Salutations

Image via WikipediaLet me take this opportunity to update you three on my life!

The Fall 2011 semester of school is raging, and by that I mean the professors of my two online classes posted the entire course-load during the very first week of the semester. School is a great deal more manageable than I remember from prior college experiences, but I think I can attribute that to my actual genuine and goal-oriented interest in the subject matter, coupled with my newly--in the last 3 years, perhaps--cultivated grown-uppiness.

I've taken to keeping up a routine, which works very well for me. I am fortunate (and unfortunate) to have only myself to care for, and so I don't have many unexpected events to interrupt my schedule.

In light of my decision to start off in a new educational direction, I've also worked in some other fine goals and habits, some with relative success. I have the time to experiment with new ways of living, so I'm working on some of the things that I always, on some level, felt I wanted to do. Boring things like regular meditation, etc.

Do you know what has recently been the biggest boon to my quality of life? Cutting back on mindless television! I've set some limits, and now I spend my extra time doing the following:

• School work and other learning endeavors and edutainments
• Cleaning real things and computer things
• Fixing electronics and/or tutoring my family in how to use their smartphones
• Playing guitar and other artist endeavors
• Reading something
• Thinking about technology and spirituality
• Exercising
• Going out into the world and looking at other people's faces while words come out of our mouths, and touching them where our arms go around each other
• Financial planning
• Cooking
• Brainstorming lists like this one
• Thinking about and occasionally writing blog posts
• Listening to entertaining and life-affirming podcasts
• Playing with my dog

I like using technology in ways that improve my quality of life, while avoiding it in ways that it makes me feel not good. Im'ma love you, im'ma miss you.

Macie

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

There has been some discussion that as technology advances, we--as individuals--are getting dumber. We don't memorize data because it lies at our fingertips at all times. We indulge mindlessly in reality television. We disconnect from one another as we develop online personas that more closely match what we wish upon our real selves.

I posit that although we may be undergoing changes--biologically, sociologically--as we delve deeper into the world of advanced technology, whether we grow emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually is still up to us. And in many ways, technology has aided us in that we have tools at our fingertips that we can use to learn, even if it is on the smallest scale, those things which we seek. I may not know your phone number by heart, but that doesn't mean that I have a void where that information would have been stored.

Often--since the internet is indeed at my fingertips--I search for answers to simple questions that pass through my mind throughout the day, and I've noticed that almost always, someone has already asked the question, and someone else has already provided an answer. We share our knowledge because we feel compelled to share, and we seek because we feel compelled to know.

As I learn to embrace change, and to flow with the electronic tide, I find that I discover in the e-world that which I had already found in myself (and thought myself alone or one of few in my discovery--but that is not the case). We are obviously connected, and we have found a way of expressing that to one another. Crude a start as it may be, here are some of the ways technology makes me smarter, better, and more in love with you:

Radiolab
Among the many podcasts that I listen to while working or otherwise living, Radiolab is one of my favorites. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich regale me with artful and scientifically poignant discussions on the human condition.

The Moth
True stories told live without notes, available in podcast form. These stories are emotional, heartening, funny, frightening, sad, and beautiful. They make me feel less alone.

WIRED Magazine
I love to know what is happening now in technology, and what advances we're musing upon and reaching toward as the future becomes today.

TED Talks
Ideas worth spreading. I enjoy watching these conference-style talks on a great variety of subjects.

Audible
I read while doing other things; working, driving, exercising. Audible offers one audiobook per month for a subscription fee, and it is well worth it.

Stack Exchange
I have knowledge to share, and I have questions to ask. Stack Exchange is a group of Q&A websites on a huge variety of topics. You get credibility points and badges for participating, but even more exciting is how the structure of these sites lends to sheer erudite intelligence. Not to mention how quickly you can get detailed answers to specific questions.

There's so much information out there. Use it for good. And don't feel bad for not remembering my phone number.

Intelligence Weekly: Technology For Liberty

Tonight I read this article on Huffington Post. Apparently Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officials in San Fran got a hot tip that a protest was set to occur, and they decided to cut cellular communications in order to prevent people from coordinating a potentially dangerous gathering.

Lately there has been a great deal of discussion on the subject of technology being used to promote liberty, in light of the Arab Spring. Check out this article on the impact and relevance of social media during the uprisings.

After reading the HuffPo article about BART, I browsed some of the comments to see how others felt about the situation. As one can expect when reading any comments related to a politically charged situation, the reactions were very polarized. I did hit a link from one of the indignant reactors that took me to the source of my inspiration for this post: a YouTube video of Naomi Wolf speaking to an audience about her book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. I highly encourage you to follow the link and watch the video. Over 1 million people have seen it--a testament to technology for the preservation and promotion of liberty--and I feel it's such important subject matter for anyone who cares about the fundamental liberty that we stand to lose.

Tech of the Future: Bedchambers

Where once I could sleep on any surface and in any position--not to mention in any circumstance and for nearly any length of time--as I creep  toward the end of my youth, I have lost that precious gift. Now I must perform very specific and timely bedtime rituals  in order to get my winks (which better be 8-10 hours worth or else), including but not limited to brushing and flossing, reading something, allowing at least 30 minutes of quiet time in bed, assuming a time tested side or back position, switching between those at least 4 times, sticking the landing, praying toward mecca, kissing a quartz crystal, striking animal bones together, etc. And if I try to sleep anywhere but in my own bed upon my 3-inch memory-foam pad, forget it. It's like The Princess and the Pea up in here.

In the future, I propose we have bedchambers--not the whole bedroom, per se, but an actual chamber--where we can completely customize our environment to suit individual needs. In discussing this idea with co-workers and friends, I was offered some ideas which I will now share along with my own:

• Houses come equipped with them. They're as common an appliance as a refrigerator.
• Soundproof to the outside world, but can wake you in an emergency or for an otherwise specified reason.
• Wake you peacefully, in contrast to most (heinous) modern alarm clocks.
• Custom lighting, sounds, temperatures, and smells permeate your sleeping environment according to your pre-programmed desires.
• A plasma mattress or some kind of air cushion force cradles you perfectly.
• Sensors adapt the environment to keep you cool/warm.
• Can easily accommodate 2 (or more) people for sleeping and/or horizontal dancing.
• Your settings travel with you to foreign bedchambers. There's an app for that!

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.