The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool

COMMENTS BY KEVIN KELLY

Published in “Wired” Magazine Sept 97

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  The grand irony of our times is that the era of computers is over. All the major consequences of stand alone computers have already taken place.
  

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  All the most promising technologies making their debut now are chiefly due to communication between computers – that is, to connections rather than to computations.
  

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  We are now engaged in a grand scheme to augment, amplify, enhance, and extend the relationships and communications between all objects. – That is why the Network Economy is a big deal.
  

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  We are moving from crunching to connecting. While the number of computer chips is rising, the number of chips in objects other than computers is rising faster. When these myriad low-power chips are connected, we get very powerful results.
  

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  There has always been a tipping point in any business, industrial or network, after which success feeds upon itself. However the low fixed costs, insignificant marginal costs, and rapid distribution that we find in the Network Economy depress tipping points below the levels of industrial times; lower tipping points, in turn, mean that the threshold of significance – is also dramatically lower than it was
  

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  The prime law of networking is known as the law of increasing returns. Value explodes with membership, and the value explosion sucks in more members, compounding the result. Industrial economies of scale stem from the Herculean efforts of a single origination networked increasing returns are created and shared by the entire network.
  

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  Rather than considering jobs as a fixed sum to be protected and augmented, Hicks argued, the state should focus on encouraging economic churning. – on continually re-creating the state’s economy.,” will increasingly resemble networks of multiple and simultaneous commitments with a constant churn of new skills and outmoded roles.
  

COMMENTS BY TOFFLER

Notes from War and AntiWar Long Version

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  A true revolution changes the rules of the game – its equipment, the size and organization 0f teams, their training, doctrine, and tactics, etc. There have been only two previous revolutions in military history, and the third (now beginning) will be the deepest of them all.
  

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  Knowledge (data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values) are the central resource of a Third Wave economy. The right knowledge inputs can reduce labor requirements, cut inventory, save energy, save raw materials, and reduce the time, space and money needed for production.
  

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  The success of Third Wave firms (and militaries increasingly depends upon their capacity for acquiring, generating, distributing, and applying knowledge strategically and operationally.
  

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  Robert Steele (USMC Intel) wants intelligence to draw on all distributed knowledge available in (a) society. He proposes linking national intelligence with national competitiveness … making intelligence the apex of the knowledge infrastructure. He sees Intel as part of a larger national construct which must also include our formal educational process, our structured information-technology architecture, informal networks, etc.
  

COMMENTS BY GENERAL ERIC K. SHINSEKI

Address to Eisenhower Luncheon October 12, 1999

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  …we intend to transform the Army, all components, into a standard design with internetted C41SR packages that allow us to put a combat capable brigade anywhere in the world in 96 hours once we have received execute liftoff, a division on the ground in 120 hours, and five divisions in 30 days.
  

COMMENTS BY GENERAL CHARLES C. KRULAK

Navy Times-Marine Corps Edition

Published 1-19-98

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  We have tremendous elements of national power that we just haven’t begun to tap into and if we don’t tap into them, we are going to be in real trouble.
  

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  You have to tap into some of that expertise outside of the federal government. New combined effects for national power objectives. I’m talking about getting the best and the brightest from all over the place. That is our strength. That’s the strength of America. If you think the strength of America comes just from our military, you’re crazy.
  

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  We’re talking about building a virtual capability to reach back to them.
  

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  Some organization that would go beyond jointness, beyond inner agency. It would integrate and focus all the elements of national power. It would provide the national and regional commander with the ability to consult and interact with subject matter experts. … Don’t tell us it can’t be done. It’s just that we don’t want to do it. We don’t have the guts to do it. It’s tough and people give something up. You have to give something up to do it.
  

FORBES TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE – ASAP

OCTOBER 4, 1999

BY BILL GATES

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  …convergence has meant…coming together of the computer, consumer electronics, and telecommunications…PC, TV, and telephone…promise of exploding bandwidth…It will deliver the power of the information age into the hands of everyone, anytime, anywhere.
  

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  …smart devices also need to speak a common language…The best way to achieve this is by using existing open Internet standards.
  

BY JAMES BURKE

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  …at the beginning, … it will cause a massive differentiation of most areas of knowledge. Because the engine driving convergence this time is information technology, we can expect an innovative surge unlike any that went before, fragmenting knowledge into a large number of new disciplines, as the one-plus-one-equals-three process goes into high gear.
  

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  …Most of our institutions were established to handle the social processes of three or four centuries ago….Many of them will have to be entirely redesigned. Some of them will pass out of existence … technology will bring into existence multiple virtual environments that will replace the real world in a thousand different ways.
  

BY EDWARD O. WILSON

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  …Rather, science is the organized, systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge of all kinds about the world and condenses it into testable laws and principles. Scientific knowledge is what humanity knows with a reasonable degree of certainty on the basis of consistent, verifiable evidence. It is also the most democratic of all productions, available immediately and equally to everyone.
  

Fast Company Notes

October 1999

To paraphrase Lily Tomlin; the problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.

“The challenge for the Net is to create new models for the new world, as opposed to porting over old models. We take things from the physical world and put them on the Internet and then wonder why there’s no profit in it; of course, there’s no profit in it! Shame on you.”

Jay S. Walker, founder, Priceline.com

"We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place new value on the one human ability that can't be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual -- the language of emotion -- will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how well we work with others."

