ddrrnt

The ACTA copyright protection treaty, which has recently been signed in Poland, represents outdated copyright legislation that could lead to punishment just for an act of communication.

"This extends to decision-making, which is the main subject of Honeybee Democracy. The bees exercise a collective intelligence that mimics not just small-group decision-making but the cognitive deliberations of our own brains:"

NASA has created a map of the all the trees in the United States to serve as an inventory and provide a "before" picture for climate change...

Emotions and actions are powerfully contagious. When we see someone laugh, cry, show disgust and experience pain, in some sense we share those feelings. When we see a great actor, musician or athletic perform at the peak of their abilities, it can feel like we are experiencing something of what they feel.

In the 1990’s when a research team at the University of Parma, lead by neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti, made the serendipitous discovery of “mirror neurons,” a new revolution in our understanding of humans as social beings began. Since that time, neuroscience findings have helped us to appreciate the implications of the powerful sharing of experience.

Relationships are all about connecting with others. However, very few people consciously think about how relationships are formed. When relationships are working, there is a tendency to take them for granted and not think about how they’ve been established.

by Louise Altman

Jason Silva (filmmaker and founding producer/host for Current TV), one of our earliest readers, was so inspired by Abundance that he made this video mash-up!

Take 18 minutes of your day to watch this TEDtalk.
 

"If you haven’t heard about Janine Benyus, it’s about time you have. Janine has been at the forefront of biomimicry for a number of years now. She co-founded the Biomimicry Institute, which has morphed into various projects, including its current form as Biomimcry 3.8, a global network of scientists, thinkers, and consultants working together and learning from nature in order to solve humanity’s biggest challenges.

This TED talk is from Oxford in 2009, in which Janine gives examples of nature’s uncanny ability to perform complex tasks seamlessly and effortlessly. My favorite example, among many, is the Namibian Desert beetle’s evolutionary ability to collect water molecules from fog and turn it into drinking water for sustenance."

by Zack Hirschfeld

Our core narrative, the story into which every serious thinker is required to fit his or her thoughts, is the narrative of progress—the story that defines all of human existence as a single great upward trajectory from the caves to the stars, and insists that the present is better than the past and the future will inevitably be better still. The problem with that narrative, of course, is that for most people the present is significantly worse than the past—standards of living for most Americans, for example, have been declining for more than thirty years—and the future promises to be even worse than the present. The narrative of progress has no room for that perception; in public life, the only way in which it’s possible to bring it up at all is to suggest that someone or something is to blame for the temporary lack of progress, and then offer a plan to get the obstacle out of the way so that progress can get under way once more.

"The new reality is first sensed by those few people in the system who interface with the outside world, but is essentially invisible to the people on the inside. The difficulty here is that the new reality threatens the order of the whole edifice - there is no sustainable adaptation that doesn't involve giving up key fundamental assumptions of the culture. Because reality does not negotiate, the system faces a transformative challenge.

What happens then? In a perfect world, everyone would immediately change their minds and reorganize to face the challenge. In actuality, most of the members enter a stage of reality denial where their mind filters out inconvenient truths. To a lucid observer, it's only a matter of time before the system collapses - it’s a walking dead. But to insiders, everything's peachy, thank you. Thus no significant rearrangement can be made."

by @sebpaquet

The author takes a moment to debunk “singularity” — the theory that man and machine will eventually merge in some kind of climax — calling it “the geek rapture.” In Gibson’s opinion, the biggest changes will sneak into our lives gradually, the way Walkmans morphed into iPods, then iPhones. “There’s not going to be any ‘future,’ because things are changing too quickly,” he says. “It’s just going to be . . . stranger and stranger, and as it happens to you, you will be in the present moment, and it will be weird.”

ht David McConville

Koios is to become a catalyst for social problem solving, to accelerate and take problem solving to a whole new level. We are also the first world-wide contest for complex problem solving.

"Now" is the period in which people feel they live and act and have responsibility. For most of us, "now" is about a week, sometimes a year. For some traditional tribes in the American northeast and Australia, "now" is seven generations back and forward (350 years). Just as the Earth photographs gave us a sense of "the big here," we need things which gives people a sense of "the long now." (That phrase comes from British musician and artist Brian Eno.)

It used to be that the best way to raise money for the developing world was to show the abject poverty that could be found there, but NGOs are finding that tactic no longer works.

Leading social and tech experts present their visions for Facebook's future impact on society. Some believe Facebook will become pervasive plumbing for the s...

