When Danny Hillis’ original essay was published in 1995, there’s a good chance I at least caught a piece of it – probably just some bold type on a printed glossy page; back then Wired magazine was a regular read so there’s a fair chance I did catch at least that much. If I actually read the piece however, it didn’t register. I suppose I was, in all the ways that matter, too young to get the point. It’s easy enough to understand what Hillis is saying. However I’m not talking about just understanding, but empathizing. Ten years after I get the point.

In 1977 I saw Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning film “Annie Hall” at the local movie theater. I recall enjoying the entire film, but when I think back on it – try to recall scenes from it – one segment always comes to mind: the “why bother, the universe is going to collapse” scene where exasperated adults (including a child psychologist) attempt in vain to explain why anything really matters. There’s something in that scene that has for me been carried forward in other films, such as “Brazil” and “Fight Club“. And when I think of “Fight Club”, especially as a designer, it’s hard not to recall the Ikea catalogue scene. It’s pretty damning.

I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?

Is what I do for a living contributing to that kind of internal dialogue where what a person owns defines both who they are and their purpose in life? Sadly, I believe it does.

In recent years I’ve increasingly given consideration to my role in our voracious consumer society. And increasingly I find myself wishing I had a design response as eloquent as Dr. Hillis’ project, The Clock of the Long Now.

via FutureFeeder

{Image Copyright © 01996-02005 The Long Now Foundation}

What a great niche product: Dirty Linen bedsheets. And they’re still “dirty” after you wash them (a hint just in case some of you don’t get it). So for those of you looking to get a meaningful gift for that special someone… perhaps a gift that sends a personal message… check out the offerings on Groovy Q’s website. Always neat to find something clever that would likely never be carried by a large retailer!

via Cool Hunting

{Image Copyright © 2003-2005 GROOVY Q}

Now this is interesting. I attempted to post a comment to one of Bruce Nussbaum’s entries on BusinessWeek and have found that I’ve been “blackholed” (besides the obvious astronomical reference, I can’t help but think of this as a combination of “blacklisted” and “cornholed”). This could of course just be caused by the fallout from all the splog issuing forth onto the net (I’ve sure wasted my time dealing with it), but then again I don’t always agree with his comments so perhaps I really have been… blackholed (I kinda like that noun-to-verb construction).

Oh well, who knows. It’s just as easy to point to his entry, add a trackback (if it takes; trackback spam is a b*tch too) and post my comment here. So here’s a link to what I consider his time-late observation and here’s the comment I tried but wasn’t permitted to post:

This seems a little late, to be honest. A full year ago I found that I was underbidding some design firms in Asia. And around the same time my contacts in China were discussing the issues related to changes in the labor situation.

I believe it’s also been widely reported that the rise of an affluent middle class in Chinese cities has been driving up the cost of agricultural products – with the consequent effect being that the spring from which cheap labor has been gushing is slowing to a reasonable stream. Why leave the farm for some dangerous industrial job far from home when produce is now fetching higher prices at market? Someone has to feed all those people. Is it any surprise that other, recent reports have shown rural farmers gaining the edge in conflicts with the government?

What goes round, comes round.

That works.

I wonder how many other companies are trying to figure out how to deal with these kinds of unexpected, opportunistic invasions of their blog space. As irritating as it is, blog spam is a pretty creative (if selfish) invention. Reminds me of my previous posts where I warn people about how unruly a 3D internet will be. I think blog spam is a long, long way from being the worst we’ll see.

{Edit: I noticed a comment referring to this part of Nussbaum’s blog entry:

And if geography doesn’t matter, why should wages be differentiated on the basis of geography for the same work? Hmm…. That’s a big thought.

I agree with “Sledgehammer”. The reason for wage differentiation seems pretty obvious to me and I’ve mentioned it before (either on this blog or perhaps on the SL Salon): you can’t simply pay an industrial laborer in the third world the same wages as those in the U.S. because it’s likely that this rate will exceed the wages of local professionals… like doctors. Until their entire system is raised to the same standard as the developed world, it’s not likely to be in the long-term interests of that society to encourage the pursuit of the lowest-rung occupations (which would likely be the first to benefit from the developed world’s loving attention). Like most things in life, balance is an important consideration.}

With so much turmoil in the marketplace in recent years, brands have taken a beating. Things were so much easier when it required a ton of investment dollars to launch a product. Now people just have to come up with a decent idea, find a third world sweatshop to produce the thing inexpensively, offer it to consumers either through a shake-and-bake e-commerce website or through eBay, and ship via one of several worldwide delivery services. If you’re both savvy and lucky, you strike it rich (e.g. Fubu). Of course that’s the extreme example. More likely some small, low-overhead outfit will drop prices on their commodity product and force large, well-known and well-respected companies to follow suit (sometimes forced to do so by all-powerful retailers) resulting in lower-quality products which strain consumer brand loyalty.

With so much change about, what’s a well-heeled company to do? Well, seems the latest thing is contacting the local neuromarketing outfit and scanning a few brains. For an interesting – if somewhat dated – article on what that is and how it (supposedly) works, check out “There’s a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex” by collision detection blogger Clive Thompson.

{via O’Reilly Radar}

Considering the appalling lack of progress in securing the U.S. against terrorist attack (wasn’t there yet another story last week about how some other national security issue deadline has come and gone without so much as a national blink?), I found this entry over on the New World Notes blog of interest. It’s a nice little recreation of a New England town inside Second Life (heck, it looks like some towns near me) intended to be used to aid in security response preparation (hence the name of the sim: Response). But I couldn’t find a door that would open or a finished interior, so that was a little disappointing. And the prim usage seemed a bit extreme for details that could probably have been foregone to allow for some of the additional functionality that an interior space might provide. But then again, I don’t know the specifications so what’s there might serve its intended purpose. I certainly hope so. But maybe there should at least be a sign in that sim, listing all the real world deadlines that are being missed. A sense of urgency would certainly seem in order in both worlds. Oh well, it’s still interesting to see virtual constructs used for real world purposes.