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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
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6:17 pm - Thoughts of the Semester
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Unlike much of the class (or so it seems), I know exactly why a semester ago I signed up for a class about Second Life. Not so I could sit and dork around with fellow Comm majors, though that was certainly a big plus. It was because, honest and truly, I loved Second Life. Quite fortunately, I still love it.
In the beginning of the semester, it annoyed me how there was the 'us vs them' mentality with some people, the tendency of some people to see Second Life users as an odd other sort of people that they didn't understand. That stands out to me when I think about the beginning of the semester much more than the readings we did to get used to the terms and ideas of virtual worlds. (Which is not to say I didn't learn from those readings, I did. And I was so interested by the articles about corporations and Second Life that it spawned my Capstone project.) Looking back at that time, it makes me all the more glad that it seems everyone eventually started to enjoy being part of Second Life. It's been a great several months.
Despite that I had experience with Second Life before this class, I didn't realize until taking the class how little I knew about Second Life. Sure, at the beginning of the semester I knew it was easy to find places centered around sex and difficult to find much else. I knew that it was fun to walk my avatar around to see the sights, when I could find things that looked interesting. Sadly, that's about all I knew; seems so superficial now, but at the time I felt pretty smart for knowing that tiny bit more than the others in class.
Now I know a bit about all these other cool things, like band simulcasts and playing dress up. And of course our beloved SLeuth project, which I'm really hoping will someday grow to teach me even more about cool places to go and connect me to cool people. Rather ambitious expectations of it I know, and a bit ironic since I wasn't too into the idea at first and spent too much of the semester unsure if it would actually turn out. I'm sorry for that, now that we've reached the end of the semester I finally appreciate how great the idea is. Everyone in class, you were great to work with and if any of you continue to roam Second Life feel free to say hi to me there.
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| Monday, April 23rd, 2007
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10:14 am - Project Discussion
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Trying to build up the class project, aka SLeuth, has been quite the experience so far. Unfortunately, from my perspective, it hasn't been a particularly good or productive experience. My contribution feels like it doesn't reflect the time I've put into it, time that in hindsight I guiltily feel perhaps would have been better spent elsewhere. At first I was excited to get to be on the Web Team, since I know a bit about making websites and such. Then we got into issues like the database, and I didn't feel like I was being as much help anymore. Yes, sure, I helped with things like making the survey into webpage form and tried to help make content; that doesn't change the fact that the website didn't progress as quickly or as easily as we all thought it would. Watching the fun the Build Team looks like it's been having makes part of me wish I'd been part of that group instead, though if I had I would probably have just ended up wishing I'd been part of a different group instead.
I can't think of much to say about how this connects to marketing issues, talk of the future of Second Life, or talk of Internet 3D as we were asked to discuss. Mostly because, honestly, I don't feel very connected to any of that. I haven't since we started this project. The only reason I feel a connection to the project and the rest of the class even is because I wander onto Second Life to do 'silly' things like play with my avatar's hair or watch the Build Team while I think about what I can try to do for the Web Team. What I'm most likely to take away from this project after the semester ends is the lesson to not make unrealistic deadlines or workload expectations. And that working on a project without much communication with the group as a whole is not a good plan.
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| Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
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2:30 pm - My Thoughts on Manny's Class Summaries
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For class I reviewed ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) supermanu22 Manny's summaries: "Living Structures in Second Life Virtual Worlds Projects", "Shoppers move like people", and "Online Dating". Overall, despite his apologies for the quality, I felt they were very well written and informative. All three had concise selections of keywords that seemed specific and relevant. He showed good judgment in what to include in the first paragraph of the summary to cite interest to read more. I liked also that the entries had individual descriptive titles, something I think in hindsight more people should have done. The style of the summaries got to the point easily. The first two summaries ("Living Structures in Second Life Virtual Worlds Projects", "Shoppers move like people") seemed very complete and did not lead to a feeling that I was missing out on any important points from the article. The third summary however didn't seem as put together as the other two, more like a list of facts than a logical progression of ideas; of course, that could have been the article's doing and not Manny's since the relevance section was more cohesive. Still, that summary left me wanting to look for the article to fill in the holes between ideas, if possible.
His summary and opinions about the relevance of "Living Structures in Second Life Virtual Worlds Projects" addressed issues the class should keep in mind for the physical aspect of the project. Some of what he had to say I thought needed re-mentioning, aka me taking the time to ask a few questions. For example, "The locations need to be unique, and not look like 'building blocks' but instead look organic", which is very good to think about... but didn't the building we decided on look rather, uh, box-like? Is that a strike against it? Also, "We need to have events and entertainment, and people who are willing to administer such things"... do we have people with the time and commitment to be around SL to provide events and entertainment?
