1532 "There is nothing more difficult than to implement a vision of the future" (Machivelli)
1600  Thales phenomenon named  "electricity" after Greek  for amber by
            William Gilbert,  physician to Queen Elizabeth I
1793  Decimal system introduced (France)
1812  Steam-driven "computer" conceived (Babbage)
1831  Electromagnetic induction (Michael Faraday)
1838  First electric telegraph ( Cooke and Wheatstone)
1858  First Atlantic cable between America and England laid
1867  Typewriter (Sholes)
1874  First telephone receiver patented in UK (Alexander Bell)
1884  First volume of Oxford English Dictionary appeared
1891  Submarine telephone cable from London to Paris completed
1901  Radio communication between UK and USA
1922  BBC formed and first radio programmes begin to be broadcast
1927  First London automatic telephone exchange opened
1936  First regular TV service with Baird, Marconi and EMI equipment
1940  Electronic tubes used as switching units (Atanasoff and Berry)
1946  Enlac, the first electronic digital computer (Mauch ley and Eckert)
1948  Transistor invented (Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen)
1951  Univac 1 (Rand)
1954  World's first colour television broadcast in USA - NTSC format
1959  Integrated circuit (Kilby and Noyce)
1960  UNC, first "minicomputer" first tape drive, the first CRT (Lincoln Labs)
1961  PDP-1 (Digital Equipment Corporation) sets new low price at $120,000
1964  BASIC programming language (Kemeny and Kurtz)
1968  Mouse, windows, multiple-raster monitors, interactive technology  (Englebart)
1969  ARPANET 50 Kbps backbone established – 4 Honeywell mini-computer hosts
1971  Intel 8008 microprocessor (Hoff)
1972  LaserVideodisc (Philips) – data capacity 1.5 GB
1973  Invention of Ethernet (Bob Metcalf at Xerox Palo Alto Labs) 
           First bit-mapped graphics-oriented monitor
1974  IBM launch Winchester hard disc digital storage unit
1976  TCP/IP adopted by ARPANET
1977  E-mail invented
           Microsoft is founded 
1978  Hayes announces Micromodem 100
1979  Oracle introduces Standard Query Language
1980  Xerox, DEC and Intel announce Ethernet
1981  Hayes Smartmodem 1200
           IBM PC announced – ‘640K ought to be enough for anybody’ – Bill Gates
           Sony and Philips introduce CD compact disc format
1983  Hayes Smartmodem 2400 – 
           Internet Activities Board established – ARPANET 562 hosts
1986  First Facsimile or "FAX" device launched in Japan
           Small Computer System Interface [SCSI] standard [X3.131:1986]
1987  Hayes Smartmodem 4800
           Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks [RAID] (Patterson, Gibson and Katz)
           First colour photocopier (Canon) - Industrial videodisc recorder (Sony)
1988  T1 [1.544Mbps] NSFNET back-bone completed – 56,000 hosts
1989  Hayes Smartmodem 9600
1990  CERN implements first Hypertext system, Internet conceived 
           CD /Premaster recorder (Sony) – data capacity 650MB
1991  Hayes Smartmodem OPTIMA 144 fax modem
1992  T3 [45Mbps] NSFNET back-bone (IBM and MCI privately funded R&D)
           World Wide Web and MOSAIC first web-browser launched
1993  Hayes Smartmodem OPTIMA 288 fax modem
1994  ATM [Asynchronous Transmission Mode] 145 Mbps NSFNET back-bone installed
1995  33.6 Kbps modem development
1996  US Robotics release 56 Kbps modem – Internet 15M hosts




thence… 64.0 Kbps single channel ISDN
128.0 Kbps dual channel ISDN

500 Kbps standard ADSL - established throughout the UK 2004


1.0 Mbps Bluetooth v1.1, MegaStream and EtherStream
1.5 Mbps Full T1 leased line
1.856 Mbps MPEG1 video at SIF resolution

2.0 Mbps Estimated minimum bandwidth requirement per head of population
for connection to European Superhighway – 750 terabits in total

4.7Mbps MPEG2 video bit rate 133 minutes movie 4.7GB DVD-5 40:1 compression
8.0 Mbps MPEG2 video at full resolution, VHS or off-line at 20:1 compression

10.0 Mbps [1.25MB/s] Ethernet 10 BaseT
10.0 Mbps Likely bandwidth requirement per head of 450M extended population for connection to European Superhighway – 4500 terabits [4.50 petabits] in total
10.5 Mbps Maximum bit rate DVD-5
11.0 Mbps Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless comms

12.0 Mbps USB v1.0 

24.0 Mbps ADSL2+  - to be established by BT - throughout 50% of the UK by early 2008
25.0 Mbps DV Native 5:1 compression

36.0 Mbps SONY 1st implementation of Blu-Laser technology using 23GB/side media
40.0 Mbps [5.0MB/s] SCSI-1 [8bit]
45.0 Mbps T3 backbone previously established as NSFNET in 1992