Alliance for Wild Ethics is a consortium of individuals and organizations working to ease the spreading devastation of the animate earth through a rapid transformation of culture.

ht David McConville

Inspired in part by the open source movement, public spaces are emerging where people congregate to share ideas, make cool projects, teach, and brainstorm with collaborators on everything from coding to cooking. With no leaders, they have one rule: "Be excellent to each other."

 ht Jenny Ryan

@tunabananas

"The Experience of a VillageTown is a natural process of human growth and development. It is a framework upon which a community defines itself. When you combine your purchasing power with others, you gain control of your money, your life and your future. Your outcome is a place to live that is vibrant, colorful, healthy and strong; a wonderful place to live - for present and future generations."

HT @VenessaMiemis

“Social media is not the catalyst for change, but merely one of its agents. We must remember that Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and the like are the networks that facilitate an uprising. However, it is repression, angst, injustice, inequality, vision, aspiration and hope that serve as the true stimulus for insurrection and progress. Technology plays a part in transformation and it is up to you to learn how social, mobile, real-time, and all other emerging trends are affecting your industries, communities, or markets.

What we learn as a result however is that these new tools can bring people together and unite them under a common front or concerted mission. At the center of any revolution is the burning desire to bring about change. But it always comes down to people, shared experiences, and a common ambition. And it is people who need one another for leadership, support, and inspiration. What’s missing from the equation is your vision and leadership.”

By Brian Solis

ht @CoCreatr

"I became an “environmentalist” because of a strong emotional reaction to wild places and the other-than-human world: to beech trees and hedgerows and pounding waterfalls, to songbirds and sunsets, to the flying fish in the Java Sea and the canopy of the rainforest at dusk when the gibbons come to the waterside to feed. From that reaction came a feeling, which became a series of thoughts: that such things are precious for their own sake, that they are food for the human soul, and that they need people to speak for them to, and defend them from, other people, because they cannot speak our language and we have forgotten how to speak theirs. And because we are killing them to feed ourselves and we know it and we care about it, sometimes, but we do it anyway because we are hungry, or we have persuaded ourselves that we are."

by Paul Kingsnorth

ht @DavePollard

"This new shared market economy is being driven by a quiet revolution: the millions of Americans who no longer want to prop up our faltering economy with endless and thoughtless consumption.

They recognize that hyper-consumption is no longer an option, both because it's not sustainable and because they have less money to spend. Instead, Americans are starting to spend their limited income in a responsible, thoughtful, and connected way. They want to feel good about where their money is going."

via theatlantic.com

ht @DavidHodgson

"Shared ownership helps diversify rather than concentrate wealth – which is what we desperately need to do to revitalise our economy. It roots the value it generates in communities, keeping assets and resources from being transferred from local communities and low-wage employees to multinational corporations and their owners."

via guardian.co.uk

ht @DavidHodgson

"Let’s focus on the resulting element — the “collective intelligence”. Think about it as billions of human brains working using future super computers as a platform. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Srini Devadas described “collective intelligence” as consisting of two pillars: cloud computing and crowd computing. Cloud computing is using the Internet as a platform and making access to information available to everyone. Crowd computing, according to him, involves the analysis of information into “collective intelligence” far beyond what we have today."

"Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living.

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity."

We are emerging from a long dominator era into one that demands mutuality. The dominator (hierarchical) mode appears strong, but in reality is too slow to respond to the crisis of the time. Mutualism, on the other hand, is liable to be too fragile in the face of dominator pressures: the only way to resist these, based on intricacy, “is for small circles to join hands in a collaborative network that is broader and tighter than anything domination can provide.(p 286)” The keys to doing this, which she works out through many practical examples, are “education, empowerment, infrastructure, support networks, liberation and love.

Burning Man, the emerging paradigm shift, and how your mind has become occupied.

Matador Network

"Often in our consumer state of mind, we neglect to consider what waste goes into creating the products we consume, and then throw away. In recent years, through recycling, composting, and conservation initiatives, we have done a good job of considering the post-consumer side, but not the pre-consumer side of waste. What goes into our products is often more harmful than what happens to them post-use. We waste so many resources (both environmental and human) in the production process. Many of the issues we know about. However, when the product is ready for our consumption, we often become blind to its production."

by Zack Hirschfeld

"The Global Transition 2012 is an international network of organisations and leading thinkers from the Global North and South.