I also had some points/quotes to pull from his review of "Shoppers move like people". "American shoppers, upon entering a store, will always go to their right, while Europeans will go to the left (following the rules of the road from their respective countries)"; I find this amusing largely because it means that apparently I go to the 'wrong' side then in certain stores... so beware of generalizations. I do agree that having attention-grabbing content to the direct left and right of the entrance is a good idea for us though. The point that things should be accessible to the eye/camera-view and not placed too high or in obscure corners I also agree with, since I've been to SL stores with that sort of problem; guess those high ceilings in that building we were looking at have their downsides.
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| Friday, March 9th, 2007
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3:41 pm - Exam: Mobile Workspace Description
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The two main places I access project information for class is from a computer in the lab and from my laptop at home. As the only times I use the library computers these days is for highly specific tasks that can't be done elsewhere, such as taking notes on a book from reserves that I can't take out of the library or wrapping up a paper, I don't typically access project information there.
On my laptop, I have Firefox set up to start with tabs for personal email, school email, the class blogs, the more Google products page (which gives me quick access to the class group, calendar, and that email), and the class readings. I do not have websites set up to auto-login, even though I'm the only one who uses my laptop, out of the concern that just in case someone was to get access to it. As a college student, that seems the safer course. Problems I've found with this primarily revolve around the fact that I've noticed Firefox having issues with my email occasionally, the school email more than the personal email.
For other computers, I use the system of Google 'personal home' links that Pat suggested in class, as that works much better than anything else I'd come up with. Problems with this were that it took awhile to set up everything there, but it's likely less time than I'd have spent re-setting everything up when I use the lab computers now that I think about it. The only other major problem coming to mind with this setup is that it takes several steps to get to the Google links, but again no more than the amount of steps it took with any other setup.
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3:39 pm - Article Review
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Title: "The Coolhunt." Article author: Malcolm Gladwell Full citation: Malcolm Gladwell (1997). "The Coolhunt." The New Yorker, March 17, 1997. Summary by: Katherine Rector Key concepts, terms, and buzzwords: - L Report
- trickle-down vs trickle-up
- “chase and flight”
- mainstream
- cutting edge
- trends
- diffusion research
- “innovators”
- “early adopters”
Summary:
Coolhunters seek out the elusive ‘next big thing’, usually in youth fashion, for marketers to capitalize on and try to sell to the masses. This leads to trends changing faster, and thus more need for coolhunters to find a new trend. This is related to the broader idea of diffusion, the spread of ideas and innovations.
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3:37 pm - Article Review
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Title: "Moving beyond the game: Social virtual worlds." Article author: Betsy Book Full citation: Betsy Book (2004). "Moving beyond the game: Social virtual worlds." Conference paper presented to State of Play Reloaded. New York Law School. October 2004. Summary by: Katherine Rector Key concepts, terms, and buzzwords: - virtual worlds
- social worlds
- gaming worlds
- MMORPG
Summary:
This article compares and contrasts types of virtual worlds, defined as gaming worlds and social worlds. It also compares and contrasts various social worlds, such as Second Life as well as others.
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3:32 pm - Article Review
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Title: "Avatar politics: The social applications of Second Life." Article author: Nancy Scola Full citation: Nancy Scola (2006) "Avatar politics: The social applications of Second Life." Summary by: Katherine Rector Key concepts, terms, and buzzwords: - avatar
- Snow Crash
- marketing
- social relations
- real world methods vs virtual world methods
- innovation
Summary:
Nancy Scola starts off a brief description of former Virginia governor Mark Warner coming to give a talk in SL, then backtracks to tell about SL to explain why this is so significant to discuss. She provides a concise explanation of what SL is then moves on to talk about the structure, in-world and out, as well as the economic and social issues.
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| Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
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9:39 am - Thoughts/Concerns about Group Project
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Okay, so now that lj lets me onto this account for more than a couple of minutes...
Honestly, I think our plans are bigger than we can do by the end of the semester. Or at least it sounds like they are, unless I'm misunderstanding what ideas people keep tossing out for this. And as was pointed out by impirator how many of us are actually all that into this idea. Not to mention, it sounds rather like things that are already in SL except those are better defined and more thoroughly implemented than we're likely able to do. From what I've gathered, we're wanting to make a service to help residents meet up and casually date with the possibility of things getting more serious... but then there's also the suggested aspect of mentoring, plus the issue of are we making date places or just pointing people to them... I'm getting confused again.
