zulu shamans, UFO abductees and quantum physics.

Far Right / Anti-Semetic

The most traditional of the Conspiracy worldviews, this sees the Illuminati as a tool of Jews, who plan to enslave the white man and dilute his race with inferior stock. Israel is often seen as the source of the global plot to control the world via international Banks. US Government often described as ZOG – Zionist Occupational Government. Some views expressed by the shady Lyndon LaRouche.

Far Left / Rationalist

Sees banks as the power behind world events, and often described in the language of Globalisation. Religious aspects of the Illuminati are toned down, and often the name “Illuminati” is not even used. Particular emphasis put on corruption and secret societies like Skull and Bones. A very diffuse grouping of beliefs. Some ideas relayed by Michael Parenti.

The other reason, of course, that such thinking is becoming increasingly popular, is the sheer amount of information available today. Belief in the Illuminati is a way of making sense of an intimidating and unpredictable world which we can never hope to truly comprehend. Like religion, it is a way of simplifying an infinitely complex universe to once that is internally cohesive and provides a basis for understanding reality. Also, the more indoctrinated (i.e obsessed) one gets with the Illuminati, the more evidence one will see of their existence. It’s pattern recognition. If they truly have their hand in everything, they might be monitoring your computer, they might have spies after you, they might be trying to shut you up. That way, madness lies.

But as I say, these are early days. In the centuries ahead, especially as society becomes more technologically advanced and bewildering (or conversely, as the world spirals into increasingly titanic wars), beliefs in Illuminatism – that a Malevolent force is guiding world events – will become more and more prevalent. We’ve just began to see the first high profile adherents of such beliefs – Charlie Sheen has just come out and said he believes 9/11 was an inside job, and was interviewed on Alex Jones radio show. CNN done a follow up interview with Jones and took a poll of who thinks he’s right. 83% of the CNN audience thought Sheen was correct. Glenn Beck is now peddling his own versions of common conspiracy theories that are viewed by millions. This is only the beginning.

Our mind’s operate by developing narrative to explain events. If they did not, the world would be too chaotic to comprehend. This function is hardwired into out brains. We imagine our lives as narratives, when in fact we are at the mercy of an indiffernt universt. It is comforting. It makes us what we are. As society becomes more complex, and more and more information is thrown onto the internet, our minds will yearn for easily comprehensible narratives to explain things. Right now, Illuminatism - with its logical, rational cover story - is a the main contender.

“Phones are turning us into cyborgs. In a good way.”…or so...

theeyethateats — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:40:00 +0100

“Phones are turning us into cyborgs. In a good way.”…or so says Google’s characteristically quirky intro to Eric Schmidt’s talk at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Google Boss began with the incredible fact that in 3 years at most smart phones will pass global PC sales, and that mobile web adoption is proceeding 8 times faster than than the equivalent point 10 years ago with desktops. In short, the convergence of mobile web’s adoption and the growing power of cloud computers is taking us to a point where we can “literally know everything” and unveiled a world where you can do things “you didn’t even know were possible.”

Schmidt then gave us a peek at some of the Wonka-like wonders that are being cooked up in Google’s labs in anticipation of this SmartPhone renaissance. Thinks like as real time voice translation over the phone, so you can talk to a native Chinese speaker on the phone without even knowing a word. Mobile apps that can diagnose illness just by your cough. Image based search engines that can tell you what a building is, who built it and when it opens just from a photo on your mobile phone. Predictive apps that “not only know where you are, but know where you’re going”.

Valve’s Viral Treasure Hunt

theeyethateats — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:31:00 +0100

I often see the Games and Web industries as siblings. Roughly the same age, both emerged in the late 20th century to cause fundamental shifts in the entertainment and communication landscapes. They have an established and growing overlap that started out with geeky text based MUD (Multi User Dungeon) games in the late 70s that evolved into massive profit churning monsters like World of Warcraft. Similarly, even Facebook has morphed into a viable games platform, with the cutesy Farmville turning over $145 profits in 2009.
As you would expect from such a hip young industry, Game companies are often very savvy when it comes to Internet marketing. In some cases, they could teach the rest of us a thing or two. Take Valve for instance.

