smartPhones :: stupidPeople

[daniel]

I accidentally ran across a lecture by one Wilson Miner discussing the exponentially increasing use of "screens" in daily life. It is an interesting video, even if you do not have a programming background... particularly the bit about his friend that can operate a music synthesizer, but cannot figure out how to boil water on a stove...

https://vimeo.com/34017777

“We shape our tools and our tools shape us.” As more of the tools we live with every day become digital instead of physical, our opportunity – and responsibility – as designers is multiplying. We live in a world of screens, and we are the ones who decide what goes on them. We are in a unique position to have an impact – one that lasts longer than the next redesign or the latest technology. What happens when we stop thinking of ourselves not just as developers or experience designers, and take up the mantle as a new generation of product designers for a digital world?

[daniel]

And if you want to know what they are doing with this technology, read about this product... also stumbled upon accidentally when I got curious about a computer being able to distinguish access between a desktop, tablet or phone from software.

Smartphone Detection

Monitor Shopping and Street Activity: Gain business intelligence by measuring people and cars to enhance user experience in shopping areas and roads.

Vehicle Traffic Monitoring: The last software included in Meshlium Scanner increments from 70% to the 95%* the amount of smartphones, tablets, hands free, and laptops detected by its MAC address by scanning WiFi and Bluetooth signals.

And for those people that don't know what a "MAC address" is... its original meaning comes from the early days of computing, primarily as a joke, where you would report a "bug" in a program as a "MAC Error" -- where MAC stood for "Man At Console." (In other words, the person running the program screwed up using the program--there was no problem with the program.)

Wikipedia now says MAC stands for "media access control" in an effort to hide the fact that a MAC address is unique on each device, and nowadays, unique to a person. The "Man At Console" address is now replacing the social security number for tracking people.

Now consider... before long, they won't need "speed traps" on the roads--your phone will do all the reporting of your misbehavior directly to the police, and I'm sure they'll have an "App" to automatically issue you a ticket and debit your bank account for payment. And they will even know who is doing the driving, because they can determine distances to the people seated in the car.

Ah, technology... making criminal behavior so convenient, we don't have to worry about it any more.

[Sambience]

Not directly related, but the BBC's 'Black Mirror' series does an artfully excellent job of looking at how tech is shaping/distortorting personalities an humanity in general.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror

[Ilkka]

Now consider... before long, they won't need "speed traps" on the roads--your phone will do all the reporting of your misbehavior directly to the police, and I'm sure they'll have an "App" to automatically issue you a ticket and debit your bank account for payment. And they will even know who is doing the driving, because they can determine distances to the people seated in the car.

Ah, technology... making criminal behavior so convenient, we don't have to worry about it any more.

This kind of automatic reporting is exactly what I thought many years ago, about GPS and navigators that show current speed. If navigator is integrated into a cars computer it has all the data and can send it to where ever or downloaded off of it. Main reason why I dont use navigators is just that, I like to check out maps first, so I see the best way to get from place to place. I use google maps for that one. Might use paper ones but dont have any, especially in my car. They are talking about giving speeding tickets based on average speed in total, instead of the usual ones. At least in this country they say about that in the news, we'll see when they make it official. Don't like either one of those choices least of all the average, because it means that they ought to know where you are coming from and going to.

[Djchrismac]

And so it begins... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... book-posts

[trippingthelight]

and then it will spread to health insurance and life insurance etc, and other factors like browsing history/search history and forum comments/likes will affect these things also (if not secretly already). Google is a blessing and a curse, I barely use FB anyway but does anyone protect their browsing? Tor/VPN etc?

[trippingthelight]

A national Free newspaper in the UK, given out in cities and at stations within the rail and bus network had an appalling feature today. I never read it, but my wife handed it to me today as she picked one up. It's a 3 page article with not one negative comment, it's all literally pro-transhumanism, pro-cyborg. Here are few quotes:

...we are on an evolutionary path that that by 2050 will see an entirely new fusion of man and machine he calls homo optimus

For tech incubator Epicentre in Sweden, work really gets under their skin after RFID chips the size of a grain of rice were inserted into their hands, this allows them to open doors and interact with their smartphones and computers, store security information and even make payments, all with a wave of their arm

....a radical transformation of the human race in as little as 35 years

...will choose to replace their biological heart with a wi-fi connected mechanical one to help stave off heart attacks

other nonsense goes on about smart make up, that has tiny implants between skin cells that interact with a phone app to instantly add and change make up. Scary to think i have 2 young children growing up into this.

Forgive me while I ramble now, but this has been bothering me for a few weeks, it seems right to bring it up now! off topic but ties in.

We got married in the Cook Islands in 2007 towards the end of a 9 month world trip. My wife and I had some weird things happen very recently that relate to the trip.

I was looking (very optimistic) for houses for sale in the Cook Islands one day, just out of interest, didn't spend long but i looked. The next day, my wife rang to tell me a large picture had fallen on the wall of our house. The picture was taken whilst on the same trip in which we got married (only a few days earlier, my 6 yr old asked where the picture was taken). A day or so after my wife was then given a New Zealand dollar as change in error, instead of a £1 (Cook Islands being part of NZ territory). Also on the same world trip I recall seeing a book for sale which took my interest (The Traveler), I first saw in Australia and had never seen anywhere since then, until a couple of days after the picture fell off the wall when it appeared at a popup charity used book stall in a local supermarket.

I spent ages trying to work out what it all meant, possible signs we really should work to move away I'm not sure. We were away for 9 months and this year is 9 years since we returned (also 2007 = 2+7=9). I never thought about the 9's until just now actually. Knowing what I've been reading on here the past few weeks i am not sure southern hemisphere would be good, wouldn't it be slung off into the south pole?!?!?

Ha I have also had a few clock times of 11:11 recently,I know there's something........

[Ilkka]

Knowing what I've been reading on here the past few weeks i am not sure southern hemisphere would be good, wouldn't it be slung off into the south pole?!?!?

I dont know what you are trying to say here. Do you mean pole shift or something else?

[trippingthelight]

It's was from this posting i saw from DjChrismac regarding a future expansion event.

Djchrismac wrote:
I tried one night to work out how a future expansion/pole shift may have things looking and after much globe spinning, checking the maps of fault lines, the oceans and how the continents used to fit together and in my estimation (very tricky not knowing which bits are going to expand more, so I went with an average around the fault lines) my post expansion globe has the west coast of Africa pointing towards the Labrador sea (as it is now) instead of Mexico with Britain down at Italy's latitude, Antarctica moving north, between it and Australia/New Zealand is the new South pole and unfortunately Canada and the northern states as a new north pole! Time to move guys!!

[Djchrismac]

It's was from this posting i saw from DjChrismac regarding a future expansion event.

Djchrismac wrote:
I tried one night to work out how a future expansion/pole shift may have things looking and after much globe spinning, checking the maps of fault lines, the oceans and how the continents used to fit together and in my estimation (very tricky not knowing which bits are going to expand more, so I went with an average around the fault lines) my post expansion globe has the west coast of Africa pointing towards the Labrador sea (as it is now) instead of Mexico with Britain down at Italy's latitude, Antarctica moving north, between it and Australia/New Zealand is the new South pole and unfortunately Canada and the northern states as a new north pole! Time to move guys!!

That was done while experimenting with how continents may be positioned after an expansion but it was more conjecture as I believe that the earth expanded early during the great bombardment. So who knows when the next expansion event will be, or how the schedule of natural expansion has been interrupted by the forced early expansion, that's way above my station.

I wouldn't worry about that and where to stay on planet matrix, I think the planet has already gone through expansion fairly recently and probably won't do so again for who knows how long...