Humanity transcends material wealth

Another chapter in the broad theme of "an idea whose time has come" is the interesting element of social coercion in behavior influencing. It is now not politically correct or even socially acceptable to smoke, drink heavily, eat fatty foods or to have poor posture in most professional and social settings. It is becoming less acceptable to just have a job and hobbies, rather than a direction and mission.

There is of course, regional seepage to this cultural phenomenon; the ideas generally begin, intentionally or not, in California and other clean living, high actualization environments and pervade other urban areas and even extend slow fingers out from cities. Witness anti-tobacco lawsuits superseded by anti-fast food and anti-trans fat lawsuits. The interesting aspect is that behaviors we have known for years to be unhealthy sat untransformed until the eye of social disapproval turned to them. While social disapproval can be seen as an invitation for anti-conformist counterbalance when it pertains to ideas, maybe it is all right when it pertains to statistically supported facts that enhance human life, especially those that hit low on the Maslow hierarchy.

It is increasingly unacceptable to show material trappings or any other sign of success. Indeed, pecuniary interests matter less and less, both directly and as a proxy for success. The brain - ideas, creativity, innovation and skill flexibility and acquisition - is the new currency of success, and it is measured intangibly. The impact is an increasingly interconnected actualizing civilization cleanly focused on true progress, ensconced in the true freedom of ideas.

Content Smorgasbord

What a wonderful time to be alive! There is more content than ever now available in a variety of formats.

News. Of course the content smorgasbord trend started with the Internet, although really the library was the predecessor, in fact most European nations do not have the public library resources that are often taken for granted in the US. With the Internet, information became free and consumable. News. All functions and items from newspapers and much more.

Audiofiles. Starting in 2004 or earlier, audio files from conferences, lectures and talks started to be available for free on the Internet, provided by IT Conversations, the Long Now Foundation and Xerox PARC.

Music. Music content has also been evolving quickly. The best service (note service not product as the current market delivery mechanism) this month seems to be YahooTunes, where for $5 a month, a vast collection of music is searchable and downloadable to computers and MP3 players. While not every artist and title is currently available, especially newer titles, there is a seemingly inexhaustible collection of music to absorb and enjoy. YahooTunes applies to copyrighted music; Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive project has already made a variety of older out-of-copyright audio and video content available.

Video. Video content is not quite there. Being "there" would be having all video content (from all countries) available in a searchable repository for on demand viewing. Tivo and other personal video recorder technologies have allowed significant advances in effecting content on demand; content viewing without commercials and time-shifted for convenience.

Books. The content of all printed matter and media is the subject of several projects including the Brewster Kahle Internet Archival project, Google's university library digitization project and other efforts to put the whole of human knowledge available and online. Also exemplar of information sharing is MIT making its undergraduate courses available for free on the Internet.

Content is becoming freer and more fungible. A content consumer's dream. Content is also becoming increasingly manipulatable, as there are more ways to mix, match and alter content and create new content. Some examples of content creating are blogs, podcasts and citizen media à la Dan Gillmor; note the BBC requesting and posting pictures and comments from bystanders minutes after the July 2005 London tube station bomb incidents. Creating content, aside from being fun, is a great way to satisfy those human urges to personalize, individualize and actualize...

World's Ruling Elites Must Power Share

The Long Now and other future prognosticating outfits made the prediction that an end to human suffering would occur in this century. This means an end to starvation, massively preventable disease, poverty and other impediments to basic life fundamentals.

Indeed, this will probably come to pass more quickly than originally expected in this century due to a variety of factors. First and most basically, eradicating third world need is an idea whose time has come. Perhaps somewhat guilt-triggered, it is increasing unacceptable and unpolitically correct for the developing world not to have its basic human needs met. The July 2005 Live8 worldwide concerts exemplifies this reigning attitude.

Second, together with the unacceptability of developing world status quo is the belief that it is possible, even easy, to resolve these issues. Although, as Paul Saffo reminds, we should not mistake a clear view for a short distance, it is increasingly clear that solutions exist and have not been implemented as a matter of choice, partly due to the choices of the ruling elites and geopolitical influences. Amy Chua's "World on Fire" notes that development or indeed any modicum of progress is not in the incentive of ruling elites (in industrialized or developing worlds!) because it erodes their power base.

