The Evolution of Television

Did you ever think about the goal of TV programming 20 or 30 years ago? Back in those days many homes only had one TV so the 'best' programs where shows that appealed to everyone in the family. Today, a family of four might have four TVs. (This is not to mention additional Tivo devices and such.) Programmers have to capture a demographic vs having widespread appeal. Has this changed how families interact? Do families argue less? Do children no longer have constant opportunities to develop abilities to negotiate and compromise?

Entertainment certainly is bound to continue to evolve. What are we likely to see in the next twenty years? Could they start to make realistic cartoon shows that are programmed in a way to be entertaining in some custom fashion to one person? Will we each be in our own little worlds? If that happened would we lose something in the process?

Man Jewelery

I have this theory that men like to wear their jewelery in the form of technology. Sure some men are bold enough to wear necklaces and earrings, but for a man of means, it seems as if there's nothing more pleasurable then the latest bluetooth ear piece or a nice ipod wrapped around their arm.

Now that the techy companies have tapped into a man's need for wearing technology, where will it lead? Will the once crazy multi-functional baseball hat that you could drink out of somehow evolve? Can you imagine the $10 mainstay turning into the $10,000 must have technology toy?

How Come American's Don't Have Toilet Technology?

One of the most amazingly complicated device in the Japanese bathroom is the toilet seat. Until you've used a nicely warmed toilet seat on a cold day, it probably just sounds like a crazy idea, but in Japan the toilet seats are chock full of gizmos and gadgets:

• Warmers
• Washers
• Dryers
• Noise Makers (so no one can hear the sounds of nature)
• Flush settings (Do you want a little flush or a big flush?)

I think the evolution of toilets in the United States will probably catch up in the future to Japan, but can you imagine what the Japanese toilets might be able to do in the future?

What Happened to the Fast in Fast Food?

If you told someone 25 or 30 years ago that when they went into a McDonald's in the future, they would have to wait around while their food was prepared, I'm sure they would just laugh at you. I remember the days when you'd go into a McDonald's and there near the frying stations would be the little packets of french fries, all lined up. And behind the counter there would be stacks of burgers packed and ready to go.


I went into a McDonald's today and had to wait while they shuffled the fries into the little paper envelop and assembled the burger. What happened? This is not a McDonald's with no traffic so that's not it. I'm assuming that maybe the elimination of the Styrofoam containers which kept things warm might be a factor... or maybe it's just that people want freshly assembled food (let's face, it's not being freshly cooked back there.

So what will we expect 30 years from now? Are there designers out there coming up with new technologies that make it possible to once again have the food all assembled and ready to go or will there new directions that we can't even possibly imagine?

This Lot is Full

There's a San Francisco company Streetline that wants to change how the world (or at least a few cities) views parking. Install smart meters that have sensors detecting when the space is occupied or empty and respond accordingly.

On the negative side, how would you feel if you parked at a metered space and the minute the meter ran out, it called the meter maid to come and give you a ticket or worse just took your license plate information with a camera and mailed you a ticket based on how long you overstayed your welcome.

On the positive side, how wonderful would it be if you could flick open your cell phone or PDA in a congested area and get directions to an empty space.

What will be the unintended consequences of this new technology? Do people often plan on overstaying their limit in parking meters? Will garages suddenly develop a booming business?

In the small town of Utsunomiya Japan where I used to live, there were no street parking spaces. If you had a car, you had to rent or own a corresponding space. If you went to a friend's house there was never a parking space. This city was modern enough that they could have planned for more parking, but it wasn't in the culture. There were very expensive Ferris wheel like parking lots where you could put your car. Is this the future of American cities as well?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This blog will be on vacation for the Thanksgiving Holidays and will return next week.

Thought for the day, how many technical devices make it possible for Rachel Ray to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal in 60 minutes?

The Government Discourages Saving

I just got a letter from E-trade that says if I don't have some activity on my account soon that they will have to give the money up to the state. I had heard about this before because I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Anguished tales of property taken by state. But in all honesty I wasn't worried, after all, I always have activity in my accounts. But I was wrong. I have this little modest account that I have that I decided to just leave in place and make a little interest on. A little rainy day account so to speak. Well needless to say, I'm just going to that account before the money gets confiscated by California. I wonder if they contact the beneficiaries on the account before they take it.


Did you ever think about how much you depend on technology for your banking these days? More online banking. ATMs are an amazing invention, but now we are moving further and further away from ever using cash. Will there come a time when some places will not accept cash? Is money real if we never see it? If we save our money, are we just setting ourselves up for someday having someone take it away in the middle of the night in an automatic transaction never to be seen again?

