Linda Stone » engaged

The Look & Feel of Conscious Computing

Linda Stone — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:34:25 +0000

With a musical instrument, it’s awkward at first. All thumbs. Uncomfortable. Noise. With practice, the musician becomes self-contained vs. consumed by the instrument; co-creating music. So it will be with personal technology. Now, a prosthetic of mind, it will become a prosthetic of being. A violinist with a violin. Us with our gadgets, embodied, attending as we choose.

Dee Hock’s 1996 Quote…

Linda Stone — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:00:05 +0000

Those who have heard me speak know that I often quote Dee Hock, the Founder of Visa, and one of the great business innovators of our time.

I use his quote below to describe how technology is evolving us, how we’re evolving technology and how both are evolving culture.

Noise becomes data when it has a cognitive pattern.
Data becomes information when assembled into a coherent whole, which can be related to other information.
Information becomes knowledge when integrated with other information in a form useful for making decisions and determining actions.
Knowledge becomes understanding when related to other knowledge in a manner useful in anticipating, judging and acting.
Understanding becomes wisdom when informed by purpose, ethics, principles, memory and projection.

Further, I map this evolution to a timeline:

1945-1965

Noise to Data

1965-1985

Data to Information

1985-2005

Information to Knowledge

2005-2025

Knowledge to Understanding

2025-2045

Understanding to Wisdom

Today, we are Knowledge Workers evolving into Understanding Workers. Understanding Workers use technology to anticipate, judge and act. Think about it. This is what we’re doing with FitBit, Quantified Self, 23andMe.com, Facebook, and so many other technologies of this era.

As we move into an Era of Conscious Computing, we’ll also be moving deeper into Understanding and closer toward Wisdom.

iPads Everywhere!

Linda Stone — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:51:04 +0000

O’Reilly Media hosted yet another invitation-only, mind-bending, inspiring, fun Foo Camp.

In years past, we’ve enjoyed these unconference sessions, laptops glowing, perched on laps, on tables. Technology everywhere. Notes being taken, emails and tweets constantly flowing.

This year, Sara Winge pointed out, “open laptops were rare in sessions.” iPads were everywhere. ”They sit flat on laps and tables, like paper,” Caterina Fake mentioned that and the contrast to screens as barriers between people.

People appear to sit comfortably, posture and breathing less stressed while using the iPad. Some have specifically commented to me that while they notice they have email apnea when using their laptops, they breathe easily when using their iPad.

In the slow news session moderated by Steven Levy, Jennifer 8 Lee, and Kevin Kelly, the iPad as a platform for news and magazines was one of the topics debated.

It was during that debate that I realized — Apple has done for reading what the iPod has done for music. We tune out the world, that 24/7, always-on world, once we engage with our iPods. The iPad is the iPod of reading. The world around us disappears when we engage with it.

The iPad, so gorgeous, with such a natural interface, offers the same opportunity. Particularly in the case of the brilliantly designed (by Schulze and Webb) Bonnier magazines. The world around me disappeared when I dropped into this iPad magazine experience.

I don’t have an iPad (yet). I’ve enjoyed noticing the impact it’s having at various high tech gatherings as well as on less techie friends, many of whom seem to be making this their primary platform.

More on Intentions and Goals

Linda Stone — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:50:12 +0000

Thank you for the interesting comments and insights on intentions vs. goals. In thinking about this today, I realized –

Intentions happen in the present. Goals are about the future.

Where does behavior change? In the present.

Where does intention come from? For me, goals come from the mind. Intentions from the heart, from emotion, from feeling.

Can one choose to have an intention or must it emerge more naturally?

How does this relate to attention? Intention is the most powerful force driving attention.

What is Dying to be Born?

Linda Stone — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:15:44 +0000

A few weeks ago, when I checked my inbox, there was an email from Lianne Raymond. Her request:

I am asking you, as one of the women I look to for thought leadership, to contribute your idea of “what is dying to be born” in the world right now- maybe it is already in the process of happening and you will shine the light on it – it doesn’t matter: whatever way you want to interpret that phrase is welcomed and encouraged, as part of the beauty of the end product will be our multi-faceted ways of viewing the world, with each view reflecting the others.

You are on this list because somewhere along the way you made a difference in my life through your words. So thank you so much for being a part of my life and growth, whether or not you become a part of this.

With much love,

Lianne Raymond

Click on the link below, for Linda’s page, to read my piece on Presence in What is Dying to Be Born?

linda’s page

The link, What is Dying to be Born, will take you to the entire book:

What is Dying to be Born?

How has the Internet Changed the Way You Think?

Linda Stone — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:21:28 +0000

The physical world is where I not only see, I also feel — a friend’s loving gaze in conversation; the movement of my arms and legs and the breeze on my face as I walk outside; and the company of friends for a game night and potluck dinner. The Internet supports my thinking and the physical world supports that, as well as, rich sensing and feeling experiences.

It’s no accident we’re a culture increasingly obsessed with the Food Network and Farmer’s Markets — they engage our senses and bring us together with others.

How has the Internet changed my thinking? The more I’ve loved and known it, the clearer the contrast, the more intense the tension between a physical life and a virtual life. The Internet stole my body, now a lifeless form hunched in front of a glowing screen. My senses dulled as my greedy mind became one with the global brain we call the Internet.

Read the whole post here on O’Reilly Radar or a slightly different version, here, on the Huffington Post.

Read John Brockman’s 2010 World Question Center. Thought leaders and scientists respond to the question: How has the internet changed the way you think?

Comment here — write your own response. Happy New Year!