The Leirdal Blog - Science

The future, 2.0

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:00:31 +0100

As a follow up to my earlier fantasy of new possibilities regarding a documented generation I would like to blow out some steam regarding social software as well.

One of the problems we see today is that there are only a few people producing the information that is consumed by all the rest. Those reading are participating with tagging, bookmarking and rating of the content, but even this should be easier. The production of the content could also be easier.

So let us play with the idea of a documented world. On our way forward we have a few stops on the way. Some of them we are experiencing right now, among else by using Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo or other social networking applications. By blogging and micro-blogging what we do and what interests us we are giving the world knowledge and information that can be used by other applications as what we often call value-added content.

Consider this, you are watching a video or listening to a podcast on the net regarding some information. The video or audio is tagged in such a way that as you play the content, different meta-information rolls by in tandem with the content, and the media player might then display related information based on automated searches as you watch. We are talking hypermedia that intelligently can give you information that you need or want. You will be able to decide where the information is gathered from.

In the next generation of social software I expect us to be able to increase the value for each other in even better and easier ways than today. And as always, the enabler of these features will always be technology.

So in the future, expect great things. Probably not some of the small ideas I present to you here. What we will see will probably be better.

And you will be a part of it. By easily producing content, and adding meta-information and grading what you see. The world will give you more of what you want and of what interests you.

Whether it is semantic technology or intelligent search engines, I bid welcome to interesting and feature rich social networks, in a documented world where you can have an even more enhanced life experience.

Soon, in a life near you!

Are you documented?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:28:34 +0100

In the future: You will be able to rewind your whole life. Everything you have ever done, ever said, ever seen and ever heard will be reviewable, analysable, searchable and last, but not least, available.

We are getting closer to something a lot of people are calling the documented generation. Even today most of what we do is documented in some way or other. I myself have used my archive of digital images gathered over several years to remember when and where I visited some place. I’ve tagged all my images to simplify finding and searching, but I welcome the day this is an automatic process.

Most of your financial transactions are documented and traceable today when you use a debit or credit card for paying. Often you even use a membership card to get other benefits as well.

Most of your movements are traceable today, whether you use a car with an Autopass chip to pass trough highway toll boots, or you pass traffic cameras that watch the traffic. If you fill gas at a gas station you pay using a credit or debit card. When you go by train you use an electronic train ticket containing an RFID chip. When you go by plane you pay by card and you have to show a picture ID before boarding the plane.

Actually you are filmed by surveillance cameras almost everywhere, and most of what you do at work is logged on your computer.

All of your life is already stored on a plethora of computers all over the world and the internet.

These are known issues and something we have seen emerging over several years. Science Fiction authors have suggested this for years and the last decade these issues have been and are discussed in mainstream literature and media as well. And this is only the beginning.

What this will have to say for us personally, for our security against ID-theft and against the misuse of personal information is probably something a lot of people already have felt.
As long as our information is as available as it is, id-theft and misuse of information will become more and more common. The only way to prevent this is to change the routines and the systems available for those that need to verify our identity. They need a more secure way to verify that we are who we say we are, and they need to increase their efforts for protecting our data.

The way technology improves and evolves makes the possibilities for tracking and storing all kinds of information better each day. A new generation of people where everything they do is documented, from the day they are born until the day they die, is not that far away. The documented generation!

I would venture the guess that very soon we will see solutions in the consumer market that enables us to document events while they happen in new and exciting ways. Things like video-goggles that store everything you see, hear and say while attending a meeting or conference. The information might be stored on small, flexible, secure and large storage devices or directly on network storages units. This information may even be integrated with GPS-data and other environment information like weather or temperature, or with auto tagging features that adds other automatic metadata to the different parts of the recording. Face-, object and speech recognition will be automated and stored together with video and sound. And maybe not that much further in the future, this might be available in a 3D video with better than HD-quality.

The benefits that come with this kind of easily available information will of course be both a curse and a boon for us users. I often wonder where I met some people for the first time or what some customer said about some technical problem. Together with the stored information and multimedia we will probably be able to cross-reference our ”life-stream” with all other kind of information. With automated image and speech recognition everything we do, experience and say will be searchable and analysable.

What do you think? How soon will this be available? In 15 years? In 10 or 20 years? Will it be possible to rewind you whole life?

And as a small idea: When will we see the possibility for creating alternate experiences that makes it look like you have led a more exciting life than you really have? Will we see jamming equipment for jamming people from recording you on their life-streams? If you have an idea, please add a comment below.