It is catalysing a ‘Global Transition’ by building a community of civil society organisations across the globe to promote and deliver a rapid transition to the desirable and beneficial economy that we aspire to.

The ultimate vision of the initiative is an alternative global green economy that maximises well-being, operates within environmental limits and is capable of coping and adapting to global environmental change."

A DIFFERENT BUSINESS MODEL

In the 1990s, platforms and ecosystems were not nearly as powerful, robust, and vibrant as they are today:

As I demonstrate in the book, it’s these connections between and among platforms and planks that allow Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to:

- Innovate so quickly–and profoundly
- Rapidly deploy new features
- Create and dominate new markets

Welcome to the Age of the Platform.

"If something entirely new is needed, then it follows that a new calendar is needed. To observe old holidays or observe them in debased ways supports that which oppresses and drains energy needed for change. And if occupying physical space and redefining social relations on a peer basis has had such a profound impact, imagine the power of occupying time."

By Neal Gorenflo 

@gorenflo

FIAT LUX is an ode to the creative muses and the evolution of consciousness, following the beginning of the universe from big bang to evolution of life and the creative instinct that sparks eternal.

Based on this idea, Huxley posited that ordinary consciousness represents only a fraction of what the mind can take in. In order to keep us focused on survival, Huxley claimed, the brain must act as a “reducing valve” on the flood of potentially overwhelming sights, sounds and sensations. What remains, Huxley wrote, is a “measly trickle of the kind of consciousness” necessary to “help us to stay alive.”

A new study by British researchers supports this theory. It shows for the first time how psilocybin — the drug contained in magic mushrooms — affects the connectivity of the brain. Researchers found that the psychedelic chemical, which is known to trigger feelings of oneness with the universe and a trippy hyperconsciousness, does not work by ramping up the brain’s activity as they’d expected. Instead, it reduces it.

Kabat-Zinn - It's brutally simple. Not simple-minded, but brutally simple, but it's also not easy. And I want to emphasize that it's not easy. And it's not for everyone. You've got to be willing to actually be something of an athlete of your own consciousness, so to speak.

via Bodhi Tree BOOKSTORE

more highlights : http://diigo.com/0mqc5 

A Noetic Experience may involve intuition, insight, psychic or mystical awareness. The Institute of Noetic Sciences studies the different aspects of "inner knowing"

"Darin Drda, author of The Four Global Truths, writes:

Although they speak different languages, both tell the same story: the fate of life on Earth will be determined by forces beyond humanity’s control. This idea strikes me as a very dangerous one, certain to accelerate our collective journey down the road to ruin. What’s more, it doesn’t jive with the powerful and paradigm-shifting insight of 20th century physics that reality is participatory."

"The true definition of ‘apocalypse’ is more akin to ‘the lifting of the veil.’ What has long been hidden shall be revealed. Is it possible to understand this potential, and how to apply it, without falling victim to the aforementioned ‘isms of divine destruction, collapse, or extraterrestrial saviours?"

"The dark matter of our unconscious has created the human world we inhabit, including the crises that we appear unable to solve. Our old story of the Self, that we are “isolated beings in an indifferent universe” (and all it’s variations), is breaking down, because in fact, it was never objectively real in the first place. It was constructed by our level of consciousness.

The new consciousness struggles to be born."

Quantum Entanglement is at the heart of understanding how significant events across the universe operate at the macro- and micro- level in split-second synchronicity despite considerable distance between them. We are beginning to see the entire universe as a holographically interlinked network of energy and information, organically whole. And as the mystic Rumi wrote around 800 years ago, "If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception!

"A common assumption in the philosophy of mind is that of substrate-independence. The idea is that mental states can supervene on any of a broad class of physical substrates. Provided a system implements the right sort of computational structures and processes, it can be associated with conscious experiences. It is not an essential property of consciousness that it is implemented on carbon-based biological neural networks inside a cranium: silicon-based processors inside a computer could in principle do the trick as well."

by Nick Bostrom

"Alan Watts. If ego = control, then the formula for enlightenment is:

Develop and grasp at self-control until you reach complete frustration and then realize the contradictions and true nature of self-control, or self-guidance.

Striving for a type of self-control that is subtlely, inherently impossible builds up into complete frustration, until out of this mud, the lotus of re-conceptualization blooms.

This is the true heart of ego transcendence.

After ego death and ego transcendence, how big and powerful is the ego? Bigger and more powerful than ever, the ghost who remains after ego death."

