Remember the grand unifying theory of everything? That quixotic, chimerical, wonderful attempt to integrate all the known physical forces into one neat package?
The whole trend towards the convergence of electronic devices reminds me of that a bit. All those electronic devices in one..... my phone, PC, PDA, camera, video camera, TV, remote, car key, front door key, light switch, coffee machine, beer can opener, wallet etc etc etc all the essentials of life merged into portable, flexible, expandable, shrinkable oneness.....
Einstein'd have one, don't ya reckon?
But I digress.
In my blissful contemplation of this nerd nirvana, I must acknowledge that there are some who are not worshipping at this Uniting Church of Technology. Some are resisting the siren song of synthesis. Unfortunately, they have some good reasons for this. Check out "Convergence is a crock" from the SMH technology blog "MASHUP". While I dream of the ultimate device, I still don't use half the functions on my phone and often forget to take it with me anyway.
Maybe Einstein wouldn't have one after all. Bit hard to get the quiet time to yourself to think up the theory of relativity when your girlfriends and mates are texting you every ten seconds.
Waddayarekkun?
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Convergence and the grand unifying theory of everything
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2 comments:
I would actually like to converge everything into my head! This has been my dream since I was a child. Think of a song - it starts playing, think I need to contact someone, make a mind-to-mind contact, feel like a cuppa - the kettle starts to boil, and so on... Away with ye, ye useless peripherals that cost a lot and enslave me to the telcos and banks! Actually, after reading Hitch-hikers GTTG, there was that race who evolved to the point they could communicate telepathically but then they had to start talking constantly to block out the fact they could read others' minds and others' could read their's! Yeh, I wonder if true convergence will ever be a reality (or desirable) too. But I think connecting LibraryThing and our library catalogue would be cool!
Great idea for librarything and the catalogue. On convergence, We kid at work about just implanting a chip in our heads that we can use to plug in and download everything into our heads as we walkk in each day. A bit like the matrix.
I like being surprised, discovering and responding to what's going on as it happens. I think I prefer just walking in and having fun with whatever crisis is emerging. A touch of the Xaphods rather than the Arthurs.
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