Summary: Fuck the iPhone.

Afterword: I get mine next week.

I had to present my business, Nitride Solutions, in the corwin pavilion on tuesday infront of investors, proffesors, and other students. We took the top prize, winning our business $15,000. 

more information at

http://www.nitridesolutions.com 

http://www.tmp.ucsb.edu/extracurricular/nvc.html 

Definition from the Singularity Summit page:

"What, then, is the singularity? It's a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian or dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life, including death itself. Understanding the singularity will alter our perspective on the significance of our past and the ramifications for our future. To truly understand it inherently changes one's view of life in general and one's own particular life."

 Thought as Technology

I think that the connotation of the word Technology commonly brings to mind is that of a physical device of some sort--computers, televisions, airplanes, butter knives, etc.  

Indeed, all of these things are certainly technology, but I don't thnk the meaning of the word ends there.  

Mental Tools

Certain mental concepts require an understanding of other, more basic concepts on which to build.  

These special thoughts, or Mental Tools, count as technology just as much as the computer I'm typing this on, but all too often, this sort of thing is overlooked when we think about Human Technology as a concept. 

Mathematical ideas and concepts, grammatical rules and vocabularies, logic and critical thinking are all various forms of Mental Technology, every bit as valid and essential as anything we make in the 'real world'.  Each one of these mental tools provides us (humanity) with some new ability--the ability to count, to externalise your thoughts and transmit them to other humans (read: communicate), the ability to dissect a situation or concept using rules of Logic.  

Maintenance

Just like you need to sharpen an axe, or defrag a hard drive, mental tools need certain maintenance, too.  

Language - The more powerful your language toolset, the better you'll be able to communicate (more precise words in your vocabulary, more eloquent analogies and metaphors, etc.)

Critical Thinking - Logic provides a framework for evaluating inputs and synthesizing outputs.  That is, you can take some information as input, run it through your logical filters, and evaluate possible outcomes or screen for truth.  

Mathematics - Closely related with logic (in fact, logic is a subset), Math provides us with mental tools to analyze real world structures and phenomena, categorize and quantify things, and make evaluations.  

Higher Levels of Abstraction

Some tools require a foundation of smaller tools to work on--(e.g. your drill works by combining a motor for rotational force with a screw).  Mental tools work the same way.  Some concepts require others in order to exist.  

Take, for example, Rhetoric (Persuasive Speech).  To be successful, one must combine basic language skills (bi-directionally), more complex language structures (depending on the subject matter), awareness (of your target), critical thinking, feedback (to alter the flow of the conversation based on perceived reception), etc.  We do this all at once, but this higher level concept could not exist without the lower level mental tools which comprise it.   

Technology as Magic

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  --Arthur C. Clarke  

Science and Technology

Technology is influence over ourselves and our environment, provided by our understanding and manipulation of that which we can influence.  

Fire, in and of itself, is a natural chemical reaction which happens to certain substances given certain conditions.  Fire became technology when humans learned to influence and create it.  Fire was 'harnessed' by our understanding of it and our abilities to manipulate some of the underlying factors.  

Magic and Spirituality 

Magic is influence over ourselves and our environment, provided by our understanding and manipulation of that which we can influence by supernatural or metaphysical (mystical) means. 

So, right from the get, these two definitions are almost synonomous.  The difference is only really how much we (think) we know about a given situation.  

Exerting Influence 

They both come down to will.  Both technology and magic are attempts to influence reality based on our will.  We want something to happen, and by flexing our various (sometimes metaphorical) muscles, we are able to exert our will (in varying degrees of success) over the universe (or some smaller part of it).  

Science and magic can be thought of as the same thing, in this regard.  Frequently things which aren't understood (or quantifiable) are thought of as magic, but science and technology can't explain all of the things we have observed, either.  

Over time, the divides between the scientific (empirical, technological) camps and the spiritual (religious, mystical, magical) camps has widened dramatically.  Now, many scientific minds scoff at the idea of supernatural, spiritual or magical phenomena, and as such, I believe that they are closing their minds to possibilities of mutual coexistance.  

I don't feel that science and spirituality have to be mutually exclusive fields.  In fact, I believe that they are actually two sides of the same spectrum--namely, that of trying to understand reality and exert influence over that reality.   

Tech fallback means asking, "What happens when the tech fails?"

Okay, so, it's the twenty-first century and all that. Tech's proceding faster now than it ever has at any time in human history. We just keep taking all these neat things we've learned and wonderful toys and tools we've made and combining and recombining them into newer and more wonderful things. Good times, huh?

Well, along with all of these amazing developments comes a new danger. Namely that of addiction to our technology.

Think about it – most people don't.

So you've got a GPS and think you don't need to learn how to navigate by stars or read a map? Well, what happens when your battery dies (or the satellite network dies) or the signal is being blocked by a hostile force? Don't need to keep in shape ('cause you don't ever have to lift something heavy, and you can always drive to get where you're going)? Well, what happens when you get pinned and have to lift something heavy? What happens when your car breaks down or you can't get more gas?