"This shift is being catalyzed by an increase of Divine Evolutionary Light pouring into Earth’s atmosphere. This light is the force behind all evolution throughout the universe… the process of every created thing unfolding its full divine potential and moving up the ladder of consciousness. We are currently experiencing a long, sometimes rocky transition into this higher state… a phase that may be likened to cosmic growing pains."  - via in5d.com 

Questions: @ddrrnt asks, "does it seem like a 'Divine Evolutionary Light' to you?  Do you feel 'cosmic growing pains' or get the sense that you're moving up a 'ladder of consciousness'"?  

One of the most underappreciated figures in the history of evolutionary spirituality is the German philosopher and linguist Jean Gebser. His masterpiece, The Ever-Present Origin (1949), outlines his unique vision of the emergence of human consciousness. Gebser tracks human history through a series of “mutations,” or structures of consciousness, from the archaic mind of our ancestors to the more contemporary stage of mental focused awareness. In one particularly evocative passage, Gebser reflects on the beginnings of this mental awareness, as represented by the myth of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom who was born from the head of Zeus. To Gebser, such powerful imagery captures the heroic struggle of human development:

And it would be well for us to be mindful of one actuality: although the wound in the head of Zeus healed, it was once a wound. Every “novel” thought will tear open wounds . . . everyone who is intent upon surviving—not only earth but also life—with worth and dignity, and living rather than passively accepting life, must sooner or later pass through the agonies of emergent consciousness.

via EnlightenNext Magazine

Psycedelic eschatologist Terrence McKenna suggests a more modern perspective: I've taken [Whitehead's] notion of concresence and attempted to consttruct a terminal cosmology that literally stands on its head the scientific explanation of the origin of the universe. I don't believe the universe is the push outward into substntial existence by primal explosion. I believe the universe is being pulled and shaped into an ever more complexified and concrescent entity that is in fact a transcendental attractor ocated in the future. It's transcendental in the sense of residing in a higher dimension than ordinary space, and in the feeling/tone sense in which we ordinarily use the term "transcendental."

The concept of "medical materialism," so well described by William James in his Varieties of Religious Experience, is just one more form of reductionism that is sometimes applied to matters of religion. For our purposes here, we will define "reductionism" as any attempt to explain the greater in terms of the lesser, that is, any attempt to explain something large and deep and complex in terms of categories drawn from something simpler and smaller and easier to understand.

Reductionistic explanations do appeal to some people because they make something complex seem as if it can be understood in terms of something smaller and simpler to grasp. If we want to belittle the love that exists between two people and say that it's really nothing special, we might say that their "love" is nothing more than the actions resulting from hormones acting on their brains; or that their happy marriage is nothing but a mutually selfish relationship of economic convenience for both of them. What this does is attempt to reduce (hence the term "reductionism") the significance and meaning of something by ascribing it to more trivial causes. It is trying to explain the greater in terms of the lesser.

Title:

Does Gamma Brain Wave Emission Correlate with Higher Consciousness?

Summary:

Gamma emission (40 Hz brainwaves) are present in the frontal lobes of people of "higher consciousness." Neurofeedback was used to train non-advanced meditators to emit gamma brainwaves, resulting in similiar subjective reports of "higher consciousness."

About the Author(s):

Beverly Rubik, Ph.D., is a prolific biophysicist associated with the Institute of Frontier Science and Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. Dr. Rubik presently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, Integrative Medicine Insights, and ReVision.

For more, visit www.scientificexploration.org

What Are Gamma Brain Waves? The fastest documented brainwave frequency range is that of Gamma Brain Waves -- which oscillate within the range of 40 Hz to 70 ...

The work of the artist George Rodart....

"And just who are these people in the machine, anyway? The answer will depend on who you ask. If you ask the people in the machine, they will strenuously claim to be the original persons. For example, if we scan–let’s say myself–and record the exact state, level, and position of every neurotransmitter, synapse, neural connection, and every other relevant detail, and then reinstantiate this massive data base of information (which I estimate at thousands of trillions of bytes) into a neural computer of sufficient capacity, the person who then emerges in the machine will think that “he” is (and had been) me, or at least he will act that way. He will say “I grew up in Queens, New York, went to college at MIT, stayed in the Boston area, started and sold a few artificial intelligence companies, walked into a scanner there, and woke up in the machine here. Hey, this technology really works.”

But wait.

