Not exactly Douglas Adam’s electric monk but some Cistercian monks who run a successful office supplies e-business supporting themselves and various charities. See Wired 14.07: Monk Ebusiness. (LaserMonks – slogan “Real Savings. Real Monks.”)

I hope something like this can work in the real world. Producing plastic from biomass, that in turn can be recycled does seem much better than just producing it from oil. See Wired News: Just One Word: Fructose.

Useful tip about digital library cards over at: Cool Tool: Digital Library Cards.

Heidi Campbell’s new blog, When Religion Meets New Media, has a link to this article Muslims craft their own video games | csmonitor.com. Looks like an interesting game. I wonder if it’ll be available here in NZ?

Related to this is the development of Middle Eastern comic books. At this point they follow American formats reasonably closely, but open up the possibility of developing their own style more close related to local themes. See Silver Bullet Comics: Special AK: AK Comics and Heroes of the Middle East and AK COMICS Inc.

Marvel comics have a venture in the Middle East too, though Teshkeel Comics.

Here are some different ways that technology gets defined. Which one do you think is best? What might you suggest as a better definition?

• Technology is concerned with the human community creating and inventing assorted tools, machines and mechanisms to manipulate and exploit the natural world. Furthermore, technological application shapes not only nature, but also the human community.
• Technology is applied science and engineering.
• Technology is what society uses to address its needs by using it ‘to produce goods and services for the creation of wealth and for human culture to flourish. Needs and wishes come first and the technology simply fulfils them.’
• Technology is ‘a sociotechnical system in which hardware, technique, and a particular ideological frame of reference combine to aid in the pursuit of essentially pragmatic ends, generally associated with the augmentation of human capabilities.’
• ‘We ask the question concerning technology when we ask what it is. Everyone knows the two statements that answer our question. One says: Technology is a means to an end. The other says: Technology is a human activity. The two definitions of technology belong together.’
• ‘Technology is therefore no mere means. Technology is a way of revealing.’
• ‘the application of organized knowledge to practical tasks by ordered systems of people and machines’ (Barbour)
• technology is ‘a system based on the application of knowledge, manifested in physical objects and organizational forms, for the attainment of specific goals’ (Volti)
• Technology (technique) is ‘the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.’
• Technology is ‘a distinct human cultural activity in which human beings exercise freedom and responsibility to God by forming and transforming the natural creation, with the aid of tools and procedures, for practical ends and purposes.’

Everyone at home is sick (since last Thursday in some cases). I’ve just spend the afternoon in bed as I try to get the best of a sinus infection. Tomorrow though, everyone is back at school, kindy and work which should mean forward progress on the thesis after that last 5 days of “spinning wheels”. (Actually more like not getting into first gear.)

There’s a little box in chapter one that says – “Insert my own definition of technology here”, followed by a seriously large number of bullet points. I’ve had a clear idea in my head what it is, but been struggling to reduce it to a pithy sentence or two. Tomorrow that should all be a thing of the past.

Well, I still can’t do it – but this robot can. In about 36 seconds. Watch the video at TechEBlog » Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot.

A couple of links relating to ethical considerations of emerging technologies.

No sex please, robot, just clean the floor – Sunday Times – Times Online notes the call by some for ethical guidelines to be developed with respect to robot/AI research. Ethical guidelines for both developers and users.

BetterHumans.com : An uplifting evening with James Hughes. Simon Smith ponders whether you should make your pet (or other animals) more intelligent if you had the power to do so. Again some interesting reflections here (though Deep Blue Sea did come to mind seeing as dogs and cats are carnivores).

Is it just me or is this just a little macabre?

All Blacks give blood for fans – 24 Jun 2006 – Rugby.

This looks like getting the old grey cells buzzing. Always interested in seeing where people across the spectrum think digital culture will go. See Aula Network.