A statistical reality

I was reading through the list of potential attendees at the CT Geek Dinner to be held next week at Relish in the heart of the city. Although I am not particularly concious of these things (and I always should be), the list pretty much indicates the state of geekdom in SA. There are lots of white males, a few girlies and - not to generalise - Rafiq and Vivi (sorry to leave anyone else off as I could only go on names as I did not have enough time to visit everyones blog either)

This post was pretty much inspired while reading TAN this morning and it struck me how even our simple social technologies reflect the inequalities around us.

I recently read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and in one experiment, on an entrance exam for a big University, race was indicated. The result was that it triggered poor performance amongst those who were not rich, white folks who had been built up throughout their lives as bright, priveleged etc.

I have two little guys of my own. A while back I was at a seminar and the speaker mentioned an astonishing statistic that suggested that we - as parents - resort to using "negative" language when speaking to our children and that by the age of 7 (I stand corrected) they will hear 10 million negatives and only 1 million postitives.

What Malcolm Gladwell also suggests is that our brains are so hard wired - what with all the suggestion - that I can see how we all get so screwed up and why it was so easy for the technologically advanced to dominate and oppress everyone else (ultimately resulting in us thinking we are worth less etc. etc.).

What I have gathered - TED videos, Guy Kawasaki (Art of the Start) and through a video from Ben Hammersley that I came across on gapingvoid is that we at a juncture in history (the ruling technology is also available to us all - not just Mac users - even though some of you are of that opinion) - that from here on in we can pretty much direct the future. This is an awesome time to be living in. Governments are pretty much out of control - whilst trying to impose more control. The more powerfully positive stuff we push via our blogs and social networks - creative, meaningful, caring, critical, funny, free - the more likely we are going to feel a powerful and positive vibe and the more likely we are to reach a significant social tipping point...I am hanging for that moment where the poor are just less poor and societal inequities are changed forever.

...and I don't have to look through the list of attendees and cringe...