Pat Kane

Columnist

Pat Kane (www.patkane.global) is a writer, musician, activist, consultant, futurist. He is the author of The Play Ethic (www.theplayethic.com), runs the Scottish affairs blog Thoughtland (www.thoughtland.info), and has been an advocate for Scottish Indy politics since the late 80s. He still sings with his brother Greg in Hue And Cry (www.hueandcry.co.uk).

Pat Kane (www.patkane.global) is a writer, musician, activist, consultant, futurist. He is the author of The Play Ethic (www.theplayethic.com), runs the Scottish affairs blog Thoughtland (www.thoughtland.info), and has been an advocate for Scottish Indy politics since the late 80s. He still sings with his brother Greg in Hue And Cry (www.hueandcry.co.uk).

Latest articles from Pat Kane

Is banning smartphones from schools a smart idea?

COMMENT Pat Kane: School phone bans may rob kids of digital evolution

I LOOKED over my shoulder to the back seat, and there they were – three sparrows, including my niece, smartphones immediately up to their faces...

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It's become an all-island story because the haplessness involved is easily relatable

COMMENT Pat Kane: Matheson shows how technology should be enhancing not frazzling

THERE’S a human, all-too-human element to the Michael Matheson Apple iPad scandal...

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Pat Kane calls Nairn the theoretical godfather of the Scottish independence movement

COMMENT Pat Kane: Tom Nairn is the theoretical godfather of the Independence movement

IF you’re reading thistoday [Saturday], then the Break-up of Britain conference in Edinburgh will already be hammering away at its crumbly, Union-Jacked flagstone.

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Tom Gillingwater in the University of Edinburgh Skull Room as the skulls of four Taiwanese tribal warriors killed nearly 150 years ago are repatriated

COMMENT Scottish museums are at the forefront of efforts to return the plunder of empire

THESE are gentle, polite scenes, belying the violence and disruption that stretch behind them.

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The Beatles' final single on sale for £15

COMMENT Pat Kane: There’s still time to decide how we can best use new technologies

WELL, that was technologically hilarious. I’m in the middle of wading through the swear-fest and name-calling of politicians on WhatsApp, during Covid … and up pops Elon Musk, telling us AI will be so super smart it’ll remove our need to work, and we humans will be mainly preoccupied with “finding meaning in life”.

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To adapt the old Simpsons meme – I, for one, would welcome our new robot co-creators (of a better world)

COMMENT Pat Kane: I would welcome our new robot co-creators of a better world

I’VE dreamt most of my life that, one day, we’d all be talking about artificial super-intelligences on the nightly news. Serves me right that it finally came in the form of the world’s most boring, most Tory man.

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Oobah Butler fronts an investigation into Amazon

COMMENT Pat Kane: The internet is a disruptive force we've just accepted into our lives

THE internet exploits us. The internet liberates us. The internet makes us poorer. The internet makes us richer. In truth, it does all these things at the same time, to different people.

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Palestinian citizens inspect damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes on October 13, 2023 in Gaza City

COMMENT Remembering our humanity is the only way out of the trenches of fear

‘WHERE is humanity? Where are people’s hearts in the world, to let this happen, in this day and age?” The plaintive words of Elizabeth El-Nakla, mother-in-law of our First Minister, speaking from Deir al-Balah,

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Home Secretary Suella Braverman delivers her speech on the third day of the Conservative Party Conference

COMMENT The background to Suella Braverman's 'luxury beliefs' language

WHAT’S a “luxury belief”, then? Cruella De Braverman dropped the concept into her keynote speech at Conservative Party conference this week, part of the general shitstorm of fear and loathing she so excels at unleashing.

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A few years ago, I did consciously dial-down my overall news consumption

COMMENT ‘News avoiders’ get the blame but there is a bigger story we must try to uncover

THE number-one rule, across all kinds of media, for all media-makers: don’t blame the audience for your failures. Yet that’s what BBC Radio 4’s Nick Robinson did this week, as we heard that a million people this year have stopped listening to his flagship morning news show, Today.

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