Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
what is a tangent?
I was just writing for my systems project and thought about how the future infrastructure system's infinite customizeability will be so dense and so large that people will download "skins" to govern how their lights, solar-panels, water-heater, hydrogen-powered car, nano-bot powered replicator, and other home devices interact with one another and provide comforts to the user.
Once some geek has gone in and tweaked all the millions of settings to get the lights in your house to automatically (and accurately - that's the hard part that requires geekiness) know when you're reading and need bright lights, you'll be able to go to the 'net and download his application.
Once a group of people identify some trendy lifestyle - let's say eco-efficiency just 'cause it's obvious - and define a set of behaviors that the system will follow to help you conserve as much as possible without sacrificing too much comfort, that configuration skin will sweep the nation and you'll know who'se "in" because you'll see their lights turn out just before they leave their house in the morning, instead of the default (just after they leave).
Here's your tangent: If someone defines a set of behaviors that takes that "eco-friendly" one more step to where the user can barely survive, or at least is in constant discomfort, then only people who are too bored (or who have been cowed into accepting the necessity of being soooo eco-efficient) will run those settings. This will effectively become a religion, or at least another medium for religion-y patterns to show themselves in human culture.
Once some geek has gone in and tweaked all the millions of settings to get the lights in your house to automatically (and accurately - that's the hard part that requires geekiness) know when you're reading and need bright lights, you'll be able to go to the 'net and download his application.
Once a group of people identify some trendy lifestyle - let's say eco-efficiency just 'cause it's obvious - and define a set of behaviors that the system will follow to help you conserve as much as possible without sacrificing too much comfort, that configuration skin will sweep the nation and you'll know who'se "in" because you'll see their lights turn out just before they leave their house in the morning, instead of the default (just after they leave).
Here's your tangent: If someone defines a set of behaviors that takes that "eco-friendly" one more step to where the user can barely survive, or at least is in constant discomfort, then only people who are too bored (or who have been cowed into accepting the necessity of being soooo eco-efficient) will run those settings. This will effectively become a religion, or at least another medium for religion-y patterns to show themselves in human culture.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
intersections
I was browsing for sources for the systems project and came across a quote from Neil Gershenfeld of MIT:
...'but "the bubbles kept interfering," Gershenfeld says. "It eventually occurred to us that we should use them." '
(http://www.technologyreview.com/article/18673/)
This "occurred to us" eventually turned into an article published in Science. The same sort of "knowing when to let go of your previous goal and follow the one that has sprung up before you" was described to me by an advisor at UTD, Fred Turner, when we were discussing what I might study if I went there for grad studies.
Perhaps it's a primary function of advisors (of academia in general?) to help relax an individual's pursuit of one particular goal so that he/she may take advantage of those random, tangential discoveries that pop up?
...'but "the bubbles kept interfering," Gershenfeld says. "It eventually occurred to us that we should use them." '
(http://www.technologyreview.com/article/18673/)
This "occurred to us" eventually turned into an article published in Science. The same sort of "knowing when to let go of your previous goal and follow the one that has sprung up before you" was described to me by an advisor at UTD, Fred Turner, when we were discussing what I might study if I went there for grad studies.
Perhaps it's a primary function of advisors (of academia in general?) to help relax an individual's pursuit of one particular goal so that he/she may take advantage of those random, tangential discoveries that pop up?
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