h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mother Techne provided the arena where I found my brain. This was quite late on. After years of people being distracted by my hair colour, so it had a big impact. I was initially seduced by the way I learnt, the validation given to my ability to connect different streams of interest. It gave me a space to realise thatI had to play to learn and that I could do whatever I dreamed.

I now feel at the end of a 7 year love affair, trying to find a way to be faithful to my passion and fighting off the cynicism which creeps like a fungus. My hero is Brenda Laurel. My inspiration was the desire to be able to communicate, clearly and concisely and is now more about using my voice to tell my story, because we all need stories for our children.

I have a sneaky suspicion that technology is more fun to make than to use. I worry that the digital will lead us away from the flesh and I hope and pray that commerce doesn't kill our play. We know too little of this new language for Sillywood to stamp on innovation. Roll on independant production.
 

Most things are more fun to make than use, witness lego. I'm sure this is why my lodger spends vast amounts of time welding complex & exciting vehicles, only to get bored with them & sell them after a fairly short while. People love the excitment of creating things and making stuff work, but actually making it work properly - debugging your creation - is a pain in the butt, full of tedious, niggly bits that aren't much fun. Technologists are no different.

Where do you mean by sillywood? I've not heard that term?

H&K
Z

Siliwood, or Sillywood, is a personal bastardisation for the convergent industry i.e. Hollywood meets Silicon Valley...

I always find it ironic that big business rushes in before the model is proved, i.e. nobody really knows how the internet will make money yet. The trouble with this early enthusiasm is that it often stamps on early conceptual experimentation and development.

I believe that without this experimentation it will take us a lot longer to figure out and deliver compelling and entertaining technological experiences, the trouble is, the longer it takes us the harder it is to justify experimentation.

you mean the point where every big business (esp. US) had an internet division with a huge budget and no idea? And then discovered nobody had any idea and closed the divisions?

I think there will always be experimenters out there, esp. on the internet as it covers most of the world, thats a lot of people with some new & interesting ideas, unfettered by managers and, hopefully, able to get those ideas out to people who can take them futher.

US venture capitalists are supposed to be very on the ball with funding new ideas, though probably not seriously experimental stuff.

What kind of thing do you think would be a compelling experience, given that most people find minesweeper engrossing?

H&K
Z