Rolf Jensen, 57, director of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and the author of "The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business"

“I don't believe that there is a list of principles that make a good design. But I do believe that a good design should reflect a sense of human history -- some aspect of where we've come from.

The word "lego" is a combination of the Danish words "Leg Godt," which means "to play well." In Latin, lego means "I study," or "I put together." “

In 1969, Hartmut Esslinger ( [e-mail] ) founded FrogDesign Inc., one of the world's preeminent consulting and design agencies with clients that include Swatch, Lufthansa Airlines, and SAP. Whether designing high-tech dentist chairs or elegant Louis Vuitton luggage, Esslinger seeks to infuse each product with his credo: Form follows emotion. Esslinger also designed the original Macintosh SE. Ole Kirk Christiansen, a master carpenter and joiner in Billund, Denmark, founded Legos in 1932.

“Design is not so much about the end product as it is about the process. This is especially true for design in the world of the Web, where you can't even talk about the design of an immutable, static object. Instead, you focus on sequential, ongoing activities -- a series of interactions and experiences.

And ultimately, any well-designed product or experience acknowledges the user. It's that respect for the user that makes a design great. That's true for a table, a chair, a book, a film, or a Web site. “

Clement Mok ( [e-mail] ) was creative director at Apple Computer before starting Clement Mok Designs in 1988. In August 1998, his company merged with Sapient Corp., an innovative e-services consultancy.

“Biology and complexity theory teach us that the organizations that are most likely to survive are those that can balance themselves on the edge of chaos – and between the forces of change and the forces of stability.”

Christian Gibbons

Director, business/industry affairs

New Economy Project

Littleton, CO

[e-mail]

“The future is about more than superfast computers, designer genes, and neural networks. Answering the life-altering questions posed by technology requires knowledge that goes beyond simplistic ideas about "progress." We need a more holistic intelligence -- not just knowledge, but wisdom.

Too often, what we learn in school prepares us for employment rather than for life. I see examples in my work every day -- people who do well at a certain kind of task, but who don't bring to their pursuits the values, as well as the richness of experience, that come from a broad-based education. At McKinsey, some of our best people are those who studied literature or the classics, and who later received business training. These people tend to understand the array of forces at work in organizations, and they approach decisions in a very well-rounded way. My advice to young people is to avoid the urge to focus too early. Learn to appreciate literature, history, and art. That kind of knowledge will help you in your career, and it will help you lead a richer life. “

Rajat Gupta ( [e-mail] ) joined McKinsey & Co.'s New York office in 1973. He has served as the firm's worldwide managing director since 1994.

“Memo to the folks in Silicon Valley: You will have good jobs for 20 more years. By 2020, though, computer chips will be cheaper than bubble-gum wrappers, and PCs will be in museums.”

Michio Kaku ( [e-mail] ) is the host of a syndicated radio program and the author of "Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century" ( Doubleday, 1997 ). A codeveloper of string-field theory, Kaku is now working to complete Einstein's unified field theory -- aka "the theory of everything."

“Too many of us grant our technology a special status. Too few us have a clear understanding of what place it should have in our lives -- or in society at large. This intoxication zone is dissatisfying, empty, and dangerous. Climbing out of that zone is impossible unless we first recognize that we're in it. Marshall McLuhan liked to say that while he didn't know who discovered water, he was sure that it wasn't a fish.

We should love progress. But that love need not be unconditional. Loving progress means cherishing technology's virtues -- as well as admitting mistakes, facing up to problems, being well informed, and welcoming alternative opinions. If we truly love technology, we won't be reckless with it. “

John Naisbitt and his daughter, Nana ( [e-mail] ), are the co-authors, with Douglas Philips, of "High Tech-High Touch: Technology and Our Search For Meaning" ( Broadway Books, October 1999 ). John Naisbitt is the author of the best-selling "Megatrends" series. The original "Megatrends" ( Warner Books, 1982 ) has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.

“The next century is going to turn our world upside down. The Internet combines people and ideas faster than they have ever been combined before. And that combination changes everything.

Where is all of this leading? To a rediscovery of basic questions. People are discovering that the question "What needs to be done?" is bigger and more important than the question "How can I do it?" What do we see after we surf through page after page of business Web sites? In many cases, we see organizations that shrewdly view the Web as another medium for answering the question "Why does this organization exist in the first place? What is our purpose?" What do we see when we wade through the vast array of online learning tools that are now available? We see new ways to get at the most basic question of all: "What do you want to do with your life?"

Tim Berners-Lee ( [e-mail] ), the inventor of the World Wide Web, came to his career naturally: His parents helped design the Ferranti Mark I, the world's first commercially available computer. In his first book, "Weaving the Web" ( HarperSanFrancisco, Fall 1999 ), Berners-Lee writes about the history of the Web and his role in that history. Berners-Lee occupies the 3Com Founders chair at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.

Strategis Group: Over Half of US Adults Use the Internet

The number of US Internet users has just passed the 100 million mark,

representing half of the entire adult population, according to new

research from the Strategis Group. Just one year ago, that figure was

68 million.

The typical user sends six emails per day and the gap between home use

and work use is narrowing. Of those that surf on a daily basis, 60

percent do so from home while 69 percent do so from work.
Authors of the report believe that users are more savvy now, with over

77 percent of them able to send an attachment with their email. One

fifth have created or updated a page in the last three months.
http://strategis.commnow.com/