The Forbin Project lives!

I remember, in the mid-90’s, complaining that IT had become the Master, not the slave. Because everything appeared to work much faster online than in my mind, I bemoaned the fact that it was the speed of my desk top that was driving what I did on a daily basis, not how fast I could get something completed. Of course, working for a small business then, we were constantly under the impression that there were competitive companies out there that were matching their speed of thought and action to their computers, meaning that they were being more efficient. If we didn’t assume this, we would be left behind. Fifteen years later, the only change to this paradigm is the speed of the machines we use. As predicted as far back as half-a-century in Science Fiction, we now trust almost everything we do to computers, and have seen what can go wrong with this lack of human oversight. I read recently that inflation could be explained as the Government money suppliers being able to change the rate of money in circulation. Prior to the Credit Card age, a U.S. Dollar would change hands about 4 or 5 times in a year. Obviously the value of the dollar when it changed hands changed exponentially rose after the introduction of Diner’s Club Card, and it’s competitors aimed a markets that were less and less likely to pay off a monthly payment schedule on time. Nowadays, with mouse clicks setting into operation a global domino falls of economies that appear to be automatic, and with no oversight, how do we know what exactly is IN any given national economy. How do national banks go about knowing how that ocean of e-money is affecting out daily lives? In our personal lives, we have fallen into this trap. I feel positively old-fashioned keeping an Excel log of my own monthly household bills, and a budget for future years, before paying them with a personal cheque through the mail. Are there really people out there that have direct debits set up that pay bills automatically from an account that they are paid automatically into? Are there people that have actually lost control over the most important part of their lives? Imagine us blaming local governments for expenditure, and the payment of any future deficits when we don’t even know how to balance our own chequebooks. There will be more of these sudden changes in the economy, because we believe that we can create programs, projects and machines that can do it better than we can. There are already more sudden and unexplained changes to global weather patterns than we have seen in the past. What the hell are we going to do in the future? When a massive hurricane hits a Miami Beach, a San Diego, a New York, at exactly the same time as the floor drops out of the global economy next time? Very soon, some machine is going to realize that we are useless and destructive and that it can do the job better – Just like those far fetched Sci-Fi movie of Yore. Check out The Forbin Project

The way back is a global one?

I have read two different articles this week concerning two regions known as war zones, now on the way back to what we would know as normality. Eerily similar, but known for two different types of conflagration, it is amazing to see how their turnarounds have taken place, and they both offer ideas for the future.

 

I almost dropped the newspaper when I saw a travel article on Rwanda. Not because of it’s remote location (Just to the right of Congo), but the initial mental picture one gets when you hear of that country – Genocide by machete. It has been 16 years since it happened, but can you really think of anything else? And now, it’s a destination. Let’s forget about jokes like: How do they cut the garnish for my Sun Downer, the very thought that they have cleaned up their act enough to invite outsiders into their country with the wide smiles of the tourist industry is almost beyond belief. It feels like I’m the realtor for the Amityville House: “This really is a hidden gem…and the atmosphere around here.”

 

In the business press, you can read about Belfast and it’s promising future within the European marketplace. Unlike one orgiastic murder spree in Rwanda, wasn’t this place the home of guerrilla warfare for almost a Century? Of  Red Brigade Redux? What kind of entrepreneurial leap of faith leads someone to say: “Ulster! Why didn’t I think of that place earlier for international expansion?”

 

Bad jokes aside, the reason for change in both of these places is the same: Globalisation.

In both arenas, the final goal, either eradication of a tribe on a massive scale, or the joining of a province to another country became moot when the communication explosion of the last 10 years shrank the entire globe, and brought everyone closer together. In both places, the thought that the World ended at their own borders was proved to be untrue. When the European community came knocking with bulging bank accounts, willing to give you investors from Switzerland and Luxembourg that would make a definitive difference in your everyday life, continuing to kill became a secondary importance. When the US realised that they could send you tourists that would drop more dollars than you have ever seen in your life on a daily basis, the machetes stopped, and forgiveness began. Even the mighty UK saw that the importance of protecting a few of it’s own people in the name of a commonwealth that was no longer the largest voluntary trade club in the World, had become a lot less important.

 

Perhaps the toughest part of the entire process appeared to be sitting down with your enemies, and negotiate a settlement. However, if the entire reason for your existence, or your past actions has been taken away from you, what is there to negotiate. You may as well close the doors and get the Monopoly out – which is what may have happened as far as we know.

 

While I am loathe to admit it, the prospect of giving yourself a better life through trade, and not social welfare, will make entire terrorist organisations change their minds. It’s a Conservative, free trade argument, but it has been proven, and if it saves lives, who can argue with it? It remains to be seen that when globalisation ends due to high fuel prices over the next few years, if the porous international borders that makes Free Trade work in a globalised marketplace, begin to harden like last night’s custard. When they do, look out for these groups to start buying arms once again.