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Monday, February 16

Blogging of the future

Readers of this blog might remember that, in the past, I've written of the future. Those same people might also remember that it was in reference to improving the chance of survival for the middle class. But what I wrote only touched upon their finincial woes, the thinning of their wallets, and made no mentions of their minds and their hearts. People need to feel good whether they are poor or rich. They need to feel secure and at ease, confident in the notion that they know what is coming and that they have the resources to make the right decisions. Unfortunately, this world is a tough one, real tough. It is difficult to know what to do or how to gain the kind of comfort that is needed.

It is also true that we live in a highly individualized society; where every one has the opportunity to pick out the colors that most represent their personalities. Where the wildest of us might plate their cellular phone with zebra stripes, and the more conservative might find a way to manufacture and market those very plates. A society that has created the "Blog;" a sort of electronic diary turned personal newspaper where any man, woman, or child can share their individual thoughts, opinions, and day to day activities. But, the blog only deals with the past, things that have been, and offers no recourse for the truly confused. It does not help us manage our future decisions, it can only record the ones we have made, and that often includes mistakes.
(Before I get to my point, I just want to remind you that technoloy is everywhere and the advancements seen in the last few years have brought the future to today.)
Now here is where the tree bears fruit. Try this: A computer chip, implanted in the brain (or a few, if needed), that reads the sensory information inputted and processes that information into computer codes which are then sent to your personal computer. The software on your computer (which comes with the chip) reads the code, interperets the information, and provides you with a series of options based off your personality. That is to say, whenever you do something, the computer chip in your brain records it and sends it to your computer for analysis. The computer then gives you a list of possible actions and reactions for you to chose from, all based on the input received as well as the information about your individual self that has already been calibrated onto the chip. These possible courses of action are given to you in the form of blog postings, and all you have to do is pick the course you wish to follow, post the appropiate blog, and do what has been laid out before you. What else do you need? Decisions are made, blogs are posted; all while remaining true to yourself (and perhaps a little better than your non-computer mind could do anyway) and all you have to worry about is letting the ball of life roll.
Blogs of the future are the future of now.

3 comments:

  1. Hmm.

    I like the whole idea of blogging as a catalyst for future ideas (rather than simply archiving past events and the opinions that may arise thereof), yet I think the whole "brain chip" idea is a bit Orwellian.

    I assume there's both some sincerity and sarcasm in this post (likely more of the latter), but taking it at face value, there's certain people whose genuine thoughts I'd probably rather not know about.

    I also don't know if I'd want everyone knowing my thoughts at all times, regardless of the level of sincerity behind them.

    The whole concept to me seems a hybrid of Zen/living in the moment and Big Brother as an all-knowing entity being able to simultaneously archive and predict one's every thought and action.

    I say we try a Beta version of it first, and I volunteer myself to sit on the sidelines and see how this one pans out first.

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  2. Doesn't your brain already work this way? I mean, your ego is just a series of memories waiting in various parts of your brain for the right moment to be triggered and come back together in usable form. Our past informs our present and thus our future. If the computer blog is just a giant book of our past successful and unsuccessful responses to stimuli, then I think we're already carrying that around with us all the time.

    However, for those of us with various forms of cognitive dysfunction, this show some promise. If we can bank those thoughts and experiences now, and call upon them later when our brains are less functional onaccounta, I dunno, immediate excessive alcohol consumption, exhaustion, stroke, MS, or blunt force trauma, then I think maybe you're on to something.

    "Hello Mr. Self Blog. It is Tuesday night. I am stinking drunk and I can either go out for more drinks or go home and sleep at least some of this off before work tomorrow. What should I do?"

    "Based upon the experience of 312 past times very similar events have occurred, you should go home 96% of time."

    "Mr. Self Blog?"

    "Yes."

    "Fuck you."

    "OK. Have fun at the bar. But don't ask for help in the morning."
    --------------------
    Dan, blogs can be set to private you know. You just have to trust google, that's all. But we could set up a Word Press server for you here at work that nobody else could access. So no worries.

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  3. I guess I misinterpreted the original post through the filter of a few too many bad science fiction movies, and the reality of the previous administration's "Warrantless Wiretapping" program that received cooperation (and aid in data mining) from such trusted corporate entities (an oxymoron, I know) as AT&T. Hence my fear that such a concept could reach a compulsory program that turned the world into a fascist regime with mind control police, etc.

    I'll remove my tin-foil hat now.

    As far as bio-medical engineering, as Patrick addresses, I could definitely see such an idea having very positive implications. Much like stem-cells, I certainly hope that in the coming years there will be a lot of R & D in this area, what with "science" again being a priority in the US Government.

    One man who has a lot of forward thinking ideas in this realm is Ray Kurzweil. I initially knew of him as a guy who built digital pianos and synthesizers, but this was only after he developed a personal relationship with Stevie Wonder.

    His initial project that gained attention was an optical scanning device, unveiled to the public in 1976, that could read text in any font that a computer could then read aloud to, for instance, a blind or dyslexic person.

    He is now at the forefront of the idea of nanotechnology. Again, it may sound like something out of a sci-fi flick that could go awry (Kurzweil himself warns of this potential), but he theorizes that millions of microscopic, preprogrammed robots could be used to repair damage at the cellular level, potentially curing diseases and eventually reversing the aging process.

    If you read his wiki page, or his website at http://kurzweilai.com, you'll realize that he's definitely quite eccentric, which may lead to some skepticism of his ideas. Then again most geniuses who ended up subverting the dominant paradigm of "reality" weren't exactly what we'd consider "ordinary."

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Be nice!