Is this really me? For one thing, old biological Ray (that’s me) still exists. I’ll still be here in my carbon-cell-based brain. Alas, I will have to sit back and watch the new Ray succeed in endeavors that I could only dream of."

by Ray Kurzweil

Searle on Antonio Damascio's "Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain"

"Finally, after more than 250 pages, we get to the problem of qualia—a term often used for qualitative conscious states. Damasio tells us that there are two kinds of qualia: Qualia I and Qualia II. Qualia I is about pain and pleasure, but the problem of Qualia II is why there should be any feelings at all. He thinks Qualia I is not a mystery but that the Qualia II problem is more difficult. About Qualia II we get the following stunning passage:

Qualia is part of the contents that come to be known as the self process, the self construction illuminating the mind construction. But somewhat paradoxically, Qualia II is also the grounding for the proto-self and thus sits astride mind and self, in a hybrid transition. The neural design that enables qualia provides the brain with felt perceptions, a sense of pure experience. After a protagonist is added to the process, the experience is claimed by its newly minted owner, the self."

"Researchers have discovered a new essential function for half of the brain's cells. Called glia cells, scientists have known them to hold the brain's neurons together, protecting the cells that determine our thoughts and behavior. But now they believe glia cells do much more, actually regulating the synapses and sorting information for learning purposes. "Messages may originate with the neurons, which use the synapses as their delivery system, but the glia serve as an overall moderator, regulating which messages are sent on and when.""

IdeaFeed | Big Think

"You can’t understand the mind only by looking directly at the brain. (…) The difference comes from the ways in which hundreds of millions of neurons are wired together to process information. I see the brain as a kind of computer—not like any commercial computer made of silicon, obviously, but as a device that achieves intelligence for some of the same reasons that a computer achieves intelligence, namely processing of information. (…)"

"If machines can and do become conscious, will we take their feelings into account? The history of our relations with the only nonhuman sentient beings we have encountered so far – animals – gives no ground for confidence that we would recognise sentient robots as beings with moral standing and interests that deserve consideration."

Peter Singer and Agata Sagan

"Our concepts of experience are highly open ended. Because of the fundamentally bounded nature of p-consciousness, we cannot peer directly into other qualitative fields. We must, for instance, allow that a manta ray sensing electromagnetic radiation might have corresponding experiences that are completely foreign to us, just as a blind man must allow that those who can see have experiences that are completely foreign to him. Accordingly, we must allow that simpler and simpler beings might have more and more primitive forms of experience. As we move down this scale, there is no clear boundary at which point we are definitively forced to stop attributing experience. Our confidence may grow weaker for systems that increasingly do not resemble us, but weak confidence for a proposition does not amount to clear logical grounds for rejecting it outright."

An excerpt from the 1994 documentary, "Meher Baba, The Awakener." The story of creation and evolution as revealed by the Indian Spiritual Master, Avatar Meher Baba (1894-1969).

In this article I aim to broaden and deepen the evolution of consciousness discourse by integrating the integral theoretic narratives of Rudolf Steiner, Jean Gebser, and Ken Wilber, who each point to the emergence of new ways of thinking that could address the complex, critical challenges of our planetary moment. I undertake a wide scan of the evolution discourse, noting it is dominantly limited to biology-based notions of human origins that are grounded in scientific materialism.

Transmissions of Consciousness and States of Being...

In 1974, American professor of psychology Dr Clare W Graves wrote an article for The Futurist magazine titled Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap. Graves described an impending change in human consciousness that would be, in his words:

‘…the most difficult, but at the same time the most exciting transition the human race has faced to date. It is not merely a transition to a new level of existence but the start of a new “movement” in the symphony of human history.’

"When you leave emotions out of your “rational map,” when the display of this map is not privy to the emotions, or vice verca, then you are not properly conscious."

Consciousness, thus is the homeostasis or the interchange process of metamorphosis or osmosis (information transfer) between matter (feminine polarity) and its environment (masculine polarity)>

The fundamental process of all life rests on a simple decision in Consciousness: Does the nondual relationship in homeostasis between theduality of the masculine and feminine principles support the absolute nonduality

Life It Self then, is the process of establishing and maintaining that absolute nonduality.

Existence (nonduality) can only BE because of Duality expressed as Masculine and Feminine Principles.

Evolution is the result of dis-ease (a masculine-feminine duality imbalance) and is the manifestation of this imbalance in form leading to mutation of thefeminine principle in an attempt to find absolute homeostasis with a changing masculine principle or environmental change.

The evolving human consciousness "out there" is the reflection (masculine principle) of what is going on "in here"(feminine principle) .. a chain reaction of fractal evolution - homeostasis between matter andenergy which obeys simple principles - a "both/and" situation.

