This is something a Silicon Valley celebrity said recently — and I’ve decided to “steal” it because the meaning is actually rather ambiguous and depends a lot on context. The person who said it, simply said it in passing and didn’t contextualize what was meant at all — I actually have a vague “gut feeling”… Continue reading We need to figure out what’s going on
Tag: technology
Everything is Special, Nothing is General (Knowledge)
I’m guessing that sounds sort of extreme … yet I am repeatedly led to this belief. I don’t believe in such a crass statement as “everything is special, nothing is general“, but I do notice something about the way other people believe to know something about which they obviously have little or no knowledge whatsoever.… Continue reading Everything is Special, Nothing is General (Knowledge)
Mainstream and / or Main Stream?
Modern English and Modern German are closely related languages. Generally, when linguists say something like this, it mainly means something like “there once existed another language which was neither Modern English nor Modern German, yet which is common ancestor of both languages”. Of course something as complex as a language can hardly be described in… Continue reading Mainstream and / or Main Stream?
Be the Change
When Jim Morrison sang “I’m a change-ling, see me change” … who knows what he was thinking about? As we may think, he might have been alluding to the Godfather of modern views about change: Non-Nobel Peace Prize winner Gandhi, who apparently advised us all to “be the change you want to see in the… Continue reading Be the Change
Who is Free to Choose?
I distinctly remember my father telling me to watch TV once — or rather: strongly recommending me to sit down and watch it together with him (and whoever else in the family happened to be around). It was a very special event: PBS was doing a series with Milton Friedman, called “Free to Choose“. We… Continue reading Who is Free to Choose?
Consumer Culture Technology, Cancel Culture Technology & Other Cultural Technologies (?)
It is now approaching two decades since the company now known as Alphabet started its attack against rational media [1], and at the same time started promoting its own brand names (such as Google). Other companies in the irrational media space have likewise fed mainstream consumers with similar myths regarding their own algorithms. All of… Continue reading Consumer Culture Technology, Cancel Culture Technology & Other Cultural Technologies (?)
The further on I go, the less I know
Wittgenstein had a saying about “die Grenzen meiner Sprache”, namely that these correspond to “die Grenzen meiner Welt”. [1] In my not-so humble opinion, this quote misses something very fundamental about language: that it does not exist in any “particular individual” (see also the previous post, “Self Mythology“). Language is a technology that exists between… Continue reading The further on I go, the less I know
Lifetime Guarantee for How Natural Languages Scale
In the last episode, we looked at a few different scales — implicitly, from technology and product life cycles, through writing, biology and genetic information all the way across the universe back to the Big Bang itself. Seen this way, the irony of seeing writing and written langages as something permanent becomes crystal clear. Perhaps… Continue reading Lifetime Guarantee for How Natural Languages Scale
Reboot 2.0 — Are We Ready for a Renaissance in Open Source Information Technology?
In my opinion, the time is ripe for a reboot in open source information technology — yet exactly what that term “open source information technology” is supposed to mean might first need some clarification. There are quite a few possible misinterpretaions (“mis-” as in: “in disagreement with me” 😉 ). My point of view is… Continue reading Reboot 2.0 — Are We Ready for a Renaissance in Open Source Information Technology?
Routing Around Regulatory Bodies
Apparently, several centuries ago, William Shakespeare invented some new words. [1] Of course these words are less new now … some of them might even be considered rather ordinary or regular (or whatever). In contrast to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s supposition about how languages seem to limit what humans are capable of expressing, good ole Bill simply… Continue reading Routing Around Regulatory Bodies
Socio Business blog 