Month: December 2002

Future shock

I recently had a new opportunity to test the future shock resistance of someone I know. Exposing people to the geekiest, farthest-out ideas and concepts I am aware of, my aim is to determine how people cope with staggering possibilities that shake their belief systems. Will they deny it? Ridicule it? Marvel at it, fear it?

Future shock
A Shock Level measures the high-tech concepts you can contemplate without being impressed, frightened, blindly enthusiastic – without exhibiting future shock. Shock Level Zero or SL0), for example, is modern technology and the modern-day world, SL1 is virtual reality or an ecommerce-based economy, SL2 is interstellar travel, medical immortality or genetic engineering, SL3 is nanotech or human-equivalent AI, and SL4 is the Singularity.

The best test for future shock is the singularity.

It began 4 ma ago, when brain volumes began climbing rapidly in the hominid line.

50 ka ago with the rise of Homo sapiens sapiens.
10 ka ago with the invention of civilization.
500 years ago with the invention of the printing press.
50 years ago with the invention of the computer.

In less than 30 years, it will end.

“Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It’s a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity – a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied – and the world will pass beyond our understanding.”

— Vernor Vinge, True Names and Other Dangers, p. 47.

2011-09-27: I first read about the concept of future shock levels ~15 years ago, and i always found it to be a useful notion. This article popularizes the idea somewhat.

Slower and sharper

2 of my favorite diversions recently got a boost through new technologies: snowboarding and photography.

getting a grip
For skis, a network of electrodes embedded in each ski base will apply an electric field to the ski-ice or ski-snow interface. This low-frequency electric field will cause ice and snow to stick to the ski base, increasing friction and limiting the speed of the skier. If any skiers out there care to go faster, just increase the frequency. A high-frequency electric field applied at the ski base has an opposite effect as it melts snow and ice just enough to create the same thin, lubricating layer of water, but without the refreezing/sticking phenomenon.

depth of field

This is an image of inclined crayons from a traditional F/8 imaging system. The depth of field is less than 1 crayon width. The foreground and background are badly blurred due to misfocus.

After simple color and object independent image processing the final Wavefront Coded image is formed. This image is sharp and clear over the entire image. Compare to the stopped down image from the traditional system. Wavefront Coding allows a wide aperture system to deliver both light gathering power and a very large depth of field.

A Wavefront Coded system differs from a classical digital imaging system in 2 fundamental ways. First, the light traveling through a Wavefront Coded lens system does not focus on a specific focal plane. Because of a special surface that is placed in the lens system at the aperture stop, no points of the object are imaged as points on the focal plane. Rather, these points are uniformly blurred over an extended range about the focal plane. This situation is referred to as “encoding” the light passing through the lens system. The special Wavefront Coded surface in the lens system changes the ray paths such that each ray (except the axial ray) is deviated differently from the path that it would take in a classical, unaltered lens system and therefore they do not converge at the focal plane.

The second difference found in a Wavefront Coded system is that the image detected at the detector is not sharp and clear, as discussed above, and thus must be “decoded” by a subsequent digital filtering operation. The image from the digital detector is filtered to produce an image that is sharp and clear, but has non-classical properties such as a depth of field (or depth of focus) that is much greater then that produced by an unaltered classical lens system of the same f number.

the cute startup

ever wondered why postnuke is dead as of late? i did, too. well, the new “crew” has been silently starting a company. its so cute it makes me puke.

thumbs up? hello 80s?

but wait there is value. Results can be delivered in PowerPoint, ready to present.

and don’t think you will have to spend a fortune. With CMS however, companies can limit the expenditure to under 7-digits while still getting the absolute most for their buck. gee i’m glad i don’t have to spend 7 figures.

while the clowns wrote this gem: CMSs support inbred security features to ensure only authorized webmasters can edit and add web files. somebody (or was it the same persons) shipped .722 with a HUGE security hole.

for our sanity, a tachion demise would be best.

life-work balance

i work too much. that is, i work all the time. not just at the office (to make a living), but in my spare time too. instead of slacking with a beer in front of the tv, i google for new stuff, i educate myself, i organize, i gather, i order, i communicate, i project, i help out.

is it worth it? work begets more work. friendship suffer. acquaintances remain that. my interests are fickle, yet circumference a core set of interests. innovation drives me, yet much remains the same nonetheless.

what to do? i’m an unsteady mind. i wont find peace sitting around doing nothing, that much is certain.

Robot p0

Honda’s ASIMO, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot, rang the opening bell for trading at NYSE on February 14), 2002.

very impressive.

In terms of software, we should aim at promoting a social infrastructure where humanoid robots will be widely and easily accepted. This is a particularly significant issue when considering the appearance of the humanoid robot. Honda hopes that the time will come when humanoid robots play an important role in serving us and enriching our lives and society.

Severe giftedness

  • High verbal fluency, often at an early age
  • Heightened perceptual skills
  • Acute sensitivity, empathy for others
  • Preference for complex ideas and challenging tasks
  • Dislike for routine
  • Unusual ability to see relationships
  • Curious, investigative mind, full of questions
  • Strong interest in problem solving
  • Desire to develop structure
  • Openness to new ideas and experiences
  • Imaginative mind and love of fantasy
  • Ability to persist, to become “immersed” in a task
  • Tendency toward dominance and individualism
  • Perfectionistic and self-critical
  • Strong need to be self-directed and independent
  • Persistent and strong sense of humor
  • A broad and changing spectrum of interests

do you qualify?

Price transparency

2 google posts within a couple hours. Must be a trend. Froogle is collecting products that are on sale, and offers search (duh). It’s currently in beta, but once you get aggregated products from 10000s of sites, it gets interesting. Conceivably, this increases pricing transparency (as you discover substitutes etc), and eliminates more slack out of the economic system. Better prices for consumers -> greater good.

Also if your bored, check out the glossary. Always something new to learn. yummy: fistula N. (L. fistula, pipe) pathological or artificial pipe-like opening; water-conducting vessel – alt. trachea

Joshua Allen thinks this innocent service will turn into something completely different:

if you could “push” your web pages to Google to be indexed, and Google already caches those pages for access, why would you even have a web server? If you publish to Google’s cloud, you get automatic indexing, metadata like who is linking to you, and more. And Google can add little semantic web-like features such as web quotes every few months to keep you hooked. Then, the advantages of a central index really kick in when metadata starts to explode. Obviously Google isn’t pushing the “we made a better Internet” angle yet, but they could — and the fact that they are so carefully surrounding key strategic bits of territory is not a coincidence.

Google dating

In the singles world, for instance, Google dating running prospective beaus through the search engine is now standard practice. If the facts about a suitor stack up, then you can not only go on the date with confidence, but you know what to talk about. “If I find out he’s a runner, for instance, that’s something I know we have in common, and I’ll say that I’m a runner, too”. The first thing a Google virgin attempts is the often humbling experience of typing one’s own name into the query line. The next search is inevitable – a Google dragnet to determine the fate of old flames. A Nobel Prize awaits the theorist who determines a formula that calculates the number of minutes one can use Google before excavating the wreckage of sunken relationships. “It’s comforting to know what they’ve been up to”.

spot-on. unfortunately, until everyone uses the internet (and leaves marks), the search is stacked against netizens. then again, i don’t mind if someone informs herself before she meets me. and if someone gets beyond the scary pics in the gallery, well what can i say 🙂
2004-01-24:

orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends.
We are committed to providing an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests.
in affiliation with google

smart move on googles part to capitalize on prior art.