"Scientists have long hunted for a pattern of brain activity that signals consciousness, but a reliable marker has proved elusive. For many years theorists have argued that the answer lies in the prefrontal cortex, a region of high-level processing located behind the forehead; neural signals that reach this area were thought to emerge from unconscious obscurity into our awareness. Recent research, however, supports the idea that consciousness is a conversation rather than a revelation, with no single brain structure leading the dialogue."

via Scientific American

"Once Linde started thinking about consciousness, there was no turning back. He, and others, have even calculated the probability that consciousness—in the form of thinking, disembodied brains—can be momentarily produced by quantum fluctuations in an empty universe.  And given that there are an infinite number of universes, this probability could be quite large—a bizarre mathematical result that caused physicists to debate what consciousness actually is and what implications it has for cosmology."

via FQXi

"All shamanic ritual follows a standard format. Beginning with a clearly delineated purpose and rites of preparation and purification, the facilitating and supporting shamans shift their consciousness to that of a trance state, invoke the spirits, and request their beneficence. The main task is then addressed in a variety of rites, participants or clients express their gratitude by making offerings, the spirits are then dismissed, and the ritual brought to closure. Ultimately, the boundaries of the sacred space are opened once more, the ritual bond between shamans and participants is released, and all return to their everyday lives."

"IBM has set out to prove it can revolutionize the food industry with data, starting with China. Six industrial slaughterhouses and 100 markets in Shandong Province are part of a large scale test in tracking pork from farm to customer. Pigs are marked with ear tags containing unique barcodes, those same barcodes appear on the bins that carry their meat during processing, and on the packages for the pork placed in stores. In the near term, IBM hopes that knowing the history of every piece of meat will enable fast and super accurate recalls in case of contamination. Eventually, this kind of comprehensive tracking could help farmers keep pigs healthier, improve the quality of meat after it is cut, and even place a picture on the store package of the exact pig made into that pork product. Knowledge is power in this new take on the supply chain."

via Singularity Hub

@ddrrnt - maybe China and the rest of us should quit eating pork.   

The cost of desalinated water could be cut by almost half using new wireless bacteria sensors, according to the technology’s creators.

via The Engineer.co.uk

"Using open source technologies, like Arduino-based sensor units or mobile apps, data-citizens will be able to gather their own real-time data regarding issues they are really concerned about, such as air quality, noise levels, street deficiencies, plagues, etc. All data will be shared in open public repositories, like Pachube, available for everyone. Long term data archival will allow citizens to gain a better understanding of the urban environment and to improve their daily personal habits."

We are not things.  

We are beings.

Explore our sister site:
http://www.scoop.it/t/augmented-reality-the-internet-of-beings-things 

Thinfilm’s first-gen sensors will be able to cache data about the object itself, on the item itself. In this case, the sensors will record data concerning the object’s temperature history, tracking precise time, temperature and exposure information, and also displaying it in a low-power readout. The data within can be accessed as needed, insomuch it doesn’t need to be retrieved from the cloud, or require a constant wireless connection.

In the past, we’ve seen thin food sensors that change color as food begins to spoil. But this type of technology doesn’t retain data, and thus doesn’t provide information about the history of a product as it shipped.

ThinFilm Electronics says it has assembled the pieces for a simple printed-on-plastic computing device with processing power, memory, and display that will enable 'smart objects' and an Internet of things.

“With these non-conventional materials you have a great deal of freedom. We believe this approach to circuitry in substrates will lead to the creation of smart substances, and once you start thinking about the possible applications, it’s hard to stop: surgeon’s gloves with smart skin, walls of a house that store energy and generate large-scale displays, magazines with interactive video in the pages, devices that dissolve the toxins in water, bio-interfaces in mobile phones with diagnostic capabilities, clothing that generates energy – the possibilities are endless!”

"The number of wireless devices continues to grow into a large ‘Internet of things’. When searching a desk, we now have to grab the desktop computer but also look out for USB drives disguised as pens, digital cameras disguised as tissue boxes and a myriad of MP3 players, smart phones and other devices. Never has there been so much data and so many different ways to hide it."

- SMT Online - Security industry news and information

The Internet of Things drive, where every electronic device can communicate with each other in a mesh of digital linkery, continues to gather pace, with Texas INstruments unveiling a low-cost embedded WiFi chipset targeting everyday gadgets.

