The Anthropocene

For many years, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, many scientists and scientifically engaged people have used the geologic term, ‘Anthropocene’ to identify the period in Earth’s history during which humans have a significant impact on the Earth’s ecosystem (Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy 2015).

It is widely agreed that we are now living in this new proposed epoch— Anthropocene. In the Week 3 lecture, Dr. Jacqueline Kasunic mentions that nature is “not natural and cannot be naturalised” (Kasunic 2015). The reason for this is that nowadays, it is humans that form nature.

Evidence of the harm we have brought to our planet is vast and compelling. The chart produced by NASA indicates that the level of carbon dioxide has risen throughout the years. The latest measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) as of July 2015 is 400.84 ppm, the highest in 650,000 years (NASA 2015).

(NASA 2015)

Yet, this is only one side of the story; we’re changing the planet in many other ways. Large amounts of soil have eroded due to deforestation, fertile grasslands are becoming like deserts, as well as ice formations and species are soon to disappear from the planet.

Along with ecosystems, species and global climate, Morton (2010, p.3) suggests that thinking has also been damaged. One of the futures thinking concept, Inayatullah (2008, p.5) indicates is disowned future in which humans choose to focus on their strategic plans and consequently ignore and push the future away.

To counter this thinking, there are many initiatives in the world designed to raise awareness among society about the global challenges that we face today and its future implications. For example, Globaia is an organisation which aims to do this mainly through broadcast and visual tools such as films, conferences, 3D visualisations, maps and diagrams.

Additionally, many designers have shifted roles in terms of working for the greater good instead of artists for hire. They have embraced a new revolution of design based on the concept of sustainability in which products have been made out of eco-friendly, minimal and recycled materials or renewable energy. Replenish, for instance, is a reusable bottle made from the most recyclable plastic called PET-1. It contains a concentrated refill pod on the bottom, which when inverted fills the bottle with concentrate liquids that can then be topped up with tap water. ‘It’s an all-round winner saving waste and materials, along with the transport emissions from shipping water’ (The Guardian 2012).

(Core77 2010)

More speculative and often uncanny future proposals in response to resource depletion have emerged such as the ‘Sleepingbagdress’ Prototype by Ana Rewakowicz. It can serve both as a dress and a temporary shelter. Below the images show the temporary shelter shaped as a cylindrical container (left) which functions on a small computer fan powered by a rechargeable lead battery while the dress (right) features batteries charged by a solar panel (Rewana 2015).

(Rewana 2015)

While there has been an increasing awareness of the future, the key is for everyone to act collectively towards sustainable development in order for the preservation of our planet.

By: Patricia Roxas

References:

Core77 2010, Replenish: A “disruptive” spray bottle that’s better for the environment, viewed 26 August 2015,  <http://www.core77.com/posts/17659/replenish-a-disruptive-spray-bottle-thats-better-for-the-environment-17659>.

Inayatullah, S. 2008, ‘Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming’, Foresight, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 4-21.

Kasunic, J. 2015, ‘Lecture: ‘Change us to suit the world’: Living in the anthropocene and why designers need to act now.’, UTS Online Subject 85202, PowerPoint presentation, UTS, Sydney, viewed 14 August 2015, <https://uts.echo360.net/ess/echo/presentation/d20fb3d4-745d-41f3-80e0-9a025ebf7cfb?ec=true>.

Morton, T. 2010, The ecological thought, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

NASA 2015, Carbon Dioxide, viewed 26 August 2015, <http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/>.

Rewana 2015, Prototypes, viewed 26 August 2015, <http://rewana.com/prototypes-sleeping-dress.html>.

Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy 2015, Working group on the ‘Anthropocene’, viewed 26 August 2015, <http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/workinggroups/anthropocene/>.

The Guardian 2012, Sustainable product design – in pictures, viewed 26 August 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gallery/sustainable-product-design-in-pictures>.

SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY – Has it made our world a better place to live in?

“Machines, once made, make men”, as quoted from Ralph Waldo Emerson in the middle of the 19^th century.

Dana 2015

As a result of the massive amount of evidence for technology advances accumulated over the last two centuries, we can safely conclude that a lot changes have occurred and continues to occur. It is evident that technology has the potential to harm or enhance your social skills and social life, yes, there are two sides of it.

