The Bewilderness

Reaching beyond the sky

We have the prize: the Google $30,000,000 Lunar Prize, designed to facilitate a return to the Moon. It has stimulated 29 firms to plan and rush for seedcorn money that could propel their ambitions. Any article can quote their goals:

Naveen Jain, an Internet billionaire and a founder of Moon Express, says the company will spend $70 million to $100 million to try to win the Google Lunar X Prize, but could recoup its investment on its first flight. He envisions selling exclusive broadcast rights for video from the Moon, as well as sponsorships, à la Nascar, for companies to put their logos on the lander.

Nor would I stint such entrepreneurs from seeking welcome publicity and a contribution to the meme. The problem is that prizes, start-ups and capital injections do not really give us certainty. Are we really facing the build-up to a critical mass in space activity, leading to an efflorescence of innovation and business models in orbit? Or is this a myth, where reduction in state activity leaves an absence, since private firms are unable to make a sufficient return?

So far, we are shifting to a public-private partnership: state contracts and private sector providers. A halfway house or co-opting new models; the private sector has yet to reach orbit, let alone the moon.

From IT to Business Technology

You want to respond to a new business opportunity. You want to see if the success of Wikipedia or Facebook can be harnessed for your company. You are tired of hearing that old refrains that the systems or the licence are just not able to do what you want them to do. Aren't we all frustrated that the business outcomes we want are not the business outcomes that we can do.

And for years, that has been the end of the story. This is not a critique of IT departments although some have moved heaven and work to create business process hell. This is to say that theforthcoming changes in technology: responding to the new distribution of the cloud, the greater flexibility of mobiles and the maturing of social networks; all of these will herald radical changes and, hopefully, better business.

Paul D. Hamerman of Forrester Research outlines seven of the trends that makes our life easier. Better processes can only come through testing, innovation and failure. But if the process fails, take your licks, learn and move forward. After all, wise words say,

In the near term - the next one or two years - social collaboration will sit alongside enterprise applications, as only a few enterprise application suppliers will harness it successfully in the context of enabling business processes. Effective use of social collaboration in enterprise applications and business processes will take several years to mature, eventually becoming a relatively ubiquitous and standardised feature.

In a few years, we will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about as we deal with even greater changes kicking in.

Coding for protein

Biology was messy and resistant to precision or engineering. You don't hear about finely honed dog breeding, for example. But part of the biotech revolution: Sterling's designer organisms spreading their germline goodness is coming online.

When you see software that can synthesize biotech results and increase productivity, then we know that our tools are beginning to race away and that the real revolution could be commencing.

The software program, called a DNA compiler, designs DNA sequences to control protein production inside simple organisms. The biofuels industry, for example, is interested in maximizing the amount of proteins produced to optimize metabolism.

To produce proteins, which are integral for creating and maintaining cells, an organism's DNA sequence controls the proteins that it makes and how much of each protein is produced.

"You tell the computer what is the amount of protein that the organism should make and the computer tells you the DNA sequence that will give you that amount of protein," Salis said.

Countdown to a $1,000 DNA

How close are we to the cost of $1,000 for sequencing a genome; ever closer, like the European Union? This is another good example of innovation and costs bearing down on a designated goal, and charting extrapolative curves for the optimists amongst us. Yet, the questions raised form a small part of that broad criticism directed against Kurzweil. We meet this cost: so what? 

"Getting it is one thing, but adequately interpreting the information it provides is another big part of this," Gregersen said. "It's a fun thing to do, and there are ways to do it now in which you can contribute to basic science, such as by taking part in a larger registry." But, he added, "In isolation, this information is not helpful yet."

We are not there yet.

Sina Weibo's retweet from the news frontier

Technology Review reported a comparison of Twitter with its Chinese counterpart, Sina Weibo. Twitter has been banned in China since 2009 and Sina Weibo was introduced a month after its prohibition as its replacement. The conclusions of the comparison were a far greater number of retweetings on Sina Weibo. The behaviour between the two systems were similar but Sina's results were skewed by the lack of realtime news.

Yes, the Chinese do not comment on news. There won't be any news from Satellite 2 for Shanghai in the near future.

Euroscepticism survives by default

Now that Italy has moved into the arena of unrealised bail-out, the focus has shifted towards politics. Two democratically elected leaders have made way for governments of technocrats designed to implement the measures required for austerity. Political parties are conscious of the potential for unpopularity; to be seen defending the euro becomes the third rail; to be heard advocating an alternative is still extremist.

Democracy is a matter of competing visions. By signing up to one destination, the political classes have destroyed that choice. Opposition has moved into inchoate protests and riots, for now. The decisions taken by Greece and Italy need to be viewed as short-term measures, biddable professionals whose legitimacy is lacking. Set against the rising reaction to imposed austerity is the strong focus upon the future of the European Union. Treaty fatigue has been cured by crisis. Measures up to a full-blown state are now in play.

Iain Martin makes too much of the incoherent rumours coming out of these negotiations. His call for leadership by Britain of the other ten resembles a befuddled and blurred snapshot. Cameron may be handicapped by Liberal Democratic partners, but doing nothing here could be construed as do no harm. The sidelines are not a bad place to be; as we are not on the train, we will never arrive at the station. If they join together as a state, the pro-European lemmings will be revealed as incoherent chumps, stranded in a no-mans land where the vision has gone and they are left behind. Playing catch-up is not an option. The only other way is out.

