I got a new Pentium M laptop for school a few months back. The integrated wireless card that came with it seriously sucks. As I'm typing this, I wonder if the connection will remain strong enough to send the bits through the wireless router when I send it. The wireless access point is about 12 feet away, just below me in the basement. I needed to update drivers earlier, and presently don't feel comfortable trying to access my Ximeta NDAS single hard disk server from the wireless laptop connection. Even when two feet from the wireless access point, the laptop behaves like somebody fed it lock-up pills when I try to connect to the NDAS server. I got the NDAS single hard disk server for the express purpose of being able to store and access my files on a lighter weight server than a full 300 watt box running all the time. Fortunately, the NDAS works great with the wired computers, so I can transfer files to the laptop by first transferring them to a desktop and then sharing the folder that the files are in. But for the most part, that defeats the purpose -- I could've just gotten an extra hard drive for my desktop and turned it on when I needed to share it.

Simple. The new technology is sometimes painful. How often do we accept that our cell phone connection drops out and our conversation gets cut off? Or our PDA falls to the ground and we lose three weeks of data since the last hotsync? Sync it up more frequently, that's the ticket. Getting to and from work requires a heck of a lot of effort. Either I drive and have to fight among traffic and obey stoplights and the rules of the road, or I bike or walk and have to fend off drivers without my own 1000 pound exoskeleton. A somewhat reliable one at that. Our car had a lot of issues the first 80000 miles, but the last 30000 have been pretty trouble free. Still, it's no secret that a car drains you head to feet.

This laptop has another issue. When I type, about once every few sentences, keys will registter twice -- that last instance wasn't intentional. I'm a great typist, and never have that problem with other keyboards. Unfortunately, this means that if I want to make sure that I don't have typos, I actually have to read the words as I type, even if I type them perfectly. Kind of a hassle.

I used to think that it would be so exciting when we finally have bionic ears, so that when our hearing is totally shot, or if one is deaf, there can just be a microphone membbrane within the auricle that sends an electrical signal to an electrical-neural junction where it's parsed direct by the brain. Unfortunately, I bet it will have a few bugs at first. Bleeding edge always does. For those who havve been deaf all their lives it will be a true miracle and I will sing hallelujah alongg with them. BUT even though my ears are overly sensitive to sounds and I could probably hear better, I wouldn't want to trade them for the new technology until it "just works" and is maintenance free enough that I'd have to get them checked on as frequently as I go to the audiologist, which isn't very often.

The point I guess I was getting at is that technology hasn't really arrived until it "just works". I think we're all excited about progress, or at least we should be in most cases, but there's a reason that cable TV, broadcast TV, TIVO, and FM radio are going to be around for a long time, while intternet streaming and downloads will be popular for some who swim upstream, but not entirely ubiquitous. When people can go to the local Target/Shopko/Walmart, pay $300 for a device that they plug into the wall, switch it to Channel Slashdot or Channel Wikipedia, or Channel HotOlderAsianLadies, it will catch on. Better yet instead of a channel changer, there'd be easy, configurable AND acquiescent portals that help guide you to the information/bits you really want or need, rather than funnelling you to the highest paying advertiser, then we'll be at a real level of maturity in the information age.

Right now, computers and the internet are a powerful medium, but I see them also as a hostile environment. Yes, yes, I can build a computer up from parts. With a bit of time I could configure a Linux distribution if I could spare the time, but I'd rather do otherwise. Put Linux inside of a $300 configurable internet appliance that "just works" on a communication system that is outside of the spamosphere, where it's not about buy and sell, but about free information trade. That will have people lining up ffrom Beijing to Helsinki to Los Angeles. Of course, in addition to having a browser, it'd be nice to havve it ship native with an email program, a newsreader, an instant messaging program, multimedia software for editing pictures, audio, video, flash, html, C++, formatted documents, etc. While we're dreaming here, why not roll them all into the OS, so they load when the OS loads, and feel truly integrated, rather than as separate disjoint programs? I suppose you'd need more memory in this system, but maybe these programs could be much more dynamic about allocating memory, so when they initially load, only the outer shell of the program's functionality is actually up. When accessed, it loads up the parts that it needs and deallocates as the code path gets far enough away from functions. Yeah, that's the ticket. And of course, to the stupid user, it all "just works," and they don't need to know anything more about it than they need to put toast in the toastter, or to turn on the hot water. And they don't need to type, since the OS has a microphone and logic that helps it to identify your speech as well as one human can tell what another is saying. Sure, it would all be rudimentary at first, only understanding the words you say to it, but eventually as it learns your movements and gestures and has a couple decent CCDs for parallax viewing, it'd be able to decipher body language and the tone of your voice.

