Now and Laters

As a service designer, I often focus mostly on the alleviation of current negative services and experiences. (Re-designing banking, health, transportation, etc.) Or for imagining iterative, hopefully radical, evolutions of current services. An article I read today from the P2P foundation (http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/do-we-really-need-jobs/2011/09/16), coupled with my Service Design education, and having once read Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano" gave me a mild Eureka Moment today. and now it's gone. when computers can automate services, and perform then better than a human can, where are humans still valuable in service? manufacturing has been taken away from us, services will be taken away from us soon enough. so where does that leave us? we know what products and services we want to buy, but where does a human fit into the picture as far as service offerings? innovation and testing? holistic understandings? unfinished thoughts, better posted then left to rot

competition in the field

There are three critical facets to success: i'm going to call them (roughly) ability, skill, and motivation. I will use painting as a metaphor.

-abilities are your potentials, limitations, and flexibility. (how big is the canvas, how much paint do you have, and what colors?)

-skills are the tricks and understanding, and methods of communication learned during your life. (learning to apply the paint in the right way to produce a final product that looks how you intended)

-and motivation, similar to 'velocity equals speed and direction', is this inspiration, intention, and personal philosophy. (what do you want to paint and why?)

The people you know can be spider-mapped for these traits. Where are their greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Personally, I seem to find myself much stronger in ability and motivation than many of my peers. However, their skill sets are much more refined, which works much better in the short run.

observations on meaning

"Designer" is nothing more than a fancy word for "empowered." Empowered means rising up, above your meager role as a slave to your societal fate. For example, fashion designers create, and by doing so free themselves from the contraints of store selections and availability.

After the successful struggle, after breaking free, many designers become afraid; maybe afraid of being alone, maybe of losing touch with the society they left behind. And to be accepted back, they make the ultimate sacrifice: they offer to feed their new discoveries and creations into the monetary beast they worked so hard to escape.

Altruism rarely pays the bills.

*edit*(ps. i am reminded of a short film from years ago called 'More'. I found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9u7WiDBek4 )

The Burden of Options

A point easily forgotten, but the burden of good, healthy, and sustainable design lies not on the consumer, but the producers.

Presently, in order to make intelligent, informed decisions, consumers must perform extensive research through external sources (such as EWG.org, and goodguide.com), or by shopping in stores which offer a score or ranking service for their products (such as wal mart's proposed "sustainable product index").

The increasingly ubiquitous burden on consumers has even evolved into augmented reality (AR) applications as exhibited by MIT's Sixth Sense.

However, these solutions all beg the question: "Why are unhealthy, products even available?"

Dilemma Pack, part 1

In the past, (and sadly, still presently) ridiculous and squabbley arguments over topics such as racism, sexism, abortion, religion, and homosexuality, have been easily solved by applying the ethic of reciprocity (better known, but not fully encapsulated by "The Golden Rule.")

However, a new breed of wicked problems are arising which have serious ramifications for every facet of life, including social, political, and economic players.
All of these problems have been seen glimmers of life in the past, but with the feverish rate of technological advancement, there is a consistan movement towards their increasing frequency and overreaching implications.

1) Intervention vs. Tolerance, as they apply to culture and business.

On October 1942, During World War II, Prescott Bush (grandfather of George W.) was one of seven directors of the Union Banking Corporation, when it was seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act for doign business with the Nazi regime.

Just in the last few months Nokia-Siemens has sold surveilance equiptment to a repressive and violent Iranian government.

Philosophically, tolerance is a bit of a mutually-agreed hands-off approach to differences. However, in a quickly shrinking world, it is becoming increasinly difficult to ignore the domino effects of evey individual action. Humans must quickly become much more mature and responsible if they ever hope to perpetuate their current state of existence.

So, where should the line be drawn?
What is universally 'good', and to what extend can one impose their idea of 'good' on another?

Micro-Computational Long Tail Technique

Today I saw something I see every day: electronic devices.

So what?

I noticed how few of them are being used at any given moment. Gaming consoles sitting on standby, cellphones charging throughout the night. DVRs, graphing calculators, and many others spend most of their time sitting idly by, instead of being used.

Create a system for electronics to spend their downtime doing cloud computing micro-processes, and you've harnessed a Goliath ant-hill of logic.


Does your iPhone dabble in protein folding on the weekends?

Crazy Conspiracy Theory of the Day

I apologize ahead of time that this post ventures away from the usual design-thinking.

I also apologize for how ridiculous this theory is, but i find thinking about it to be quite amusing.


Argument:
Global warming and climate change are tools to control society and steer them away from paganism.

Expounding:
Global warming (ie. climate extreming) are largely caused by the by-products from transportation and energy. Both weather extremes, both frequent storms, and blistering dry heatwaves, force people to stay inside their homes and cars, and contantly use climate controls. These climates deter individuals from walking or riding their bikes in nature, which is also being slowly destroyed. This causes a vicious cycle where the only temporary reprieve from a poison comes from consumption of more poison, which in turn leaves the host worse off than before.

Right-wing, christian conservatives have taken strong holds on the government in order to propogate this agenda. Disconnecting people from nature, creating sickly and docile masses, and perpetuating a constant state of fear to quell resistance.

I'm sure I could add more to this, but I think that's the gist of it.