Third, the simultaneous realization that previous aid programs failed and the implementation of programs with results as a requirement is helping to eradicate poverty and disease. Former World Bank officer William Easterly points out in "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics," that aid recipient countries were worse off in nearly every dimension twenty years after the formation and deployment of the World Bank and IMF. Unstructured and unmeasured financial aid failed. Newer philanthropic, NGO and non-profit efforts such as the Gates Foundation malaria program and Dr. Paul Farmer's Partners in Health tuberculosis and other programs are generating success with a results-oriented focus and willingness to address the cause rather than the symptom.

But.......the really interesting idea is not that humanity will progress (this is excellent but not the most interesting aspect), the really interesting idea is that world power and influence dynamics must necessarily change when there are suddenly hundreds of millions of people "coming online." Hundreds of millions of developing world people will be becoming independent, capable, educated and healthy and competing in and contributing to the global market. For example, Africa's labor force could quadruple rapidly because malaria is no longer an issue. What is really interesting is how the (current) industrialized world will respond to the increasing weight and influence of the (currently) developing world.

Economist Jeremy Siegel's view is that this will be a fairly smooth transition. The retirees in Europe, Japan and the US will welcome, indeed rely on, developing world purchasers of their stocks, bonds and businesses as they liquidate their assets to retire. Multinational brands, as recent trends suggest, will continue to matriculate to developing world ownership.

However, cultural issues and value systems are very difficult to manage, especially with the perceived diversity that currently exists in this world. There can be hope but not likelihood in the possibility of industrialized nations not seeing the inevitable and hastening decline of Western world rule but rather focusing on the continued higher levels of human achievement that will now be possible, massive innovation and transcendence into the next era of human civilization and advancement.

China's sure-footed lurch into a capitalist society

Tim Clissold's book, titled "Mr. China" in the US distribution, is an interesting account of ten years (roughly 1985-1995) of the author's experience visiting factories all over China and investing in about forty of them. Clissold and partners established one of the first foreign private equity firms in China and invested approximately $500M in controlling interests in joint ventures with apparently unimpressive returns; it is not clear how much of the original investment capital put up by investors (primarily US pension funds) may have been returned.

The book is a light and entertaining read featuring some funny comments such as these examples: the localized version of flavored condoms might be spicy bean curd, the image that investors might have to take their dividends in shampoo like some factory workers had to accept their wages, and the government trade representative accusing the investor of "talking in dog farts."

The major Chinese cultural themes highlighted in the book are indirectness, ambiguity, lack of transparency, and a different outlook on theft and morality in dealing with others, especially outsiders. The Chinese culture is portrayed as being quite different from Western cultures: speech is elliptical and metaphorical, not direct; infinite reserves of patience are required to wait out bureaucratic and regulation-heavy processes and saving face and giving others the opportunity to save face is critical. The government and the communist party wield control through rules and regulations that they may not even know themselves and which may not communicated externally to those being regulated. The relationship between the government/party and the budding business community is that business people/entrepreneurs generally look down on the sinecured and possibly corrupt government/party officials. One further challenge to business is the absence of a functioning and trustworthy legal system.

The book does an excellent job of showing exactly how different and much more challenging doing business in China was the early 1990s than doing business in the US or Western Europe. Some people would say "Forget it, that's way too hard" when presented with these challenges while others, like the author, grabbed the opportunity. Clissold's firm initially went about matters in the ways of their Western cultural background and met with less than successful results until they switched to more of a Chinese approach which understood and responded to the cultural business challenges more locally; for example, instead of depending on the bank to freeze accounts under dispute, the firm moved the money to another account first.

The implication of Clissold detailing how business was being done in China in the 1990s is the implication for any interaction between different value systems. As with any communication, those who receive and understand the other party and meet that party in their words, body language and cultural values will succeed. The world may or may not be going to brown, the increasingly homogeneous globalized poli-econ-social landscape of work, life, consumption, enjoyment, dreams and values, but chameleons who "speak local" will always have value.

Techies are homogeneous

There is a certain homogeneity about techy culture, both on the surface and below. On the surface, the homogeneity is visible by age, race, educational background, demeanor, posture, hair and clothing style and facial expressions. Below the surface, the homogeneity is in the type of questioning the mind does, the inquisitive questions that will be asked, the assumed knowledge base, the educational and life experience background and the comments, sense of humor, means of communication, value systems and approach to life.

