PodCast Update #6

More ITConversations...

• Annalee Newitz talked about Sex Laws and Technological Change. Now, this one is not o-safe as may be obvious. But, it is very interesting. Annalee builds a great case for how porn has created a climate for a variety of technologies to flourish although not always sponsoring their initial development. She is clearly motivated to protect personal freedoms and judging by some of her comments is on the activist side of this stuff. I don't lean that far, but someone should look out for us and I trust her after listening to this podcast.
• Nicholas Negroponte of the Media Lab at MIT, Ian Morris of AMD and Teresa Peters of Bridges.org discussed Globalization of Technology. Given my recent and continued readings of Jared Diamond's work, interest in Thomas Friedman's writings, and such, this was made for a very interesting presentation. Good points were made by one and all, but I must say Teresa Peters seemed to be the most in tune with the real situation in the world. But, I was swayed (forgive me for forgetting which speaker), but one of the men did speak very specifically to hands on experience in Cambodia. So, none of these speakers were a slouch in terms of being informed and dedicated to helping alleviate the vast gap between the haves and have nots. There were some comments about colonization via technology that were terse and sarcastic. But, I thought they may betray a sentiment worth thinking about.