Lung Cancer or Diabetes

I assume that San Francisco is like many other big cities across the country in that there are messages everywhere. Around here there are a lot of messages on the buses about the dangers of diabetes and then of course there is the constant news about how the American population is growing and they don't mean in numbers. One thing that fascinates me about so many health studies today is that they seem so isolated from everything else that is going on in the world. When will the cross-referencing of data become powerful enough that root causes can really be tracked down?

One thing I was thinking is how a few generations ago most or at least a large percentage of people smoked. From what I've heard smoking is a really great way to stay slim and quitting smoking is a really great way to gain weight. Is it possible that having a generation of ex-smokers may have impacted the health of the next generation through sweets instead of second hand smoke?

And how will the children of the 'diabetes' generation be impacted as their parents panic over the evils of sugar? What could possible replace sugar?

What Would Darwin Think?

Did you know that bulldogs mommies usually have cesarean sections to deliver their pups? (Reference) Snuppy, the Afghan, was the first dog to be cloned. And check out this article on CNN about designer kiddy-cats - How much is the kitty in the window? $22,000. People are breeding different members of the feline family to create a designer product. The thing that I find interesting is that the kitten's come with a certificate of authenticity and a DNA "fingerprint."

I wonder is all this use of technology just to get us use to the idea of what we could do with people? Or is the future of the pet much more technical than that of the human?

It's So Hard To Stay Ahead of The Game

I turned on the TV this morning. Helicopters were flying overhead and I wanted to know what it was all about. Instead I saw a clip about the fact that Barack Obama is going to be visiting Google today and it's expected for him to discuss his plans to name a Chief Technology Officer (See here on VentureBeat.)

I signed a deep sigh. Is nothing sacred? See, I'm writing a book in which I refer to the Secretary for the Department of Technology. It sounds so much more authoritative don't you think?

Anyway, my point is that it's very difficult to stay ahead of the game in science fiction particularly when it comes to technology. We are at a tipping point where things are moving so fast that it's hard to predict the future. One piece of evidence of this is that the announcment is connected to his visit to Google, a company that has been around for less than 10 years rather than at Microsoft or Apple which were once considered the hip and happening software companies. And let's face it, at one time great-grand-daddy IBM would have been the place to make this kind of announcement.

(On a separate topic, I just noticed on Microsoft's website that the company is turning 30 this year. Remember the phrase: "You can't trust anyone over 30." Well I guess it still holds true, unless that particular company makes products that start with an 'i.')

So 20 years from now, what role will the government be playing in technology?

What Are They Saying in Italy?

I have been doing some searches lately for an Italian painting. I topped out what I could find on the English sites so I started to search the non-English sites. First I had to look up the name of the painting in the other languages for the most efficient search. There are a lot of wonderful tools out there on the web that do free translations. I used the free Babel Fish Translation tool. (If you haven't heard of Babel Fish, it was a little fish that the characters in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy put in their ears so they could understand other species in space.)

Although many people in the world study and speak English, this world is far from having one common language. Europe has always fascinated me because the countries are so small, but the differences in language are so great. What does the future hold? Will we ever speak one language? Will we have cool tools that allow us to communicate seamlessly with people who speak other languages? What features would a tool have to be to be successful.

The Reality of Reality TV

Remember the movie The Truman Show. It seemed like such an interesting concept... something that could certainly never happen in real life. Well now reality shows are a dime a dozen and today's reality stars act as if they aren't even on TV. I find it fascinating how polished reality shows appear. Take a look at a segment of MTV's The Hills. I'd love to know the infrastructure behind what we see on the TV. And what is going on in the heads of these people who are living their lives under scrutiny?

• MTV


• Music Videos


• MTV Shows


• Entertainment News

Is this just some camera men sneaking around or is the technology becoming more sophisticated so that they can be more invisible? Have you ever noticed that the reality shows are so much more polished then say, the segments we watch on the President? Why is that?

In The Pursuit of SPAM

Isn't weird that there are all these people out their trying to ruin your email experience? People who do everything in their power to send very, very unwanted emails about things that you'd just as well not know about? They do everything in their power to subvert the fortresses you or your email or Internet provider put in place to stop them.

Who are these people and why do they do it? It has to be all about the money right? Wouldn't it be funny if one conglomeration owned the companies that created the SPAM and the ones that try and stop the SPAM... just kidding, that wouldn't be very funny at all.

