Data is never just data

As with all tools, data has uses because of complex contexts that include other objects, physics, social norms, social institutions, and human intentions.

The twisted case of facial recognition

Machine translation continues to make strides forward. Facial recognition, on the other hand, has entered the twilight zone.

Usability testing for effective interactivity

Connecting the seeker to the information she seeks is not a new problem. Interaction design has been a stumbling block since the age of the card catalog.

Crossing the epistemic divide

As the world races ahead, purely data-driven approaches will become less attractive. Instead, we need to start gaining a deeper understanding of how to bridge the great divide which separates the artificial and the natural.

A deep future approach to KM

We're familiar with the near-term portion of the time spectrum—from femtosecond lasers used in eye surgery to high-frequency trading in milliseconds on the major securities exchanges. Unfortunately, the extreme opposite end of the time spectrum, the "deep future" receives little if any attention. Decisions in fields such as genetic engineering, nuclear energy, geopolitics and the like can have serious implications for human civilization. But the impact of those decisions might not become apparent for many thousands of years and hundreds of generations.

Getting back to basics

From outright survival to the innate human desire for peace and prosperity, there's no shortage of needs.

The Future of the Future: Government as a knowledge enterprise

We've spent a good deal of space in this column looking at how business needs to transform itself to compete in the global knowledge economy. This month, let's take a look at how the same trends are forcing major changes in government.

A Government gold mine?