thinkingstring.com

Both of my regular readers have been pointing out to me the dearth new entries. Does it point to a whirlwind level of business and busyness, such that I am too starved of time to even post a line or two? Or too starved for motivation?

And right that they should take offence at my silence. In my defence, I have been doing a jigsaw puzle. But we’ll get to that later, first I need to posthastily update on a few issues or two.

Firstly; conferences. I have participated in a number of conferences this year. Each was a pleasure to take part in; see relevant separate entry for details. I’d just like to quickly say how much I appreciated all the invitations to speak, and commend each of the conferences to you in future years. Though I’d like to see all of them run very differently next time; but more on that later.

There have also been a lamentably long string of security issues worth comment on; technical, social, regulatory, and environmental. Some of these have got a lot of attention in my mind during the last few months, so I’ll come back to some of those.

Meanwhile, I have been working on my jigsaw. It is an especially challenging one. Jigsaw puzzle design has come a long way since 1760, when a London map-maker and engraver by the name of John Spilsbury made the first one. Jigsaws continued to be cut from thin boards of hardwood for nearly a hundred years before cardboard puzzles came onto the market. Experts in jigsaw puzzles all agree on a few reliable tips and techniques;

• sort the pieces
• identify the boundary (edge) pieces and build the border
• if a piece doesn’t fit, turn it around and examine the join from the back. This often helps to understand where a piece could correctly go.

The puzzle I’ve been working on doesn’t have edge pieces - I’m finding more pieces that fit in beyond where I thought the edge of the picture was. My puzzle has an unknown and potentially infinite number of pieces. That fits in with my last point; this is an expanding picture and while I’m not sure how far it’ll extend, but I do know that the more pieces that correctly fit the clearer the picture will be. I’ll explain each one later. What I should explain now is that my jigsaw is a mental one; a construct not of cardboard nor of hardwood, but of observation and thought.

All this wouldn’t be worth talking about if there weren’t some conclusions eventually. These are worth getting out there now, and then filling in the details later;

1. anthropogenic climate change is real. It is the biggest risk to the current social order. It is the biggest risk the broader environment and all that lives in it faces. Period. Climate change is urgent. The consequences of us continuing to follow our current trajectory will be a miserable existence within the timeframe of a few generations.
2. Almost everyone I speak to know this to be true, even at a basic level of understanding.
3. There is an enormous task ahead that will require mobilisation of an unprecedented scale. Everything done to date, even by the most dedicated, knowledgeable, and committed, falls ridiculously short of the required level of engagement. Numerous obstacles are being erected to slow progress.
4. There is no clear plan of action or path forward. Thus we are mostly paralysed; like an animal in the headlights we are aware of an impending problem but its just so relaxing to watch the lights…..

Of course many have pushed long and hard to raise both awareness and action levels. Some of then have provided some of the jigsaw pieces, and all deserve respect. Thankyou to all of them for going first.

The question we all face today is where to start and what to do. I do not profess to have all the answers - I can only address anything in my own sphere of expertise and experience for a start. So I’ll start with an area that I do know a little about - IT.

Every fews years the IT vendor community slowly wakes up to whatever they perceive as being the latest scary hook to hang a marketing message onto; Y2K; e-Verything; regulations; governance; homeland defence; mobile etc etc. At the moment the industry has recognised Climate Change as the next-big-thing and so now we have GreenIT. Any vendor that hasn’t washed themselves green thus far will be splashing out the colour wheel soon. The problem is; GreenIT is going to make as much difference as us all holding our breathes for a minute to delay breathing out a lungful of CO2.

GreenIT is a dangerous distraction.

More on that later too, as I appreciate it is not fair to throw out such a statement without supplying a few more of the jigsaw pieces.

So, much to talk about. And the short answer to the question; “Why aren’t you blogging?” is…”I’ve been thinking”….