Without a doubt, technology has improved our world’s ease of life. Those who can reflect back within the era without technology, will know how much easier technology has made life. For starters, have you ever thinking to give up your Internet or your cell phone? People keep arguing whether “easier” means “better” too. However, let’s brought the topic to different focus, it what you focusing is “if the world has been made easier with technology” then yes. Now if you see people on the streets, it’s not hard to find someone who’s busy with their phones. People prefer to look down at their screen and not to be sociable with other people. Of course, social technology has made it easier for you to contact your overseas family or friends by using video call or chat messages. Does technology increase or decrease your concern for others, your compassion for others, and your desire to serve them? Such are the critical questions regarding technology and social development. This technological detachment is becoming today’s reality.

As time goes by, Internet and mobile technology has subtly destroying the interaction’s quality that we have with others, disconnecting us from the world surround us. We tend to spend our time in front of our mobile phone and social medias to catch up instead of spending time with them face to face. Proven by studies, face to face interaction provides us more important sense of well-being. Same thing that happened to Albertsons, an American grocery company founded and based in Idaho, they eliminated the self-checkout lanes to encourage human interaction more. They will replace it with the standard or express lanes, a spokeswomen said.

“We just want the opportunity to talk to customers more,” Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox said. “That’s the driving motivation.”

self check out machine in a supermarket

Wikipedia 2008

When we lack of human contact, we will lose the intangibly real and valuable values about talking with someone face to face. We all social creature, we love talking and interacting with each other! There is no doubt whether you are a social person or not, we need each other, we can’t live alone in this world. Those beautiful relationships are mostly could only be achieved by face-to-face interaction and nothing can change that, so it is not just someone whose texts and voice call makes your cellphone’s inbox full or in your iPad or computer screen. It just feels sad and ironic when you think back about why men created technologies and keep making advances for the past two centuries. It was meant to make our life easier and better but then we kept losing values that we think are important in our life. It is back to ourselves again, think how you use your technology to assist your daily life. If we think about it, there are always two sides of things in our life. Technology too, has its own bad and good consequences. The problem is you won’t realize it right away but after a long usage you will definitely starting to see the damage. Instead of blindly accepting technology, we do need to have critical thinking first and be aware of the damage. Don’t let the technology make our lives lost their values such as religious values, moral values, cultural values and human values.

By: Jessica Avelina Horo

References:

Anand, A. 2011, Major Groceries Getting Rid of Self-Checkout Lanes, NBC News, viewed on 24 August 2015, <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43687085/ns/business-retail/t/major-grocer-getting-rid-self-checkout-lanes/#.Vd8Kq1xjDiY>

Dupuy J.P., Do We Shape Technologies, or Do They Shape Us?, viewed 24 August 2015, <ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/foresight/docs/ntw_22_dupuy_text.pdf>

Human Kinetics – n.d, Technology can have positive and negative impact on social interactions, viewed 24 August 2015, <http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/technology-can-have-positive-and-negative-impact-on-social-interactions>

Image References

Dana 2015, My love/hate relationship with my phone, The Rebel Chronicles, viewed on 24 August 2015, <http://therebelchronicles.com/my-lovehate-relationship-with-my-phone/>

Wikipedia 2008, NCR Self-service checkouts & fastlane at a Sainsbury’s store, viewed on 24 August 2015, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-checkout>

Student Admin 2012, Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction, The Bottom Line, viewed on 24 August 2015, <https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/01/technology-is-destroying-the-quality-of-human-interaction>

Within Big data: Metadata—-what is it and what is its potential?

Metadata is a system build up to manage the data itself, which is also described as “the data of data”.

Metadata in definition of government officials includes:

“Telephone numbers, the time and length of phone calls

The Internet protocol addresses (IP addresses) of computers from which messages are received or sent

Location of parties making phone calls

To and from email addresses on emails

Logs of visitors to chat rooms online

Status of chat sites – whether they are active and how many people are participating

Chat aliases or identifiers (the name a person uses in a chat room online)

Start and finish times of Internet sessions

The location of an individual involved in communications

The name of the application someone uses online and when, where and for how long used”

(Grub and Massola, 2014)

In the internet world, (SEO 2015) Metadata for web pages contain descriptions of the page’s contents, as well as keywords linked to the content. These are usually expressed in the form of metatags. The metadata containing the web page’s description and summary is often displayed in search results by search engines, making its accuracy and details very important since it can determine whether a user decides to visit the site or not.”

Metadata is used widely for search engines and social media companies to target potential customers by recording specific action. For example if you view a shoe from a website, the search engines will track your “behavior” and estimate which area of information is related to you. Then commercial ads for shoe retailers will show up in your social media or search engines that you accessed in. Although the behaviors of user are being tracked by his metadata, he can also be provided for possible wanted information suggested by search engines, which ideas his selection and range of searching.