How can one understand, and integrate with if desired, the techy and non-techy cultures? More than ever, tech culture does seem to be the rise and long-term persistence and domination of a class.

There seem to be shortcomings with the techy culture. What are they? Is it the homogeneity? The lack of integratability with others? Is it the predictability, for example, maybe not the details of how to get somewhere but what the general set of interesting problems is (e.g.; like better physics, faster biological solutions, nano). Is it that they seem like they are in a clueless bubble compared to the other, "normal" larger yet anachronistic world?

Some techies are oblivious either naturally or selectionally to the other or any other culture. Some techies and non-techies are in the void trying to bring or lead the wayward normal culture along. What do those who see both sides and live in between call home?

Rule by ElderBoom

How old is old anymore? "Seniors" want their benefits to start at 50 but their perception by society as old people to start at 85. Ken Dychtwald argues that the longevity revolution will be the impact wave of the 21st century, having the same magnitude as the industrial revolution.

It does seem true that being 60 these days and in the years to come will not be at all like it was when our grandparents were 60. At minimum, it will be about the usual myriad of choices that all modern life is about.

Dychtwald's pastoral idea of the 6 generation family gathering critically omits integrating the fertility bust. 100 and 120 year olds may be around, but with precious little human capital to succeed them and provide goods and services. Japan has the right idea with robotic elder caretaking and companionship programs but grander scale and quicker technological alternatives are needed.

As Jeremy Siegel probably more accurately points out, the developed nation demographic ElderBoom trend is already completely in motion and neither population stimulation policies nor rampant immigration would help. The issue is who - what human (and technical!) capital - is going to provide the goods and services demanded by the ElderBoom. He argues that the only way for the ElderBoom demands to be satisfied is by a huge transfer of productive assets to the developing world. Flip-flopping a significant chunk of the 90% of productive capacity controlled by the developed world to eager entrepreneurs in the developing world. Buy schemes need to be worked out since the developing world entrepreneurs cannot pay developed world prices but this is a detail.

Siegel's solution sounds good except that with the transfer of assets goes the transfer of power, control and influence, the specialties of human goading. With cultural value system prejudice on the global rise (witness recent European Union constitution vote-downs), xenocism may prevent substantial asset transfer and create quite the feeding crisis for the ElderBoom.

Cultural Value System Translator

Just like we need a language translator when speaking to someone from another culture, we need a values filter to really understand them. Now people may speak the same language, in the work place or other contexts, but they do not have the same value systems, and may not even perceive that the other(s) has a different value system, much less what that might be.

Take lying for example, it is completely acceptable to lie at certain times but not at other times in nearly every culture. When it is acceptable and not acceptable is completely different for Westerners, Asians and Arabs. How can inter-cultural groups build trust, a prerequisite for successful interaction, when they may not be aware that others' values are different?

Even recognizing that there are different fundamental value systems at work in today's increasingly global and integrated interaction space, the hard next step is developing models to work with differing value systems. Language translation is about a different label for the same thing, with some cultural nuances, but value systems are deeply cultural. Is a compromise between the two appropriate, both sides meeting half-way or in practice both sides perceiving they are stretching 75-100% to the other side? Would a compromise even work?

For Americans, the traditional comparison was about differences in European and American attitudes towards working and living; that Americans live to work while Europeans work to live. Expanding the scope to focus globally, it is at a higher level than different attitudes towards activities and about the cultural definition of qualities like love, trust, loyalty, honesty and compassion for others. Of course some of the cultural differences may be rooted in religion. For example, it seems that a compassion for others, even/especially strangers is assumed in Western culture and this may have come from old Judeo-Christian religious traditions. Not that it exists and is exuded by everyone at all times but that compassion for others is a cultural default. It is not clear that this is the case in other cultures. And actually, really examined in the Western sense, compassion may not extend for those that are not "like" oneself, however narrowly some may wish to define that.

Cultures may have a hierarchical sort on certain values, so they will generally sort on efficiency first, or workmanship, or honesty. In the garment industry for example, the Italian manufactures sort on quality and workmanship, while Asian manufactures sort on efficiency. Different products hit the world market, a cheaper lower quality version that is available quickly and a higher quality more expensive one that takes longer to arrive.

