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1. • CommentAuthorjoelfirenze
   • CommentTimeMar 17th 2008

    # 1
   I would like to think that we already possess the tools to actively shape our social and political futures. Combining social movements with today's social technologies, I think that something will eventually happen. Do we need more tools or do we need more people?
2. • CommentAuthoriandravid
   • CommentTimeMar 18th 2008

    # 2
   The free/opensource movement has already empowered us in a big way. We have at our disposal so many sourcecodes and "free" technologies that we just don't appreciate because most people don't get the opportunity to learn programming. And I mean programming that's universally friendly, not the locked in sham of the Microsoft porgramming IDEs, that twist computer languages into code that is only Windows readable. And the idiotic part is, even in varisities, students are only taught how to porgram in the IWndows environment. Damn, some of the computer engineers have never even heard of Linux and Unix.
   
   LAMP is already the best way to set up an online presence. The opensource movement rejects traditional notions of power, settling for a commuism/anarchy model that has worked very successfulyl so far. So in terms of software side, there is no excuse and too much shame that we haven't managed to utilise them to promote social chnage.
   
   On the hardware side however, these technologes are again scalable. And asynchrous Software as a service programming empowers the user at very little overhead for developers. What you can run in one cycle in a supercomputer can now be run in ten cycles among hundreds of desktop PCs. Check the BOINC projects for evidence.
   The crux is, we have the technology and we say we want to help but claim we don't have the access to the right technology. We automatically assume every big change requires big expensive tools. Which is simply not true. Indeed, just optimising what you already have can help so much!
   
   Can you truly say that your CPU is always 100% utilised? RAM maybe, but CPU power is vastly underutilised. For both RAM and CPU cycles, unused cycles are a big waste with no tangible benefit. If you have 512 MB RAM free all the time, then that's 512MB of RAM you don't need. Same thing for CPU power.
   
   Tens of hundred times the power of the computer we used to land on the moon; we have these wundermachines right in front of us, but can't see a better use for it most of the time than watching youtube and checking facebook. It's not wrong to do these things mind you; it's wrong to be ignorant and claim the technology isn't accessible is all I'm saying.
3. • CommentAuthorjoelfirenze
   • CommentTimeMar 19th 2008

    # 3
   So the technology is essentially there, what's stopping people from doing more?
4. • CommentAuthoriandravid
   • CommentTimeMar 22nd 2008

    # 4
   Ignorance? Not just ignorant of the technolgies available, they are guilty of a far more serious crime. They don't want to know even if someone tries to tell them.
5. • CommentAuthorjoelfirenze
   • CommentTimeMar 22nd 2008

    # 5
   What do you think is the source of this? What's wrong with the culture, atmosphere or attitude? Just what is it wrong about Singapore that might produce this kind of attitude?
   
   I'm not entirely sure either. Was hoping to tap on the collective mental capital of us here at the forum.
   
   Anyway, am thinking that most of us actually don't have the chance to develop inquiry and curiosity because of a middle-class pragmatic upbringing that focuses on results and only results, without thinking about the nurturing of the whole person.
   
   Is it possible to make people think again about other things?
   
   They say that the brain loses its plasticity around maturity - ideas and mindsets become set in stone in the neurons and all, so its harder to change their thinking and all.
   
   Something mind-altering (not drugs), something that totally blows their minds away - (new technology? IPod? Something close?), something that can tickle their minds away... a game? A new graphic user interface?. How might that look like?