Global cultural fusion seems to be the by-product tomorrow, of our global communication networks today.



Is cultural identity loss inevitable, is it a bad thing? What will the future bring.

Will we end up wearing tight spandex body suits as in Star Trek?

Is sharing always caring? Is communication shaping a new singular culture of tomorrow? Is it like fusion foods, are they better or simply more interesting. Will it eventually enrich our lives? Is culture really all that different from each other. For example Europeans would all consider themselves culturally different from one anther, yet from the perspective of an American or other Non-European, they may seem indeed very similar. Americans from different regions/states in the USA consider themselves culturally different from each other, yet to Non-Americans may seem homogeneous. If I dare to zoom out even more it seems cultural contrast is more obvious when it comes down to comparing continents, maybe Asia, Africa, and the rest of the Western continents seem seem really in contrast to each other. Yet if I zoom out even further we all end up being humans. In the very end we all share similar believes and cultures as the differences amongst cultures seem very minimal in variations from a 10,000 ft view.

Will culture be replaced by commercial identities that are not heritage bound yet consumption bound. Will we become the brands that we consume?

It seems in the very end god is indeed in the details according to humans.

In a society as ours, where crime, hate, and envy seem so apparent in our cultural expressions, i.e. movies, video games, the news, will there ever be hope for a positive outcome from sharing? I am always on the search for the better side of us, and when glimpsing the possibilities of what can be it makes the search all the more worth. What seems to in the end set us apart culturally are seemingly details, and it is those very details that are being shared in a collaborative process that make up the big differences. Technology has helped make this process so much easier, giving us a world of new perspectives, and as long as we are open to those, good may come of it. With a plethora of information shared, we seem to have become a network of human cloud computing, in which each participant lends their thought power. Sharing and adding and rethinking, we all add to the pie but get a much bigger piece back, the nature of Gestalt theory. If this thought power in the end is for good, so much more, at a rate faster than thought possible, will emerge.


I see the beauty of this collaborative vision

One such proof is the example demonstrated on TED.

The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) are building an interactive web series that represents the next evolution of dance.

The mere setting (TED), puts a whole new spin on this dance performance in which no hip hop music is used in order to represent an underground hip hop culture (telling the story with a different voice creates a beauty in fusion itself). Needless to say this dance performance is inspiring to say the least. Enjoy!

View TED video here.

I want to thank TED for showing us how in the end it does seem to become something beautiful, thank you TED.

In the future it will be less about technology and more about content. Right now as it stands everything is focused on technology and the products that encompass them, rather than on the human factor. We have a myriad of products all of which having to have their own preferences set, their own differing complex interfaces that need to be releanred for each individual device. Reading an article on our mobile devices and then continue reading it where we left off when entering our office, the same with movies, or music, having a seamless experience from car to home to office, all of which with an easy intuitive way to get to it, recall it, and share it is not part of our reality. All these pieces of technology take so much away from our daily lives, when all they were meant to do is improve our lives. Frankly I am tired of having 5 remote controls at home (and then always losing the smallest one).

Honeymoon
We get swept up by gimmicky empty effects of contentless technological toys, yet in the end a mobile device for example is a communication tool, and if technology gets in its own way, with all those snazzy features that marketing thinks will help sales, design has failed. As the technological honeymoon wears off and the consumers sober from the flashing lights, the realization kicks in that underneath that technological whizbang, content is a far second. Our real needs are not being met, and feelings of frustration, confusion and disappointment creep in. And in the end we once again hunt for the next best thing continuously being disappointed, in our "hunt for emptiness."

Garbage In Garbage Out

Invisible Technology
Good technology will come to a point where it becomes transparent, almost non existent in our reality, namely invisible. The less we have to think about it the more successful it will be, the more it gets out of the way of content the more innovative it is. When it comes to a point that we don't even think about it, and it barely exists in our minds, that is the point at which it has become what the idea of technology was meant to be, namely a tool to make our lives easier. I think this is something we always forget in forging ahead in our quest for the latest technology and in turn for a better tomorrow. One of the factors we will have to overcome if we want to indeed get to the next level of sustainable technological advances, is our greed. I am talking about the chase for a quick buck, driven by the ubiquitous marketing machine, which creates a multitude of "me too" products, which simply are old products rewrapped, and in the end does not spearhead any advances what so ever.

Massimo Vignelli once said, "Marketing is the cancer of good design," well I take it further and say, "...and the evolution of good technology."

In the end technology should get to a point where it caters to us. You should not have to learn about it (how to use it what preferences to set, reading countless manuals only to be confused at the end, always feeling like and idiot each time you buy a new toy) but rather it should be so transparent that it feels it is learning about you.

Small example of what considerations need to me made:
View the video from Adobe MAX

View the interactive rendering of Charles Darwin's multiple editions of "On the Origin of Species." A project executed by Ben Fry using Processing.

View article and video at makezine.com
Light sculpture by German multimedia design collective lab binaer.
A great project highlighting the toll of death and violence in the world today

View statement by Punchcut ...chief criticism is that the UI still relies on a persistent overlay...

We will eventually be forced to rethink how humans interact with electronic content and how it is served up. Instead of copying (relying on) archaic methods and using canned/regurgitated user interface experiences, we will have to commit to a new way of thinking and learn from our past.

The frustration and lack of understanding technology goes back to the days of the VCR, a classic example of a user interface that made rocket scientists feel mentally inferior. Getting in the way of humans doing a basic task such as recording a show

not being able to figure out how to set the VCR in order to record a show is a classic example that will last throughout the ages, and will never invoke feelings of nostalgia in my eyes

is a failed experiment that in the end only created more grief than payoff.

Visit Wolfram Alpha
The creators of Mathimatica have created a search engine of sorts, a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.

Seems that our evolution dictates our necessities and behaviors and thereby defines what space is necessary to house us and our actions. This being said, now with the internet and computers being part of our daily routine our behaviors are changing and will once again redefine space. (future prediction, with touch screens and increasingly bad posture our need for seating redesign is imminent and due to weakened spinal columns the need for releaving pressure will drive us to consider a more inclined position (if not upside down suspended position for a larger part of the day), half seating half bed in front of the TV, alleviating the needs for bedrooms in architecture.)