Helen Mirren then and now.
Published February 12, 2011 | 
A scene from the movie Herostratus (1967), directed by experimental filmmaker Don Levy. Featuring the beautiful Dame Helen Mirren in one of her first movie appearances.
Helen Mirren knocks Hollywood for worshipping young males.
Where will Facebook be in the 4.0 world?
Published November 12, 2010 | 
If you’re at all interested in the Facebook phenome and social networking in general – check these articles out.
Zadie Smith has a crit piece at The New York Review of Books” re: Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network” I also read a commenticus of her crit at Tangled Web - Radio Free Europe by Luke Allnutt.
Allnutt points out, and I agree, that “Smith seems to make the mistake of many tech-backlash stories in that by attempting to diminish the value of the technology, she actually ends up fetishizing it and ascribing it too much power.” and at the end of his post he says she writes beautifully but “(her critique) is just the nostalgia of an aesthete who is too out of touch with the way the rest of us communicate.”
Why I agree:
My 15 year old son is a constantly connected child, and I don’t fear for him or his friends. I believe that it is still true that the parents teach the children how to have a sense of themselves, how to respect, love etc. The danger, the negative symptom of intense social networking, is only a threat when the only reality the child knows is virtual and what they perceive as reality with their friends at school. That’s why we’re here, the parents. Kids need us to temper their perceptions more than ever, and unfortunately, I think it is more a symptom than a danger – kids are already out of touch, because there are no parent figures reeling them in from virtual space.
Anyway – my personal take on Facebook is that it’s just another flash in the apps pan – a new one will replace Facebook, I mean obvs – look at history – all the social apps get replaced because they can’t restructure to the new / next level of app structure. What will happen to Facebook in the 4.0 world??
Futurist John Smart, lead author of the Metaverse Roadmap … defin(es) Web 3.0 as the first-generation Metaverse (convergence of the virtual and physical world), a web development layer that includes TV-quality open video, 3D simulations, augmented reality, human-constructed semantic standards, and pervasive broadband, wireless, and sensors. Web 3.0′s early geosocial (Foursquare, etc.) and augmented reality (Layar, etc.) webs are an extension of Web 2.0′s participatory technologies and social networks (Facebook, etc.) into 3D space. Of all its metaverse-like developments, Smart suggests Web 3.0′s most defining characteristic will be the mass diffusion of NTSC-or-better quality open video to TVs, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, a time when “the internet swallows the television.” Smart considers Web 4.0 to be the Semantic Web and in particular, the rise of statistical, machine-constructed semantic tags and algorithms, driven by broad collective use of conversational interfaces, perhaps circa 2020. David Siegel’s perspective in Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web, 2009, is consonant with this, proposing that the growth of human-constructed semantic standards and data will be a slow, industry-specific incremental process for years to come, perhaps unlikely to tip into broad social utility until after 2020. wiki
Privacy vs Attention, Pop Culture vs Peep Culture
Published October 2, 2010 | 
This article in the National Post tickles a lot of my fancies: evaluations of culture that I am constantly making. For example: privacy vs popularity (or plain old attention), general narcissism in peep media culture and technology. My general question is: As we all interact with information networks and technology, are we really able to be ourselves? This is something that has affected me in my life for a long time – for example, as a photographer, you cannot assimilate and experience your umwelt the way you would if you were not assessing and recording it. How will this effect our evolution? Such big questions huh?
“What I hear from self-trackers is ‘I just don’t care about privacy, I don’t value it,’” said Hal Niedzviecki, author of the recent book Peep Diaries. “And that’s because they’ve found something they value more: Attention. That is a huge cultural shift.” Read more: National Post
The whole peep culture / attention / narcissistic phenomenon also touches on the future of ltr’s – it reminds me of how a friend encapsulated the ‘relationship thing’ as being a choice between loneliness and boredom. (I also knew a girl who used to say, “I have to go out with my borefriend.”)
Here’s an interesting take by Jay Rosen about National Public Radio and attention grabbing vs. attention granting.
Hello again to those returning, and Welcome! if this is your first time to my website. I'm Bree, I am in love with my two boys - one working just out of high school and another in Grade 11. I design websites, write, and dream alot.
I am currently working on the 2nd draft of my novel, White Rabbit. I have a pre publish site here.
White Rabbit
Urban Occult Esotericae - A young woman cloaked from her father at birth, sets out to find him and becomes a leader in a metaphysical world where good and evil are not the only choices.
