Adaptive Path Blog

I recently returned from LIFT Asia 2008 in South Korea (and my first trip to the country from which I was adopted), and I’ve been looking forward to sharing about it. My colleague Rachel Hinman already posted her detailed notes, so I simply wanted to share some bite-sized ideas that were memorable to me.

LIFT is an ideas conference, not a tactics conference — it was less about learning and more about inspiration. What I liked most about LIFT was its emphasis on the social implications of technology: The real power of the possibilities “beyond the browser” isn’t making our middle/upper-class lives a little cooler, but about empowering the powerless, rebuilding societies and equipping disadvantaged people to succeed. Although it could be construed as one of those “technology can save the world” things, the call to consider those beyond ourselves when we think about the future of technology was relevant and powerful.

Especially notable was Bruce Sterling’s reminder that WE aren’t the ones who need these new technologies — like electronic money — the urban poor are the biggest stakeholders. He sternly challenged South Koreans to be prepared for North Korea’s collapse and to start developing systems and solutions now.

Here are a few more interesting ideas from LIFT (summaries, not direct quotes):

ON SOCIAL NETWORKS: Today’s social network business is a hotel business, not a housing business. There are too many hotels — Facebook, MySpace, Cyworld — and people’s data is scattered everywhere. But what people really want is a home. (Chung Kim)

ON VISUALIZATION: By capturing and visualizing multiple streams of real-time data, we are able to show what IS happening rather than what WAS happening, prompting questions we didn’t know we had. (Stamen)

ON THE PROBLEMS WITH CASH: With cash-based systems, it’s the poorest people, those who take little bits from the ATM at the time, who bear the highest transaction costs. (David Birch)

ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: (After demoing an eclectic collection of gadgets like solar-powered water bottles) Gadgets aren’t meant to save the world… they are symbols of what is possible. (Dan Dubno)

ON NETWORKED CITIES: Visions of cities are often technology-based but duck the real questions: What will all of this feel like? By observing current behaviors, we can start to understand. (Adam Greenfield)

ON HARNESSING LOST IDEAS: Citizens and civil servants encounter problems and think of creative solutions to urban issues but have no channel for making these ideas known. We can use technology to harness these ideas, make voices heard, and bring about action and policy changes. (Soo Hin Yong)

ON SUSTAINABILITY: What if devices were made to be worn IN not out, feel like an investment that’s made to last, age gracefully and have timeless features? (Raphael Grignani)

ON THE KITCHEN OF THE FUTURE: I want my kitchen in the future to look a lot like my kitchen today. People are future-overwhelmed; change should be invisible and internal. (Andrea Bianchi)

ON VIRTUAL WORLDS: Everyone says we only live once, we only have one chance at life. But gaming gives people the chance to have a new life. (Joonmo Kwon)

ON ROBOTS: If we have a limited vision of what robots should be, our ability to create robots will be limited. The debate about humanoid vs. non-humanoid robots is moot — there’s room in the taxonomy for all kinds of robots. The most evolutionary robots will be “Homo Robotus:” Robots that are a part of a person, amplifying the person’s body and mind. (Bruno Bonnell)

ON ENVISIONING THE FUTURE: The ability to create unconstrained visions of the future lives within us all. To tap into it, we must escape from the fetters of legacies, assumptions and technology-driven innovation. We must return to the wonderful world of make believe. (From my talk on “Experiencing the Future Through Make Believe” during the Open Afternoon)

I’m thankful to LIFT’s organizers for creating a conference of ideas — almost like a TED — that is accessible and affordable to a broad audience, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Conference Commentary, Idealism (Uncensored), The Big Picture, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.