out of all the conversations at lift, i am still awe struck by one presentation.

when i first had lunch with Ben Cerveny, our casual conversation would have led to nothing more than a few high-fives and an occasional email. though, something struck me funny when he casually made reference to his presentation and it's generic topic of metaphors. once Ben started his presentation, everyone shifted in their seats. it was instantly clear that this was was not going to be a simple conversation. by ben's second paragraph, Michele Perras and i had stopped taking notes. by ben's third slide i just closed my eyes and let the words flow into my ears

to me that there was no way in hell i would ever understand the complete value of this presentation. so at the end, (yup that me mucking up the microphone)... i had to say thank you for blowing my mind and inquire about Ben's perception on intelligent life... after a 10 min break, i attempted to sit down and listing to another presentation and could not. so i ran out and quickly wrote school of fish. since that afternoon, i have been in awe wondering how to use this data. after a request to laurent, the awesomeness face of lift; he uploaded ben's presentation. one by one, all presentations will be up! snag them via itunes or your pirate "arr-Rss" reader.

there are several ways of interpreting ben's presination. one, is to accept it at face value and only consider that the terms we use in technology as analogous to science terminology. two, we should think more about the abstract and not attempt to catalog it as a new invention. though we should continue branding these things as hip, hot, sexy beasts. three, is to look at flow as representative of nature's biological ecosystem. instead of attempting to think we are breaking through new walls of enlightenment, we should harness these tools to augment the ways we communicate in person. just like we have open conversations we should ensuring that the data flows freely. if that is the latter, data stuck within our brains is in it's natural state, harmonious with nature. sadly, in the technological world, there are two impediments that prevent flow from being at harmonious state...
1. closed technology systems.
2. technical hardware that data sits on.

imaging a world where you don't have to have a million and one user names and passwords. imagine a world world, where you have an aggregate social networking site, and you no longer have to create a million profiles and go though the same meticulous process of adding friends. imagine a world were your business systems are easily integrated with your desktop calendar, address book, cell phone, etc... the distance of this world isn't too far off. through the work of Lawrence Lessing, EFF, Save the Internet, Open Source, OpenID, Microformats, The Internet Task Force, and the Integration Proclamation - just to name a few - they are working endlessly fighting closed systems. thought the fight never really ends. there are many still who think they can control the flow.

most troubling of ben's metaphors is the hardware that sits beneath all of our society. two additional presentations at lift highlight the problems industries faces - suren erkman and julian bleeker. while suren's presentation was dry and complex, it provided a thorough review of industry and how we should move forward looking at which models we should use for industry. space is not just the final frontier, but is a clear example of a closed ecosystem that needs complete sustainability. note - peter barns who's attempting to move markets (not just companies) to calculate the cost of the environment - capitalism 3.0.

julian bleecker, gave a succinct presentation (video here) on the second life cost in our first life. julian's not just talking about the game, but all of our online activity. nicholar carr's deduction that a Second Life avatar is equivalent to a Brazilian is not an absurd statement to make. second life is not alone, google is also facing power consumption issues. in january, i, cringly reported that google has gone to extraordinary lengths to purchase property next to power plants. just in this week's economist's article "going green" goes on to expand the power dilemma we face, by fundamentally taking a look how AC conversion into DC is inefficient and the most costly in power consumption.

the power that is consumed by our flow is just part of the iceberg. greenpeace's green my apple campaign is nother example of the unsustainability our flow faces. even the most trendy of computer manufactures has problems producing environmentally computers. computers, cell phones, tivos, batteries, etc, are all manufactured from harmful products. grist magazine does a great job speaking in practical realistic language of things we can do to be better. as we have decreased the barriers of publishing a linty of online publications have appeared - ecogeek, treehugger, and worldchanging just to name a few. at home, you always have sustainable power and terrapass...

as the flow we create exceeds the footprint of a human, and our hunger for it's company becomes as prevalent as our desire for shelter, warmth and love. we should take stock in the transformative nature of all elements of our interconnected society.

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