"The Most Personal Device" by Doc Searls

Part I in an elegant case for codifying our online IDs as legally transferable assets: "As creatures, we humans are distinguished not only by our intelligence and use of language, but also by two other remarkable characteristics: our mobility and our expansiveness. We are relatively hairless and walk on two feet because we are runners. A well-conditioned human can run indefinitely. We also expand our very selves though [sic] the things we invent, hold and manipulate. Our senses spread out through our clothes, our tools and our tech by a process called indwelling. When drivers say "my wheels" or pilots say "my wings", they mean it personally. The perimeters of our selves are not bound by our bodies. They extend to include the tech we use. To become expert is to enlarge ourselves, whether as carpenters, drivers, pilots, or whatever." - Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal. --I picked up my March 2009 copy at #sxsw, where I also rode from the Austin airport to my hotel sitting next to Doc for 20 mins. Doc helped us launch Nexthealth.NL on the backchannel at MoMo in Amsterdam last spring. ---Doc - let me know how in health VRM can help us make "patient" and "provider" seem as antiquated as "mainframe" and "minicomputer."

Posted via email from Jen's posterous