http://fora.tv/2010/07/27/Jesse_Schell_Visions_of_the_Gamepocalypse

It’s also full of great quotes and insights.  One of my favorites is,

So let me explain social networking, it’s a fancy term that means: Facebook.

Believe it or not I set a personal record running a half marathon the next morning (unfortunately I was not in costume)

Still Human? Some observers refer to the post-Singularity period as “posthuman” and refer to the anticipation of this period as posthumanism.  However, to me being human means being part of a civilization that seeks to extend its boundaries.  We are already reaching beyond our biology by rapidly gaining the tools to reprogram and augment it.  If we regard a human modified with technology as no longer human, where would we draw the defining line?  Is a human with a bionic heart still human?  How about someone with a neurological implant?  What about two neurological implants?.. [page 374]

Seem like crazy-talk?  Just ask Dick Cheney.

As a US-based spectator, my view of the referees and those specific calls (as well as the opinions of my immediate social circle) are all clouded.  Technology is the culprit.  It’s made me terribly easy to sway with facts, figures, statistics and even images and replays that the rest of the world (including the refs) are not privy to.  In fact, I’d say the ESPN-loving, 24 hour sports new channel watching fans in the US are spoiled with technology.

Soccer is not our forte in the US.  On a professional level it’s not nearly as popular as the big 4 (or perhaps even golf, Nascar or tennis for that matter).  What is popular in every sport though, is the US flavor of augmented reality for sports.  The graphical overlay, super-slo-mo in HD and other technology-intensive methods that help the general public digest what just happened in a sporting game.  It may have been too fast for the ump, ref or official to notice, but the general public (through replay, coach’s challenge or booth review) becomes an embedded participant in athletic fairness moderated by technology.

Which is perhaps why we have so much trouble with FIFA and the World Cup play.  That level of participation is simply not available.  There’s no replay (except on our TV) and fairness is moderated by human fallibility manifested in the referees on the field rather than the technological aids provided to the “booth” or referees on the field.  When a bad call ruins the day for a pitcher in the US, the ump apologizes and he hugs it out with the player he fouled.  When it happens at the World Cup there’s little discourse.  Instead it seems that the public takes to other technological channels (e.g. the ref’s Wikipedia page) to slay their opponent online while the game in question is altered in a significant, yet unknowable way.  As spectators used to knowing the outcome unequivocally (technology doesn’t lie) we’re left sulking and thinking ‘if only’ we could fix the World Cup technologically and put these issues to rest.  ESPN certainly doesn’t help with their coverage and augmented view through sports’ replay.  While watching any of the Cup coverage just wait for them to acknowledge their technological superiority.  As one ESPN Anchor said as they rotated the frozen image of German and English players on the field to better highlight the goal plane and the ball which had undoubtedly crossed it: “look at our technology”.

Should FIFA adopt goal line technology and the instant replay mentality of US-sports?  Maybe.  Or maybe they should maintain the human touch and human error that makes World Cup play so exciting.  Who’s to say that the introduction of technology wouldn’t change things for the worse?  After all, if the US goal had been allowed would Koman Coulibaly even have a page in Wikipedia?

Either way, he proposed, out of work American’s should get vouchers to go to school, get life coaching, trade schooling, certificates, etc. because “an individual knows better what to do in order to find work” than some government agency.  I’m not proposing the opposite, but it seems to me that sometimes the individual doesn’t or can’t really know what job or career path they should be pursuing.  Passion is one thing, but getting knocked out of a job due to IT integrations doesn’t necessarily mean that the person had a good fix on what they wanted to do before either.

I’m all for developing the out of work workforce, but guidance is a necessary endeavor (there’s a reason the 50s/60s had such a high focus on math, science and engineering; and it wasn’t individually driven.  It was a national goal).

Just saying.

Dr. Barry, a former astronaut and “Survivor” contestant with an M.D. and a Ph. D., has put his ideas into action. He has a robot at home that can take a pizza from the delivery person, pay for it and carry it into the kitchen.

“You have the robot say, ‘Take the 20 and leave the pizza on top of me,’ ” Dr. Barry says. “I get the pizza about a third of the time.”

From In the Singularity University, Humans are so yesterday by Ashlee Vance in the New York Times.

Now they just need to add a camera to the bot to thwart the pizza delivery thieves that take the money and don’t leave the pizza.

Pale Blue Dot from Amy Bach on Vimeo.

I’m not sure why they took down the original version (which was very, very cool). But here’s a replacement that’s AOK as well.

Great soundtrack (to be expected from Spike) and a few good laughs and touching parts. I thought the film was a pretty endearing retelling of the classic robot-boy meets robot-girl (plus a bit of tragedy).

Give it a watch (it’s about 25 minutes) if you can at the official site (note that only 5000 ‘seats’ to watch are opened a day).  The official site: http://www.imheremovie.com

Here’s the trailer:

“it was the best dream in the history of dreams” – Sheldon