The Next Big Thing

Wow, I guess this is my last required blog entry... Let's pause for a moment and reflect...

Okay, reflection over.

Today's group assignment to propose a new business model, product or process got me thinking about "new ideas." Everyone's always trying to coe up with "the next big thing" at the intersection of business and technology. But let's face it, that's hard to do. So maybe a better way to go about it is to try to come up with "the next better thing," i.e., using technology to build a better mousetrap instead of building a hologram of the mouse (or a mechanical flea to implant a chip in the mouse so that an unmanned drone cat can follow it...).

On a totally different note, I wonder what percentage of the technology in 24 is actually realistic...

Ripley's Believe it or Not...

(Anyone else remember that show? Probably not...)

Or should I call this one "In pursuit of trivia"?

Thursday's class had a lot of fascinating "facts" about what technology can do currently and what it's projected to do in the next few years. Obviously, there have been a lot of powerful technological advances in the past few years.

But I have issue with some of the blanket statements that were just thrown out there. For example, the whole thing about "forget about forgetting." In the examples given, technology isn't improving memory. It would be more accurate to say that technology is making it possible so that you don't need to remember anything -- because there will be something to remind you. Only the last point on that slide -- about mind exercises to improve memory -- had anything to do with the broad, oversimplified title of "forget about forgetting."

I'm all in favor of using technology to make life easier. And I'm also in favor of using technology to free up more "thinking time." I'm just a little concerned that there are some people who will be using technology as an excuse to NOT think and to free up more "Second Life time" -- and that's a sad, sad statement of human nature.

Scary Things

I find the whole idea of computer viruses horrifying. People REALLY have nothing better to do than to spend hours and hours to figure out ways to screw up other people's computers (and lives)?? These are probably the same people that are hanging out in Second Life... With any benefit comes risks, and as we continue to benefit from all these great technological advances, we'll continue to find more and new risks as well.

Thanks, Oscar, for your illustration of SOA -- I found it very helpful. Plus, you are a Powerpoint KING!!

Gruesse aus Wien!

Technology can do some amazing things, like allow me to get email from hotel rooms in London, Berlin and Vienna. It also allowed me to keep up on my reading for school without carrying a ton of books -- I had the pdfs on my computer. And, I even had four bars in most of Europe. (When I turned my phone on, that is. The rates are a little ridiculous!)

But technology -- at least in the current state -- still can't replace the experience of a live concert. I heard the MN Orch with Joshua Bell at a sold-out concert at the Barbican in London. Incredible. (Josh Bell may be a diva, but that boy can sure play the violin!) Modern recording technology is getting pretty good, but it still can't capture the full power of the fortissimo louds (without distortion) and the barely audible pianissimos. You could watch a video recording of the concert but you might miss some of the looks of intense concentration on the faces of individual musicians, or the beauty of all the strings bowing together, or the percussionist dancing in the back at a part that's really fun to play. (I highly recommend "Slonimsky's Earbox" by John Adams if you have the chance to hear it live! I didn't think I liked Adams...) With any kind of recording I'm sure that you would definitely miss the collective intake of breath before a difficult passage, and the collective holding of breath at a tender moment. A group of 80 professional musicians produce vibrations that you can hear AND feel -- and this is an incredible thing. Also, the communal experience of being a part of an audience -- each member having individual experiences but having those experiences all together -- is pretty amazing.

So I don't think live music is going to die any time soon. This is why some of the rock bands are willing to give away downloads for free, right? They know that the real money is in touring. The recordings are just a way to get more people to come to live concerts.

And one thing about Second Life... Yeah, I did my "experience." It is SOOOOOOOOOO not for me! It frightens me that people spend hours and hours online in virtual reality. GET A REAL LIFE! I even signed up for a "neighborhood" in Vienna -- I thought that might make it more interesting for me, but it really didn't! I'd rather just GO there and meet people face-to-face. I can't get a decent bottle of Gruener Veltliner in the States anyway...