The next idea would be to explore how to bridge these gaps. We have recognized things are different in different cultures or products and ways of interacting with different cultures. Right now we're at the stage of increasing the granularity of our perceptions and defining and discussing the differences and challenges. We need to move into the solution space.

No Matter Where You Go, ....

....There You Are.

Does where matter? In today's connected world, does it matter where you are physically? Is 'there' just a state of mind? Can you be just as inspired and productive in a cold, clinical, anonymous, man-made environment as you can in a sunny, blue sky, warm breeze blowing, music drifting environment? Is it all a state of mind?

Or at a higher level, when you are completely engaged, you lose track of time and sense of environment so the real key is to be inspired and engaged.

'There' can be more or less conducive but it only matters to the extent you think it does. It can matter less if you want it to. There doesn't give the fabric, the meaning that interest and engagement provide.

Brave New Simu World

What an exciting world we live in with so many new and evolving forms of entertainment, learning, experiencing, interacting and actualizing. And they are all converging, merging and bubbling into new possibilities. It's all part of the trends to seamlessness between learning and entertainment and people being more interactive and expressive with every medium.

We used to have radio, then TV, then cable, then video games, then online video games and MMOGs (massive multi-player online games).

As one great example of what is available now, SimuLearn offers the Virtual Leader simulation elearning tool to develop leadership skills for corporate and government customers. What a great tool this could be. What if everyone in a work team played themselves in the online simulation? What if everyone played others especially swapping roles up and down the power hierarchy, what could you learn by playing your supervisor? What if every role was played by others with your personality and work skill characteristics? A dream or a nightmare?

There can be at least two ways to play a role; first by being yourself doing the responsibilities of that position or second by inheriting or creating character attributes (personality, skills, etc.) that filter/direct how the player you are playing can perform their role and interact in that context. Being someone else from the constraints of their value system, background, personality, skills, mindset and outlook can be hugely educational. Identifying these aspects of yourself can be extremely educational. This would be useful in any and all contexts of human interaction: professional relationships, personal relationships, interactions between any entities, politics, international relations in particular....

Kuma War offers game simulations of real world events, mainly war strategy related. The Great Divine is a move-through-the-stages video game but ability to move up is measured via biofeedback of how calm you are. And of course The Sims were the original simulation platform, with Sims Online and Second Life now growing exponentially as users create their experiences, realize their creativity and interact with others.

How soon can we have holographic 3-D displays and simulated conversations with non-human characters representing our dream characters or real-life people!

Sox Compliance: automated corporations next?

US public companies are struggling to implement the 2002 Sarbanes Oxley Act which is designed to protect shareholders and improve company internal controls and responsibilities in the wake of the Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals and malfeasance that hallmarked the early 2000s.

On the surface, Sox compliance is about complying with requirements to store records of business activity for five years. Less ostensibly, Sox is about the significant ongoing process of turning abstract perceptions of strategy, risk, security and control into measurable definitive processes that can be tracked over time. Companies may spend up to 2% of revenues to become compliant in year one, and to stay compliant, are hiring additional finance officers and staff. Accounting and consulting firms are enjoying a boom of engagements to aid firms in meeting compliance deadlines. Maintaining compliance is a moving target, it means having a company's accounting, finance, IT systems and other internal controls and security keep pace with the dynamism of the business.

To some degree, Sox sounds wasteful, bureaucratic, artificial and innovation-stifling, and it is not clear that it will resolve and prevent corporate abuse. Are formerly competitive US companies becoming more like the regulation-burdened enterprises of Europe? However, when seen with a slightly different frame, Sox may actually be quite helpful. Companies are developing a layer of consistent practice across entities and industries. Corporate business execution is becoming more standard and streamlined, paving the way for systems, not people, to administer both compliance and general business functions in the future. Greater standardization and clarity also facilitates process improvement as a next step.

Since Sox is so recent a corporate phenomenon and standardized physical implementation tools are still being created and refined, primarily by accounting and consulting firms, appropriate software automation solutions are evolving slowly but will presumably play a significant future role. It will be wonderful to start having self-discovering, self-healing, self-securing, self-monitoring, and self-executing software running a lot of the routine human tasks that keep processes moving within corporations. Another added benefit of the Sox compliance process is that humans are getting better at specifying and defining and standardizing concepts and tools in more abstract realms like business strategy and corporate risk.