My Digital FootPrint

The majority who read this will be aware of the response that when a digital or Internet service is Free; you are the product. It is most probably an adaption of a 1970 quote from the TV/media industry. Free to Air TV, which is advertising supported, means you watch for FREE in exchange for attention to watch adverts, as product and service owners hope you will buy. The idea of this post is to explore this line of thinking a little further, as with the introduction of PSD2, GDPR and many other new regulatory frameworks from the US to Australia: the user/ consumer can now get their data back, so this idea needs to be looked at again with our digital glasses on. The purpose here to raise questions with the hope others will help explore what it means through commentary.  Definitions for this post  Derivative : A derivative is a contract between two or more parties whose value is based on an agreed-upon underlying digital data asset (like your social media posts) or set o

This is Richard Holton (x MIT) discussing the classic philosophical problem of can data predict and free will --- that is, the question of whether we human beings decide things for ourselves, or are forced to go one way or another.  He distinguishes between two different worries. One worry is that the laws of physics, plus facts about the past over which we have no control, determine what we will do, and that means we're not free. Another worry is that because the laws and the past determine what we'll do, someone smart enough could know what we would do ahead of time, so we can't be free. He says the second worry is much worse than the first, but argues that the second doesn't follow from the first. The next problem is that this assume the mind and no body and when we realise that they are one ( the strange order of things) - and chemistry is a bigger controller of outcome than the mind ( the mind is flat ) - does knowing more data help or not?

Douglas Rushkoff ’s new book, Team Human Follow Douglas on Twitter  He has a FREE Book launch event at Civic Hall in New York City on Wednesday January 23 2019 Douglas kindly provided me with a pre-launch books and here is my review    SIMPLE - READ IT. Douglas spots a trend and writes a book about it. How do we put people back into the centre (tech). It has been a theme growing for a while but the sense is that it is now that we should refocus. I agree. Team Human is a manifesto, different to the policy ideals explored by say Paul Collier in The Future of Capitalism.  The structure is 100 (one hundred) essays or statements, where he argues that we are essentially social creatures, and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together — not as individuals. Yet today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; educati

The Strange Order of Things: Life, feeling and the making of cultures by Antonio Damasio Follow him on Twitter ---- For decades, biologists spurned emotion and feeling as uninteresting. Antonio Damasio, a professor of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, sets out to investigate “why and how we emote, feel, use feelings to construct ourselves and how brains interact with the body to support such functions”. He demonstrates that we are our chemistry and that feelings are central to the life-regulating processes which keep us alive and thriving. What the body feels is every bit as significant as what the mind thinks and we can turn to emotions to explain human consciousness and cultures. It is worth spending a few minutes reading the praise section as the depth and quality will confirm this book is worth taking seriously. You may not like the content or agree with it - but it is worth reading. The link here to data and sensors is that maybe we can deter

The Inflamed Mind Edward Bullmore Follow Edward on TWITTER In The Inflamed Mind, Cambridge psychiatrist, Professor Edward Bullmore presents a new discovery which overturns centuries of medical, psychological and philosophical understanding: the mind and body are linked far more closely than we ever knew - obvious! Central to this thinking is doing away with old notions of dualism, such as mind and body, inherited from Descartes. For years it has been accepted by the medical profession that mind and body were separated by a `blood-brain barrier', which prevented all cellular interaction. It was not considered professionally respectable to investigate connections between the brain, the realm of neuroscience, and the immune system, the province of immunology, because it was well known that the brain and the immune system had nothing to do with each other. Now it is clear that that is not the whole story. Bullmore's research reveals that the existence of the blood-brain ba

The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier  outlines original, pragmatism and ethical ways of addressing the growing gaps between economic prosperity and being more humane. The topic is of great importance and you may not agree with the content but it is beautifully written and important book. The author takes on the failures of contemporary capitalism driven by national and global policy for the now discontent of contemporary high-income western countries and offers (practical) ideas and policies to address them. Drawing on ideas from some of the world's most distinguished social scientists and much of his own personal background and leading research Paul shows us how to save the ideals “capitalism” from itself - and free ourselves from the intellectual baggage of the 20th century. “Deep rifts are tearing apart the fabric of our societies. They are bringing new anxieties and new anger to our people, and new passions to our politics. Thriving cities versus the provin

Open Source Leadership    @RajeevPeshawria We always thought leadership should be democratic but Rajeev Peshawaria shows through his research that a great leaders should be autocratic. I wrote long thought piece in 2018 called Organisation 2.0  I will post it soon as it was a good structure of thinking but lacked a reason (which I think I now have).  The thesis started from ideas that the gen X and Millennials are thinking differently about assets, policy and values.  The are a generation where the gig economy has more alignment than a pension. Rajeev's book starts with identical thinking, which is also echoed in the excellent book by Paul Collier “T he Future of Capitalism ” So knowing that there is a substantive change in the views/ opinions about work and what work means - it means that management and leadership have to adopt.  The 1980’s MBA is now so far out of date on theory and ideals that it is all but irrelevant - however most top management are still thinki