I'm also not sure what I personally am going to be doing in this. Helping to advertise I suppose, since I've got very little interest in the matchmaking aspect itself (which I tried to cover in a post that apparently disappeared). And helping with building date places I guess if we do that, even if it seems a bit out of our scope. I'm not sure I have much faith that I'd be able to make anything too fancy anyways despite having been in SL for awhile, but I'd try.
To recap the post I tried to make earlier about matchmaking sites: I found them frustrating, the surveys too long, and after a few hours of looking at profiles on various sites I started seriously wondering why I had bothered. Maybe if I'd actually had any interest in dating rather than just doing it for class I wouldn't have found the experience so pointless, but I have my doubts on that.
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| Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
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1:42 pm - Assignment #3
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One of my favorite things in Second Life happens to be a walk-through exhibit about schizophrenia that I found though New World Notes earlier in the semester. So, I suppose, that might make me a bit biased towards walk-through exhibits in general. Something else on New World Notes that had struck my fancy earlier was a story about fish evolution. Neither of which seem to have much connection to something that could be done as a group project for the class, unfortunately, besides as an example of what is possible to do in Second Life.
However, I randomly wandered onto a story about furries as I was browsing around. Which got me thinking about how it would be rather cool to make something about furry-awareness. Or zebra-awareness, since we have one in class. Perhaps others in the class would be interesting in making a short machinima work about them? Make a small exhibit? Though, the idea is rather broad and unwieldy after I think about for a little while, so I kept looking.
The many stories about car companies branching into Second Life got me thinking that having a safety course would be interesting. Fairly sure we have virtual race tracks and crash courses in Second Life, not so sure about anything promoting safe driving. Which, admittedly... is rather boring to many people. And the idea is likely overwhelming as well.
Unfortunately, while I saw many interesting ideas of things others had done in Second Life (which I'd post but I have a feeling people have already seen the links), nothing else really struck me as something to inspire a group project idea. I kept getting distracted by remembering certain people's suggestions of Oregon Trail or a brothel. Suppose I'm better at considering others' ideas than thinking up my own.
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| Monday, January 29th, 2007
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3:48 pm - Assignment #2: SL and RL Business
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While trying to use Google News to find out about ventures in Second Life, I surprisingly didn't have much luck. Sure, there were plenty of stories about SL itself, but I couldn't find as much as I thought I would about companies and organizations entering into SL. So, back to the class website it was to find a link to something to look into. First big lesson before even going into SL to find out about venture: ventures need more public notice.
After deciding to look into IBM's SL venture, I returned to Google News and hoped to have more luck finding information. Which... I didn't. Found articles in the first few pages that mentioned IBM in passing, but not so much in-depth about them in SL. Interestingly enough, looking in the main Google search got me better results. Such as: IBM eyes move into Second Life 'v-business' on Reuters/Second Life.
Then came the time to jump to the next stage, looking in Second Life. With a simple little search, I got several results, including IBM servers. Which seemed like a nice enough place I suppose. Had fun chairs, a flying train... and plenty of brand name placement. Which was to be expected.
What I've learned about this venture: Apparently IBM is "using [SL] as a location for meetings, training and recruitment" as well as for "revenue opportunities that could have it vying with Second Life design firms to bring real-world businesses into the virtual realm" (Reuters). They have a few hundred employees in-game, own several islands, and done things such as a simulation of the Wimbledon tennis tournament and an IBM alumni reunion. However, from in-game, I couldn't tell what I'd found besides an okay place to visit and a few cool things. Which I wouldn't have found unless I searched for IBM. Overall, I'd deem this project not a success yet, since I can't figure out quite what the project is supposed to be. But whatever it is, it lacks visibility and I'm going to let myself assume that at least part of the point is to get attention. Lessons: make the project parameters clear and make sure to get notice for your work.
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2:34 pm - Assignment #1: Interests and Second Life
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When I try to think about my interests and relating them to Second Life, one thing that comes to mind besides my interest in going into SL in general is role-playing. Which is a bit ironic, since I don't actually role-play in SL... at least not the way I tend to role-playing outside of SL or within a role-playing community in SL. But after thinking about it more, I realize that it is role-playing in a way since I'm acting through my avatar, who is someone not quite me but still deeply connect to me.