Don't get me wrong, here, either. I'm not some kind of crazy luddite survivalist who wants to burn books and smash the tubes (you know, the ones that the Internet is made of?). In fact I'm just the opposite--I've got a real crush on science and technology.

The point is, as we become more and more reliant on our newer and newer tech, we run the risk of atrophying our older (lower tech) skills. Coming to depend on tech leads straight into the trap of What Happens When the Tech Stops?

Preparedness

I was never a boy scout, but I've always agreed with their notion of being prepared. Kind of like not having all your eggs in one basket, you can set up your mind (and life) so that you'll have options, or multiple levels of redundancy.

That way, if the tech loses its functionality, you're not caught with your pants down.

These options I'm describing can be built up in a number of different ways.

Technology Fasting

We are surrounded by our creations more or less non-stop from birth (and before, depending on how you look at it). A lot of this stuff gets taken for granted, and like I said earlier becomes an addiction for us.

By consciously (even if only periodically) limiting the direct influences of technology in our lives, we are able to limit our reliance on such things.

Try this some time: cut out some tech that you use regularly. Take the battery out of your cell phone for a day or two, unplug the TV, park the car, leave the computer-machine off, cut your circuit-breaker.....whatever.

All of these things have become so ubiquitously pervasive that many of us wouldn't be able to function (much less know what to do with theirselves) without the steady emanations from our trusty devices. This is a powerful exercise for two reasons. Firstly, it quickly makes it apparent just how much influence these contraptions exert over your life. Secondly, without them, life still does go on. By fasting from these devices, we are able to practice living without them for awhile, and can find new ways of making life happen.

Tech Fallback

Limiting and controlling the direct effects of tech in our personal lives can be rewarding and educational, but cutting out the tech completely is not the only way to bolster your defenses against the potential hazards of too much technological reliance.

Make backups.

Substitute one kind of tech for another. This has the benefit of broadening your skillset/toolset for dealing with life, as well as diversifying the conditions you can acclimate to (e.g. your GPS may've quit, but your map probably still works–maps are tech, too, and by having both available (and knowing how to use both), you have just doubled your potential tools).

Just about anything can be done in more than one way, and as we (humans) discover new and better ways to do things, the older methods and tools sometimes get dropped by the wayside and forgotten about. This is bad, because it limits your opportunities.

Backups and alternative methods for doing things provide you with different options, and levels of redundancy. All have to fail before you are totally screwed.

Computers and the New Paradigm - A quick History Lesson

In the beginning, humans passed knowledge along by verbal/nonverbal communication, from one human right to another. This worked, allowing one person to build on knowledge from someone else, and thus to get further than possible if one were starting from scratch.

The only way to maintain (or store) this knowledge was to keep passing it to new humans, so at least someone remained alive with the knowledge. History was passed down by word of mouth, often in the form of stories.

Eventually, written languages were developed, allowing for the first time the ability to externalize information without the benefit of someone else's memory.

Technology can be defined as manipulation of one's environment to increase or enhance one's abilities. The first computing device would probably be fingers--ten fingers for counting (which probably explains our affinity for base-10 numbering systems). Obviously, ten fingers only go so far, so new things were invented to assist and extend the process--e.g. the abacus.

Fast forward a few centuries...

In the 1800's, a man named Charles Babbage had an idea for something called a 'programmable computer'--this is the beginning of the Software meme. (Side Note: Hardware and software are both computing technologies, but while hardware is fixed into whatever way it's built, software is data--meaning it can be changed dynamically, though at the cost of requiring hardware on which to run. Hence 'hard' and 'soft'.)

Babbage's Idea was for a mechanical computing device, and though it never came to fruition (due to financial, rather than technical reasons), his ideas have been shown to be sound. Even if his invention (called the 'Difference Engine') had been completed, it would still be subject to all the limitations of a mechanical device--wear and tear, speed limited to mechanical processes. Luckily, advances were being made in our understanding of electricity--still subject to physical limitations, though orders of magnitude faster than any mechanical device.

Electrical computers exponentially increased our tools for manipulating data. At first, they were monstrous contraptions--the size of buildings, ungodly expensive, and extremely power-hungry.

Logic

The basic underlying function of any computer is its ability to make logical decisions--so-called 'Logic Gates' provide the physical mechanism for making these decisions, and can take several basic forms--AND, OR, and NOT--though other higher level gates are constructed out of the low level ones--XOR, NAND, etc.

This gives computers to make very basic choices. By stringing these gates together in meaningful ways, one is able to create a system which will take inputs and process them in some manner.

Logic Gates can be constructed from various technologies (e.g. in Babbage's Difference Engine, the gates were constructed of actual mechanical devices), though in modern computers, it is primarily done with Solid State Electronic components (which replaced the vacuum tubes of the original building-sized dinosaurs). Solid State devices drastically reduced both the size and power requirements, and simultaneously increased reliability and life-span.