- SlashGear

"Together, three trends lead to an Internet of Things, where smart phones use NFC to make statements about the physical world. For example, there has already been an art exhibition that lets visitors vote for their favorite display by tapping with their smartphone. But more importantly, there’s an Internet of Secure Things coming. You will be able to use your smartphone to badge in to work, unlock your PC, start your car or motorcycle (the prototype of that is already working), as well as merely pay for things.

It isn’t going to all happen in 2012, but we are likely to look back at 2012 as the year when it took off."

By Jon Callas, CTO, Entrust One - on the confluence of few major trends.

SecureIDNews 

How might the "Web of Things" help us realise this?

Graham Fisher, a Director at Cambridge Wireless, welcomed the efforts made by the Technology Strategy Board. He told TechEye that there are plenty of opportunities to be had with an Internet of Things, though there is more that needs to be done in terms of infrastructure in order to create the ecosystem the TSB is striving for.

“Rural connectivity could be an issue as it is necessary that ubiquitous internet is available in order to create efficient systems,” Fisher told TechEye. “For efficient telehealth and smart metering this all falls down if you are not able to provide ubiquitous connections.”

Then again, there are "problems with a lack of full connections in many parts of the country,” Fisher says. “We need to push forward with the roll out of LTE and use of white spaces as soon as possible to support this.”

Read more: http://news.techeye.net/internet/technology-strategy-board-invests-in-internet-of-things#ixzz1jZkvlAJz"

"If everything is traceable, that means that we’ll be more aware of the entire life cycle of our stuff — even once we’ve given it up willingly.

This means that when, say, the laptop bag you gave to Goodwill ultimately ends up in the landfill a few weeks later (like a reported 40 percent of things that go to Goodwill do) it will be hard to ignore your role in polluting the world. The old green axiom of “You can’t throw anything away, because there is no such thing as away” will become very real to everyone.""

When Vint Cerf talks about Google's upcoming global Science Fair, you can hear the infectious enthusiasm in his voice.

Again, Cerf sees some aspects of that fictional world becoming reality, especially with regard to the Internet of Things. “The Android OS is turning out to be of interest… in other devices, things that consume electricity, appliances around the house,” he said.

And of course, there’s Google’s revolutionary self-driving cars.

“We’re very proud of those cars,” said Cerf. “This is turning out to be an incredible period of time when we’re able to harness the power of computing in small devices and also harnessing huge computing power in the form of clouds.”

"Not everyone is looking forward to this with open arms however, for the same reasons people are against ID cards, and have rightfully suspicious views of centralised data. Not everyone wants their underpants to beam their movements directly to the government or their spouse. Throwing a surprise party? Forget it. Hide-and-seek? Out of the question.

‘Everyday objects are increasingly going to become gateways to services beyond the objects themselves.’ says Nathan Miller, Insight Curator for Crayon consumer insight agency.. ‘Having ‘smart objects’ make decisions for us could be dangerous. However, as these objects and technologies become more accessible, it’s almost certain that many of us will find ways to control our own data. The centralisation, control and freeness of our data is a choice of design rather than a requirement of technology.’"

via HumansInvent.com

"There are aspects to this internet of things that really are profoundly concerning, however. Privacy is one of them. No one can doubt that if all cars are all wi-fi or LTE connected, busybodies in government will no doubt want access to exactly where people are, where people have been, and where people are going. The upside, of course, is that licences, car tax and insurance will all be digitised too, and if a car doesn't check out on the police database, menaces driving without isurance or without passing a test will be easily identifiable."

via TechEye.net

"A UK GOVERNMENT backed project is giving 10 British companies up to £50,000 each to conduct preparatory studies for moving towards an applications and services marketplace, or 'internet of things'.
Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15bJm)

"Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) filed a patent at the tail end of 2009 dubbed "Local Device Awareness," which describes automated connections between a number of close-range devices. Some potential applications could be device position targeting (think locating your keys) or proximity-based gaming."

"If Apple's patent seems overly broad, patent hoarder InterDigital (Nasdaq: IDCC ) has gone for specificity. It holds some 33 known patents covering machine-to-machine communication." 

"Motorola and Google seem to be behind in patents, with only one highly technical machine-to-machine patent showing up for Motorola Mobility, and none for Google. But as you'll soon see, the two companies might be hoping for a more open environment."