Not long after that, we'll have ourselves a real rational AI. And of course, not just any rational AI, but one that will be able to ascertain what needs to be done better than we do, and maybe one that can control its base desires, or is entirely naive to the idea that impure motives could ever exist. Then, programmed correctly, that AI can run the world (as a steward with the best interests of the Earth and all inhabitants firmly in mind/logic), and we can just go about living our lives, following our recreational, vocational, and avocational desires, while the show runs itself.

Sure, it's idealistic to think all that, but somebody needs to set some goals. That's where I see us in a hundred years if we make it through the mess today, and can choke off all the bad seeds before they grow.

And yes, I know there are a lot of other checkpoints that we need to hit before we get to that state. Point A will always be where we are at. Point B is where we are trying to get to. It requires frequent progress updates of the direction and the magnitude of the current vector we're on. Are we heading toward point B? Has anyone really set up a point B that we can come to a consensus on?

Some people think that point B is not for us to define, or for us to experience the Rapture(tm) -- I think the "Left Behind" publishers should be allowed to claim that as (tm) if not actually (r).
Some people think that point B is for them to assume control over others -- the Taliban, the major corporations, the leading world governments, the financial elite, to name a few.
Some think that point B is to live out in the stars, but it will be a while until we're ready for tthat -- once we get the nuclear fusion thing figured out (my guess is it'll be "just works" in 70 years. Sad that I likely won't live to see it).

But on a serious note, none of us will live to see it if we are not able to collectively focus focus focus focus focus focus focus on the problems that beset us on all sides today. From every direction the sirens are loud, and I'm just pointing them out.

From a triage perspective, the short list of seeds that must be planted and sprout quickly (next five years):
1. Peace. Fucking dammit. Peace. Now.
a. This comes through security
b. Peace comes through justice.
c. Peace comes through forgiveness of others' past injustices.
d. Peace comes through repentance and atonement on the part of all who commit injustices (include self here please - a very rare ffew indeed are beyond reproach)
2. Secure and dismantle every weapon of mass destruction, then every weapon that can blow off somebody's limbs or put holes in their skin (knives excluded).
a. Make it understood to all that we are one collective community, spread across continents and island.
b. Remove the idea of bombing, shooting, and murdering from the list of tolerable behaviors. Not ever should these things be done. If we find that humans need to slowly wean off it, take it into virtual reality. Quake 3 or Halo or Doom should help. Just stop killing real people.
3. Put major funding toward securing biological dangers, including viruses, disease, genetic mutation, etc.
4. Keep our eyes on the sky in a serious way to watch for asteroids, and develop means to prevent them colliding with Earth.
5. We need to collectively ascertain reasons WHY its important that our civilization continue and thrive.
a. Our existence here and now is a miracle, in and of itself.
b. When we're here on Earth, we can think of a lot of ways to have fun.
6. Start living within our true means, at sustainable levels of resource use.
a. This one, I fear, will be tough for everyone. When I was young, we were told to conserve energy. Until we find ways to tap more powerful, safe energy sources and use raw materials judiciously, we need to conserve resources. Take pride in being efficient with resources, not in earning money from them.
b. Curb population growth (drastically). Encourage others to have fewer children, so we'll use less resources. We need to get down to ~4 billion by 2050, and eventually hit stasis somewhere around 1.5 - 2 billion.
7. Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them. Help them. Rely on them. Be kind to them. "who is my neighbor, blah blah blah?" Anyone within proximity to your person, or whom you communicate with via telephone, email, instant messaging, or facemail. Yes, people may suck sometimes, but see the good in the others. See it in yourselves.

The next revolution will not be political. By necessity, it will be spiritual.

Love.

Labels: artificial intelligence, computers, heaven on earth, our mission, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community, salvation, technology, war and peace