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Vint Cerf Optimistic About Internet's Future, Continued Innovation
Anti-Globalism takes us to The Observer for an article by Vint Cerf on how far the internet has come, and how much can still be accomplished through its development. Cerf says,
"We're nearing the tipping point for mobile computing to deliver timely, geographically and socially relevant information. Researchers in Japan recently proposed using data from vehicles' windscreen wipers and embedded GPS receivers to track the movement of weather systems through towns and cities with a precision never before possible. It may seem academic, but understanding the way severe weather, such as a typhoon, moves through a city could save lives. Further exploration can shed light on demographic, intellectual and epidemiological phenomena, to name just a few areas."
As long as there's fairly few data sources, you could get the butterfly effect writ small -- a butterfly smashing into my windshield causes me to activate my wipers, resulting in a prediction of a thunderstorm in Philadelphia.
as if there really is someone named "Vint Cerf"
Back in the late 1970s, Bell Labs put several hundred direct-wired rain sensors around Murray Hill, NJ. (This isn't hard when you're the phone company.) They could then make "movies" of the patterns of rain when storms went through. This resulted in cute pictures, but didn't provide any predictive value, so it was dropped.
Oh well.
Is it just me or does the quality of the content seam to be spiraling down?
Whenever I do a Google search on anything, I find that I have to wade through pages of garbage, redundant pages and downright copies, advertisements, and pages authored by folks with very little, if any, knowledge of the subject. What is it that you engineers call it? Signal to noise ratio?
I think the next big web app is going to be a filter.
Just remove the battery and you will be fine. Add a tin foil hat to be sure.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
People change technology. Technology does not change people.
... Dear Michael ... great job on the gold medals ... watched it all in high def on the flatscreen ... thanks for waiting around in China for a month to read my letter (those steam ships sure make life move fast these days, eh) ... can't let technology change us you know ... please make an effort to not just click send on your emails either, but do it the way we've always done it ... thanks ...
Uh huh. I always use my gmail system to create a letter, print it to a PDF, print that on my laser printer, take it over to the roll top desk, light some candles, get the quill pen and ink bottle out, and calligraph my "me too" letter, which I then place in a parchment envelope, seal with some wax, get the horse out fo the barn and saddle him, kiss the family goodbye, load up for bear, and trek 15 miles through the woods to the nearest post office, stopping by the general store for a brew each way. Some guy, who doesn't look at all like Kevin Costner, adds it at the post office to his pile, hitches his spare horses in trail, and rides to the other coast, at great risk. There he hands the parchement off to the next outbound freighter, which eventually, through a myriad of events worthy of a Neal Stephenson length novel, eventually delivers said prose to a Mr. Michael Phelps in Beijing China
When most people weren't on it and it was still cool.
Don't forget that easy transfer of information also implies easy transfer of disinformation.
Lies, propaganda, marketing, causing panics, etc. could all be caused by a well coordinated information hack.
The swift boaters and Fox news are two examples of this, but as information flow and connectivity increases I predict more vulnerability to this sort of attack on good information. Without good information neither democracies nor markets can operate effectively.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
We're reaching another tipping point. For example, if you live in the UK, you got the EU internet data retention directive, National ID program, Integrated communications records database, National DNA database, Vehicle movements database, Enhanced CRB database, PNR database, Bank record and credit card monitoring databases, etc. etc.
We're at a tipping point where our privacy is not only taken away completely, but gives way to complete, total control.
In this case, I think it's relevant to mention that Vint Cerf, despite all his legandary accomplishments, is now an ad broker who makes a living by selling your privacy. That billions are involved and that the company he works for prefers profit over privacy and human rights (e.g. China). And that Vint failed to mention this in his optimism.
My car did ONE little wipe and my mom got scared and said, "you're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air."
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.