Kailyn Pharaoh, in my mind at least, is just a touch cooler than me and a little less needing of fitting in. Which makes it a bit odd to realize that, while she's not like any other avatar I've seen yet, she's made up of such common parts. She used to have as her default outfit some clothes I'd bought for her, but I decided that I liked better what I could make for her. And yet, she and I get compliments on her looks. Suppose the message there is that while other avatars might get attention for being flashy or having that part that no one else has, she gets attention for putting the basics together in a way that lets her own her look (if that makes sense). Which I have to admit is a bit of an ego boost to me, since she's the face I show SL. As I mentioned in class, when I was looking at other virtual world systems, one of the things that turned me off was that there didn't seem to be as much freedom in other systems in how to make an avatar look. While Kailyn might look fairly 'normal' right now (aside from her wings), I like knowing that I can turn her into a dragon or a furry or some other look should I ever feel like it. I like knowing that, even if I have a fairly 'normal' looking avatar, I can go find someone unusual looking if I just take the time to look. One of my biggest interests in life is finding opportunities in which I can pick and choose what about myself to show the world, often through forms of role-playing; seconded by the chance to watch others be versions of themselves.
Thus, I suppose I shouldn't be as surprised as I am by how much I enjoy getting to slip into my SL persona and walk around to meet other people in their personas. I suppose eventually I'll work up the courage to actively seek out the 'real' role-playing groups in SL since it might be interesting to try that sort of role-playing, which is not quite the text-based format I generally use and not quite larping either. This isn't really the type of goal I imagine this assignment was supposed to be about, since it's not all that oriented on where I intend for my life to go from here, but it is how I see my interests coinciding with the format of SL and virtual worlds in general.
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| Thursday, November 16th, 2006
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12:21 pm - Snow Crash & Second Life
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Well there was quite a bit I didn't really get a chance to say during the class discussion (and what little I did say, I felt like got quickly covered up by other people's comments), so I'm glad for the chance to ramble about it now. Unlike most of the class, I don't find being in a virtual world to be altogether surreal. It's just another form of reality to me. I don't plan to go live in a storage building like Hiro Protagonist, but I'm not planning to cut myself off from the virtual world and live only in the conventional 'real' world. Because in some ways my avatar is just as important or more important to me than 'real' people. I'm sure at some point we've all heard about the starving children in Africa (or some variation); are they more 'real' than an avatar just because the avatar is a virtual being? I know my avatar's name and face, how she relates to her world; I can't say the same for people half a globe away.
I think my perspective comes from two aspects.
First, being part of a role-play group. I'm accustomed to the concept of an entity who is both part of me and not part of me. If a friend IMs me and asks what's going on, I'm as likely to say that my character is off on a date as I am to say that I'm doing homework. Quite simply, to me he is real. Asking what makes him real is like asking what makes the people around you real.
Second, having friends I only talk to through the internet; IMs, emails, livejournal, etc. This doesn't feel very odd to me until attention is brought to it, usually it's just another part of what defines my reality.
A few things about the readings themselves that I'd like to highlight though, since there wasn't the opportunity to do so in class:
The talk of the generic store-bought avatars and avatars made from basic building sets... gee, sounds a bit like our avatars in class. Especially right at first, though I still feel mine is rather cookie-cutter (even if no one else in class has one like mine).
Felt sorry for those poor avatars (in the reading) who don't have homes and thus have to teleport in from terminals. Then it hit me that our class avatars don't have houses either, and I decided to feel sorry for them instead.
The whole thing about avatars not being allowed to be taller than their 'real' form? So glad that SL doesn't have like that, or I wouldn't be able to have an avatar who passes for normal height. Sure she's on the shorter end of the built-in height range, but she's still proportionally taller than me. Petty thought, but it did bother me. Guess even in the virtual world of the reading, people still aren't allowed to break away completely from rl notions.
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| Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
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12:14 pm - A Night in the Life...
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My experiences with Second Life during the past few days have been, in a word, frustrating. I've come to the conclusion recently that my laptop doesn't like much of anything, so that certainly didn't help the process of downloading and running the Second Life program. I found it hard to enjoy being in Second Life for a few different reasons. Partly it was due to areas taking a long time to load, or not completely loading at all. I know we saw a bit of this during class, but I hadn't been expecting as much lag time as I saw at home.
