Thord D. Hedengren

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Tag: society

  • Screens are stealing the conversation

    Stop googling, let’s talk, published late September last year:

    Studies of conversation both in the laboratory and in natural settings show that when two people are talking, the mere presence of a phone on a table between them or in the periphery of their vision changes both what they talk about and the degree of connection they feel. People keep the conversation on topics where they won’t mind being interrupted. They don’t feel as invested in each other. Even a silent phone disconnects us.

    I think this is true. If there’s a TV in the room, my eyes will be drawn to it. That, however, doesn’t mean that there’s no room for phones, or any screen really, in everyday life. Moderation is key, as with so many things.

  • Helsinki wants to kill the car

    Finnish capital Helsinki has big plans regarding public transportation, making it entirely up to you where you want to go. No more bus stops, or a need forma car within the city for that matter. The Guardian:

    Subscribers would specify an origin and a destination, and perhaps a few preferences. The app would then function as both journey planner and universal payment platform, knitting everything from driverless cars and nimble little buses to shared bikes and ferries into a single, supple mesh of mobility.

  • The end of capitalism

    From the interesting Guardian piece, The end of capitalism has begun:

    It is the elites – cut off in their dark-limo world – whose project looks as forlorn as that of the millennial sects of the 19th century. The democracy of riot squads, corrupt politicians, magnate-controlled newspapers and the surveillance state looks as phoney and fragile as East Germany did 30 years ago.

    All readings of human history have to allow for the possibility of a negative outcome. It haunts us in the zombie movie, the disaster movie, in the post-apocalytic wasteland of films such as The Road or Elysium. But why should we not form a picture of the ideal life, built out of abundant information, non-hierarchical work and the dissociation of work from wages?

    Interesting thoughts in this piece, but let’s read it for what it is: A dream about the future, with some valid points, sure, but it’s not a roadmap, nor an ideology.