Viktor Mayer-Schönberger on why computers (and us) need to forget:
“In this article I suggest that we should revive our society’s capacity to forget. The first part describes how we have unlearned to forget, due to a combination of technological innovations and the ensuing changing economics of information technology. In the second part I critique three conventional responses to our digital inability to forget. The third part reviews a non-traditional response of combining law and software put forward by Lawrence Lessig. In contrast, I suggest a more modest proposal of reversing the data retention default, describe how such a proposal would work, and why it is superior to its alternatives.”
Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
April 2007
” Unconferences turn the plodding, predictable business gathering inside out. They’re a hybrid of a teach-in and a jam session, with a little show-and-tell mixed in, and they are attracting hundreds in cities like Austin, Tex., Bangalore, San Francisco, Sydney, and Tokyo. Unlike traditional, $1,000-a-head and up conferences, they’re totally unstructured—the agenda isn’t determined until the opening day of the event. Everyone who shows up is a potential speaker, and those who don’t speak contribute by posting photos, blog entries, podcasts, and video clips of the proceedings. Neckties and heels are noticeably absent. And attendance is almost always inexpensive or free.”
Business Week
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
“From time to time we are taken head-first from this room called ‘Art for All’ out and away, sometimes driven, sometimes drawn to breathe again amongst the people. We stroll with specialised embarrassment and our purpose is only to take the sunshine. the people are all living near to beauty, passing by. walking is the eternity of our living movement, it can never tell us of an end. It is for nothing but the time passing unnoticed.”
A day in the life of Gilbert and George
Autumn 1971
You add paint so that you have something to remove later on.
The art of walking is to walk at the right speed, with the right tempo and with the right kind of problem to solve.
“There is a research design problem or a control group problem here: are we seeing cracked foam or inspections of cracked foam? Perhaps every launch of the 114 has had some foam debris shedding, and we’re only seeing small pieces and cracks now because the intensity of inspections has increased since the Columbia. Or maybe not.”
Criticisms of PowerPoint continue to surface. Edward Tufte’s contribution is particularly sharp.
PowerPoint: cognitive confusion or simply the wrong collection of models for communicating precise thoughts?
The grandaddy of unlearning was, without a doubt, Descartes. But Paul Klee did quite a good job of it.
