A while ago we blogged on the virtual paths we create in getting from one place to another on the internet. The well worn paths of the center illustrate a larger number of connections between a larger number blogs.
Recently stumbled on this post on the subject of Desire Paths, those little paths worn by pedestrians as they try to traverse the shortest distance between two points. These paths are built not by planned institutions but by organically emerging social impulses. (See below and here for more examples of desire paths).
Check out the NYTimes graphical recontextualization of the last 20 years of box office revenue. It’s interesting to see what obscure dinosaur bones are buried beneath the strata (Howard the Duck is less of a big deal than I remember).
Perhaps more interesting is the increasing trend of feast or famine that marks the blockbuster summers of late. Observe below Summer of 1987 side-by-side with Summer of 2007 (ignore the obvious issues of box office inflation). While the hits of ’87 – Beverly Hills Cop II, The Witches of Eastwick, and The Untouchables – earned their gross generally over runs of several months, the hits of ’07 – there were too many to count – peaked opening weekend and troughed immediately after. ’07 sees films staking an obvious claim on their opening weekend and squeezing all other films into obliteration, while ’87’s blockbusters appear more charitable to fellow, perhaps more obscure films.
I don’t normally like to dwell on the overly techno cerebral, but I came upon three things today that caught my interest:
1. This video on the thinking behind web 2.0, the development of a web that is user-friendly.
2. This graphic of the progression to Web 3.0, a web that allows web applications to think and behave more interactively and our machines to become hyper-technologically interactive (depending on hardware that can communicate fluidly).
3. This technology that is now adapting to the consumer level:
The first consumer application of Brain/Computer Communications, which can now interpret your thoughts literally into words on the screen (and you can play Pong, too).
Currently, the device only reads one way – from brain to computer; users have to use their eyes to interface the other direction. But how soon until the device interfaces both directions?
The self hating Luddite in me relishes the thought of the potential for convergence. Imagine a wireless miniature technology that could be plugged into your ear, or, better, planted into your brain to direct your thoughts into computer action. Where can I get a pizza?, you’ll think, and up on your computer will pop a list of pizza places ranked by general popularity, and the computer’s customized learning of your personal preferences! Can I get my Moto-Robot to walk the dog and get the mail?, you’ll ponder, and off will trot your personal wirelessly connected bot. “Assassinate the president while you’re out there”, you’ll shout after him (with your brain of course).
Sometimes I wonder whether scientists are inventing this because they really think it’s good for humanity, or they just want to see how close they can get to replicating the world as it must have existed a few years before “Mad Max” happened.
[UPDATE: Add this thought to the mix:
Sony’s simply titled “Home” game for Playstation takes the concept of Second Life, which blew the Sims out of the water, and adds a few improvements. (These games are pretty serious. One woman claimed to have earned her first million by selling fake real estate in the virtual Second Life). How soon until faux-reality “games” give way to hyper virtual reality? And when brain interface technologies read both ways, what’s stopping us from giving up on real real life altogether?
This post written using fingers, eyes, and computer. And a brain. A real brain.
A while ago we blogged on the virtual paths we create in getting from one place to another on the internet. The well worn paths of the center illustrate a larger number of connections between a larger number blogs.
the Blanket Statement 