Anthony Townsend via Howard Rheingold via Thefeature.com via Gizmodo via Textually.org:
“As every person completes more tasks, communicates with more people, coordinates activities among more social networks in the same amount of time, the aggregate effect is an acceleration of the urban metabolism.”
Watched “Run Lola Run” on tv on Sunday. I’ve always thought RLR was loads of fun, and one of the great bits of city-cinema. Lots of the maguffinalia of RLR wouldn’t stand now: the boyfriend in the phonebox, running to plead with Dad, the incommunicado gangster. Made in 1998, how would it be restructured now? Around smartmobs, camphones, and information-infused cities?
My first thought is Lola broadcast-texting all her low-life mates to shake down every tramp in a two mile radius of her boyfriend’s GPS location… Maybe coaxing a few mobs into life in the city to slow down the hoodlums… Would it be nearly as much fun to watch?
RLR is a pretty short and sweet film as it is. The “accelerated urban metabolism” might mean it was all over in 15 minutes!
Petafloptimism 
I usually hate it when people post comments that start (and usually end) with “I also wrote something along those lines” and link to their own site…but after reading Howard’s article and Gizmodo’s entry (“We’ve acquired a bad habit of trying to only make our lengthy social phone calls while we’re walking to or from something, like walking to the post office; it’s difficult to justify simply sitting around the house, chatting on the phone, when there is so much else (read: blogging) to do.”) that’s exactly what I am going to do.
I also wrote something along those lines a little while ago, looking at how our always-on tools will soon turn us into
Always-on People, and how that will have an effect on our ever-faster mentalbolism (blogging being a good example).
I stand accused, and (hopefully) excused.
Maguffinalia? Maguffins, surely?