5-minute presentation on being human at the Webstock 08 conference in Wellington, New Zealand.

1. Five minutes on being human
Brian Calhoun

2. “I learned just enough philosophy in college to
fuck me up for the rest of my life.”

3. “I learned just enough philosophy in college to
fuck me up for the rest of my life.”
– Steve Martin

4. Four things to talk about
Why think about this stuff?
Evolution
Dystopia
Day-to-day humanity

5. Why think about this stuff?
Crazy rate of change.

6. Why think about this stuff?
Crazy rate of change.
We as humans need to evolve faster.

7. Why think about this stuff?
Crazy rate of change.
We as humans need to evolve faster.
Questioning your humanity will become more
prevalent.

8. Why think about this stuff?
Crazy rate of change.
We as humans need to evolve faster.
Questioning your humanity will become more
prevalent.
Attention economy is kicking in.

9. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.

10. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Eyesight, language, biology, web.

11. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Eyesight, language, biology, web.
We are conscious actors in this role!

12. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Eyesight, language, biology, web.
We are conscious actors in this role!
Can model nature (fractals, physics, golden ratio)

13. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Eyesight, language, biology, web.
We are conscious actors in this role!
Can model nature (fractals, physics, golden ratio)
Make tech more human. Do higher-order stuff.

14. Evolution
Privacy’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Eyesight, language, biology, web.
We are conscious actors in this role!
Can model nature (fractals, physics, golden ratio)
Make tech more human. Do higher-order stuff.
Raise the bar for yourself & those around you.

15. Dystopia
How are we doing against machines?
Re-captcha, Amazon Mechanical Turk

16. Dystopia
How are we doing against machines?
Re-captcha, Amazon Mechanical Turk
The web: TV 2.0? Radio 3.0? Phonograph 4.0?

17. Dystopia
How are we doing against machines?
Re-captcha, Amazon Mechanical Turk
The web: TV 2.0? Radio 3.0? Phonograph 4.0?
Do we give people bread-and-circuses?

18. Dystopia
How are we doing against machines?
Re-captcha, Amazon Mechanical Turk
The web: TV 2.0? Radio 3.0? Phonograph 4.0?
Do we give people bread-and-circuses?
And about the Distraction Economy...

19. ...a quote...

20. “The early advocates of universal literacy and a free
press envisaged only two possibilities: the information
might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee
what in fact has happened, above all in our Western
capitalist democracies -- the development of a vast
mass communications industry, concerned in the main
neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal,
the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed
to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for
distractions.”

21. “The early advocates of universal literacy and a free
press envisaged only two possibilities: the information
might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee
what in fact has happened, above all in our Western
capitalist democracies -- the development of a vast
mass communications industry, concerned in the main
neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal,
the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed
to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for
distractions.”
– Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, in 1958

22. Small day-to-day humanity

23. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.

24. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.
Question authority. Then create your own.

25. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.
Question authority. Then create your own.
Watch your brain diet. What are you taking in?

26. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.
Question authority. Then create your own.
Watch your brain diet. What are you taking in?
“What am I creating?” Keep track in a diary.

27. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.
Question authority. Then create your own.
Watch your brain diet. What are you taking in?
“What am I creating?” Keep track in a diary.
“People like to hear their names. I’m no
exception. Please call my name!”

28. Small day-to-day humanity
Be daring and honest. Allow people to fail.
Question authority. Then create your own.
Watch your brain diet. What are you taking in?
“What am I creating?” Keep track in a diary.
“People like to hear their names. I’m no
exception. Please call my name!”
Be gracious. Say thank you. A lot.

29. Thank you!
This’ll be up on SlideShare.net
I’m Brian Calhoun and I work for SilverStripe
brian@silverstripe.com