Scene from The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

But here comes the serious problem. The logic of “metatags’ in metadata is: the one who have access to manage data definition and classification can also have the ability to select, enhance or eliminate certain data that is classified as “unwanted”, “highly popular”, or “wanted in purpose”. This means the metadata can be use as controlling what information can be accessed or promoted to the public. For example, search engines in some countries limits results of searching specific words, which may threaten their politics or profit.

While as the internet becomes the major, or the only method to access the information of the world in the future, companies or governments can be able to control the distribution and collection of the metadata for use. Also, if people are organizing protests or civil activities that government believes as a thread to their power, they are able to track organizers, whistleblowers or journalists that comments their policies and make actions to them.

A blog comments on the thread of authorities accessing metadata, which “Metadata can be used in all forms of policing from serious offending all the way down to traffic infringements. Here’s an example: If you carry a mobile phone when you drive and the speed in which you get from Point A to Point B is measured and found to be a little too quick, bingo. You’ll get a speeding ticket in the mail. The technology isn’t used at the moment but it exists now and could be used tomorrow.”. ” If a whistleblower with evidence of corruption or malfeasance comes forward to a journalist with that information, police will seek to prosecute the whistleblower and possibly the journalist. Or the police will trawl through the journalist’s metadata in order to identify and prosecute the whistleblower. This necessarily will restrict the flow of information that is in the public interest..”(Jack the Insider 2015)

Being more realistic, in Australia Telstra is authorized to store and keep all the data from all as users for 6 years recently. they claimed as a protection, as having the power to access everyone’s internet activity record means they can track every movement of you, like purchasing weapons, racist or terrorist announcement, chat record of crime planning, or any trace they believe related to illegal activities. There is always a claim for preventing crime and protect profit owners and citizens from threads, but this is also the similar ideas for totalitarianism countries as a control method, such as The PRC China, have been argued on their mass monitor and filtration on politic-sensitive information and arrest people who share or distributed them.

Here’s a short section form the news interviews of Edward Snowden about metadata:

“The collection of metadata will not prevent terrorism”, instead “The reason these attacks happened is not because we didn’t have enough surveillance, it’s because we had too much.”

“….”The purpose of the free press in society is to do exactly this sort of thing — to act as an adversary against the government on behalf of the public.””

“Australia’s role in mass surveillance around the world is similar to the UK and the Tempora program, which is what’s called a rolling Internet proffer,” he said.

“Basically they use local authorities such as this metadata program that’s been passed in Australia to collect everyone’s communications in advance of criminal suspicion.”

While acknowledging that governments must take steps to protect people from terrorism, he said the sort of metadata collection programs being operated by governments were at odds with free Western society, and this is dangerous,”

“This is not things that governments have ever traditionally been empowered to claim for themselves as authorities.

“And to have that change recently … is a radical departure from the operation of traditional liberal societies around the world.”(Fitzsimmons, 2015)

Yet the potentials of monitoring metadata is still being discussed, personal strategies can be applied to protect privacy and diversity of data able to be accessed, such as not carrying trackers such as mobile phone, or not giving out personal information to social media unless necessary. Socialists have also suggested some solutions and journalists, that the system of metadata should either keep independency from companies and governments or having high transparency to the public, in order to protect citizen’s right and freedom of knowledge from being controlled with politic purposes. the distributers should have to duty to keep the access of metadata has not been done by any reason other than service maintenance. or otherwise, metadata will be a weapon against personal freedom of citizens more than a benefit on social development.

By: Mart Yeung

Reference:

Grubb,Ben and Massola, James .2014.”What is ‘metadata’ and should you worry if yours is stored by law?”.The Sydney Morning Herald. Newspaper.  http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/what-is-metadata-and-should-you-worry-if-yours-is-stored-by-law-20140806-100zae.html#ixzz3jqcZthom . viewed 22 August 2015.

Fitzsimmons, Hamish .2015. “Edward Snowden says Australia undertaking ‘dangerous’ mass surveillance of citizens; criticises metadata laws”. ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-08/edward-snowden-says-australias-mass-surveillance-dangerous/6456938.

SEO 2015. “What is metadata? – Definition from WhatIs.com.” 2015.http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/metadata. Viewed 23 August 2015.

