About

Por`ten´sion

n.

1.

The act of foreshowing; foreboding.

Portension is more than an exploration of quirky technology, web 2.0 culture, cool gadgets, and geek humour. We celebrate the off-color, out-of-focus,  craziness that shapes our rapidly changing society. The digital lifestyle, with its mobility, its participation, and its network effect, breeds a new generation of citizen.  There is a new found wisdom and creativity in the crowd. Portension is about the frivolity and folly that comes with all of us contributing to make our dreams of tomorrow’s world come true.

 

 

» Beating a Different Drum

It’s the goodly new media versus the evil old media — and, like it or not, you will play a part in this Way New Musical Revolution. Go on, dance like nobody is watching.

 

» Duelling Realities

Mixed realities, augmented realities and virtual realities battle it out until we have no idea what’s real anymore. Not that it will matter anymore.

» Culture Wars

Creativity always builds on the past. But excessive copyright laws, wrought upon us by the media and software giants, have cut off the supply of cultural artifacts that has fed our creative commons since the dawn of civilization.

Yet, even without access to the mainstream, the commons is rising again in a backlash against copyright controllers. The Open Source movement  (beyond the software) also includes collaborative works such as Wikipedia, The Creative Commons and much of what we are now calling Web 2.0.

Old media has something to fear.

» Escape From Earth

This tiny rock ain’t big enough for the future. The only long-term hope is to find another rock big enough. First, we need to escape from this prison we call Earth.

» Farming The Future

Food won’t come from wherever you think it comes from.

» Flying Car

Not every techno-dream should become a reality. Somethings are just best left to daydreaming, wishful thinking and blind faith.

» Franken-Life

It’s just like learning to cook; we will never truly know what constitutes a cake (or a life), until we make it from scratch. And we will never truly know if we are creating a monster, or saving humanity. The future is in the oven.

» Climate Burn

Things are getting hot around here. But then again, everybody complains about the weather. But who ever really does anything about it?

» Info-Slavery

Information workers permanently glued to terminals, churning through data, never offline. But they seem happy–as they slowly merge their physical presence with the device that converts them into their online identity.

» No Strings

Wires and cords are so last century. Be free to move without fear of getting tangled.

» Robot Revolt

Everyday the machines get a little smarter. Bit by bit, they are slowly taking control without being noticed. Soon we will rely on them so much that we will be at their mercy — if they had such an emotion.

» One Word: "Plastics"

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Robinson.
Today, "plastics" are just the tip of a new metamaterial iceberg.

» Rise of The Creative Class

All the world really is a stage. The greatest cities of this century will support the digital performances of a new creative class — those who participate the most in the hyper-connect media-sphere: ripping, re-mixing, and sharing.

» Power Struggle

The universe is full of energy. The trick is getting your hands on the stuff without paying for it.

» Runway Hard-Wear

The catwalk gets geeked out. Computers will become part of our clothes with subtle I/O interfaces that make our current handheld devices looks as clunky as wearing a typewriter.

» Transhuman Horizons

The singularity is coming. It is a point where we suddenly leap beyond our corporeal constraints and enter a new unbridled era of man-machine collaboration. Kiss humanity as we know it goodbye.

» Video Replaces Writing

While writing will never completely go away (every video script will still start as words on a screen), the medium of choice for the young storytellers today is not the novel or short story — it is the YouTube video.

» Way New Maps

Location, location, location. The digital network knows where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are going — even if you don’t. Fortunately, you’ll never have to try to fold a big paper map again.