Smart city?

April 26, 2012

Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

The OPs center in the scenario described in this piece sounds like the Ops centers that the military or NASA has in place.
However, on a smaller scale, these Ops (Operations) centers are already in place in many businesses, though they are more targeted and are geared to serving the best interest of the business & clients.

Another aspect from this scenario reminds me of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In it, the ship’s on-board computer controls most of the key operations of the spaceship, and it also talks.  HAL, the on-board computer assures the astronauts that it is, “foolproof and incapable of error.” Yet once it disagrees with a project the astronauts set to undertake, HAL displays human emotions and takes action to prevent the implementation of their undertaking.

According to this movie and similar ones, it is that there can be potential problems or dangers with ceding too much control to machines. They can begin to be more concerned with their own preservation or to commit actions that require eliminating variables to preserve their preconceived notions of what’s best for humanity, regardless of quality of human life or even innocent human life itself.

A similar but more recent movie is; I, Robot.

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Posted by UrbanTechGuy

Driverless cars ready to hit our roads

April 3, 2012

According to the article, driverless cars are ready to hit the road.
Nevada will now allow driverless cars as long as the vehicle displays a special “Red” license plate and the owners retains anywhere between a $1 million to $3million insurance bond.
A hefty price to pay.
Also, apparently legislation is being considered in California, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii and Oklahoma.

“Automation of cars is going to happen,” he says. “Computing has caused devastating change and transport is going to be its next target.”

So don’t be alarmed if you see  a vehicle coming toward you and no one’s in the driver seat. Or, if an owner is a joker and put’s an animal in the driver seat.

Don’t freak out.

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Posted by UrbanTechGuy

Futurecasting at Intel

March 26, 2012

Intel’s futurecaster:

“My job is to look 10 to 15 years out and come up with a vision as to how people will interact with computers.”

There are various factors involved, from consulting with social scientists, the military, government, industry, etc.
Once the vision is determined, then Intel works on what it can build to meet the vision.

Rough draft for the future:

  • “Secret Life of Data.”
  • “Ghost of Computing”
  • “The Future of Fear.”

Leave a Comment » | Computing, Future tech | Permalink
Posted by UrbanTechGuy