Shouninjutsu

Been thinking about my previous comments about the various of “waves” through which civilization has progressed.

And while I still believe it is absolutely true that we have in general “core dumped” ourselves beyond not only the “industrial wave” but the “information wave” as well (see previous Pareto Proclamation post), I’ve been recently reminded that each successive wave carries ripple effects that reverberate and “feedback” (riptide?) back into previous waves as well.

The proliferation of corporate farms, genetic hybrid crops and global commodity trading systems over the last 20-30 years have overhauled the agricultural landscape to the point of being virtually unrecognizable when compared to earlier food production methods. And in the last week I’ve become even more aware of another revolution that stands a very good chance of revolutionizing manufacturing processes in a way that could lead to an entirely new kind of “industrial wave.”

Without going into too much detail, a number of confluences are converging to create a “perfect storm” capable of changing the way we look at global manufacturing industries. Check out what’s happening at Tangible Express, an innovative company focusing on democratizing access to rapid prototyping technologies to create whole new market opportunities through a concept they call “fractional manufacturing.” What electronic typesetting and later, desktop publishing did for the printing/publishing industry, this new approach may well bring to manufacturing methodology and practice.

And given that the founder/Chairman of Tangible Express is David McInnis of PRWeb fame, you’d think he knows a thing or two about crushing existing paradigms by blowing open the opportunity for creative folks to “do it themselves.”<g>

Will Tangible Express (and the competitors who are sure to jump on the bandwagon soon) turn traditional production processes– not to mention potentially even global economic politics– on their heads? Time will tell, but at the very least it’s a reminder to me that no wave is ever truly “over,” and at the end of the day, the world is still filled with more “atoms” than “bits”…<g>

Another moment of inspiration spurred by some discussion at Grokdotcom.com as a result of a couple of recent articles,

 Google an Yahoo Starting Social Networks

FaceBook Follies and LinkedIn Lure

 I don’t knw if I should be paying the guys at FutureNow, or they should be paying me, :)but I find the discussions there stimulate some of my most salient (at least I think so;)) thoughts.

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So how many “friends” do YOU have on MySpace?  LinkedIn contacts? Phonebook entries on your Treo?  Email addresses in Outlook?

How much data do you have indexed?  Technorati tags?  Diggs?  Bloglines RSS feeds?  Podcast subscriptions?  Twits?

Do we really need more “social networks?”  Do we really need even more information thrown at us?  WAVES of information that we can’t conceivably completely assimilate let alone make any real use of?

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It seems to me that there is more than enough data and information out there.  More than 25 years ago, Alvin Toffler wrote a book called “The Third Wave.”  He observed that economic society to that point had gone through 2 previous waves– the Agricultural Wave and the Industrial Wave– and that we had now reached the cusp of what he called the “Information Wave.”  But is there any doubt that in the last 25 years we have moved way beyond the swell of an information wave?

• How many websites are indexed by Google?  (7,490,000,000 indexed for the letter “a” alone)
• How many books can I buy at the click of a mouse at Amazon?  (9,611,286)
• How many movies are available at my local Blockbuster store (2,500) let alone online (over 80,000)?
• How many channels are running right now on my DirectTV digital satellite– ALL of which I can TiVo for later viewing so that I can watch back-to-back Law and Order day and night, 24/7 for the next 3 months if I so choose?

I did a quick calculation and if I were to spend 8 hours a day to listen to every CD, watch every DVD, read every book, watch every family video and look at every snapshot (figure 15 seconds each) in my house, it would take me over 67 YEARS!  Thank heaven I don’t have satellite TV and internet…oh wait.  I guess I do.

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Practically speaking, we don’t need any more information.  We need a better ways to filter, select, consume and use it in a meaningful manner.

So let me suggest the title for Toffler’s next book (or maybe I should write it.  Actually, maybe you’re reading part of it right now

The FOURTH Wave– BRAIN Waves

Start using our Brains!  In computer terms, you brain is more than an input device connected to mass storage– there’s PROCESSING power in there!  The intelligent organization, classification and indexing (”intelligent filtering) of what’s already out there is far more important to you and me than just tons and tons or raw information.

So, what are some of the organizing principles we can use to make sense of information overload?  And what IS the “Pareto Proclamation?”

More to come, eventually.