Interface (tech control)

Love Minus Eighty

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Wed, 05/21/2014 - 11:56

Welcome to the early 22nd century. Social media connects the elite in real time, and the digital divide has birthed a divide so complete it has manifested a near-complete physical disconnect. And while our mortality has not been conquered, reanimation has been perfected for those who can afford it. For those who can't, there is 'freezing insurance.' And for pretty, young women who can afford insurance, but not reanimation, there is a partial life in the 'bridesicle' dating service, where if you're pretty and willing enough, a one-percenter might marry you on your deathbed before taking you home as a bride-slave.

Will McIntosh's short story "Bridesicle" won both the Hugo Award and Asimov's Reader Poll in 2010, and was a finalist for the same year's Nebula Award. Love Minus Eighty is based on the short story and a brilliant dystopian look at a future that forecasts many of today's headline issues. McIntosh offers a very engaging world where the storyline shifts between High Town and the suburbs, contrasting the have's and have-not's of the world. Looking at the social changes, it feels like McIntosh did a good job of taking some of our current systems such as social media and incoming advancements such as life-expansion and autonomous systems forward in ways that are both promising and sour to current tastes.

The Escape

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Tue, 05/13/2014 - 12:57

Bring Back Our Girls Abeo heard and felt her phone signaling. Not the ringing of a call or vibration of an update, but the signal of alarm. Around her, the other girls in her school pulled out their phones to read the same message. The conversations of the cafeteria grew raucous, as if quiet was really possible in a school at lunch, and teachers began to usher everyone towards the parking lot.

Buses were being started outside, starters cranking antiquated engines to life. While some technologies had made it to their corner of the world, gas and diesel engines remained the norm for at least a bit longer. Electricity was now everywhere with solar panels costing very little for a day's energy, but vehicles with batteries went to regions with more money to pay for them.

Overhead, small flocks of drones buzzed to the sky taking a quick reconnaissance of everything that moved - even in their part of Africa, nearly anything that moved was tracked in some way. Abeo climbed into the front seat and waited while the bus filled with her peers. She pulled up the pages linked from the warning and, reading between the lines of governmental jargon, discovered that suspected terrorists were blitzing their small city.

Can Technology Help Eradicate Evil?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Tue, 05/13/2014 - 12:57

Video still of Nigerian school girls taken by Boko Haram The future holds many promises. Within my lifetime, I expect to experience a fully networked world, a life of abundance, and may live keep my health for more than a century. While technocrats and futurists discuss engineering marvels and world-changing API's, what can be done about humanity's dark side?

The Machine - 2013 film

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Thu, 05/08/2014 - 09:27

A true sci-fi thriller, The Machine presents a future where artificial intelligence is closing in on human-level capabilities and governments race to develop human-like robotic soldiers. After a cold war with China has caused a severe economic depression in the West, research into artificial intelligence is viewed as THE research to win what is considered an unavoidable war. The desired outcome is a superior soldier capable of managing a "three-block war: the battle, the negotiations, and the peace."

While too many recent science fiction films have focused on famous actors and fast scenes, adding layers of action to cross genres, The Machine is a true sci-fi film (there is action, but most of the movie is slow and moody as developments take time). Both dark and gritty, it feels like a better view of the future than the ultra-political Elysium or any film dealing with human-alien strife. Swinging for the fence, Caradog James, writer and director of The Machine, bangs one out of the park.

Can technology help dementia sufferers maintain independence?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Tue, 05/06/2014 - 12:40

Elderly woman with hands over face While medicine looks for both the cause and cure of dementia, millions of elderly around the world begin feeling the symptoms every year. New technologies, some existing now and some maturing towards consumer products, offer not only real-time information, they also include ways to inject this information into human interaction with their surroundings. Visual overlays in Google Glass, context aware assistive services such as Google Now, and our ever-present GPS location awareness can combine to provide supportive interactions with our world.

While these advancements are being developed for mass consumer adoption, they can also provide support for individuals who live with limitations such as dementia. I've been working on some ideas on how our elderly might use these devices, struggling to get traction beyond what is easily described and would be used by individuals, whether healthy or dealing with dementia. Then I recently heard about VocalID, a group collecting a range of human voices for the use of those without a voice of their own. In the past, individuals unable to speak were limited to a very small set of digital voices - most of them identical to the voice used by Stephen Hawking. To provide semi-unique voices, Dr Rupal Patel founded the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab) and the VocalID organization - the latter which collects 2-3 hours of donor voices to provide options for individuals suffering from severe speech impairment.

The Silent Intelligence: The Internet of Things

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Mon, 05/05/2014 - 10:02

The term "Internet of Things" is thrown around a lot, even used in parallel with other terms describing the same thing for a specific area of focus. Even after reading a range of articles over the last few years, I felt my understanding remained a bit vague and decided to look for a resource with depth and breadth. Kellermeit and Obodovski's The Silent Intelligence: The Internet of Things comes highly rated on Amazon (4.5 stars) and seemed more informational than application-oriented books such as McEwen and Cassimally's Designing the Internet of Things, or Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy - which I plan to read as well.

Fresh, Handmade, and Printed

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Fri, 04/25/2014 - 12:35

A burrito Gabe set her tortilla on the printer bed and shut the door. Ready to build the burrito, several systems came online at once. The printer began to heat the tortilla while printing the artificial chicken from proteins and dehydrated chicken broth directly on the bread. Another system prepared the rice, force hydrating each kernel with a mixture designed to taste like cilantro and lime. The kidney beans were printed around the chicken once those protein pieces were completed and warming. The guacamole was a special selection, frozen in small dots and extruded through a tube from the freezer. The cheese, given Jenn's issues with dairy, was printed from a non-dairy material.

Will social media splinter (us)?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Thu, 04/24/2014 - 11:15

Social media apps Mathew Brian Beck offers a look into the future of social media and forecasts new forms of digital tribalism. About this, he says,

"Every platform will be socialized, but every user base will be judged on quality of life, not sheer numbers. Big data will not matter as much as small relationships."

His is an interesting idea about how social media will change our relationships and our choices will reflect our interests and lifestyles. As social creatures, we have circles of relationships in which we are members and which in turn influence our lives.

Impact of technology on our youth

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 13:59

Toddler with a tablet This week gives us a warning from the UK's Association of Teachers and Lecturers of young children losing core abilities as the result of tablet overuse. According to a Telegraph article:

Children of three and four are able to manipulate a tablet screen, but "have little or no dexterity in their fingers" after hours of this activity and are not developing the dexterity to play with building blocks.
"...some older children were unable to complete traditional pen and paper exams because their memory had been eroded by overexposure to screen-based technology."

Will drugs + devices = superhuman intelligence?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Wed, 04/09/2014 - 13:38

Colorful pills Raw intelligence is a major factor in our individual level of success - some develop more and some develop less. Whether attempting to maximize your income, research a cure for cancer or win a sporting contest, the ability to take a range of information, internalize it, and turn it into effective decisions can heavily influence whether we encounter failure or success at each task. Human intelligence is the outcome of millions of years of evolution and access to opposable thumbs has provided the ability to make the tools we have used to conquer our world. While there are proposed methods for increasing our intelligence, some individuals are using different technologies and chemicals to increase their own.