ripperdoc's clinic

A well meaning suggested invention from Philips and ABN-Amro, but also a key technology for any megacorp wanting to keep emotions out of the equation: send a signal to the Emotional Stability department whenever an employee becomes emotional, dispatch therapists and cut off employees access rights for a “cool down” period. Sounds nice, eh? (via Futurismic)

Another thought provoking article from Futurismic, spawned by the news that Second Life is offering an Enterprise product, a corporate specific virtual world behind firewalls. As noted in the article, by hiding the worlds and exposing them to corporate culture, one could imagine some weird ways of working and socialising, such as virtual water-coolers (saves money!).

[…] the metaverse could soon become a multimetaverse, with a few vast virtualities with public access and countless little bubbles of digital existence locked away behind firewalls and restrictive protocols.Urban exploration is a growing trend at the moment, but in a decade or so, the adventurous people will be cracking their way into abandoned corporate and gubernatorial realities […]

A very interesting piece from Times Online about Goldman Sachs, very much reflecting cyberpunk fiction’s description of megacorporations. A long but good read!