50.0 Mbps SONY MPEG IMX – Intra-frame MPEG2 video – MXF over IP networks
SONY Betacam SP 3.3:1 compression

54.0 Mbps Wi-Fi 802.11a and Wi-Fi 802.11g wireless communications

64.0 Mbps [8MB/s] Digital Betacam 2.5:1 compression

80.0 Mbps [10MB/s] Fast SCSI [8 bit]

100.0 Mbps [12.5MB/s] Ethernet 100 BaseT
145 Mbps [18MB/s] ATM [Asynchronous Transmission Mode]

158 Mbps [19.78MB/s] D:1 (Standard Definition) video uncompressed
160.0 Mbps [20MB/s] Uncompressed PAL CCIR-601 resolution 4:2:2 serial DV
160.0 Mbps [20MB/s] Ultra SCSI [8 bit] and Fast Wide SCSI [16 bit]

200.0 Mbps [25MB/s] Proposed Wide-Band Wireless Networking channel
320.0 Mbps [40MB/s] Ultra2 SCSI [8 bit] and Ultra Wide SCSI [16 bit]
400.0 Mbps [50MB/s] IEEE1394A / iWIRE / Firewire
480.0 Mbps [60MB/s] USB v2.0
500.0 Mbps [62.5MB/s] Proposed Ultra Wide-Band Wireless Networking

622.0 Mbps [77.75MB/s] Experimental Satellite
640 Mbps [80 MB/s] Ultra2 Wide SCSI [16 bit]
760 Mbps [95MB/s] High Definition (HD) video uncompressed

800.0 Mbps [100MB/s] IEEE1394B/iWIRE/Firewire - SCSI-3 Family of Standards

1.0 Gbps [125MB/s] Gigabit Ethernet 1000 BaseT/copper 1000 Base SX/LX/fibre
1.0 Gbps [125MB/s] iSCSI Internet- SCSI-3 Family of Standards
1.0 Gbps [125MB/s] Fibre Channel - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
1.0 Gbps [125MB/s] PCI 32 bit/33 MHz

1.06 Gbps [133MB/s] PCMCIA CardBus Burst Rate
1.28 Gbps [160 MB/s] Ultra 160/m LVD SCSI - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
1.6 Gbps [200MB/s] proposed IEEE1394B - Firewire - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
2.0 Gbps Fibre Channel – SCSI-3 Family of Standards
2.0 Gbps Serial ATA RAID – compatible with SCSI-3 Family of Standards

2.125 Gbps [251MB/s] PCI 64 bit/33 MHz
2.5 Gbps 1 x InfiniBand cluster communications – SCSI-3 Family of Standards
2.56 Gbps [320 MB/s] Ultra 320 LVD SCSI - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
3.2 Gbps [400MB/s] proposed IEEE1394B - Firewire - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
4.25 Gbps [503MB/s] PCI 64bit /66 MHz
4.25 Gbps [503MB/s] PCI-X66 MHz

5.12 Gbps [640 MB/s] Dual Ultra 320 SCSI - SCSI-3 Family of Standards
6.75 Gbps [753 MB/s] PCI-X100 100 MHz
8.5 Gbps [1.06GB/s] PCI-X133 MHz
9.58 Gbps [1.2GB/s] SONET (OC-192c) Fibre-optic WAN serial data frame rate
10.0 Gbps Ethernet - Cat 6 copper 10,000 BaseT or Fibre 10,000 Base SX/LX
10.0 Gbps 4 x InfiniBand cluster communications – SCSI-3 Family of Standards
10.0 Gbps Fibre Channel – SCSI-3 Family of Standards

17 Gbps [2.125GB/s] PCI-X266 MHz
34 Gbps [4.25GB/s] PCI-X 533 MHz last of PCI-X 2.0 series specification
40 Gbps [8GB/s] 40 Gigabit Ethernet proposed future standard ( established Nortel 2007 )
40 Gbps [8GB/s] (OC-768c) Fibre-optic WAN serial data frame rate
68 Gbps [8.5GB/s] PCI-X 1066 proposed 3.0 series standard expected late 2004
100 Gbps 100 Gigabit Ethernet proposed future standard
136 Gbps [17GB/s] PCI-X 2133 proposed future standard

100Tbps Dense Wave Division Multiplexing [DWDM] can multiply the capacity of
existing fibre routes by sending 160 colours [300-500 planned] down a single strand of fibre. Each colour could sustain 40 Gb/s of data throughput and Lucent are experimenting with 160 Gb/s per colour. It is therefore entirely possible that the theoretical capacity of just one strand of fibre could be 100 Terabits. To put these capacities into perspective consider that a gigabit is equivalent to 1009 bits and a terabit to 1012 bits. A petabit, on the other hand, is 1015 bits of capacity. Larger capacities equate to exabit (1018 bits), zettabit (1021 bits) and yottabit (1024 bits).

We have remained individually too greedy to distribute the surplus above our simple needs,  and collectively  too stupid to pile it up in any more useful form than traditional mountains of arms

- Jacob Bronowski's words remain as true of the human condition today as they were when they were first written for his book The Commonsense of Science in 1951.

Loosener and Davies contend persuasively that the ‘clockwork universe' concept helped to shape our materialistic world, formed on the belief that everything proceeds in the cosmos according to fixed laws. The job of science was to establish just what these laws were and to learn how to manipulate them.