Ever Expanding Capabilities

Computer Technology has increased more rapidly than any other technology in the history of the human race. The ideas of various methods for computing are continually refined and recombined, often sorting out the good from the bad. Computers themselves have also contributed to their continued improvements--new and better tools give people new and better abilities for designing, testing, and constructing even new and better tools, and the cycle feeds itself.

Overview of Computing Technologies and Terminologies

Processor

A processor is an arrangement of previously mentioned logic gates. In other words, the processor is what does the actual computing, or decision making.

Modern processors contain millions or billions of these gates, put together in ever-increasingly complex and more effective ways.

Various processors do their processing with different methodologies (some better for some things, others more suited for other things), but at a base level, they're all made up of the same basic building blocks--logic gates.

Memory and Storage

This is one of the most confusing things for people new to computing. Memory and storage are basically the same thing (holding data), when you get right down to it, but they are used for different purposes.

Memory holds the data that's being currently used. If the computer needs to add two numbers together, it has to have somewhere to hold the data as it goes into the processor, and somewhere to put the answer as it comes out--this holding area is known as memory (or RAM). When you open a text document on your computer, it is loaded into RAM.

Storage provides a place to hold data when it's not being used. When you save a document onto your hard drive, it's going into permanent storage--your hard drive, that is.

One of the best metaphors I've ever heard on the subject is that of an office--if storage is the filing cabinet where you keep your info, then memory would be the desktop surface where you put a file while you work on it. Easy, huh?

Common Types of Memory and Storage

RAM - Random Access Memory

RAM, so called because it's just as fast to access any piece of info it contains as any other (hence, random access) in any order. RAM is fast (much faster than your hard drive), but it is volatile (meaning, it only keeps holding data as long as you keep feeding it power).

ROM - Read Only Memory

ROM, is very much like RAM, but with one crucial difference--it's read only. It'll hold it's info without power, and it's very fast, but its information cannot be changed--whatever it's written with is what its got. ROM is often used for very basic things which are not prone to rapid change--e.g. the BIOS of a computer (the first program which begins to run, and is responsible for starting up other programs, like your operating system).

HDD - Hard Disk Drives

Hard Drives are made up of a layer of platters which contain magnetic material on the surface. This surface is divided into a series of tracks, which are cut up into sectors, which are cut up into even smaller pieces. The magnetic material can be changed at individual levels to one of two states (up/down, yes/no, off/on, 1/0, true/false, however you want to think about it)--by grouping these ones and zeroes into meaningul codes, we're able to store whatever we want in there. Hard Drives hold a lot more Data than RAM, pound for pound, and they are non-volatile (meaning they keep the info they have even when the power goes out), but they're also a lot slower than RAM.

Optical Media - CD's, DVD's, HD-DVD, BluRay

Optical Drives use a laser beam (hence, optical) to read/write data to the medium (rather than electrical or magnetic used in RAM and HDD's).

Tape Drives

Magnetic Tapes (like audio cassettes, except digital rather than analog) can also be used. These drives tend to hold of lot of data, but are linear, so they are used mostly for things like making backups--where the data itself is the most important thing, not necessarily the speed at which it can be retrieved.

Flash Memory

In recent years, a technology known as Flash memory has come into popularity. Flash memory is (nearly) as fast as RAM/ROM, but it is non-volatile. Chances are, you've used flash whether you realize it or not--SD Cards, Sony's Memory Stick format, iPod Nanos, memory cards for video games, digital cameras, etc. Flash is still the new kid on the block, but it is quickly become much more reliable, as well as dropping in price.

Input and Output

Computers are only as useful as what you can put into them, and what you can then get back out. Input is anything that's going into the computer--data from your mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone, touch pad, joystick, etc. Output is the opposite--what's coming out. Your monitor, printer, speakers and the like would all be forms of output devices.

Networking

This brings us to a specialized type of device for both input and output. Networking devices provide input and output, but instead of communicating with the humans using the computer, networking devices allow computers to share input and output with each other.

This, beyond anything else has improved the usefulness of computers as a communication tool.

A computer network is any two or more computers which can share their input and output with each other. When you take two or more networks and hook them up, it is called an internet. The Internet is a global internet, or network of networks. Clear as mud?

The Internet has its roots in DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The concept came as a way to maintain communication in the event of a nuclear war--the Internet is decentralized (meaning it doesn't have a 'head' to cut off--no center), so any attack has to be against the entire Internet to render it inoperable. Knock out huge sections of the network (with, say a nuclear weapon) and any traffic can simply be rerouted around the damage--all the parts still connected to each other continue to function without regard to the disabled parts.

Thankfully, we've never had to use it for its original purpose, but instead it has spawned a new paradigm for communications. Any point on the Internet can be connected to any other point. The world just got smaller.