Mitch_9_1

From page 200:
"The future will be what the future has always been: hopeful, scary, unknown, and disorienting. Only more so."

That's a pretty good summarization of the way that I feel.

Page 201's description of interactive media and user-based content is already here; just look around.

The part of the chapter on robotics is pretty interesting. Until genuine artificial intelligence can be achieved, I think the best way for robotics (artificial life) to go is operating in a superorganism format, like an ant colony. Ants have little to no actual intelligence, yet the decisions they make as a group are relatively rational because of the way the operate as almost a collective organism in many instanced bodies. Their communication methods and basic instructions would translate well to an artificial imitation.

The part I find most fascinating is the part about spimes. I have no idea why anyone would think this is a good idea. Most likely spimes would be controlled through a wi-fi airborne network. Sure, it would be cool to be able to turn on the lights in my house through a LAN, but the idea seems too dangerous. Let's say my neighbor's dog pissed on my lawn or something. What's to keep me from getting in my neighbor's network (the same way many people in urban areas already leech their neighbor's wireless signal) and attacking their dog with a house robot remotely when they aren't home? Spimes seem like an idea made to be abused.