Robots really are replacing people...

I saw an interview with a roboticist who writes fiction about how to survive a robot uprising. Maybe it's just the early morning quiet, but one of the things he said stuck with me. <blockquote>“My robots do not throw people across rooms, then slowly stalk toward them. If by some odd quirk a humanoid robot has to kill a person (and a more specialized cousin is not available for the task), then this robot will grab the person by the face and close its fist. End of story.”</blockquote>
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.

We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.

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Robots really are replacing people...

I saw an interview with a roboticist who writes fiction about how to survive a robot uprising. Maybe it's just the early morning quiet, but one of the things he said stuck with me. <blockquote>“My robots do not throw people across rooms, then slowly stalk toward them. If by some odd quirk a humanoid robot has to kill a person (and a more specialized cousin is not available for the task), then this robot will grab the person by the face and close its fist. End of story.”</blockquote>
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.

We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.

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Bad decision on my part: working in the print industry

The company I work for regularly attends webinars put on by PODi, which is a sort of market research company for digital printers. They often have good stuff, but the last two presentations they put on unintentionally confirmed my belief that the print industry is headed for an even bigger shrink than most people expect.
We're already seeing the first wave as the high volume printing disappears. This is stuff like newspapers, catalogues, and phone books. The only reasons I get a phone book is because I haven't asked them to stop. I can honestly say the only time I picked one up in recent memory is when I tried to see if I could tear it in half (not yet).
Second wave will be medium run, mostly books and magazines. Although I'm not convinced the iPad will be a huge success, mobile devices more powerful than a phone, but more usable than notebooks are definitely feasible. The main barriers are screen size and battery life (magazines don't run out of power). There will probably still be a market here. People will want first editions, and books tend to have more permanence than the high volume stuff. Who wants yesterdays newspaper? (except historians) Books tend to stay on your shelf a little longer.
Finally the marketing/advertising print is already on its way out. It's becoming cheaper to buy a big screen and put your poster sized ads on there than to print them. Unaddressed ad mail has had pitiful response rates, and mass marketing is giving way to direct marketing which is better accomplished through other channels.
Print will still eke out an existence with packaging on the one end of the quality spectrum and first edition books on the other, but aside from the difficulty in making copies, and the uneditability of a printed piece, print really doesn't have much to offer that a digital device can't deliver.

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Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan

My favourite line: "He gets treated for stress by a scorpion doctor".  I think it'll do great things for improving people's view of the country. Let's face it, most people don't watch documentaries, and if they do they aren't memorable. Right now most of what people think about Afghanistan is terrorists or women in burqhas. Why? The most emotional stuff they've seen about the country has one of those elements. A goofy show will get an emotional reaction, and make the people on the show seem more like us.
Reading an article about it, it does sound he pissed off a few people. He got shot at a couple times, and rollerskated in spandex through Kandahar.

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Program or be programmed

Great message by a man with great insight. Understand the biases of the medium for society, and you will be one of the elite. When we invented text, the power was with those who could read. When we invented the printing press, the power was with those who could write. Now that we have the internet, the power is with those who can program. Learn to program, or be programmed.

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I'll keep it simple: if you're into tech, read this

`The operating system of the internet
Draws a great parallel between computing in the 1980s and now. Back then, people were struggling to make different programs play nicely together. MS Windows stepped in to fill the gap. Now we have the same sort of challenge with websites. Who is stepping in? Google mainly, but also open applications like XML and the like. The whole idea is allowing developers to move to a higher level of abstraction. If I don't have to worry about driver compatibility, I can spend more time making my program really great. The same applies with the web. If I don't have to worry about making my code compatible with a dozen different formats, I can focus on making a powerful web-app.
It also includes a nuanced discussion of content control online (as opposed to the normal knee jerk reactions). He also implies other coming technologies, like the new wave of advertising (focused on social networks) which my generation may not be immune to, the way we are the advertising of our parents.
He's also upfront about some unsolved problems, like keeping your coworkers separate from your social friends online. How can I bitch about my boss if he's my friend on Facebook? We need to figure that out.
Overall, great article. Some insightful perspectives, but also leaving some questions open.

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ACTA - Draconian laws to cripple my generation

I've just been reading about ACTA, which is an international copyright agreement that nobody but the negotiators and some trade groups (like movie companies) has been able to see. Someone recently leaked a copy, and it's even worse than expected. If you're accused of copyright infringement (and let's be honest: who in my generation is entirely guiltless?) your property can be seized and you can be forced to pay damages far in excess of any potential damage without the accuser even having the need to prove damages. Yeah, I can't see that being abused.
It also mandates imprisonment for infringement for commercial purposes, which includes "significant willful infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain." So now we've defined 'commercial' to include non-financial gain. Do these people even live in the same world as us?
I've emailed my MP (also leader of the Liberal party) to ask his opinion, but I haven't heard back yet. Personally I'm doubtful I will.
There's plenty more wrong with this agreement, like the insane liabilities ISPs would carry if they allowed copyrighted traffic on their networks, but I need to get back to work.

Link

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