I just finished watching the update to Robin Sloan’s imaginitive and thought-provoking Flash movie, EPIC 2015. (Distributed via BlogTorrent, which you have to download first in order to get the Flash file. But you can play the Flash file in most web browsers.)
EPIC 2015 explores one possible future of media, over the course of the coming decade. It’s pure speculation, obviously, but it’s generated a lot of interesting discussion.
I liked it. I love this sort of creative “what if” thinking. My only criticism is that I think the discussion overlooked most of the world…
Here’s what I mean: It seems to me that the English-speaking world (especially the US) often seems to forget that the rest of the world exists. Countries such as South Korea, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa are generating vast volumes of online content. People from these nations and many others are having intriguing discussions online – generally in their native languages, and often discussing topics that may be politically, religiously, or socially risky in their communities.
The Google Grid and its successor system, EPIC, as envisioned by Robin Sloan, doesn’t mention the potential of such personalized, global, interconnected systems to facilitate and strengthen grassroots communication – and how that communication and knowledge base might threaten the existing balance of power. Such a construct might be eyed with considerable suspicion (or even undermined) by governments, corporations, financiers, media organizations, and other players.
What if EPIC became to globalization what fax machines were to the Iranian revolution?
Worth pondering, I think…
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