The biggest picture perspective I've seen, as of yet btw

Its been quite some time since I felt the urge to just write. I find that there are a few posts in their own right floating around in my head all jostling for prominence right now so I'm going to clear my headspace by capturing the various thought directions and then perhaps we'll take a looksee if there's anything of value here to expand further.

1. After the recent liminal, bridger posts by WhiteAfrican and myself, there's been an increasing sense - helpfully pointed out by Chris Blow in the comments - that there's more here that meets the eye and possibly increasingly relevant and important going forward. For if we are truly in liminal space right now, on the planetary scale, then one can assume that this transitory phase would be on a longer time span that one experienced by individuals. That is, would it last 2-3 years, 3 to 5 years or will it be a blip of 10 to 15 years in the context of humanity's timeline? If so, what would it mean and how do we navigate? For, as some have already said, the biggest difference between this moment of man's history versus any other is that for the first time we're all (those of us with access) able to communicate with each other across barriers of time, space and language.

2. I read the latest issue of Foreign Policy on the flight home (in between a marathon back to back viewing of Dr. Who and meals ;p) and the cover story provides much food for thought. FP online has the article excerpt but the actual story is far deeper than this excerpt implies and one that I believe has much bearing on the paragraph above. The key point is that these "5 big ideas" of global ideology are now redundant in a sense and each needs to be debated and discussed and brought up to speed to be relevant in today's world.

There is an inkling here of a sense that there's a greater convergence taking place globally, both ideologically and tangibly yet with all the creative fomentation that being in liminal space provides. What will emerge from this 'primordial' information soup and what say do we individual voices have in this? Here's the snippet outlining the ideas deemed redundant today by the experts in FP,

For most of the second half of the 20th century, five Big Ideas shaped world politics:

1) Peace is better than war.

2) Hegemony, at least the benign sort, is better than a balance of power.

3) Capitalism is better than socialism.

4) Democracy is better than dictatorship.

5) Western culture is better than all the rest.

3. On the mobile front - Nokia's recent announcement of a phone that will allow first time users to create an email address and thus enabling their initial forays on the information highway naturally warmed the cockles of my 'mobweb' dreaming heart ;p Here's a worthy snippet from a news article and then we'll move on to the part that's stuck in my craw,

“The mobile device and the Internet are a powerful combination in connecting people with each other, accessing information, news, entertainment and sharing. By introducing products and services that are affordable, relevant and easy to use, we believe Nokia can fuel the growth of the Internet in emerging markets,” Laine added.
[...]
This gives millions of users the possibility to create their first Internet identity and communicate in new ways.

Their first identity, sounds so innocent here doesn't it? Lets look at the wording in the actual press release I quoted some time ago,

But the new devices will allow users to set up an e-mail account on Nokia's Ovi Web portal without ever going near a PC. That's an important distinction for the millions of mobile-phone users who live in regions without reliable electricity, much less computers and Internet connections. "It gives those millions of users their first identity on the Internet," says Alex Lambeek, Nokia vice-president in charge of handsets aimed at low-income users.

So what's the issue here? I had numerous discussions on the concept of "presence" versus "identity" - from the user's point of view, NOT the company or technology's PoV - with a number of people across the world since I read that bit. Why? Well, as someone with my head in the interwebs all day, identity per se is meaningless to me - I've got four or five different email addresses on different providers with different handles and a random sampling of handles across the webs. Who am I? Who knows? Except maybe, and just maybe, via IP addressing but I've also got 3 laptops and a desktop (giggles) that I use on multiple continents.

Otoh, it cannot be denied that I have a presence online (or at least I hope not ;p) and this choice of wording made me think about whether it was more important for the first timer online (particularly from the BoP) to have a presence, a voice, a 'say so' in the global conversation and a chance to be heard OR have an "identity" aka a particular email address or IP address? I'm no technological guru and barely have a clue about the innards of today's machines but I have been a humble user in front of this screen for the past 26 years ever since I sat down to use a Trash 80 with DOS 1.0 and I've seen everything we use now get built. So do I have a point here or am I just circumlocuting as usual?

Well, lets step back a second, shall we, from this specific topic and take a look at the big picture of the all three points - I'm glad I decided to write this whole thing out, btw - and what do we see here?

1. Transitions, liminal space, limnos, a threshold time, on a global scale

2. Ideological redundancy, need to discuss and come up with new ideas on a planetary scale

3. The first steps of the next 4 or 5 billion members of humanity on the information highway that allows communication on a worldwide scale

Leaping beyond the obvious, here's what I dreamily wrote a year and a half ago,

And more importantly, when I look up from my screen, and my eyes lose focus and soften into that dreamy look that accompanies deep pondering thoughts, what do I see when I look ahead to the next 25 years?

Human interaction, I recently read on a blog somewhere. I wish I could find it. The concept was important, it said, it isn't human computer interaction or computer human interaction. It was human interaction. Do we have phone human interaction? No, we assume the phone is tool to facilitate communication between two or more human beings. Yes?

So is not this blog post but one minute example of a tool that facilitates communication between two or more humans? Is not flickr? What about gmail and chat? Skype - phone, video, chat or files? What about all of them - then we begin to see the limitations. Perhaps that is why we yearn for the iPhone or Jeff Han's intuitive powerful full handed movements that allow him to feel as though he is truly delving the depths of cybermedia and cyberspace?

I was saying to someone just yesterday that it won't be any one single computer that will be the most powerful computer in the world but in fact this was already there - the cyberbrain. Here's an example, call it a backup cpu or massively parallel processing or whatever - but the combination of human beings interacting with each other using the tools of the connectivity that broadband gives us gave rise to the social web. the rise of the missing sense of community that we as social beings, as human animals need. And the more we connect and see and share the more we realize that people all over the world have the same hopes and dreams and aspirations as we do, they just look a bit funny. But so what, don't we, in our own mirrors, each day?

Hmmm..... ?

So where does this conversation go from here? Thoughts?

Comments

[Victor Lombardi]

Very interesting. I wonder if, like the tendency to rush to beta in Web 2.0 in lieu of planning and documentation, in the future we will define ourselves/be perceived by others less by how we describe ourselves (identity) and more by what we do (presence)?

[niti bhan]

interesting, makes one ask in response,

haven't actions always spoken louder than words?