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Nicholas Negroponte on the Future of Bio Tech

In Digital, Digital Leaders, Disruption, Future, Technology by Fredy Ore

Nicholas Negroponte has described Bio-Tech as the next big Innovation wave in an interview this time with Think Big.

Earlier this year at TED 2014 in Vancouver, Negroponte reflected on the last 30 years and described Bio-tech as the future.

Known to accurately predict the next few decades, as he did with his 5 predictions from the inaugural TED conference and with his book Being Digital, Negroponte has described those, as simply putting together a number of already well known factors.

He sees Bio-Tech as the future today, where ingesting or the injecting of bio-technology into the bloodstream as the only method to get close enough to the cells and nerves in our brains. Ingesting a pill, however unbelievable today, could for example, help you learn a new language by directly targeting a specific area of the brain. “Woah”.

Lets hope they fix the Y2038 bug or any blue screen, 404, 500, 503 equivalent errors in the future before you ingest! :)

His prediction about ingesting information through the bloodstream is steeped in the theory that you can marry biology and silicon in order to alter the brain from the inside. Technologies such as these are the future, he says, even if that future is still decades away.Think Big Interview with Nicholas Negroponte, 2014

Related
– An INC article on Negroponte’s TED 2014 talk.

– Thync, a mood changing head-set which applies low electrical current to specific areas of the brain to alter the wearer’s mood and provide the same effects as Caffeine or Alcohol.
– The official Thync website.
– A review by The Guardian on the Thync headset.

– The Year 2038 Computer Problem

– Bio Technology on Wikipedia including links to related fields such as bioinformatics, bioprocess engineering, biorobotics & chemical engineering.

Image source: Think Big

A definition of SLAM & examples

In Image, Technology, Visualization by Fredy Ore

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) is the robotics acronym for computationally constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment, while at the same time keeping track of people or objects within the map.

Wikipedia has a more indepth explanation, with links to several known algorithms such as the particle filter and extended Kalman filter.

SLAM algorithms are tailored to the available resources, hence not aimed at perfection, but at operational compliance. Published approaches are employed in self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles, planetary rovers, newly emerging domestic robots and even inside the human body.Wikipedia

Golan Levin has recently posted an example of an impressive real-time Visual SLAM created inside a car without GPS.

13thLab (recently Acquired by Oculus) have other examples of Densified SLAM Maps from car mounted iPhones.

Reference: Wikipedia page of Simultaneous localization and mapping (Slam)

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Preserving expression, thinking & longevity within Design

In Digital Experiences, Experience Design, Product & Service Design, Visualization by Fredy Ore

Shane Hudson has written a nice article on 24 Ways which touches on an area I’ve been thinking a lot recently – preserving expression, longevity and thinking within Design. His article titled, Putting Design on the Map touches on the considerations for creating products, books, IOT’s by looking at the connections of the Digital and the Physical world.

A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.Reif Larsen

His article predominantly focuses on Maps covering the technical considerations, Interface and differences with physical printed maps vs. online Maps, such as those from the Ordinance Survey, MapBox, Leaflet and Google Maps.
It is a good read.

Image Source: Shane Hudson
References:
Reif Larsen’s book The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
Reif Larsen’s Map Quest by Vanity Fair

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Daniel Kahneman at TED on Experience vs. Memory

In Digital Experiences, Experience Design, Experience Strategy by Fredy Ore

Daniel Kahneman, filmed at TED 2010 for his talk, The riddle of Experience vs. Memory.

…we might be thinking of ourselves and of other people in terms of two selves.

There is an experiencing self, who lives in the present and knows the present, [and] is capable of re-living the past, … and then there is a remembering self, … the one that keeps score, and maintains the story of our life,

…Those are two very different entities, … and getting confused between them is part of the mess…Daniel Kahneman

As designers, we often make informed decisions for inclusion (or exclusion of features, UI, content, etc) based on the journeys, emotional triggers and even considerations for how they will remember & recollection the products we design.

Daniel Kahneman’s talk lets us explore wider considerations for Experience Design (beyond business goals) to counter for powerful storytelling, empathy and recollection.

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DesignX: A Future Path for Design

In Disciplines, Disruption, Experience Design, Future by Fredy Ore

The Design Collaborative* have written an Essay on DesignX – a new, evidence-based approach for addressing many of the complex and serious problems facing the world today. It adds to and augments today’s design methods, reformulating the role that design can play.

DesignX aims to enhance the tools required to assist people, organizations, and societies in developing systems and procedures that address major human and societal needs.

[It] is a compilation and expansion of work being done by numerous organizations, private and public, universities and companies. DesignX attacks the larger problems, those that involve complex systems, where people with different skills need to creatively and reliably work together.The Design Collaborative

The essay was first published on the Don Norman, JND.org site

Image Source: A5 Magazine 2008

* A joint statement, written by “The Design Collaborative,” authored by Ken Friedman (Tongji University, College of Design and Innovation and Swinburne University Centre for Design Innovation), Yongqi Lou (Tongji), Don Norman (University of California, San Diego, Design Lab), Pieter Jan Stappers (Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering), Ena Voûte (Delft), and Patrick Whitney (Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design).

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Xmas 2014 checklist

In Love, Rant by Fredy Ore

Xmas-2014-4

  • Tree – Done
  • Decorations – Done
  • Lights – Done
  • Presents – Nearly Done
  • Organise food – Nearly Done
  • Delivery of Presents in time – Epic #Fail

Please deliver our stuff in time ! This is the person you will disappoint!
Xmas-2014-2

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Don Norman on Design Portfolios in BreakingIn excerpt

In Digital Leaders, Disciplines, Product & Service Design by Fredy Ore

An interview excerpt of Don Norman on Design Portfolios has been published today in the BreakingIn book blog.

The book is the compiled interviews by Amina Horozić of 100 Design legends on companies, portfolios and working within Product Design.

Designers are essential to business. … Design is not just making a product, and is certainly not just making the product attractive. Design is trying to solve the problem that people may not even realize that there’s a problem. … The first thing you do when you’re given a problem is say: “What’s the real problem?” This is what the emphasis on design thinking is about.Don Norman

Photo Source: NNG

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Applying Artificial Intelligence to Wearables & IOT

In Artificial Intelligence, Business Design, Disruption, Experience Strategy by Fredy Ore

Scott Amyx has written on Wired of the considerations for applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to wearables and the Internet of Things (IOT).

The article contains a good overview of the history of AI, including sub fields such as machine learning, areas of industry where it’s heavily being used today, some of the practical applications of AI, but more importantly, a Playbook for integrating AI as a Core Business Strategy.

Wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) may give the impression that it’s all about the sensors, hardware, communication middleware, network and data but the real value (and company valuation) is in insights. In this article, we explore artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that are becoming indispensable tools for insights, views on AI, and a practical playbook on how to make AI part of your organization’s core, defensible strategy.Scott Amyx

Photo: Tom Gauld on Flickr