Pocket Watches For The People

Why we must claim innovation before someone claims us with it

an army of futuristic machines directed by magnates destroy a peaceful 18th century village, futuristic cyberpunk — by DALL·E

One of the most efficient ways to find insight into the hyperconnected world is by applying tactics from one discipline to another. For instance, in music production, experience tells the producer to embrace ‘happy accidents’; these moments of unexpected artistic brilliance can change the direction of a song. Later in the kitchen, we might make the mistake of adding twice as much of an ingredient as the recipe stated. The concept learned in the music studio tells us we can cook around the new predominant element to create something unique and perhaps even tastier.

I try to do this as often as possible with almost every concept and idea I come across. Recently, a couple of shows I have watched have dealt with the common sci-fi topic of alternate timelines and parallel universes in which different versions of ourselves exist in strange but familiar environments.

Simultaneously, I have been the victim of a technophobic — and ironically digital — storm. A significant (perhaps predominant!) part of the so-called progressive political spectrum is raging against current artificial intelligence breakthroughs. I think the interdisciplinary crossing of ideas has given me an inkling of the reason behind the fåeeling: they must not understand the…