From cell phones to personal fabricators

In the first chapter of his book Smart Mobs, Reingold, .H (Rheingold, H. (2002). Shibuya epiphany (pp. 1-28). Smart mobs. New York: Perseus.) discusses the current thumb tribes and cell phone (keitai) scene in Nippon. He discusses how in these urban settings, text messaging in the communication medium of choice for the younger crowds, and also how most of them are now internet equipped, though most teens do not think of it as the internet. The i-mode, Nippon’s wireless service provider allows for this degree of texting/mobile internet use. The author calls the i-mode “Japan’s singularly successful wireless internet service.” I took this to mean that the i-mode was Japanese citizen’s only option for wireless internet service? I know that wired internet service providers would be able to have their internet made wireless via access points, but, I am not sure if the i-mode covers all/most of Japan making it the most convenient option. The story of text messaging teens in Shibuya relates to the book’s title or overall theme in that it describes what this new technology has allowed for in terms of communication and meeting up. The keitai give Japanese youth a way to be private, and organize without anyone else around them being privy to it. Before keitai, they would have to communicate via a land line in their home, having their conversations picked up on by anyone within range of their voice. The author also describes how the plans of these youths also often change several times throughout the day and evolve via keitai communication as the day goes on. The author also examines the role of cell phones in Finnish culture, and notes how they are more like an extension of the hand than a fashion symbol like in Shibuya. He also discusses a new term “swarming” which describes mass collaborative efforts to meet up and organize social events via new technology such as cell phones. I also found the notion of being able to purchase things from vending machines with your cell phone to be particularly interesting. Wy not everything? I would love to walk into a store and use my cell phone like a credit card. Granted, security measures would need t be put into place so that if you cell phone were stolen it would not allow some to drain your bank account. I could see finger print recognition working for this, or retinal scan. I predict that laptops and cell phone will eventually merge and one singular (no pun intended) communication/life remote device will emerge. I see this happening over the next 20 years.

The behavior described in this chapter, with respect to Shibuya teenagers, seems to parallel that of American youths’ behaviors. I can see many similarities between the two in that many American teens prefer to communicate via text message rather than land line phone calls or even cell phone calls. I can see why though, it is more private, wastes less time, it is generally cheaper, and you can text message pretty much anywhere in a discrete manner as to not attract attention, especially useful in school. I can also see swarming present in our culture. I’m not a teenager anymore but I still consider myself part of the cell phone generation. I text message in order to organize nightly plans, meet with friends or fellow students, or just send pointless comments to a good friend or significant other throughout the day. I might not send 80 text messages a day like the members of the thumb tribes of Shibuya, but I definitely exhibit the same behavior on a smaller scale.

In Czerwinski’s Digital memories in an era of ubiquitous computing and abundant storage (Czerwinski, M., Gage, D.W., Gemmell, J., Marshall, C., Pérez-Quiñonesis, M., Skeels, et al (2006). Digital memories in an era of ubiquitous computing and abundant storage. Communications of the ACM, 49(1), 45-50.) he discusses the idea of wearing a camera that would video tape our life daily and give us a digital record of our memories. This idea of having a digital record of our memories is flawed in that memories consist of emotion, perception, mood, and many other factors which are not captured in video. They may be evoked while watching the video, but it is not the same as simply remembering an occasion. The author also discusses the notion of having biometric devices attached to use that would process different data about our biological status, such a temperature. He gives the example of an older gentlemen being able to tell that a fever is coming via a device attached to him that reads his temperature. I found this particular example to be a little far fetched in terms of it’s practicality. If someone has a fever and is sick or getting sick, there are signs, not only visible to yourself but other’s around you. Unless the elderly person was living alone and was so detached from reality that they could never even recognize that they were not feeling well, I don’t see it being of much use (even in this example, if the senor told them they had a temperature, chances are they would not react accordingly). I really did not see the need for a record of our memories, which was the premise of this writing, since we usually currently record the ones we consider to be important, unless they occur spontaneously. What I would however find extremely useful would be to have cameras in cell phone, that actually took decent quality pictures and videos, are very easy to use, are quick, stream photos and video to a PC or server, and are small in size. You might be saying that these already exist, which is half true (i have one), put I have yet to see the camera that has all of these capabilities and provides a quick, smooth, easy experience for the user; I have yet to meet the person who is perfectly happy with their cell phone camera, they are always lacking in some way or another. If cell cameras are refined to this level in the next few years though, which I believe they will be, I believe that this will ultimately be the device we use for capturing “memories” on a daily basis. I just don’t think people (most people…) really care to record every moment of their life and are generally turned off by that idea at this point in time. Granteed, there are always exceptions and I’m sure some people would go nuts over having a head mounte camera to capture their ever waking moment. The author also mentions dangers inherant in this type of technology, in that people could essentially break into your memories and steal a record of them, your memories could be sepinad for court use, and we may record things that we do not wish to remember.

Gershenfeld, N. discusses (Gershenfeld, N. (2005). Fab (Selection). New York: Basic Books.) his research and development experience at MIT with respect to personal fabrication machines. These machines would basically create anything that has mass by arranging atoms in a specific configuration in order to reproduce from atomic blueprint whatever it was that you desired. The first thing I thought of while reading this article is recycling.When we recycle something, let’s say a plastic milk bottle, we take an old milk bottle that may be used, damaged, etc., break it down, and recreate a new bottle from the same material. In re fabrication, we are taking atoms and rearranging them to create something from scratch. One point the author fails to make (please correct me if he mentioned it) is that you would need to continuously supply of material which could be broken down in order to create these desired items. The law of conservation of mass states that you can not create or destroy matter (Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201-1274)). Therefore, you are always recycling something else in order to create something new, which would essentially take care of waste materials. Another positive of using these types of machines would be that everything would be built with atomic precision, in that there would theoretically never be defective items produced by one of these machines since they would all be exact duplicates created from the same atomic blueprint (as discussed by the author). Computers and other precision part and devices woul be built perfectly, with their only possible area for flaw being in the original design. If this new type of neo-alchemy being described was actually utilized by the general public on a massive scale, when coupled with the internet, they would essentially destroy most of the goods and services industry, turning most everyone into a DIYS (Do It Your Selfer).

My computer broke…

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