Euroscepticism will triumph by default.

Dick's simulation was a gnostic hell

Is Philip K Dick the acidgear equivalent of a sci-fi prophet or the living proof that Plato and drugs don't mix? The author had varied and contradictory views of the world and his role within it, but in some writings, he stated that he was living within a Platonic environment. To the Denver Clarion, he said that he had "become an object of interest to the divine beings". He also called upon this unceasing and eternal reality...

There is internal evidence in at least one of my novels that another reality, an unchanging one...underlies the visible phenomenal world of change.

Dick's homage to the Platonic philosophers is evident, as he contemplated the cave. Yet, if a simulation were to be perceived by those living within it, is Dick's literary oeuvre any less indicative of its evidence than any other phenomenon brought up to the light. There is some irony if we did live in a simulation; and its internal meat machines could only perceive this by going batshit crazy.

When people talk about Dick and simulation, they refer to his use of the device and how it has influenced others. Baudrillard cites Dick's novels for his assertion that we live in a society of simulation. From The Man in the High Castle to VALIS, the reader finds wheels within wheels, where the characters are often eternally running to keep these in motion.

Mine is a different and fundamentally unknowable question: was Dick glimpsing the workings of our simulation? If so, no wonder he was unable to grasp this in its entirety. Why ask this question, even as a hypothetical? Because, in a way, it validates Dick's own assertions. All of those who appropriate Dick do so as concept, symbol or metaphor, but never as truth. Dick thought his visions were real. No one else did. But what if they were?

Then, all of us become blind, deaf, mute fools in a gnostic hell.

(All quotations taken from Sci Fi Now, issue 15)

Under the SNP, oil will be too good for the Scots

I would place a bet on Scotland shivering by the year 2020 with power cuts and very high energy prices. We tend to forget that energy policy is a devolved power and that the lunatics in Edinbugh are worse than the Huhnatics in London. I did not realise that the SNP was aiming for a target of sourcing all energy from 100% renewables by 2020. This has naturally attracted some sceptical attention, especially with the lack of a clear public strategy to achieve this goal.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers criticised the Government plan to meet 100% of electricity demand from green sources by 2020.

It said such a move "may increase fuel poverty and turn Scotland from a net exporter to a net importer of energy".

While Colin Brown, director of engineering at the institution, said ministers were "absolutely right" to try to tap into Scotland's "huge potential" for renewable power, he added: "We have serious concerns that the over-ambitious 2020 target will push up prices and, combined with the Government's distaste for nuclear power, turn Scotland from a net exporter to a net importer of energy.

"Without any clear, workable and engineering-based plan of action, it is doubtful whether these targets are achievable at all. Holyrood needs to draw up a detailed, achievable and public strategy on how they plan to deliver these targets."

We would expect the SNP to obfuscate, to huff and defend the nonsensical. Clearly, the politicised quango that is Scottish Friends of the Earth falls into the same bracket. 

Francis Stuart, policy officer for Friends of the Earth Scotland, hit out at the institution's "ill-founded conclusions on the achievability of Scotland's renewable targets".

He said the 2020 target was "completely achievable" and added: "Renewables are the only genuinely sustainable solution to our energy problems."

Unable to actually criticise the Institution's call for a clear, costed strategy, (also known as common sense), the supporters are reduced to hot air. It is thus because we say it is thus. Windbaggery may suck taxes but it won't move windmills.

Hidden within this nonsense is the declining oil and gas reserves. Does the SNP's attachment to this target motivated by a need to shore up prospective independence through energy imports. Under the SNP, would oil and gas be too good for the Scots?

The Great Northern (European Banking) Run

What can they think? After a sleepless night where detail was discarded for the merits of a result, Merkozy must be overwrought at the bodyblow dealt to them by George Papandreou. Presented with the cost of bailout versus default in strikes, riots and the destruction of the Greek middle class, the Prime Minister could not continue to support European solidarity. The blubbering was not long in coming:

The Dutch Labour party called the referendum a "deal breaker" and said it would not support the Brussels accord if it were put to the vote. Jose Blanco, the spokesman for the Spanish government, said Greece's referendum was "bad news for Spain and bad news for Europe"

Recycling debt through the special purpose vehicle of the EFSF and preventing credit writedowns was considered more important than the obligatory impoverishment of one or more Eurozone members. Which politician will take such punishment for his fellow elites? Are we surprised that Papandreou made a sudden break for freedom with a democratic invocation. The referendum device was totemic, since its primary purpose was a figleaf of decency if his government lost a vote of confidence.

Constitutional doubts apart, politicians in the debt zone can no longer be relied upon to shore up the Merkozy. Torn between elite and electorate, the latter wins hands down. That being so, the debt crisis now embarks upon its most dangerous phase: political co-operation is no longer believed, yet we all wait for the actions of politicians to deal with their own crisis: and we will know their mettle when Italy crosses the finish line of market denial followed by the toppling of the banks.