Jack the Insider 2015. “HOW TO BEAT METADATA RETENTION LAWS”. The Australian. blogs. http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/jacktheinsider/index.php/theaustralian/comments/how_to_beat_metadata_retention_laws/. viewed 23 August 2015

Big Data

As defined by the American business analytics software ‘SAS’, ‘Big data’ refers to the large increase in the amount of data that is available (SAS 2015). The movie Her explores a future where the amount of data available continues to grow from the present (Her 2013). It is set at a point in the future where there is significant amounts of data supporting artificial intelligence. As a result, a computer operating system is entirely artificially intelligent. By this time computers have intuition. This creates a convincing companion, closely mimicking the attributes of a human. The protagonist, Theodore, builds a relationship with his computer operating system, Samantha based on this premise.

(Schmoes Know 2013)

With his film, writer and director Spike Jonze raises the question: Can an abundance of data lead humanity to a point where a relationship with another human being can be substituted by a computer? This question is answered by the actions that Theodore demonstrates in relation to Samantha. He misses her, expresses concern for her feelings, dedicates time to spend with her and ultimately, loves her. The next question is: are human beings prepared to build relationships with computers that do not have the same limitations as humans? Samantha is able to simultaneously converse with thousands of people and even love hundreds whilst talking and loving Theodore. This is an extrapolation of the current fragmentation of human relationships. Her is a cautionary tale of how this could increase in prevalence when the entire communication process is automated.

In her lecture for Interdisciplinary Lab A in week four, Dr Jacqueline Lorber Kasunic makes reference to ‘digital CCTV’ (Dr Kasunic, J. 2015). This term refers to the recording and communicating of the interactions that a user has online. For example, their online purchases. It is this kind of infrastructure that will facilitate the artificial intelligence that is project in Her.

In the week four reading Antony Funnell is interviewing Lee Rainie from the Pew Research Centre (ABC 2014). Rainie describes the pessimistic views of the future that he has encountered in his research. These include the potential for data to be misused and consequently people being misunderstood. This concern is visualised in Her as the concept of being in an intimate relationship with an OS is misunderstood by those observing from outside the relationship.

As I wrote about in my previous post, Elon Musk has concerns and hopes for the future of humanity that he is actively addressing. An increase in rocket technology is a trajectory that he is pursuing for the benefit of humanity with his company SpaceX (SpaceX 2015). The vision of the company is to develop the technology necessary to make life multi-planetary. Establishing a base on Mars is a way to backup the biosphere and therefore ensure the survival of life beyond the limitations of Earth.

(NYPost 2014)

Whilst SpaceX is an example of preparing humanity for the future it also poses a question as with the movie Her. With the collection of copious amounts of  data, could there be adverse effects of developing space technology?

By: Mina Bassilious

References:

SAS 2015, Big Data, What it is & Why it Matters, viewed 24 August 2015, <http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html>.

Her 2013, motion picture, Annapurna Pictures

Schmoes Know 2013, Her Movie Poster, viewed 24 August 2015, <http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-review-of-her-by-ray-kurzweil>.

Dr Kasunic, J. 2015, ‘Lecture: Data, data, everywhere!’, UTS Online Subject 85202, PowerPoint presentation, UTS, Sydney, viewed 24 August 2015, <https://online.uts.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_1207469_1&displayName=Lecture+Recordings&course_id=_26782_1&navItem=content&href=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fblti%2FlaunchPlacement%3Fblti_placement_id%3D_24_1%26content_id%3D_1207469_1%26course_id%3D_26782_1>.

SpaceX 2015, SpaceX, viewed 24 August 2015, <http://www.spacex.com/>.

ABC 2014, Surveying the future of the internet, viewed 25 August 2015, <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/surveying-the-future-of-the-internet/5359664>.

NYPost 2014, SpaceX unveils sleek new spaceship, viewed 24 August 2015, <http://nypost.com/2014/05/30/spacex-unveils-sleek-new-spaceship/>.

The Anthropocene

The anthropocene refers to a period of time where the actions of humanity have caused permanent changes to the planet (Anthropocene 2015). A large portion of these changes are based on industrialisation and the associated use of fossil fuels for energy production and consumption.

Associate Professor Chris Riedy from the Institute for Sustainable Futures alludes to concerns about humanities usage of energy in his week two lecture for Interdisciplinary Lab A (Riedy 2015). He applies techniques that forecast possible outcomes of our production and consumption of energy. For example he displays a diagram of the projected electricity utilities future where there are various possible outcomes. There is a definite move towards less carbon supply (see diagram below). This highlights the need for alternative energy sources to compensate for the lack of carbon. A more decentralised electricity supply where there a more sources of electricity is a likely future. The extent of this possibility is represented by the green arrows. 

