Where Is The Future Coming From?

This monkey has the right idea.

I've been devoting a lot of my idle brain cycles lately trying to intuit what the next biggest development in technology is going to be. I'm feel we're in a slow slide into information ubiquity. That is a good term for the purposes of this post. We can see the initial vestiges of information ubiquity with the current technology stock, 3G smart phones, wimax, web 2.0, kindle's whispernet, emerging neurological science, and augmented reality developments. The fundamental change is going to emerge with developments not in traditional interfaces, but in radically new ways to receive and send information. One sign that this is the right path to look towards is the queasiness factor for the idea in a normal person. Imagine the general populace's confusion over sending emails instead of regular physical post, then follow a line trailing from that point to the present day, where people of my generation express disgust over the percieved lack of merit in using the latest social networking websites. It is my predilection that truly great ideas often shake societies enough that they are often decried before they can be accepted.

Imagine the braincap idea from Clarke's novel 3001. That is where we are headed in no time flat. With absolutely no research or sources to back up these traits, here is what I predict for the age of information ubiquity.

• The ability to access information anywhere on the globe at anytime.
• Information access without having to defer from any other task. A retinal implant or direct neurological connection.
• Transmitting information with a direct interface to the brain.
• Context aware delivery information.
• The physical world and electronic world experienced as a singular entity.
  
  

Perspective - The Optimist's Cookbook

Yeah, that's the idea.

An issue that I have been pondering for quite some time is that of perspective. It seems that its all I can think about in dealing with others. Every idea is wrapped inside varying layers of biases and scope. A contemporary example of this phenomenon is Michael Jackson. I have nothing to say about any of his personal details, mainly because I don't feel I have anything appropriate to add. At the grocery store people engage each other, and often myself as well, in conversation about one aspect of some tabloid cover or another. I wish no part in it, not only that, but I feel a very strong aversion to such discourse. Its obvious that no one is qualified to appropriately discuss his motivations. In the truest sense of the phrase I consider him larger than life. Not in the sense that he life was somehow larger than others, but that all of us are larger than life.

Lately I've been responding to status inquiries concerning myself by saying "I'm doing better now than I ever have in my entire life." The amazing truth is that I've locked myself into believing those words. The formula for seeing truth in loving the present ends with an ending, my ending. What has haunted me recently has been an image of me on the very verge of death. I do not fear dying however, I fear regret. I know that leading up to, and even at the very moment of death, a thought is going to occur to me: "That was so quick." It is a popular image, a cliche image, but its undeniably true. In a more restricted perspective, it is having weeks fly by, months fly by, years fly by. It is having slices of consciousness that were once present and in stark relief becoming vague and undefined around the edges. It is the ultimate, final extension of this situation. A customer said in response to my unrealistically cheery status response "Yeah man, that is why it is called the present, it is a gift." I love axioms, maxims, sayings, and the like. I love that they can distill a great meaning in a small package. I love saying a sentence that connects strangers and myself on a deeply personal level. "Shoot, I need every penny I can get." "I feel you, brother." I love phrases like this, but I think the one about the present I love most of all. It is adorable in its naivety, but that is what being optimistic is all about. The naivety to believe there is no way to see the world other than as an optimistic. The thing about having every moment being the best moment in your existence is that such an idea still allows for other emotions beside happiness. You can take joy in being sad, because you're alive. Regardless of any concern for an afterlife (for the record, I can wax philosophical on the subject, but ultimately a dead person is gone, dead, forever), we have a extremely limited time to be alive.

I can't finish this. I'll leave on this note, all I want out of life is to be immortalized in history past my death. Its the only goal I have to accomplish before I die. As a fallback plan, I'll have a child, but I would rather it not come to that. I want to improve the world through my intelligence and be remembered for it. So I can delay death past the end of me.

The Future Is Now - Room Of Tomorrow

The room of tomorrow!

The Future Is Now - Urban Planning Museum (Beijing)

This is a poor example for natural interaction with devices. However, it shows well the potential of such methods. Even with poor execution, this device is impressive. In the future, mice and keyboards will be obsolete. We will interact with our technological wonders without pause; using a computer will feel as natural as breathing. Here is how this norn sees the present day. As a window into better days to come. 

No Posts - In China For A Week

The Future Is Now - Galaxy Zoo

"The Galaxy Zoo files contain almost a quarter of a million galaxies which have been imaged with a camera attached to a robotic telescope (the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, no less). In order to understand how these galaxies — and our own — formed, we need your help to classify them according to their shapes — a task at which your brain is better than even the fastest computer."

