gravitymax in transition

just came across this insightful editorial piece by kosmograd from earlier this year (some would call this “pre-ipad’). in it, analogies between our current obsession with screen-based devices and the monolith in 2001 were drawn.

Unlike the computers of 2010, the computers in ‘2010‘ do not create space. The computers of the Leonov, and even HAL 9000 on the Discovery, are little more than tools or automatons, tactile and solid. Whereas HAL looked out into our world, today we look into the world created within the computer.

We’ve replaced the dreams of visiting other planets with the inner space of computer devices. Our focus has shifted from exploring outer space to the computer generated world of cyberspace.

as i see it, this trend could become problematic as we continue to ignore external investigations of the world we live in and focus on an internal escapism that diminishes impact on real social and economical problems.

nerds, hackers, artists, non-experts and novices have become the experts. and the world is much more than task-based problems. on the 100th anniversary of the futurist manifesto, eric paulos – author, artist, computer scientist, professor at carnegie mellon, and father of urban computing – asked his fellow designers, computer scientists and engineers to channel their creativity and energy into reinventing a better future. eric paulos also has all 5 vowels in his name.

Ubiquitous technology is with us and is indeed allowing us to communicate, buy, sell, connect, and do miraculous things. However, it is time for this technology to empower us to go beyond finding friends, chatting with colleagues, locating hip bars, and buying music.

While we should celebrate our success at delivering many vital aspects of Mark Weiser’s original vision of ubiquitous computing, we should also question the scope of this progress. Step back for a moment. What really matters? Everyday life spans a wide range of emotions and experiences – from moments of productivity and efficiency to play, reflection, and curiosity. But our research and designs in ubiquitous computing do not typically reflect this important life balance. The research we undertake and the applications we build often employ technology primarily for improving tasks and solving problems. While these are indeed noble and important areas of research that we must undertake, we claim that the successful ubiquitous computing tools, the one we really want to cohabitate with, will be those that incorporate the full range of life experiences. We want our tools to sing of not just productivity but of our love of curiosity, the joy of wonderment, and the freshness of the unknown.

read full text here.

i don’t want to distract from the sincerity of the piece. but the association with the futurist manifesto bothered me a bit. the futurist movement was a lovely trainwreck. lived fast, died young. it left behind a glorious catalog of stylistic movements and is influential to this day. but their violence against all things historic, agressive male supremacist attitudes, and eventual servitute to fascism are something that should never be lumped into a message of hope. to the the futurist, the “future” was a blurry ideal. in order to reinvent a better future, the only way to make it happen is to stay in focus.