Thursday 8 November 2007

Read More Books

Found a couple more articles on the Guardian website, the first http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2207210,00.html is about brain enhancing drugs, which is an area i neglected when considering my genetically engineered Superhuman concept. These drugs are much like Ritalin (subsequently known as "kiddie coke" a nick-name which both worries and amuses me) but they are for aimed at students and young professionals working in highly stressful and pressured environments, people who could benefit from mentle agility, hightened alertness and short term memory enhancers.
This second article http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/05/mondaymediasection.comment is in relation to the Wikinomics theme we have been discussing recently, the short feature mainly focusses on advertising revenue in the media, which is apparently going to run out sooner rather than later. Thanks to the rise of the amateur and the availablility of free information in blogs, wikipedia and citizen jouranlism, the media are getting paid for their content less and less and are therefore relying more heavily from the cash money advertising brings in.

On the whole Wikinomics tip, as ive already mentioned more than enough, check out Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur. This book assaults the whole Web 2.0 user created content ethos, arguing that it is destroying our culture and economy. It directly attacks all websites involved in this second Web-revolution. Now this guys opinions are pretty extreme and although he raises some good points i don't agree with a lot he has to say. What did make me laugh out loud is when i checked his website, notice the links to Amazon.com to buy his book, a site that he directly critisized in the very same book.

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