Tag Archives: critical thinking

What price would you pay for faster web-surfing?

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Today, Amazon launched its new Kindle Fire.

Read the announcement and an introductory video here.

This is basically a tablet PC running on Android 2.1. What is different though, is that – among many other changes that make the free Android surfing experience nearly invisible – the latest Amazon tablet uses a proprietary technology for browsing the internet. (watch a straight forward marketing video on the link below, which helped me understand what is behind that new technology http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/ ).

Faster browsing – for free!

In all simplicity, the new Silk browswer will send your request for internet content to the EC2 Amazon network, where the heavy computing, pre-loading and resizing of the content will be made, before it is sent back to your handheld device in smaller bits and pieces. As a result, an image that you wanted to see will not download with its original 3 MB of data, but after resizing is done, it may be as small as 10 KB, because your Kindle Fire does not need more resolution. Ultimately, this will speed up your browsing experience tremendously. – Sounds smart, doesn’t it?

Faster business – for free?

In fact, being a bit suspicious about such generosity of re-inventing the internet ‘for free’, I am wondering: what if Amazon would get a chance, to scan and pre-browse each of their user’s content ‘for free’, what could they do with it? What if they exploit their position as content bottleneck to the information, networks and products you are seeking? What opportunities would that bring to a company that controls both your browsing experience and your mobile device, while on the backend, acts as the largest online retailer in the online world? – Would you still want a device with these capabilities – for free?

TED – Barry Schwartz on practical wisdom

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Updated on Sep 21, 2011.

Original title: “Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom” – Video on TED.com.

Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

The one thing that I like the most about Barry’s message is that he simply calls each individual to self-responsibility. This call needs to be heard by our leaders – to spread the word and attitude about the political, economic or social responsibility we all have to live, and we are all expected to take it and stand up for… – and this call needs to be heard by ourselves: with too many guidelines, rules, processes in our organisations are incapacitating us as individuals, we collectively sit back and point at each other to take initiative, instead of using our own ‘practical wisdom’ and make a change!

Meet me at the TEDxVienna event, and share YOUR wildest ideas about changing the world towards more self-responsibility … and how we can make it HAPPEN together.
Or participate in the blog-parade to win one out of 15 tickets for the TEDxVienna event, read more on the TEDxVienna homepage:

TEDxVienna

About Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he’s studying wisdom. Full bio and more links

Truth is the invention of a liar

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“Truth is the invention of a liar.” – Heinz von Foerster clearly stated, that truth has the character of a chameleon, “it takes on whatever color the user wants it to have.” It separates people who are right, and those who are not right. It is the basis for making the other person be ‘wrong’. Or in other words, you make the other person a liar…

As a result, would we not live much better without the concept of ‘truth’?

Reference: Heinz von Foerster, Bernhard Pörksen: Understanding Systems, Conversations on Epistemology and Ethics [2002]