American entrepreneur Elon Musk developed similar thoughts in the employment of the method ‘reasoning from first principles’ when building companies (Business Insider 2015). Different trajectories are projected which can be altered by decisions that we make now. The goal is to work towards the most positive outcome. His first application of this thinking is in the progression of sustainable electricity production and consumption. He established the electric car manufacturer Tesla with the goal of accelerating the advent of electric cars (Tesla Motors 2013). He is also the chairman of a company called Solar City that distributes solar panels to consumers. The combination of these companies sets a foundation for a utopian future where there is less concern for the longevity of our fossil fuel supply. As referenced by Riedy in his lecture, Tesla have introduced a consumer energy storage solution. The product is called the Tesla ‘Powerwall’. It facilitates the storage of electricity, generated by solar panels on the roof of a user’s home (Tesla Motors 2015) (see diagram below). This contributes to the development of decentralised electricity supplies as it could enable users to have a home or business that is not powered by the grid. These types of products will reduce the impact that humanity has on the planet and therefore minimise the negative aspects of the anthropocene that humanity is creating.

Riedy refers to Inayatullah’s writing about future thinking (Inayatullah 2008). Six pillars of future studies are introduced. In discussing the pillar of ‘timing the future’ he makes reference to the larger empires and world-states that are evident in a typical future. A new future on the other hand is epitomised by sustainable systems developed by a creative minority. As a small manufacturer of electric cars and now energy storage devices, Tesla is part of this minority in the current automotive industry.

On an even more creative endeavour Elon Musk and his teams have proposed a future where there is an alternative to the current transportation systems that presents improvements in every aspect. As it remains a concept, the ‘Hyperloop’ is an example of a utopian speculative future (Space X 2013). It demonstrates how a public transport pod could travel on land faster than the speed of sound and can generate all of the energy that it would consume.

By: Mina Bassilious

References:

Anthropocene 2015, What is the Anthropocene, viewed 22 August 2015 <http://www.anthropocene.info/>.

Riedy 2015, ‘Futuring’, UTS Online Subject 85202, lecture notes, UTS Sydney, viewed 22 August 2015, < https://online.uts.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_1207469_1&displayName=Lecture+Recordings&course_id=_26782_1&navItem=content&href=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fblti%2FlaunchPlacement%3Fblti_placement_id%3D_24_1%26content_id%3D_1207469_1%26course_id%3D_26782_1>.

Business Insider 2015, Elon Musk Uses This Ancient Critical Thinking Strategy To Outsmart Everybody Else, viewed 22 August 2015 2015, <http://www.businessinsider.com.au/elon-musk-first-principles-2015-1>.

Tesla Motors 2013, The Mission of Tesla, viewed 22 August 2015 <http://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/blog/mission-tesla>.

Tesla Motors 2015, Powerwall Tesla Home Battery, viewed 22 August 2015, <http://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/powerwall>.

Inayatullah, S., 2008. ‘Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming’. Foresight, 10(1), 4-21.

Space X 2013, Hyperloop Alpha, viewed 22 August 2015, <http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf>.

Introduction—–What are we looking for future?

Future is always the top concern above our head. As we human eager to improve our existence through thousands of years, we developed the ability to modify our environment for better living. But we still keep imagining of our future, fictions stories or even scientific studies always suggest alternatives of human development, yet concerns on existing threads are also brought up on discussion. Some say in a socialist level we are reaching a critical point for change, as our society are fully equipped and fulfill every need, intelligence can be highly advanced and produced to monitor daily life and so humans no longer need learning too much physical skills. Humans maybe either evolved in intelligence or decline in social connection level. Arguments are made while new inventions for technology are published for achieving our imagination for advanced living.Some says society will be break up as technology is being improved to a level which physical interaction with others is no longer needed. Some opinions goes on environment, which considering the use up of natural resource and irreversible destruction on environment, and theories for sustainability are suggested. We may either limit ourselves from consuming resources or develop highly sustainable technology to support continuous consumption.

by Mart Yeung

All these concerns are brought up into one question. What are we looking for future? What are we trying to achieve? Are we looking for improvement on extending human existence or predicting how we will end up with the change of environment? Are we go on the right track or do we need a new path to break through our condition? What will we need to give out and being converted in order to reach or prevent the possible result?  The Answer are not fixed but there are options for our decision on what we want to become. Its a essential prospect on our environment, our society, and in terms of us as individuals.