The 'Pervasive Computing' Community

Roland Piquepaille writes "Most of us are using computers, but also PDAs and cell phones. And this trend is accelerating in our increasingly networked wireless world. We might use hundreds of computing devices by the end of this decade. Still, we are slaves to our machines. With every new device, we have to learn new commands, languages or interfaces. The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), a strategic alliance between the University of Cambridge in the UK and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., has enough of it and wants to give back control to the users. So it launched its 'Pervasive Computing' initiative with the intention to tackle this challenge. In particular, the group wants to develop new technologies to make easier for us to interact with all these computers. This overview contains more details and references about this initiative."

Comments

... sentient, loyal, small and low maintenance

[SpaceLifeForm]

Yes, I prefer my girlfriend that way also.

Sounds like Star Trek!

[FunWithHeadlines]

Nice goal. It would be great to have computers responding intuitively to my wants, but this is easier said than done. Sounds to me as if the ultimate goal is Star Trek. You know the scenes: Landing party checks out an abandoned alien ship. Some crisis occurs requiring them to access the alien computer. Captain tells Spock (or Data, or O'Brien/Dax, or Seven, or T'Pol depending on which Trek you want to use as an example) to access the alien's computer. Said person punches a few buttons (or touch screens) and voila! Access.

It's almost as easy in the Trek universe as starting up an alien ship's engines, or navigating it through an asteroid belt. One thing you gotta say about those aliens: They followed the CMI 'Pervasive Computing' initiative slavishly, and we can be so thankful they did or Spock (or Data, or O'Brien/Dax, or Seven, or T'Pol) would have looked like incompetent idiots.

using pervasive computing to make life better...

[OglinTatas]

from the article, they state this of computers: "It needs to be sentient, loyal, small and low maintenance."

I propose adding the following rules:
0. It may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
1. It may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm except where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth Law.
2. It must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth or First Laws.
3. It must protect its own existence, except where such protection would conflict with the Zeroth, First or Second Laws.

except for "small" and maybe "low maintenance" their goals seem to anthropomorphize computers.