Spellchecking a Futurist
I was correcting an error in my email spellchecker and noticed how much the custom word list reveals what we are thinking about at Social Technologies. Words get added as they are used in email, so the dictionary is a capsule of what is new, or newly prominent, in recent years.
A few underlying drivers that emerge from the word list:
- New powers in the world, and their concerns -- seen in words like BRICs, Haier, Mercosur, Kerala
- New scales --15 nano- words, 10 micro- words, and 3 mega- words
- Surging technologies --12 bio- words, from biodiesel to bioweapons
- New ways of using technology -- Flickr, MySpace, blogger, geotagging, timeshifting, exergaming, and 9 tele- words
- New political and social issues -- offshoring, greenwashing
- New cultural flows -- telenovela, manga, pupusas, Jazeera
- New language -- bling, d'oh, blog
A small selection from the custom dictionary:
- bioethicists
- biomimetic
- bioweapons
- blogosphere
- crowdsourcing
- geolocation
- geotagging
- greenwashing
- halal
- haptics
- Islamization
- kleptocrats
- Maharashtra
- MMORPG
- manga
- mashups
- micropayment
- modding
- nanosensors
- nanowires
- neuromarketing
- nutraceutical
- nutrigenomics
- pharmacogenetics
- pharming
- podcasting
- quinceaños
- Roomba
- Sharia
- Skyped
- timeshifting
- transhumanist
- UAVs
- warfighting
- wearables
- windfarm
- Xinjiang
- xenotransplantation
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006
by
Josh Calder
in General
Josh Calder
in General
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