Tag: software

The Seoul of a New Machine

Rity is the ghost in the machine: an autonomous agent that can transfer itself into desktop computers, PDAs, servers and robotic avatars, and adapt and evolve like a genetic organism. As researchers go from place to place, they are captured and recognized by a network of cameras in the building, allowing Rity to follow them from computer to computer.The “sobot” can upload itself into a mobile robot — a simpler cousin of HanSaRam called MyBot — and follow Kuppuswamy from room to room on its servo-controlled wheels, fetching objects for the researcher with its mechanical arms. If it sees Kuppuswamy sit in front of his office PC, Rity can abandon MyBot like a husk and slip into the desktop machine, to better put itself at its human master’s disposal.

when i was in school, ai was all about embodiment. now we have a more fluid, body-snatching approach. an agent following you around, without being limited to one manifestation, is both very scifi and very interesting

IT Consumerization

“consumerization” was obvious years ago when you would use your private IT resources to get shit done because the lumbering IT department could not.

Few people would disagree that traditional enterprise IT is complicated. And expensive. And unnecessarily complex. Sure, it tries to solve complex problems. But is that always the most effective thing to do? Maybe it would be more rational to first solve the simpler problems in a more cost-effective and user-friendly way. Of course, IT professionals are perfectionists. But they tend to optimize the wrong dimensions. Consumers behave differently, because they are willing to forgo functional perfection in exchange for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.