"IBM sees the Internet of things as a source of growth, and it recognizes that the best way to capitalize is to make it easy to adopt. Keeping the underlying framework open-source will undoubtedly improve competition and encourage startups, much as the growth of the public Internet led to an explosion of newly public companies. Let's hope that the growth of this new industry isn't hampered by patents, but we should also be wary of any new bubbles that might inflate."

via The Motley Fool

"Bloomberg recently published an article that cites numerous examples of cities around the world that have embarked upon so-called “smart city projects.” For example, urban areas from Memphis to Rio de Janeiro are using data and analytics to help lead progress against crime, pollution, and congestion. In fact, cities worldwide are expected to invest up to $108 billion in these types of tools, according to Pike Research."

via SmartData Collective

"America’s Intel and Britain’s ARM have long dominated different bits of the global chip market. Now each is attacking the other’s stronghold"

"The battle is not just about dividing up territories already occupied; it is also about finding new lands to conquer. Both firms are keen to stake claims on the largely uncolonised and still somewhat notional terrain known as the “internet of things”: the myriad processors in industrial machinery, consumer goods and infrastructure, ever more of which will communicate with each other and with distant computers. Cisco, a giant American maker of networking gear, estimates that by 2015 there may be almost 15 billion internet-connected devices, up from 7.5 billion in 2010. Whereas the market for more phones and other personal computing devices is limited by the number of persons the planet has to offer, things, being more numerous than people, provide a lot more long-term room for growth."

"“I think we are at the very beginning of wearable computing,” said Julia Hu, founder and chief executive of Lark, a start-up based in Mountain View, Calif., that makes a wearable sleep tracking monitor. “You’re starting to see a lot of sensors that track data and then visualize it.”"

via bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Developers can make 'Energy Internet' apps that gather electricity data and control 'smart' networked thermostats and appliances over a cloud-based development platform. Read this blog post by Martin LaMonica on Green Tech.

Already it's clear that one of the hot tech topics of 2012 will be "The Internet of Things" – the idea that even the most mundane objects will be hooked up to the Net and communicating over it. So far, pundits have concentrated on...

Thoughts on how the future of the smart city will impact daily life and efficiency of our cities, from IBM's Smarter Buildings division.

via Co.EXIST

highlights: http://diigo.com/0m761

"The internet of things doesn’t come from some giant company blessing your washing machine with a finicky protocol that only talks to their servers and feeds you data though their portal. It comes from millions of geeks everywhere doing it themselves because its just recently become cheap enough and easy enough. Communities form and open protocols develop. The marketplace keeps the whole community loosely united and Andriod explodes into, well, everything. Its a great big ball of win."

"Technology will ride to the rescue (well, sort of). Faith in technology can easily bleed into science fiction. But in 2012, the "internet of things", the "quantified self", and "augmented reality" will ensure that we have the information we need to achieve massive reductions of our footprint as individuals and institutions. And increased visibility into the sustainability attributes of everyday products will benefit companies that take this seriously, and leave others behind."

via Guardian.co.uk

"Meals eaten? Hours of sleep slept? Distances traveled? TV shows and books watched? There are many more parts of our lives that can be wired up to Facebook or other social networks.

The instrumentation of everyday life may sound frightening to many people, but so did posting photos of yourself online or using a debit card (at all) just a few years ago."

via ReadWriteWeb

Note: PC's are getting smaller and cheaper.  Soon everyone will be able to have one, including all of your "things".  #M2M

"The final Raspberry Pi will come in two flavors: A $25 version with 128MB of RAM and no network connection and a $35 one with256MB and Ethernet. Both versions will have USB and HDMI ports as well as analog video and audio outputs. It’s driven by a The 1080p video magic is driven by a 700MHz ARM processor, and the whole thing is powered by a 5-volt power supply."

via Mashable

"Chinese companies are also encouraged to develop new technologies on the new IPv6 network, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things - uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure - and Three Network Convergence - an initiative that hopes to integrate telecommunications, TV and radio, and the Internet in the world's most populous country."

"The government will try out the system on a small scale by the end of 2013 before expanding it in 2014 and 2015."

via IBN Live

"You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around The Internet Of Things"

"The Internet Of Things" is a catchy term revolving around the idea that most everyday objects around us will be equipped with internet-collected electronics, and this will open up new applications. This goes from novelty items like scales that tweet your weight (encouraging you through peer pressure to watch it) to ambitious visions like Jawbone's steps toward wearable computing. We're not yet sure if The Internet Of Things will be a huge business or a passing fad, but we're willing to bet you'll be hearing a ton about it in 2012."