Another reason I did not enjoy Second Life as much as I did in class was that I had trouble finding things to do. I'm sure there are plenty of things to do which don't require money, but I couldn't find much besides casinos and stores when I tried searching for places to explore. Additionally, I didn't have much contact with other people. This was partly due to areas with many people being the ones that I couldn't load, but it was also because I felt nervous about approaching strangers in the less populated areas I managed to find. This was especially true once I started seeing more people and realizing how obvious it probably was that I am a newbie. So, I spent a lot of my time at that Thunder's bar that I had followed Marla to in class, dancing around all by myself. Tried to make a screenshot of that, but that idea didn't work out. Learned how to play pool at the bar and had fun dancing though, so I suppose it wasn't a total waste.
I think if I'd gone through the standard introduction to Second Life in class (rather than getting displaced into a random place I still haven't managed to find again), I don't think I would have been quite so confused about what to do.
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| Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
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9:15 am - Military Industrial Complex
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Military industrial complex is a term first used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Originally, it seems, he was planning to call it the 'miltary-industrial-congressional complex', but changed it so that Congress would be placated. And rather than fade completely from the public consciousness, it has through periods of use and disused, being revived every generation or so before it can be forgotten completely. Emphasizing how current this term still is, I found a Harper's Magazine article that summarizes events in 2003 and 2004 that are related to MIC.
According to the ever-popular Wikipedia, the term describes the "close and symbiotic relationship between a nation's armed forces, its arms industry, and associated political and commercial interests". In less positive terms, it is also called the "iron triangle" and can be seen as "an institutionalised collusion among defense contractors (industry), The Pentagon (military), and the United States government (Congress, Executive branch), as a cartel that works against the public interest, whose motivation is profiteering."
Looking to other sources, I found that those were fairly accurate summaries of the term. Concise and easy-to-quote too, as Wikipedia managed to say in a paragraph what other sources might take pages to try to explain. The military relies on the weapons industry to continue providing for them (and in theory not providing for the enemy), the industry relies on the military for contracts (again in theory, only one side of the 'disagreement'), and the government not only lets this happen but encourages it.
Although the term has been around for four decades, it is still as relevent now as it was then, as seen in this Christian Science Monitor article and the previously mentioned Harper's Magazine article. From what I have seen, this term as been viewed as largely negative since it was first put into the public consciousness. Indeed, I don't know who besides the weapons manufacturers and any politicians who receive benefits from them would really see this as much of a good thing.
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| Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
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3:46 pm
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| Thursday, October 5th, 2006
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11:53 am
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| Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
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11:41 am
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| Thursday, September 28th, 2006
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12:33 pm
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Tuesday (since I couldn't get livejournal to let me on earlier...)
After much thought over the weekend, I decided that I wanted to look at personal identity in this age of growing technological reliance. This thought actually came less out of discussion about if cell phones and such are part of one's self (though I think that question will find it's way into my project), and more from thinking about how people represent themselves to others online. Thus, at the moment my three subsections in mind are: personal identity in relation to others, personal identity in relation to technological objects, and personal identity in relation to situation. Still refining these ideas and trying to narrow them down a bit more, as well as come up with a new term since I'm not meaning the philosophical issue.
Nanotechnology mini-site
Thursday
Since I'm fairly sure trying to find 'how to get logged onto livejournal onto the correct account' wouldn't work... I decided to try to learn how to draw a realistic cat. Seemed like a mildly useful thing to know.
Started things off with a simple google search of "how to draw cats". Sorting through the results, I figured out pretty quickly that websites will gladly teach you how to make quick cartoon cats for free... but anything more indepth apparently requires a purchase. I had a feeling this would be the case, due to the popularity of "how to draw" books. Guess the internet still can't teach us everything, so it's off to Amazon.com to buy a book. Or maybe I want that other one I found at Barnes and Noble...
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| Monday, September 18th, 2006
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8:09 pm - Flat Earth Ideology Reply
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My first thoughts on reading about accountants in India taking over the work of accountants in America were far less about the future and more on the past. It doesn't feel that long ago that my father was one of those accountants that Rao referred to, the ones who were rushing around to get taxes filed in time for April deadlines. That it was so recently an aspect of life that I took for granted is a sobering thought, to think about how quickly things can change from the stability that seem like it will endure indefinitely. At the same time, it also gives me a type of hope for the resiliency and adaptability of people as a whole to have the ability to survive whatever changes and new forms of 'stability' that the future brings.
A point that struck me while reading, even more than the idea of technology and workers in other countries 'stealing' our jobs, was the idea of how there are still jobs that require physical workers as long as people are willing to see the opportunities. Rather than fear the migration of jobs to places like India, I feel we should be putting more effort into pulling everyone up to a higher level. Of course, as people like to point out, the United States doesn't have conditions as ideal as we might pretend, so it's highly unlikely that we'll be pulling other countries 'up' to our level any time soon unfortunately. (But, as that's more of a sociological idea than a technological one, I'll resist taking that tangent any further.)
