[Design and Technology] From the DATTA Vic may Conference key note address

[longjohn at netspace.net.au]

At the conference our key note speaker was futurist Paul Higgins. Links to his 
address content are included here.

Also at the bottom of this email is a list of questions posed to Paul at the 
end of his address. Paul is happy to interact on these and other questions via 
destech if people wish.

Please go the one of the links below to see Paul's key note address (get back 
to me if there are any problems with any links). 

People can view the PowerPoint version of the presentation at Slideshare by
going to :
http://www.slideshare.net/EmergentFutures/datta-conference-presentation-may-
22nd-2009-1480770 

 

People can view  a pdf version of the PowerPoint presentation by going to
our website and downloading it at
http://www.emergentfutures.com/page.php?pid=10700
<http://www.emergentfutures.com/page.php?pid=10700&wpid=68> &wpid=68 /

 

People can view the Prezi.com version of the presentation by going to :
http://prezi.com/77648/ 


Pauls response to questions:

In terms of questions that were raised by people after the presentation that
we did not get time to discuss in the whole group:
 

1/ One person asked about my view on Wikipedia and students. My answer was
that I think that Wikipedia is an excellent resource as a starting point but
I would always encourage  people and students in particular to fact check
and not use it as a single source. There has been some debate about its
accuracy compared to others such as Encyclopaedia Britannica

 

An interesting take on issue is here:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/1352207
<http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/1352207&tid=95> &tid=95

Therefore I would recommend fact checking of all collected resources.
 

2/Another person asked if I was not a "design person" why had I shown images
of The World Games building in Taiwan and the Postal vehicle which I
described as beautiful. I may have confused people here. I was saying that I
was not really a design person but that I was moving along my own personal
"road to Damascus".

 
3/ Another person asked about mobile devices saying that he had an iPhone. I
do not have an iPhone and in fact just broke my Nokia N95 so I am thinking
about this. I am actually a bit of a fan of the android phones and the more
open market place for applications but I do not think that the hardware has
caught up with the operating system yet so there are some operating
problems. I may end up getting one two or three of them with the excuse that
it is my work. Which reminds my of the lyrics to the Bad Religion song 21st
Century:

Cause I'm a 21st century digital boy 
I don't know how to live but I got a lot of toys

4/ Someone else approached me and said that people had been forecasting that
stem cell research would provide some solutions to Parkinson's disease in
five years and that forecast had been the same every year for the last five
years. This reinforces my message to be cynical about forecasting and I do
believe that we need to be particularly careful of a "techno-optimist"
approach.


5/ The Link for the Pattie Maes presentation at Ted is
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html 




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