{"id":27,"date":"2005-02-21T20:33:16","date_gmt":"2005-02-22T00:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/2005\/02\/21\/microsystems\/"},"modified":"2007-02-14T19:36:21","modified_gmt":"2007-02-14T23:36:21","slug":"microsystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/2005\/02\/21\/microsystems\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsystems"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> One of the things I like about using the variant of tagging allowed on Flickr<\/a>‘s profile pages is indulging in vanity searches, flattering myself when I turn up really cool people who share my interest. I can mentally associate with them for brief micromoments, which is a kind of pointless indulgence, but it’s fun all the same. For example, I named some interests (including books, music, art) in my profile<\/a>, creating a list which is obviously going to be a real hit-‘n-miss kind of affair, because who in all seriousness can list all their interests, or even prioritise books or music in any meaningful way, given the allotted space?<\/p>\n

And yet….<\/p>\n

I put down biomimicry<\/a> as one of my interests. Ever since I read Janine Benyus’s book, I’ve been thinking, “Wow, if I were embarking on a career, I’d look into something like this!” I mean, talk about an area with potential! Imagine my vain surprise when I discovered that the only<\/em> other person on Flickr who has put biomimicry down as an interest is Steve Jurvetson<\/a>, who seems too smart<\/a> to be true<\/a>. And who has a must-see fry-your-head set of puzzle pics<\/a> on Flickr. And is a venture capitalist (who is interested in biomimicry …hey!). Oh, and of course he has a blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Likewise, I put down the United Future Organization<\/a> as one of my musical favourites, and that links me to a young guy in Worcester, MA, CalebVsJesus<\/a> (who gets a prize for original name), as well as to a really interesting woman who goes by the name hurleygurley<\/a> — and wow, do her photo pages ever look cool! It’s a visual cornucopia, and clicking on her various “contacts” on Flickr is yet another exercise in seeing all these fascinating individuals pop up! Holy smoke, there are so many totally neat people out there!<\/p>\n

There isn’t a direct benefit to this virtual (and ghostly and one-sided) hobnobbing, but it’s comforting, somehow, to realise that there are<\/em> so many interesting people. For every interesting person you turn up, you can tell yourself, “Well, that’s one fewer idiot,” and that’s a comfort.<\/p>\n

I have yet to find another fan of Stefano della Bella<\/a>, however…. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nThe date on the Fortune<\/a> article about Steve Jurvetson eludes me for some reason, but it must be about two years old. I wonder if he still holds to this vision for the future: “…he thinks small companies will be the ones doing the most exciting work. ‘When things are stable and predictable, large companies execute best,’ he says. ‘When you have a lot of radical change and disruption in the tech sector, as we do now, it’s generally a good time for startup companies.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nWhich reminded me of a tiny article I saw over the weekend in our local community newspaper. “‘We’d be the Saudi Arabia of energy if renewable energy counted for anything,’ said Scott Davis, whose organization, FORE [sorry, no working website link available], promotes co-ops as a form of community business arrangement that can offer more flexibility and provide direct environmental and financial benefits.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So I googled Scott Davis and learn that I’ve missed some<\/a> opportunities<\/a> to find out more about his agenda, and that one of his biggest areas of expertise is microhydro power<\/a> — which makes a ton of sense, given our geography and climate. All of a sudden, the hyperbolic “Saudi Arabia” analogy seems less weird: drought-struck and super-sunny in summer, we could harness solar energy for ~4 to 5 months of the year, but during those darker, rainy days of winter, when creeks are swollen and rushing at full force, microhydro<\/a> fits the bill perfectly.<\/p>\n

Another “microinitiative,” which has big clout elsewhere in the world (Germany, Austria, etc.) and is getting attention and support here, is biodiesel fuel<\/a>. Victoria has begun fueling its buses with biodiesel<\/a>, and Wise Energy<\/a>, the company behind the effort, actually managed to hack into parliamentarian consciousness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During my walk today, I ran into a friend<\/a> who told me that a couple of days ago David Anderson<\/a> had a commentary in the Globe and Mail<\/a>. (This paper is usually by subscription, so who knows how long this link will last…) Anderson writes:<\/p>\n

A few decades — two or perhaps three — is all we’re likely to have before the irreversible impact of climate change radically alters human existence.<\/p>\n

Action now will not restore our environment to what it once was, or even halt climate change entirely. What it will do is improve the chances of our way of life continuing for our grandchildren and generations beyond them.<\/em> [More…<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This isn’t anything you or I didn’t already know, but it’s still a bit of an event coming from Mr. Anderson, and published in the staid old Globe and Mail<\/em>. Should we cheer or weep?<\/p>\n

I guess we could wait for some big technological intervention to save us all<\/em>, but shit, that’s like waiting for God, isn’t it? Hasn’t that already been done? And done badly? So, maybe these little interventions, these microsteps, really are the better way to proceed.
\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this week weren’t going to be such a marathon (meetings, meetings, dog goes to vet for surgery, more appointments, another meeting, etc.), I would commit to going out for dinner on Friday, February 25th: the Victoria chapter of the Values-Based Business Network<\/a> is having a “do”<\/a> at a local hotel. I don’t have a business, but I would like to get a feel for the level of energy in Victoria surrounding sustainability; I’d like to know if it’s another case of feel-good talk\/ [flip the coin]\/ or\/ finger-pointing at the usual suspects<\/em>, or if things really are happening …at whatever scale. It is time for a change, isn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I like about using the variant of tagging allowed on Flickr‘s profile pages is indulging in vanity searches, flattering myself when I turn up really cool people who share my interest. I can mentally associate with them for brief micromoments, which is a kind of pointless indulgence, but it’s fun all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yulelogstories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}