Colin Mason states in his new book A short History of the future - surviving The 2030 Spike  that  - This mechanistic view, still very much alive and preoccupied with material productivity, largely disavows creativity and free will, the mysterious, the spiritual - and asks

Has the future a future? 

He goes on to say - Science as a discipline has, of course changed. Einstein provided totally new perceptions of space, time and gravity. Quantum physics implies that the apparently solid does not exist, except as energy. ‘Particles' appear to come into existence out of nothing and as mysteriously disappear again. Chaos theory, contending that systems which normally appear to be ordered can be perturbed by factors impossible to assess, depicts a universe of partly ordered events, partly of unpredictable ones.

A major part of the scientific view is toward the idea that the cosmos is organised on apparently random (dare we say it?) lines which may best be understood intuitively, rather than by reductionism and linear thinking.

As Richard Dawkins points out, the best way to understand how a motor car engine works is to break it down into its component parts and understand them. Whether this ‘reductionist' principle is a tool one can apply to all areas of enquiry is now seriously in question. Many studies have been carried out into  "unconscious thinking" -intuition - leaving little doubt that the brain can sort information and present answers to problems without the owner of that brain being consciously aware of what is going on.

Eighteenth century botanist, Carolus Linear, wrote of ‘a great chain of being, a chiefly ordained and immutable hierarchy of life which among other things, established white Europeans as a superior race, with the right, even the mission, to dominate `inferior' races.

Are we bringing history to an end?

Observing any one of several individual but critical trends suggests that, without rapid and positive action, history may have only a very short way to run.

Whether it is the growth of world population,  of  greenhouse gas concentrations and the accelerating rate of climate change, the running down of oil and natural gas reserves, growing shortages of fresh water for agriculture, industry and domestic use, or the increasing difficulty in controlling epidemic diseases -we are facing a mounting global crisis that will peak in less than a generation, around the year 2030.

Taken together, these trends point to a potentially apocalyptic period, if not for the planet itself then certainly for human Societies and for humankind.

In this compelling book, an update to The 2030 Spike, Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on - largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins.

The picture that Colin Mason  paints is stark, and yet it is not bleak ...



but as this Native North American elder has said in the context of acknowledging the absolute need for a moral dimension to Corporate Social Responsibility ...

"Next YEAR you will meet and NO THING will HAVE CHANGED"

 

 

Being forewarned, we are forearmed, and Colin Mason draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals, and above all collectively, not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now.

 

James Lovelock, a man who was in his late 80s when he wrote his latest book,

The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning, now in paperback ...

IS universally recognized as the man who gave the world the “Gaia Theory”.

Lovelock, however, is not going quietly into that good night, but is burning and raving at the close of day, and is now one of the most effective voices warning us about the dangers our world now faces from the climate change transition that we are now experiencing.

This is an excellent book, short, well-argued and the work of a man who has thought long and hard about our problems.

He is dismissive of “Greens” and those who believe that driving hybrids, recycling rubbish and reducing our C0₂ emissions will now make a difference.

As Lawrence Bloom expressed it, we are not going to see a “reboot” of our system, and according to Lovelock we now have to look beyond the misery and pain, that we inevitably face over the coming decades, to a world where a much smaller human population survives on those parts of the planet that are not too hot for human life

Lovelock is one of those, “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight,”
as Dylan Thomas put it.

 

 

 

.

The economy is the wholly owned subsidiary of the environment and there's no way the economy,  the child,  can prosper without a healthy parent. 

The parent is constantly infusing capital into the child.  The economy draws natural capital from the environment,  from the Earth. 

No CEO with a subsidiary that required a constant infusion of capital would keep that subsidiary very long,  and nature is a better manager than any CEO I know, and capable of being far more ruthless

        
Ray Anderson co-chair of President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development  and the Chairman CEO of ... Interface Inc.

 

further more  - LIFE cannot be sustained without WATER - over 95% of our body IS water and in order to stay healthy one must drink good water !

The National Research Council, Washington DC , set out strategies to combat desertification, including soil conservation programmes, drought relief and afforestation - following Agenda 21 - the blueprint for action adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

However, actual achievement in world terms is still inadequate except in China, where massive tree planting has mitigated, but not yet halted, the movement of sand eastwards from the dunes of the Gobi desert.

Coping with Water Scarcity

" Equity and rights, cultural and ethical issues are essential to be addressed when dealing with limited water resources. Imbalances between availability and demand, the degradation of groundwater and surface water quality, intersectoral competition, interregional and international disputes, all centre around the question of how to cope with scarce water resources."

                                                                      Rights and Humanity

Out of deference to the fact that - it was Gobi desert nomads who first grew "bonsai"  fruit trees to take their only source of vitamin C with them on their travels -  and in support of the  Interface sustainability  &  FLOW  concepts - and in admiration of zaadz' support for the Working for Good initiative  - and last but not least Julia's commitment to start the PASSION SMASHIN zPod - I have published elsewhere details of my development of the technique of sustaining Alder bonsais by ...

 just adding water !

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