Additionally, I agree with Friedman think that as companies become more standardized in basic qualities, there will be a rising demand for these companies to show how they are different. Sure, there will probably be a market for standard, no frills goods and services as there is already with people who don't mind the lack of extras; but at the same time I think that consumers will as a majority start demand even more of those extras and individualization in what they pay for, and there is where the new jobs will come out of. Because, in theory, Friedman is right in saying that if all companies have the same basic tools, it will be the differences that set them apart.
There seems to be a fear that technology will isolate people, and I don't think that will be the case. Quite the opposite actually; I think socialization will become more important, rather than less, as we become more a more technological society because the ability to network and cooperate will become more valuable. Likewise, I think as technology increases our ability to contact people around the world and we as a people start to take that ability for granted, we will come to value the human aspect of interactions that much more. It is just that we will be valuing the form of these interactions less. Globalization and technological advancement seem to be rather inevitable as abstract concepts, what is less certain is what exact forms these will take and if society will realize in time how to shape the future.
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| Friday, September 1st, 2006
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12:10 am - Technology and Future
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Quite honestly, reading these past few articles has really gotten me thinking about where technology is heading (which I suppose is the point). One major idea expressed is that of the fear that technology will develop beyond us. I say that day is definitely looming in the future, in someways that day is already here. Many people use machines they don't understand; that's not going to get any better as time passes and technology progresses. In order to keep from being completely swallowed up by technology, it is necessary to remember the problems and limitations. We cannot just blindly follow whatever technology says, or we are asking for disaster.
A second major fear, which is partly connected to the fear of technology developing past us, is the worry that we will become too reliant on technology. To give an example of reliance on technology misleading us even now, think of automated traffic lights as compared to stop signs. In theory, traffic lights are great; the lights change on their own and eliminate the need for people to decide whose turn it is. Does that remove the need for human awareness? No, because there's still the possibility of drivers ignoring the lights. Does this mean the answer is cars that drive themselves for us? Also no. For one, there would be a period of time in which cars would have varying degrees of autonomy. Beyond that, there is the fact that technology can fail. To continue with the example of traffic lights, a very real and contemporary example of the possibility of malfunction is times when the lights all show green at once. When this occurs, humans have the ability to notice and switch back to the rules of stop signs. A malfunctioning electrical system, however, might not. This is not to say that traffic lights are not beneficial, merely that like technology in general they cannot be blindly trusted. The element of humans in the situations is essential, in my opinion. Hopefully this argument makes as much sense to others as it does to me.
A third aspect of the articles is the overall theme of human improvement. I think this is definitely coming for the future. At first thought, it seems rather startling to think of the methods of improvement they discuss. However, is it really that different from the improvements done now? Not that long ago, the idea of vaccinations and injecting dead or weakened pathogens would sound rather dangerous to the common population; now many people see it as a requirement in order to have a 'normal' life. While idea of using chemicals to help people is still not seen as quite 'normal', it isn't considered as bizarre or frightening a concept as it used to be. The main danger I see in this line of technological progression has less to do with the technology itself and more to do with how it could potentially be used or misused. For example, technology already causes a divide of the haves and have-nots. The more technology grows, the more I think the divide will grow unless society ensures that technology is granted more evenly. I'm glad to see the articles touched on this aspect of the issue.
My predictions for the future:
Well, the authors we've read so far would probably call me rather naive, but I don't think the near future will look all that much different from the present in many crucial ways. Since people have been predicting flying cars for decades and they're still not the transportation of choice, I don't think we'll be seeing any in the coming decade. Despite what's shown in sci-fi and the growing trend of 'television' programming online, I don't think computers will have made television obsolete. That's not to say I don't foresee change in the future, just that I don't think it will become as all consuming as some people think. As there are now, there will be people complaining about technology not working the way they want and complaining about technology in general. As there is now, I think there will be other new technologies for people to adjust to ten years from now. Undoubtedly there will be technology that's different from what there is now, and what's cutting-edge now will either be so integrated into society that it seems backwards to be without it or will fall by the wayside and be forgotten as other technologies have. Since this whole posting seems to be more about generalities rather than specific ideas, I suppose I'll end this with one prediction in the more concrete sense. Ten years from now, I think issuing electronic commands to home appliances while away from home will be considering commonplace.
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