Last month, Valve released a small update to its successful 2007 game Portal. Intrigued, users went to play the game, curious as to what changes might have been made. All they found was a small radio. Curious, they picked it up and moved it about, and discovered that in certain places in the game, you could pick up Morse. The race was on to find and decipher the messages.

While some messages were rather silly, such as the letters L O L, they were keeping for the game’s quirky sense of humour. But others delved further; convinced there was more to the mystery. And they were right. Cryptic crackling sounds were discovered to be encoded images – photographs of secret documents by Aperture Science - enigmatic antagonists of Portal. The video below shows some of the sophisticated detective work carried out.

A total of 22 were discovered in what appeared to be a numbered sequence. This appeared to be the end of the trail when somebody struck on the idea of running the number through anmd5 hash translator and discovered it was a phone number near Kirkland, Washington, near Valve’s HQ.

Then in a twist, it turned out not to be a phone number at all, but a dataline (think dial up modems). Managing to use the images to decipher a password, one of our detectives used the line to log into an ancient Bulletin Board System – a kind of a pre-web precursor to an Internet forum.

On it they found a goldmine of internal documents and ASCII images from Aperture Science, giving tantalizing hints of a full on sequel to Portal. Then – just when the fan community what whipped up into a froth of anticipation – Valve officially announced on their website that they would be releasing Portal 2 later this year.

In terms on engaging with customers, I don’t think you can get any more exciting than an interactive hacker detective story.

Samsung: A Case Study in Social Marketing

theeyethateats — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:15:00 +0100

Many companies are still to stick a toe in the waters of Social Marketing, while others clumsily belly flop in without knowing what lies beneath the waves. Samsung on the other hand, perform aquatic acrobatics to the point of showing off.

First and foremost, Samsung have a thriving presence in the holy trinity of social media Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Their twitter account is in many ways like any other; at time of writing they are geeking out to announcements at the South by SouthWest conference (mixed with the occasional promotion). Their facebook page runs competitions for fans of their products and share photos taken on Samsung devices, while their YouTube channel hosts user reviews and other Samsung related nonsense. Notably absent are snoozy press releases and recycled TV adverts.

But while wielding these tools successfully is to be admired in itself, it is overshadowed by their massive triumphs in the world of viral marketing. As those in Online Marketing know, viral videos are notoriously challenging, their success being almost entirely dependent on the whims of a billion and a half internet users. Samsung however, have had not just one but numerous success stories, the most recently this entertaining skit about photos on Social Media sites.

So far the “Angles or Angels” video has received over a million views (spread across several YouTube accounts) but this is dwarfed by their other successes.

The Samsung SSD Awesomeness video – in which Samsung engineers nerd out over combining SSD cards in a RAID drive (don’t ask) - has had nearly 3 million views.
The extremely creative Samsung Omnia (i900) Unboxing has had over 3.5 million views.
Their breakout LED sheep Art has clocked over 11 million views and counting.

What differentiates Samsung from its rivals is not so much the tools it uses, but the underlying philosophy with which it approaches social media. In a recent interview with The Social Nerdia, Samsung’s social media strategists Matt Moller and Keith Swiderski explained how Samsung Staff are allowed almost total autonomy in engaging with customers and importantly, in engaging blogs, which according to Moller “have become as important as traditional media, if not more important in our space”.

He added that “it’s about building communities, engaging with customers who have expressed an interest, and talking to them in a real, transparent way.” So rather than sticking to brand identity and vetting all of the communications with customers, they let staff communicate with customers on a person-to-person basis. The upside of this direct engagement with customers is the increased capacity to crowdsource material (the aforementioned photos and video reviews) from their employees and customers. This in turn has led to new kinds of experimental promotions. In 2008, Samsung asked fans to post videos about their favourite Superbowl memories on their website, where they could be voted on by visitors to the site. The winning entries were aired during the Superbowl – the premium real estate of US TV Advertising.

“The best advice I can give a company that isn’t sure about social media” says Moller “is to get online and type the name of their brand and see what people are saying. I defy them to wait a day before they get on to start talking.”