Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA17043 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 5 Feb 2002 17:59:26 GMT Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:53:28 -0500 Subject: Re: ply to Grant Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Wade Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D224@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <42D8D3C3-1A61-11D6-B8AC-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tuesday, February 5, 2002, at 11:58 , Vincent Campbell wrote:
> A good example would be to
> look at the rhetoric about the global harmony that the telegraph would
> produce
We have such an experiment happening right now, right here. Dean
Kamen's Segway HT. The claims of the manufacturer are that it
will revolutionize urban design.
Comment at
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/036/science/Ginger_s_rough_rideP.shtml,
in a Boston Globe article, says things like this-
"Inside the headquarters of the company that makes the scooter
now known as Segway HT, people never succumbed to the criticism.
They remain convinced that experiencing the self-balancing
Segway is so unlike anything else that a test ride will convince
customers to buy one. Demand will be so great, they believe,
that, eventually, cities will have to be redesigned."
"With their world-changing aspirations, the makers of Segway are
pitching it as what business analysts call a ''disruptive
technology,'' an invention like the phone or car or personal
computer that changes the way people work and live. But
technology watchers say that such revolutions typically unfold
over a decade or more, are difficult to predict ahead of time,
and can easily fail - no matter how technically amazing an
innovation - when an invention finally faces the fickle,
sometimes maddening, demands of actual customers."
So, take a seat, and watch.
- Wade
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