Robots Are Taking Over!

Movies where robots and artificial intelligence take over the world, such as “I, Robot” and “The Matrix Trilogy”, are becoming more prevalent in today’s culture. This is probably because robots ARE taking over the world. With new self-checkout systems, electronic nurses, and commercial production machinery, humans are being displaced from possible jobs. As a result, the human connection created at the checkout counter or with a nurse is being replaced by technology.

Montefiore Medical Center’s Home Health Agency now uses a new electronic nurse of sorts in the homes of patients who have heart problems. This “nurse” monitors vital signs, questions the patient concerning their health, and takes care of the patient without the need for a human nurse. So far, this technology seems to work, but is it more effective at provided medical care than an actual nurse? The nurse is able to see the patient and evaluate their health status better, especially if the patient answers the electronic nurse’s questions incorrectly. Also, the nurse can physically save the patient if they need CPR or any other sort of emergency medical care, while the machine cannot. However, the electronic nurse is less expense in the long run and can provide medical care for the patient 24/7. This new electronic nurse might be able to put up a fight for nursing positions and beat humans out.

Self-checkout systems are also becoming more common in grocery and retail stores. These machines are quick and easy to operate once you learn how to, but they may prove difficult to learn for the older generations. As a consumer, you are able to check out more quickly and avoid the long lines and the normal checkout counters. Conversely, fewer jobs are available in stores who convert to this technology. Checkout clerks will be less common, and fewer jobs will be available.

With any technologies like the aforementioned ones, there is a loss of human connection. When we stop interacting with each other, our ability to interact in society is hindered. Society needs these human connections to remain a society. As quick and efficient as these new technologies may be, we lose both jobs and human connection as a result. Robots will effectively take over the world at this rate.

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The Greatest Marketing Tool- the iPhone App

One of my favorite ways to spend a beautiful day when I visit my parents’ house during weekends is flying with my dad around the Bay Area in his small private plane. About three years ago during a routine flight, my dad asked me to video tape the view. After a while, my hands started aching, which gave me an idea that I immediately shared with my dad. Transforming my initial idea into an actual patent, my dad established a new startup called Flyvie. Flyvie offers a product which is GPS based that tracks the flight and records it using digital cameras, and simultaneously saving all the data on a small memory card. This special application is later downloaded on a web browser, and the detailed flight can be viewed online by signed members. This product enables flight instructors and new pilots to re-visit their flight and mark both mistakes and achievements.
This product started out as a compact package including a laptop , two small digital cameras, a GPS center, and a memory card. Even though many flight schools and private instructors found this tool to be extremely helpful and purchased the kits in large numbers, we knew we were not reaching the full array of potential customers. That is when we came up with the idea for an iPhone app.
Considering the current social evolution, including the introduction of smart phones and constant accessibility to resources, we knew that a simple iPhone app (called Flyvie Lite) would be more applicable to the general aviation public. Indeed, just as we expected, once we came up with a free app which combines both the built-in GPS and camera applications on the iPhone, more people started showing interest. Even though the final product did not appear to be as professional as the initial product, pilots seem to prefer the accessible, friendly, cheap iPhone app (as long as they have iPhones, of course).
What I find the most fascinating about this experience is the obvious trend among any startups or technology mediated ideas: the necessity to attract more customers and expand the business using iPhone applications. The development of such app was a natural next step, which also ended up being a smart one.

An Ever-Changing Technology

We are all aware of Apple's ever-changing technology and products. From their excessive new releases of the iPhone to the invention of the iPad, Apple is always in the news. Consumers have long awaited the release of the new MacBook Pro, whose availability was just announced this morning. While this constant improvement in technology is exciting, is it really necessary? To have multiple versions of a phone released in one year, and for the newest versions of a laptop or iPad to be announced within days of each other? To me it seems only obvious that eventually, if not already, Apple will be in complete control of the technological market.

Apple's technology is seen everywhere due to its efficiency and convenient features. With the iPhone spreading to Verizon, even more consumers are gaining access to Apple's products. Earlier today, Apple announced its release of the latest MacBook Pro which is already available to customers. The new technology provided by Intel, called Thunderbolt, supplies faster capability for the device to support "high resolution displays" through one port. It provides ethernet and advanced HDMI capabilities as well. Already, Apple's stock has gone up, presumably because of this breakthrough technology.

Additionally, it is expected that Apple will announce the release of the iPad 2 on March 2nd, just days away. Apple users are anticipating the software updates available on the new iPad to be similar to those on the new MacBook Pro. Other features include an SD port as well as a camera on the rear side of the screen, that would allow for "Face-Time video chat". Interestingly enough, Motorola is also expected to release their competing product next week, the Xoom tablet. Despite competitors in the market of technology, Apple seems to have the strong upper hand.

Constant Apple updates flooding the news is overwhelming. There are so many new software capabilities and applications that customers barely understand the majority of them. However, I do think that Apple has been very successful in marketing the efficiency of their products. Finding out about the latest and greatest Apple technology is exciting, and makes me personally anticipate what will come next. The usage and accessibility to Apple products will only continue to expand.

Interacting with a Screen

I remember when I was a child, my younger brother and I would sit on the floor of our family room right in front of our television playing our Nintendo 64. Our favorite game was Donkey Kong. If our parents had let us, we would have played the game for hours each day. Of course my mother knew better, in that eventually sitting that close to the t.v. would impair our vision and damage our brains. Today, the world of video gaming is being transformed into an entirely different realm, opening doors for children everywhere.

