Intelligence Weekly: Post Secret

"Secret" has many meanings. For the purpose of this blog, I am referring to personal knowledge--pleasant or unpleasant--that an individual hides within himself.

"Secrets make you sick." Alcoholics Anonymous uses the phrase to encourage members to divulge secret stressors that contribute to their addictions. Secrets--especially those that are particularly emotionally impactful or those that we feel we must not discuss--can easily lead to obsession in one form or another. Likewise, happy secrets can be nearly impossible to conceal. They affect our moods and our manner of interacting with and perceiving the world around us.

It is difficult to deny that secrets affect us all on a very primary level. Ages old wisdom encourages that we write them down. In our modern, technical era, we can share our secret joys and burdens at Post Secret.

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

I partake every Sunday. As for my own secrets, my canine companion, Bear, knows them all.

Inspiration acknowledgement for today's message goes to Radiolab's April 9, 2007 episode on Stress.

Check out this APS Observer article: The Science Behind Secrets by Eric Jaffe.

Understanding Technology Today?

I'm currently taking a delightful course at Lincoln Land Community College entitled Understanding Technology Today. It's a great course full of high-level information that is quite useful. I find the title of the course, though, kind of adorable. As I'm reading, I seem to have more questions than answers. I can tell you all about modern technology, and will be able to regale you with even more facts at the end of the semester. And yet, I can't help but feel this ineffable dissatisfaction with my understanding of technology.

For example, when I speak to you on the phone, our voices are transmitted as data across wires or radio signals, etc. What I hear is an approximation of your voice: the data. It's really only an extended concept of how the actual ear works. And the data that I hear across great distances thanks to technology, it sounds almost exactly like the real thing. What about when I call an automated phone system? The computer at the other end receives the data, but it's not like there's a person holding a phone up to a speaker for me to hear what the computer has to say to me. Or maybe there is? My guess is that the computer is sending data that is structured in a way that my ears and subsequently my brain can perceive it, but there are no on-board sound cards involved. I have no idea how many other people are on other lines with the same automated system having the same conversation with a computer that is replicating hearing and speech, or how many calls it can handle. I have no idea if it's thinking about something else while it's waiting for me to call.

Click the photo for an article on how consumers hate phone trees!

The more I feel that ineffable dissatisfaction with my understanding of technology, I'm finding more and more that it resembles the same dissatisfaction with my understanding of human existence. I'd like to think the low-level knowledge exists somewhere on the planet, and that some brain of a person can explain to me exactly how the automated system works, but something tells me that having a true understanding of how or why technology works on a truly fundamental level is a lot like traveling at the speed of light.

Tech of the Future: Autos

In this regular feature, I will discuss technologies that I would like to experience in the future.

Click on the photo to view the website it came from.

It's probably a million degrees outside, and I am le tired of putting my sunshade up all the time. By that I mean, I never put my sunshade up. Lazy = ideas, people. Dear future auto makers: please create built-in and/or automatic sun shades for our vehicles. The thought of getting into my vehicle in the raging summer heat and feeling nice and cool (or even not nearly as hot), or touching the steering wheel and not having my hand flesh melt off, or not surprising myself with a liquid-magma hot seat-belt buckle, or even being willing to buy a black car (again) someday... these things make me weep.

Obvious design enhancements aside, I imagine a future where our vehicles drive us places without needing human intervention, an invention we're clearly working toward. In addition to that, though, I would really love it if my car would run across town and pick up some dog food for me while I'm at work. I think we can all agree that if we didn't have to spend time running annoying errands that are usually for our families, we would love them more. Okay, I kid, I kid. But it would be nice if I could hop on a Petco app, order my supplies, indicate that my auto will be arriving to pick it up, pay in advance, and have a nice sales associate (or robot, whatever) load it into my vehicle. My on-board inventory module will tell me exactly what products I have in the vehicle, so I can verify that everything I ordered is there, and there are no apparent problems that need to be addressed before my car makes the trip back to the work parking lot to pick me up. Maybe it could even have a cooler/freezer combo compartment for groceries and perishables. Ice cream at a tailgate party? Uhh, yes.

Ahh, tech of the future.