Here are what I think are some take-aways :
Methodology is as important as technology
Very little is written about how technlogy is implemented yet this is as important, if not more importat than the technology itself. In fact most of the problems we face from technology are more in methodological than technological.
An example of this is the energy issue. There are more practical solutions for our energy needs, yet socio-political forces keep us from using them.
Primitives in our own advancement
Everytime we invent something, it requires a certain amount of re-familiarization we our enviroment. When the adaptation is at a steady pace this adaptation is negliable, but the faster the innovation the more cryptic our surroundings become. Our rate of change over the last couple of centuries has been so profound ( from fuedal/agrarian to democratic/capitalist) that in a way we are primitives in this world we are making. By this I mean that the current of things are so accelerated we are at a primitive state at undestanding our current environment.
There are 2 main types of innovation
progressive_traditional_flat: this is the type of innovation we are all familiar with, where innovation is implemented simply on it's merits.
adaptive_environmental_holistic: In this model innovations are rolled out more slowly, with an emphasis placed on controlling the impact it will have to the environment in which it is introduced.
The adaptive approach has been made possible by the vast amount information available. There is a better sense of the impact something new will have to the existing environment.
Globalization of media also seems favor the holistic or inclusive approach.
Crowd-trust
There is a natural social barrier that impeding much of attempts to globalize. Currently the limit of human trust is about 150 people, but to globalize we'll need to up this limit.
This ties in with the philisophical notion of cosmopolitism ( Kwame Anthony Appiah video)
The importance of a well-balanced information diet
The allegorical connection between information and food really does seem to fit.
The bottom line about information is that is important to personal survival. The better we use information the better our lives will be. The current myth is that the quantity is the only thing that matters, but like food it's not the quantity, but rather the quality and appropriateness. Too much information will only clutter our ability to distinguish between what is important and what is trivial.
Creativity is essential to innovation
The push towards the hard sciences and away from the liberal arts in our educational system is a crippling to our innovative powers.
