Watch, and be mesmerised:
It’s gotta be a computer program playing this, right?
Nature
[box]This post originally appeared on the FTMF.info planning blog.[/box]
In this post, let’s explore the link between the twin worlds of microbiology and creative thought, drawing inspiration from three brilliant scientific discoveries. Labcoats on, people!
1. Sponges
If a sea sponge (phylum porifera) is forced through a sieve to disintegrate it down to its cellular level, those cells, if left alone, will recombine into a sponge again:
Lesson: some ideas only make sense as a whole – passing them through a ‘sieve test’ can reveal whether they were ever meant to be, while others may naturally merge together.
2. Slime Molds
A single-celled slime mold (physarum polycephalum) can solve mazes, mimic the layout of man-made transportation networks and choose the healthiest food from a diverse menu – and all this without a brain or nervous system:
Lesson: deploy resources efficiently – really smart solutions often arise naturally, yet knowing what’s best still requires lots of prior research. But hey, if a slime mold can do it…
3. Artificial Jellyfish
Scientists have created an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart:
Lesson: even the most difficult concept can be somehow ‘brought to life’ – be it in a new context, through the addition of a couple of key ingredients, or sheer appliance of science!
Screens
[box]This post originally appeared on the FTMF.info planning blog.[/box]
Within the pages of Watchmen, Adrian Veidt, the so-called “smartest man in the world”, esteemed business leader and founding member of the Crimebusters is shown at a wall of televisions, each tuned to a different channel. He uses this clatter of imagery, sound and motion to make sense of the current geopolitical and social climate and to act upon it:
Reads a bit like Social Media Monitoring, doesn’t it? But Adrian Veidt, AKA Ozymandias, was multi-screening before it was even a thing. Nowadays, we do it by default, up to 60% of the time, and in the age of 4.6 connected devices per household it just comes naturally.
Multi-screening can be simultaneous (same journey across devices, as in the above case), sequential (different journeys across devices simultaneously), or separate (different journeys across devices simultaneously) – but it’s an emergent behaviour that needs much further inquiry. There are few real thought leaders, except for SecondSync perhaps, or Microsoft, who so succincinctly define the terms I’ve used here.
One other thought leader is Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired, whose view is that as screens proliferate further into each aspect of our lives, their role becomes not just to display but also to help filter information – we’re literally ‘screening out’ the stuff we don’t want to see.
Watch his talk on ‘screening’ and five other ‘Verbs for the New Web’ below – it’s great:
And finally, screens can also be mirrors, lenses or even windows. Clever, aren’t they?!
Posted in Advertising, Culture
Tagged business, emergent, information, Media, microsoft, monitoring, motion, new, social, social media, sound, time, view, watch, watchmen, Web, windows, wired, world, youtube
Leave a comment
Fingers
[box]This post originally appeared on the FTMF.info planning blog.[/box]
What does the word ‘digital’ mean to you?
dig·it·al /?d?d??tl/ adv –
- of or pertaining to a digit or finger
- resembling a digit or finger
- manipulated with a finger or the fingertips: a digital switch
- displaying a readout in digital form: a digital speedometer
- having digits or digitlike parts
- of, pertaining to, or using data in the form of numerical digits
- Computers. involving or using numerical digits expressed in a scale of notation to represent discretely all variables occurring in a problem
- of, pertaining to, or using numerical calculations
- available in electronic form; readable and manipulable by computer
So digital means either ‘relating to fingers’, or ‘relating to computers’, right?
My argument: fingers are, by definition, the most digital part of our body. We touch, type, gesture and manipulate our environment (real or virtual) through the interfaces that surround us: a shiny black screen, a keyboard, or even through thin air.
And that’s what digital means to me: the ability to effect a change in the world through the lightest of touch – powered by technology, thought, and action. More on these themes later in the week, but for now I’ll leave you with an illustration – unleash your fingers:
Posted in Technology
Tagged action, body, computer, data, digital, electronic, illustration, keyboard, problem, screen, technology, touch, virtual, watch, world, youtube
Leave a comment
Which Icon?
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hello! It’s been a while.
I’ve had a busy few weeks at work as well as online, mostly behind the scenes stuff, such as building a website for a client, a load of little tweaks and optimisations to my online ecosystem (more on that soon), and switching web hosts three times in the past four weeks. Ouch!
Meanwhile, people have begun asking for more icons for the Subscription Options addon pack, mainly Instagram. I thought I’d put it to the vote in time for the next release, so please, take a look and let me know your preferred version in the comments.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]
Logo One
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]
Logo Two
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]
Logo Three
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]