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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A Quantum Leap in Simple Explanations
Eighteen months ago, top futurist and GBN co-founder Peter Schwartz asked me to write a feature article for Fortune with him. The aim was to explain simply the simply inexplicable science called quantum computing -- a science that will change the 21st century far more fully and surely than computing changed the 20th. Schwartz' aim: to have it read in the highest corridors of government, to help convince the powers-that-be that we need to fund the Quantum Computing equivalent of the Apollo Project.
Finally, today, the article appears in Fortune and online. From the fictional opening featuring a young woman born on the same day as quantum computers all the way through to the science-fiction vision of the world-changing Quantum Headband suggested by a top DARPA scientist, it is a document into which I poured a lot of energy at a difficult time in my life (one year ago, when I moved house and changed jobs within two days).
Most importantly, it is fully explicable and has an authoratative voice. (Like this particular proudly pompous Blah.) In the clearest and most arresting terms, it makes the reader understand why the spooky science of quantum physics is starting to change the world of computers beyond all recognition. It makes you, I humbly submit, a believer. (Or your money back.)
I don't know how many things it will change in the corridors of power, at least, not these corridors of power. But if just a few low-level, Fortune-reading functionaries get their minds blown, it will all have been worth it.
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