- Galaxy Zoo 2: Electric Bugaloo

The Future Is Now - Sixth Sense

Here is a great follow up for my post about data. I honestly can't believe that after writing about an idea in such a vauge way, a few days later I find out that the idea is already being realized. I will definitely be first in line to agument my senses to allow for greater access to data.

The Future Is Now - Cyborgs And Pure Mentalities

In the future we will be able to separate the mind from the human body. This will allow for many interesting locations to store a mind. Spaceships, artificially designed bodies, perhaps even in the structure of space-time itself. This man has, in a small way, taken a step in that direction. Before mankind disposes of being men, they will slowly remove and replace body parts with more efficient solutions.

Data

This is the light of other days. Thank you Clarke and Baxter.

As humanity progresses into the future, our ability to store, analyze, and interpret data will grow exponentially. The roots of this future extend all the way back to ancient civilizations storing transport logs. Indeed the roots of data extend to the beginning of organized societies of sentient primates. However, it is the future prospects of data that interest this humble norn.

A view port into data streams.

Imagine a time where every possible inquiry that creeps into the psyche can be answered instantaneously and completely. Where did I put my keys? How many times have I been unable to get to my phone before it went to voice mail? Exactly where have I placed my feet, in what order, over the past 10 years in a certain 10 mile square radius. These examples might be interesting things to know, but are they useful things to know? Yes, they are. It is not the specifics of what humanity will be able to discover instantly. It is the scope of having all data accessible for everyone.

Where did I put my cat?

With the ability to have a complete recording of our present, we can finally start to have true history. There is no truth in history; at least not absolute truths. We can examine to true costs of our cultural constructs. We can share experiences with the whole of species. It is exciting to see how we have already made small inroads. Blogging, RFID tags, facial scanners, all these things are the precursors of our future to come. I will come back to data in later posts. There are a multitude of issues to discuss; there are benefits, but there are also "negatives". After all, when we've reached the point where everything is stored, we've also reached the point where privacy has to be set aside.

Does Perfection Have A Name?

Yes, and its name is Dyson.

Dyson is a neogame. It comes from a crop of games that have appeared during this era of next-next-next generation gaming. It is a game with 2d minimalist graphics, game play that can be understood almost instantaneously, and controls that you pick up without thinking. It is the answer to the question; "Where are my 3d, hyper-realistic, life-within-a-glowing-box games?". Dyson states that we haven't taken into account what gaming technology really is. It is not just a multibillion dollar industry, a sculptor of our children's psyches, or an escape from the realities of everyday life. Gaming is a good allegory for the use of technology by humans on a whole.

An attack is underway.

This could have exploded into a monster rant about corporations and irresponsible design. However that will wait for another post. The key theme to take away from Dyson is the idea, that almost no ideas, have been explored to date. We have a good grasp of our position in the universe. We can see possibilities in our knowledge, and in the awareness of just how small that knowledge is. This leads one to intuitively feel that, the accomplishments of the most intelligent primates on Earth, are a minuscule part of what they have left to do.

An asteroid has been conquered! Take that!

Dyson's theme is the joy and comfort in what humans already have access to. Its knowing that if we stop trying so hard to get to the future, we can follow all the avenues that have been opened, but not yet explored. Dyson is to games what technology is to the future. The first car was electric. Let us look into what we've done, and take a break from advancing mechanically through the mists of time. After all, there is a staggering amount of work done by humans, so much data generated. There is no one capable of knowing it all.


Jeff Hogan is a Lt. Col. in the tree/seedling/asteroid army. He lives in space, with his dog.


Dyson Home Page

[Blogger's note: I will make pictures depicting levels of infinity later.]

Infinity

Most people are comfortable with the idea of infinity For example, in this calculus equation , if you take the limit of f(x), where f(x) = 1/x, and x is approaching 0, L will equal infinity. However if you take the set of integers you would have a set of I={0,1,2,3,..,103,104,105,...,} that we could call a infinite set. However, if you take the set of all real numbers, you will have all the numbers of the integer set, but also an infinite numbers of numbers between each integer. This might be better with illustrations. Leave the norn a comment if you think this needs more pictures.

The Norn Visits The World Of Tomorrow

In the future, the word "pictures" will be spelled "pictrues". I envision a world that is created out of small pieces. It is not a sudden acquisition of the future. There will be no catalyst event, no spandex suits to appear on every street corner. The future is like a wall. A wall made out of glaciers. We can measure glaciers movements over time, but only through instrumentation. No one person can watch for the amount of time necessary to detect movement. Well, the problem is not about taking too much time, it is about being slower than the human mind can comprehend. In the same way, we have all these glacial bricks, what I would consider analogues of technology fields. Soon, we will all be under ice.