Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.
I've been obsessed with South Korea since visiting there earlier this year for a story on pro gamers.
Beyond or perhaps encouraging cultural/national stereotypes, South Koreans do make unique technological contributions, in uniquely South Korean ways. There's an intensity of thought and attention to production detail in some of their 'wonderful things' that demands admiration and even awe.
That's why I'm planning to make a quick tour through the KoreanNovation trade show this week in New York. Not only to see stuff like the high-temperature-resistant RFID tag, or the "mask for nasal insertion" (a surgical mask worn in the nose, which I assume works if you remember to keep your mouth closed...) but also to talk to the people who think of and then go make such things.
Thanks, Jeff, for the link.
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Ouch!
Working in San Francisco I hosted a number of groups who passed through from the NAB show in Las Vegas on their way back to Asia. One thing that I think has added to the ability of Korea to cope in the modern world was that they reformed their language in the 20th century. Korea uses an alphabet.
In Japan they modernized by only teaching 1200 characters instead of the 10,000 or so they once did. Then there is China. I was so impressed to learn of Korea's alphabet. What a step that was.
#1: Sour grapes over getting stuck in the protest, I presume?
#3: The Korean alphabet dates back before the 20th century - but it was a deliberate design decision. I forget which king it was, but he sent out scholars to study exactly what the neighbors were doing with regards to written language, and then come home and design him something that was specifically adapted to their language.
Before that I believe Korea was using a version of Chinese characters. As a region that throughout history has been periodically invaded by both China and Japan, creating a separate alphabet for their language to help preserve it was probably a big win in their fight to maintain a separate cultural identity.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
#1: Racist much?
#5: The Turks did something similar. As I heard tell (and I admit I haven't gone and verified this in a reputable history) Ataturk asked a group of scholars to Europeanize written Turkish. They came back with something like "well this is a very difficult and subtle problem and we'll need a few years to get it right". "Wrong!" sez Ataturk, and a month later the decree goes out with the new alphabet. And I have to say, modern Turkish is a breeze to read (I don't speak Turkish but there are a whole lot of useful cognates).
#1: Koreans are not South Asians. Korea, China and Japan are often considered "East Asia". Like the other two countries, Korea has four distinct seasons (often with more snow than Toronto and hotter summers to boot!)
#3 & 5: The Korean alphabet was created in the 15th century. The alphabet is quite easy to learn... the language is a different story...
I thought #1 was meant as a joke - a critique of what could be construed as racist in my original post.
I live in Korea. Where can I go to see some of this?
I think the downside of all this innovation, though--and of the rapid obsolescence it engenders--is that Korean R&D folks don't spend nearly enough energy on making sure products actually work for any appreciable length of time. In my two years living here, I've gone through:
-A cell phone with tons of features, but an absolutely unusable user interface.
-A brand-new washer-dryer that died after four months.
-A brand-new floor heating system that died after five months.
-Another brand-new washer-dryer that died after eight months.
-A lightly-used (3 years old) refrigerator that died after six months.
-Three different wireless routers, each of which died after a few weeks.
-A brand-new hot water heater that died after four months.
Frankly, despite all my techno-joy, as a resident of South Korea, I'd be happier with boring stuff that worked! (The good news, though, is that parts are plentiful and cheap.)
There are all sorts of things wrong with that intranasal filter. If it did work at all, which I doubt, it probably wouldn't work for very long.
Stephen King wrote about nasal 'masks' in his original story of 'The Running Man'. In the movie that Schwarzenegger did back in the early '90's they dropped the whole bit about corporatism gone amuck to focus instead on..umm..Schwarzenegger running around and getting revenge. The original story was pretty cool, actually (in one of his collections).
Also, King predicted (probably not the only one) TVs wherever you go, which, now that I see them in every taxi in Beijing and NYC, I hate with a passion. You literally cannot turn them off!
After a bit more reflection, I decided to make a list of my favorite Korean inventions and/or innovations:
1. Turtle Ships. The Monitor vs. the Merrimack was the first battle between armored ships. Ever wonder what a battle between an armored ship and non-armored ships would be like? 20-0 kill ratio.
2. Hangul. The only alphabet that tells you where to put your mouth-parts to pronounce it.
3. The Ondol.
4. MP3 Players. They didn't necessarily invent these, but Boingboing should give them a special award for going into the consumer space while the Japanese and Apple were/are still deciding how many kinds of DRM to put on theirs.
5. Starcraft as a spectator sport.
6. Breaking the Japanese DRAM monopoly at its anti-competitive peak.
7. The third-degree body scrub.
8. The Japanese.
9. Scented business suits.
10. Kim gi-yong.
#15 I made note of Korea's seasons because as a Korean-Canadian, I can't tell you the number of times people have asked me whether I "saw snow for the first time" when I immigrated.
I'm not sure why I feel it is important to make this distinction (possibly because this question has a slightly racist undertone) but I make it nonetheless. Relax. I'm not trying to sell you anything.