Wishing you a brilliant and stylish end to 2011

Can you Make it? Makers are the new inventors.

Is it a way to compensate for the economic crunch, a counter-culture reaction to copyright law gone wild,  or just a severe case of technological curiosity? It may very well be all of the above, but nevertheless, rest assured that a generation of makers is on the rise. Or should that be Makers?

For now they might be “simply” the next generation of (crazy) inventors, hacking into devices, and modifying them for things they were not initially created for. From modifying toasters to opening up the Microsoft Kinect as controller for all kinds of other things than just the XBox 360.

It’s an extremely interesting development, which will expose manufacturers to all kinds of new and interesting challenges they never before experienced on such a wide scale, and they would do well to prepare for it, and find ways to embrace it unlike the music & film industry, which is still struggling with a tech savvy audience.

Have a look at this short movie, giving some more info and examples of Maker culture:

Can speed of change lead to total immobilization?

The speed at which the world moves is increasing, so much even that it almost gives me a physical sensation just by thinking about it. I’m of course not talking about the actual speed of our planet, but rather the unfolding of events and the speed with which they follow each other.

Couple to that the fact that most of these high-impact events turned out to be nigh unpredictable, or hidden so deep in a web of interconnectedness that their obfuscation was complete.

So, if now I hear politicians plan for the future, and they throw around dates like 2020 or even further in the future, I wonder… Are these people solid strategists, brave for abandoning the short-term and working for the long-term, or are they just (deliberately) naïve in thinking that it’s still possible to plan that far ahead.

Maybe better to have a plan than to not have a plan, I’ll hear some people say. We’ll see.

One thing however which can always get my attention is when scientists make predictions for the future of technological innovation. In these matters I’m one to think that speed of change, unlike in the financial markets, can’t come fast enough. And so I was pleasantly surprised to come across this post on the Institute for the Future website. A map laying out  the future of science until 2021. Great read!