Hawaii five01

The Future Is Now

April 29th, 2008

Actually, that thing we refer to as “the future” has become our present. All those gadgets and technological concepts that we thought wouldn’t happen for years to come, are banging at our doorstep and we are breathing it all in in stride. In the video “How Technology’s Accelerating Power Will Transform Us”, Ray Kurzweil talks about how the speed at which we are evolving technologies is increasing. Before it used to take us half a century to develop the standard telephone, but it only took eight years for the development of the cell phone as we know it today. It is also a great accomplishment that we can understand these technologies not just have the means to produce it.

Soon we won’t know where the machine ends and human begins. Kurzweil predicts that in 2010 computers, in the form they are in now, will disappear and become so small they will be embedded in our clothing and environment practically acting as a part of our bodies. And he says by 2029 humans and machines will merge. I’m not a psychic, which would mean I can’t predict the future, but I choose to air on the side that humans and computers will stay separate entities. I am all for new technology, and yes I believe that computers will continue to get smaller and smaller, but I would like to think that the human body will stay in the form it was made.

Does anyone remember that quirky robot Johnny 5 from the “Short Circuit” films? Well if not, here’s a refresher.

The scientist who created the original “Number 5″ reassures others that “It’s a machine, Schroeder. It doesn’t get pissed off, it doesn’t get happy, it doesn’t get sad, it doesn’t laugh at your jokes…IT JUST RUNS PROGRAMS!”. Although this may have started out as the truth, overtime Number 5 became Johnny 5 and began to develop a personality. This may have been what Kurzweil was getting at for the year 2029, but 1986 began the trend. It is the same with the “Back to the Future” films. The Sci-Fi films of the 80’s were all about the future and what the world would be, but twenty or so years later flying cars don’t exist, only hybrids.

“Generation txt”

I never used to look at my thumbs and think what would I do without them, not until texting anyway. Ever since texting became commonplace in our culture, many teenagers value their thumbs much more these days. Sounds odd huh? But it’s true and in Tokyo they even have a name for these people the “thumb tribe” (Shibuya Epiphany, 4). Being part of the so-called “thumb tribe” is standard amongst this breed of teenagers because they do not know cell phones without texting.

Yes it is another form of communication between people, but it has become much more than that. Having a cell phone, “grants teenagers a degree of privacy and right of assembly previously unavailable, which they use to construct a networked alternative space that is available from anywhere they are” (5). The route to school and home becomes their alternative social space and anyone participating in the texting conversations is considered “present” even if they are not physically meeting in the same place. Many teens have hundreds of contacts stored in their phone, but only converse with a small number of them. I guess the more people in your phone, the more popular you are; setting another requirement for teens to try to fit in. Here in the United States, we capitalized on the fact many people only talk to a few others and T-Mobile has offered such plans as the My Faves plan where you have unlimited access to the five numbers of your choice.

Texting can keep people connected but it can also shut some out, namely the parents of these teens. With cell phones and texting, teens can have conversations their parents can’t hear, therefore there is much less monitoring going on. And because some phones are too advanced for the parents they won’t even be able to see the messages their child is sending and receiving. At least with land lines parents knew who their kids were talking to, now most parents are left in the dark unless they take it upon themselves to get with the texting technology. Kelton Research recently conducted a survey in which 68% of the 500 parents involved, connected with their kids via text message, and 56% of teens reported that they now talk more to their parents since they began texting. Although there are some kids who dislike their parents for trying too hard, parent-child texting is on the rise, if the older generation can get past the learning curve.

Texting is global and not just through cell phones either. AOL Instant Messenger allows users to add cell phone numbers their buddy lists and upon sending an IM to the number it will result in a text message on the cell phone. I used this technology to talk back and forth with my 14-year-old cousin while her and her family were on vacation and she was relaxing by the pool. I also text a lot with my cousin who is in Iraq right now. He rarely has time to carry out conversations on the phone, but the occasional text assuring his safety makes me glad texting is such a widespread technology.

Generation txt is also known for sporting cell phones as “fashion as well as technology”(6). Each phone comes in five different colors and certain types of “bling” are available to make it uniquely their own. The iPhone, Sidekick, and the Razor are just some examples of fashionable phones that may have been purchased more for their design rather than its technology. Certain phone types are even associated with American subcultures, for example, “Hip-hop culture, streetwise and fashion-conscious fans of rap music, favor Motorola’s two-way pagers, while young stockbrokers, suits, and geeks in the information technology industry favor the BlackBerry wireless pagers” (23).

Texting is everywhere, even in the car. Many teens admit to texting while driving, which can be just as dangerous and fatal than drinking and driving. More and more accidents have been caused from texting and some legislations are trying to ban it altogether. A recent study showed that two-thirds of teens admit to texting while behind the wheel and the majority of them were women. Many of them think their texting skills are so good they can withstand traffic, but tell that to the ones who have died because of texting. Do we really want texting to become the cause for killing our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters? In respect to these fatalities texting is doing harm instead of helping.

Good or bad, texting is our present and our future.

Memory Overload

At some point your brain has to say enough is enough in regards to memory. Some unlucky ones will loose their ability to remember, some will forget who they are, but not Gordon Bell. This “lifelogger” records his every move from sunrise to sunset and has the ability to recall a single memory from years ago. Bell is creating a “virtual memory to supplement his own imperfect one” (The Persistence of Memory). It may be nice to recall a memory perfectly from start to finish, but with this “lifelogging” system it sometimes takes longer to find the memory than to just recall it yourself. There are also things I am sure many of us would like to forget and put past us moving on to the next good memories. The best part of recalling those memories is reminiscing in them while retelling it others. Imperfection is what makes us human and if a not-so-perfect memory is the case then you should learn to deal with it. Being able to playback a recording of that memory isn’t that same as telling it the way you remember it. I love listening to my grandfather tell us stories of his childhood because it’s real and in the moment, who cares if it’s not a perfect rendition.

One of my favorite movies is “Memento” and the title character Leonard Shelby has amnesia. He always carries a Polaroid camera for a snapshot and a pen for notes. And the most important things are tattooed on his body. I am not saying this is conventional by any means but this is what he did before “lifelogging” came into the picture.

Many of the technologies that once seemed far in the distance are now at our fingertips and waiting to become part of our everyday lives. It may be sometime before “lifelogging” with the SenseCam, and computers embedded in our clothes becomes mainstream, but we are already using these technologies in a similar fashion due to the Web 2.0 era. This is 2008 signing off.

Work Cited

Rheingold, H. (2002). Shibuya epiphany (pp. 1-28). Smart mobs. New York: Perseus
Ray Kurzweil, How technology’s accelerating power will transform us (TED).

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