let Siri listen in

Last weekend I almost destroyed a wood-burning stove because of a communication issue.

I was instructed properly how to use it  - besides one crucial point; whether or not to put more logs on the fire after the initial setup or not. I have so far only used stoves that you just keep putting logs on until its warm. These other types of stoves (“Grundofen” in German) where you only fire one setup twice a day are new to me. For my instructor though it was standard to use such ones and thus didn’t put emphasis on the detail of continuing to put logs on or not.
Well, now it has some new cracks in it, i have burned through the supplies for 2 weeks in one weekend and the room went very very hot – but it could have went (much) worse.

Here’s where “let Siri listen in” comes in (Siri as in a voice recognition system connected to databases and processing power). During an important conversation or a session of conveying instructions (as in my stove-case) you can just let it listen in and have it check mentions of essential points. It might look something like the password-strength-while-you-type window on the Apple ID password change site and has an engine like the Genesis project of CSAIL at MIT.

A strictly causal logic engine that looks at what areas must be covered around a subject. In the case of the stove-instructions for instance it would compute all possible errors that could be made with the current set of instructions. Then you can refine your set of rules until all loopholes are closed and the instruction set is reduced to the most salient set of rules required to exclude all possible errors.

For teaching situations, businesses plan talks and game instructions… in countless situation such an automated  assistant could stand by our side to support our causal and reasonable articulation.

That… and more thoughtful explaining and listening in the first place.

automated arousal tracking

I commute a lot on public transport within Munich, Germany.

Of course i see countless beautiful women that i feel attracted to.

Here’s what i thought could be interesting – a small camera that sees what i see (Google Glasses?) and tracks ALL faces that i encounter. When i look at someone for longer than a second a snapshot of my bodily measures is being taken through arousal-measuring sensors (heartbeat, muscle activity…) and stored in association to that person. Through a throat microphone i can discreetly attach voice-notes without having to speak out loud. I get displayed anything i might already have stored about this person (in addition to parameters that can be measured instantly, like body-height) – if i have seen her/him before and what was related to that encounter. Over time this builds a substantial database of people that commute around the time that i do and that i find interesting.
If everyone would have such a device and all devices are networked – automatic match-making based on mutual arousal could take place. It would be displayed for both parties as a suggestion to say hi.

Anyway. Put this into the category of geeky tech-visions as compensation for being to shy to say hi from the beginning. I admit it.

a device to compare molecular patterns of any kind of matter?

Recently the various labels for “organic food” seem to loose public trust,  in my experience here in Germany at least, because of (corporately sponsored) studies that claim to find not much difference in organic or non-organic and so on.

I was thinking of a way to bypass this jungle of certificates, licenses, trust in institutions and the opinion of your neighbour. I don’t know if it’s at all possible to manufacture such a device affordable for private usage, nor do i know if it’s possible at all - however; what about a device that takes a sample of the food in question and scans it on molecular level? Either the pattern of organic healthy food is fairly universal on a molecular level (is it?) or the device could connect to a database that stores patterns of how a typical organic carrot looks like for instance. Noticing too much symmetry, fewer broken cells and a higher concentration of pesticides the device could give out an analysis and the degree to which this particular carrot differs from the optimal molecular pattern of an organic carrot.  Of course it has to differ from the optimal because the variety and broken symmetry is the very indicator for natural processes – but i am sure stochastic algorithms can handle crunching the measurement to assess if it’s the correct level of ”healthy chaos” or not. One test wouldn’t be enough – the software on the device would ask for a second sample from a different location on the carrot.

By sharing patterns in a global database also local differences, specialities and potential deseases could be detected i imagine. Maybe the device can also be used on oneself? Or on any material really? Feeding into a huge self-optimizing and self-categorizing pool of molecular patterns? Fitting to someones medical profile and specific need for nutritions? …

Anyone with a competent assessment if this could be possible, feasible and meaningful?

Addition, November 10: “An Electron Microscope Reveals The Hidden Horrors Of Processed Foods“

generational letters

This is something for an anthropologist – a PhD project maybe? I’d so much love to see this happening.
So; recently my dad shared an email with me that he wrote to a friend of his who is three decades younger than he is. The person he wrote to had emotional issues with her mum. It was about clashes of values and directions and goals in life. So my dad shared how he sees those two generations in question and in which different historic fields of values, politics and resource-availability they grew up and what conflicts are unavoidable in that encounter.
It was fascinating to read and it made me think how such “a letter of good advise” to another generation might have sounded 100 or 500 years ago.
Isn’t it such states of mind in which those letters are written that look at the zeitgeist and the nature of change most authentically and… human?
I’d love to see someone collecting such letters. Maybe in different cultures as well.

memories with and through (not of) a jacket

I just went for a night walk outside before going to bed. I took on a jacket that I haven’t been wearing for a year or so. At some point, meandering under the bright stars, I noticed how I put my hands into the two pockets of the jacket. It has to be done in a particular movement though that is for me unique to this jacket. I noticed I also put my mobile phone into the chest-pocket which I don’t do with other jackets. Moved by this experience i smiled to myself and went in my mind and with my hands through all the little rituals, patterns and little ticks that are tied to this jacket.
What if I had thrown it away? All the little patterns I uniquely unfold with this particular jacket would be lost forever… or might come back partially again with different jackets throughout the coming decades.
Of course I am not too worried about loosing this little specific part of my repertoire of movement-patterns, but it made me think about the myriads of objects that we are literally tying our kinetic memories to. And of course not just kinetic and not just objects… compare the “part of me” that comes out only with this jacket with the part of me that is uniquely evoked when being with a good friend. But its not starting outside of my own body – if I would loose a leg in an accident I would miss a great deal of kinetic capacity… just like without my jacket, but in a way bigger scale of impact.

Anyway, i felt like sharing this nice moment and the trail of thoughts it put me on.