Category Archives: Communications & Technology

The Shifting Paradigms of Alternate Reality Gaming

The phone rings late one evening. You answer it to hear the voice of a woman in distress: ‘I can’t keep this up any longer, they’re getting to close to the truth!’. She hangs up suddenly, but not before leaving you with a cryptic clue – a password to some online network that she had managed to get a hold of. Your next move, should you choose to take it, is to log onto that network and download the encrypted data hidden within.

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Discussion: Does social media negatively impact spirituality?

I wanted to try a slightly different angle with this post and create a call-out for discussion surrounding a particular topic: does social media negatively impact spirituality?

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Google’s Safe Harbour for the Pirates

So, big news today for those watching the ongoing battles surrounding online breaches of copyright – the first major round of the war between YouTube (Google) and Viacom (plus others) has been won by the accused.

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Staring into the Abyss of Social Media

We’re all having a great time, it seems – the world is a happy place, rejoicing in the mutual celebration of competitive sport, technological progress, and a Northern Hemisphere summer (and LOL cats…always with the bloody LOL cats). But hold on one moment…

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Highway collisions and market plunges: techno-dependency gone wrong?

Today I’m bringing you back to the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the site as we look at some interesting cases of technological dependency gone too far, as we ask ourselves just how dependent are we willing to become on the technology around us.

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F*k Facebook! 5 Alternatives to Help Destroy the Evil Empire

Over the last few weeks there has been concern after concern – some of them legal challenges – being put forward by privacy advocates and social media experts – with even a few higher profile ones quitting the social network in protest and some advocating a mass-termination of accounts on May 31st. But what’s the alternative and how can this evil empire be stopped?

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Site of the Week: Big Think

First of all, let me apologise for the small delay in posting – I’ve been rather ill recently and that has reflected in my ability to think too clearly or sit in front of a computer screen for too long! As such, today I wanted to bring back something I did here on Future Conscience for a little while: which is the introduce a new Site of the Week. This week – Big Think.

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Radio Free Albemuth: Into the Mind of Philip K Dick

You could call Philip K Dick one of the main reasons why this blog even exists; not only because he is my most beloved author, but also due to the fact that his thoughts about technology and social progress were so ahead of their time that the level of foreshadowing they present is just remarkable. Tonight I was granted the wonderful opportunity to see a ’sneak preview’ screening of the most recent adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel, Radio Free Albemuth, at the Sci-Fi London film festival.

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5 Things I Learnt at Internet World 2010

Today marks the beginning of Internet World, one of Europe’s largest expos dedicated to internet technology and business in all its many forms. I went there in order to pick up a few pointers about social media and how to implement a business strategy surrounding all this new hoopla; but I ended the day figuring out more about people and the way the industry will operate in the future more than anything else.

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6 effective ways to annoy your social network

Make sure you don’t succumb to these awfully effective ways of getting yourself overlooked; ignored; or, even worse, cast aside and forgotten with nothing more than a single flex of a finger. Here are, in no particular order (except maybe the last one), 6 highly effective ways to piss off your social network.

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