Recently, Xbox invented new technology that allows video game users to actually interact with their television screens. Instead of sitting on the floor or on the couch while playing, children are required to stand up, move around, and play active games. Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer reported to the New York Times that, "The Kinect technology is a new way of communicating with computers." Despite my addiction to video games as a child, I am no longer an avid video gamer. However, when I was shopping at Best Buy a few weeks ago, the store happened to be doing an interactive demonstration with Xbox Kinect. Children and their parents were lined up to test the new technology. For once, being able to play a video game might actually be something that parents support thanks to this new interactive technology.

Xbox Kinect has certainly been a popular item for children, selling over 8 million machines in the first two months available to consumers. While it certainly provides new opportunities for children, what possibilities does Kinect offer to society as a whole? Truthfully, the technology developed for Kinect will most likely spread into other aspects of our lives, to take over more than just the video game market. Microsoft's computer technicians have already begun developing software similar to the Kinect that would have the capacity to control "home applications." For example, "smart" technology would allow us to create avatars for our homes, just like in the movie "Smart House." We could potentially control our entire house with just one machine that operates itself. Thanks to the Kinect technology we will someday be able to control our entire lives and homes just by waving an arm to relay our message to a remote.

Interactive technology not only opens doors for children in the video gaming world, it also gives adults opportunities to simplify their lives. The possibility of interacting with our technological devices would continue making the work place, education, and communication more fast-paced. While it will obviously take adjustment and change, overtime we will be able to adapt to new technology. Starting with a seed as small as Kinect and video games, our constantly connected society can surely use interactive technology to our advantage.

Goodbye Books, Hello Digital Texts: Is the Internet the Modern Printing Press Revolution?

In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg created the first printing press. This tool led to an incredible revolution: books had previously been available only to the educated scholars and scribes in monasteries. The printing press, however, made it possible for books to be made quickly and in larger quantities, allowing for the mass spread of knowledge and information among the general public. Humanity blossomed as books trickled down through the people and spread across the world. This was the beginning of the ability for any literate person to develop a relationship with books and glean a more complete understanding of the world. This spread of books connected the world in new ways; people across the globe could develop and grow with the knowledge they found in books that had been brought by traders from far-off lands. The printing press allowed for the widespread availability of books, and a deep relationship was forged between books and their readers.

            I always had a deep relationship with books. During my childhood years, almost every piece of knowledge or tidbit of information I got was from books. My family was the proud owner of the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica. The bookshelves was crammed full of these volumes, and they smelled musty and old, sweet and papery, just the way that good books are supposed smell. We always had one volume out on a pedestal in the hallway; that showed that we were “intellectual” people and had access to volume upon volume of invaluable knowledge. That was rather pretentious; the books, however, made me feel worldly and well informed. I would stand on tiptoe and flip through the pages, reading entry after entry for hours. 

           

             If I wanted to know anything, I looked it up in a book. If it wasn’t in a book I had in my possession, I traipsed down to the local library and looked it up there. If the book wasn’t there, I did not have access to the information. That was simply the way it was. Now, there has been another massive spread-of-information revolution: this is the digitalization and availability of any piece of knowledge via the Internet. Virtually any piece of information is accessible at the touch of a button. My old, treasured encyclopedias lie stagnant on their bookshelves, covered in an ever-growing layer of dust. Any piece of information I need is online, and the occasions where I open a book to find a piece of information are so rare that I cannot remember the last time I did just that.  I “never” have time to read books anymore; all of my time is sucked up doing online homework, socializing on Facebook, flipping through online news articles, or spending hours bouncing around Wikipedia. Of course, it is an incredible luxury having almost any piece of information at the tip of my fingers. Any question that comes to mind can quickly be typed into Google, and voila, I have thousands of websites related to my question.

            Real books, not the Internet, were once my entire life. I was so excited when my grandfather bought me a beautiful, old copy of The Iliad for my twelfth birthday. The Iliad had been stolen from our local library and I had not had other access to it. I read the book cover-to-cover in two days, and I was so happy to finally be able to read the story that I had been waiting for years to read. Now, books like The Iliad are a click away. The Perseus Digital Library, or the "Perseus Project," is an online library for the largest collection classic books, all in a digitalized form, and available in almost any language, including English and the original Greek or Latin. All of this is available to the general public, free of charge. Not only that, but for each word, name, or idea presented, readers can simply click on a word in the digitalized text to have an immediate pop-up that gives the word's definition, relevance, history, and meaning to the text. These pop-ups also provide links to further sources of information on this word, idea or concept, if you are so inclined as to learn more. Now, when reading The Odyssey online, I have instant access to the text, hundreds of digitalized footnotes that link me directly to the sources they indicate, and links to the maps (both modern and ancient) of the islands mentioned by Homer in his classic story of Odysseus's journey home.

            Other online sources make the contents of millions of books instantly available to anyone. The website eBooks.com offers books of almost any type, including academic, popular, and professional. These books are offered in a digital form that be accessed form that can be downloaded or simply accessed from any computer, PDA or cell phone with the touch of a button. Is the Internet the modern printing press revolution? Is the world changing rapidly because of all of these new, electronic ways of accessing a plethora of knowledge? Now that we have this technology, who needs to bother with the boring, old books anyway?

Well, frankly, I would like to bother with the old, boring books. I dearly miss their simplicity and the quiet, wholesome integrity they afford us. While this abundance of new technology affording instant connection to any information source is astounding, I fear that it is slowly sapping readers of the irreplaceable bond between a reader and a solid, ink and paper book.