PS: Yes I am aware of this little thing from the US, but I am saying that people are willingly going to do this just because they can.

The Antikythera Mechanism explained

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:15:42 +0200

While I was on vacation The New York Times had an article about the latest research on the Antikythera Mechanism. If you want to read more there is also a web site for the research-project itself.

If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, and want to know what the Antikythera Mechanism is, then Wikipedia as usual has a good explanation.

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator (also described as the first known "mechanical computer") designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, in 1900. Subsequent investigation, particularly in 2006, dated it to about 150–100 BC, and hypothesised that it was on board a ship that sank en route from the Greek island of Rhodes to Rome. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until a thousand years later.

So, it might be considered a historical anachronism. Something so advanced that many people do not believe it could have be created 2100+ years ago.

The latest research connects it to Corinth and possibly Syracuse (the hometown of Archimedes) and also informs us that the mechanism could among else calculate solar eclipses and the four year cycles of the Olympiad.

I wonder what more knowledge they can wrestle from this very interesting artifact.

What is a year

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:47:40 +0100

After I spent a few weeks of my life making a calendar application and thus suddenly understanding some of the complexities regarding the measurement of time, I have always been a bit curious about the different aspects of this. Consider this, the earth rotates to make a day, but at the same time it orbits the sun. So in order for the sun to reach what we call "high noon" again it rotates slightly more than 360 degrees. Yes you read that correctly. It rotates more than 360 degrees for each of our days. So what is then a year? Phil Plait explains it with pictures. Enjoy!

What's that on the web? It's a sheep... no it's a pig... no it's...

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:50:32 +0100

So, one of the weird stories today on Digg is about these pigs that someone claims are a cross between sheep and pigs. Not so, they are a special breed of pigs called Mangalitza. But hey, they look funny anyway.

The picture is copied from pigparadise.com.

Philosophy corner?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:43:40 +0100

I recommend you go read this little article on cosmicvariance.com. It's quite philosophical, but it deals with how time is something that goes only one way, and not the other - The Arrow of Time. The talk is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which basically says that if you have a closed system that everything will flow into an equilibrium, where the differences in energy levels are so low that no further reactions or actions is possible. To put it in other words, if you put some ice-cubes in a glass they will melt to water, but without some outside help that water will never turn into ice-cubes again. An article like that fires off my brain, give it a read and see what you think. As usual I found this one at The Bad Astronomy Blog.

Researcher: Half a million database servers have no firewall

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:39:03 +0100

As a computer consultant I find this quite disturbing.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts. Really??

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:29:11 +0100

Pretty sensational isn't it? If you check out the article The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts or an alternative version here, it seems a bit too god to be true. I am probably quite gullible, but not when it comes to articles like this.

If you do a quick search on Wikipedia several of these gets debunked instantly.

The Grooved Spheres or the Klerksdorp spheres are natural.
The Dropa Stones seems to be a hoax.
The Ica Stones seems to be a hoax. Here is another site that debunks this.
The Antikythera Mechanism is real, but not necessary something beyond the skills of a very skilled man of that era.
The Baghdad Battery is probably not a battery.
The Coso artifact is obviously not 500.000 years old. That kind of stone can not be used for dating.
Ancient Model Aircraft seems to be disputed. But to make models of birds is something mankind has done for thousand of years so I am curious, and I am thinking, why not.
Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica. I would have called them spheres, but hey... I think this site explains it better.
Impossible Fossils seems to be fakes or misinterpreted.
Out of place metal objects. These seems to be fakes. At least neither I nor other sites can find a reliable source where they are mentioned. They are only mentioned on sites having this list.

This list has been debunked several times before I see. Oh well. Now it has been done once more.

Wonder why they forgot this little nugget, the helicopter hieroglyph.

High resolution video of the moon

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:28:25 +0100

Jaxa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has sent a lunar explorer to get images of the moon. They call the explorer KAGUYA and so far the mission has been successful. They have just gotten HDTV images from the moon. Me like! You can find some pictures and a video here. It's highly recommended.

As usual. This information was something that I found on Bad Astronomy where Phil Plait is having a blast with this one.

Looking moonstruck

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:18:54 +0100

I tested a 400mm zoom lens yesterday, and among else I got this nice picture of a near full moon. When I see a picture like this I always start to think about the few among us that have set their feet on that little sphere in space. A lot of sites on the net think that the lunar landings are fake and only cold-war propaganda from the US. For you guys, please read this.

Actually I recommend the site as well