(This is written for Russell Davies’ Lyddle End 2050 project. The photos are all of models I made for it, and you can also see them as a set on Flickr).

We’ve lived through a lot of futures and most of them, we didn’t see coming. We’ve imagined many more, and I have a lot of [...]

It’s an odd climate in which to coin such a post title, but a few things I’ve observed have been rattling around recently.
The ongoing economic crisis seems to drive people to more conservative tactics, which aren’t necessarily safe (i.e. retreating to currency in the name of liquidity doesn’t seem like a very sure bet…). The [...]

Via Boing Boing, I just read a fascinating article on the history of Monopoly. It appears in the latest edition of Mental Floss, but the text is available as a PDF from the author’s website.
The first part of the article, about Monopoly sets being used to smuggle escape materials to POWs during WWII, is interesting [...]

I finally decided to give Democracy player a go. It’s pretty good, especially as you can go down a channel just clicking one download button after another.
I’ve been using it to watch TED talks, which, between download binges and being arsed to transfer them to other devices, I’ve only watched sporadically before.
Robert Wright makes [...]

Homophily minimises tension between personality and culture. Out of self interest, any such tension is often accepted by people as a constraint on their social behaviour, which makes homophily a much more relaxing situation. No matter how open someone is, no matter how reconciled they are with their own personality, they always have to be [...]

Bible Fight made me laugh a lot for ten minutes tonight. Of course, I played as that militant, genocidal old coot Moses (Deuteronomy 20:13,14), getting so involved that I shouted “Yes! Fuck you Noah!” at the end of a match.
A religious housemate of mine took it well, but is not impressed, stating merely that it [...]

Highlights from the DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007 – 2036. Intro highlights after the jump, list links to individual posts for the other sections.

Image: Global Stresses
Image: McRiyadh
Image: Dry Reservior
Resources
Population
Politics
Science and Tech
Military
System Shocks

Should be noted that this particular section of the report is particularly speculative, without such a peppering of “will” “possibly” and “may”.
A severe pricing shock, possibly caused by an energy spike or a series of harvest failures, could trigger a domino effect involving the collapse of key international markets across a range of sectors. The [...]

Military personnel will also find themselves employed more often in essentially non-military roles, owing to their readiness profile, training and capacity for organized action, often as the first response to natural disasters, unexpected flash events and other serious civil contingencies. They may be deployed in those circumstances where the normal law enforcement agencies cannot cope, [...]

The pace and diffusion of R&D and the operation of commercial imperatives will make global regulation difficult and will increase the opportunities for unethical or irresponsible actors to evade control. In addition, the effectiveness of regulation is likely to vary by culture, region or country, with an uneven application of, and access to, innovation. However, [...]

The US is likely to sustain its international leadership until at least 2020, after which a more multipolar world will challenge its hegemonic status, with China, Russia, India, Brazil and Indonesia and a host of alternative, possibly rival polities weakening its grip on certain regions and the international system. US strategic power will also be [...]

All of these changes will be reflected in culture, identity and belief. For many people, affiliation will extend beyond physically proximate communities, reflecting the ability to sustain relationships and identities over distance through globalized communications and travel. However, while resulting cultural complexity is likely to reinforce a trend towards secularism, a significant minority will turn [...]

It’s cynical Sunday. All emphasis mine.
“Prioritised oil user” is a great euphemism for politician and molotov alike.
Although the harsh climate and environmental restrictions currently militate against oil exploration and production in this region, Arctic warming is likely to be double the global average and this will significantly improve prospects for future exploitation. Petrochemical companies, aggressively [...]