There is a new breed of person out there. One who creates unwanted emails. What will our email systems be like in the future? What will a future SPAM email look like? Will prisons be filled with SPAMMERS?

(And just for fun, what does SPAM stand for as it pertains to email?.... nothing it's slang for Unsolicited Commercial Email.)

Dreams of The Future

There's a guy named Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, who is gave his 'last lecture' because he is dying of pancreatic cancer. The lecture has caught a lot of attention. He's been on Oprah, etc. The lecture if you are interested is available on the Carnegie Mellon site: Video site.

One of the topics that Randy talks about in his lecture are his childhood dreams. Being that he's kind of a geeky guy some of his dreams involved being in zero gravity, being Captain Kirk and being a Disney Imagineer. Well thought out, but not surprising dreams for someone of his age. In his lecture he encourages having these dream/goals and he goes over how he achieved his dreams.

With all the changes in the world, can you even imagine what geeky kids will be dreaming about 40 years from now? What will kids want to be? What will they want to achieve?

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings Part 2

Yesterday's post was about how pollution in Los Angeles is being traced to Asia. Well it turns out that not only is the pollution coming out of Asia being felt in other parts of the world, but the pollution is also impacting the weather: BBC article - Global impact of Asia's pollution.

It's an interesting article because one naturally has to draw the conclusion that if the pollution coming out of Asia is causing world-wide problems as China gets bigger, than it stands to reason that pollution coming out of the United States and other developed countries for the last 100 years has already done significant damage and has impacted the air quality of what should have been the pristine air quality of third world nations in the past.

Hum... let's look at some UN stats. CO2 emissions 2004:

United States: 5987.98 mio.tonnes 621.86 per km2

China: 5010.17 mio.tonnes 522.06 per km2


One of my favorite books is Ecotopia where part of the Western United States secedes from the Union to do their own thing in a more eco-friendly manner. But it's clear that no nation is an island when it comes to pollution.

As technology gets better and the satellite network improves and more and more data about who is responsible for what is available, could the fight to breath/exist/live actually lead to cleaner air standards by which the entire earth's population? How will countries be held accountable? If another planet like earth was ever found and people colonized it, would standards of pollution be one of the first things addressed?

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings

There's the whole chaos theory that talks about how when a butterfly flaps it's wings half way around the world, that all kinds of crazy things happen.

There was a decent movie A Sound of Thunder where this guy steps on a butterfly back in the days of the dinosaurs (time travel was involved) and as a result, evolution completely changes. It's one of those movies where you think, but what about.... that doesn't make sense.... over and over, but it was decent.

In the New York Times article: As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes it talks about how not only is China polluting China, but a lot of the pollution there ends up in other parts of the world. Apparently there are studies that say that 25% of the air pollution in Los Angeles can be traced to Asia (reference.)

Is it possible that one day we will be fighting wars because of fear of the air pollution coming from other countries? Will one day there be daily statistics about where the pollution in the air came from published in the newspapers?

Secrets at the Bottom of the Ocean

Unlike the Titanic where there are lots of witnesses to what happened there are many planes and ships that disappeared at the bottom of the ocean in pure mystery. There's an article in the San Francisco Chronicle: Romance of the Skies plane crash haunts pair 50 years later about a plane that crashed and no one has any answers as to what happened except for a few bodies that were found with their watches stopped a certain hour. There's a possibility that someone might have bombed the plane to cash in on insurance money.

With all the new technology it seems very plausible that finding some of these wrecks at the bottom of the sea should be achievable either now or in the near future. Is history going to change as evidence of the past is discovered? Will some day the remains of Amelia Earhart be found?

What new technologies for finding missing people will be discovered? Wouldn't it be cool if you could take a DNA sample from someone and use it as a search device?

Are There Any Noahs Out There?

In Superman when Jor-El (Superman's dad) realizes that Krypton is doomed, he builds the little spaceship to send his son to earth otherwise little Kal-El would have perished with the other folks on the planet.

There's a lot of media attention on Global Warming these days. Almost everyday, there is a story about a glacier melting, the seas rising and other ways in which this planet is doomed. Are there any Noahs out there building boats for that day? Any Ka-El's building spaceships to save their children? Or more likely, is there anyone out there trying to cash in on the the future of Global Warming? Are there Lex Luthors buying real estate based on what the future map of the world might look like? Are there people moving away from the low lying areas.... say New York City so that X number of years from now they won't have to worry about their houses being under water?

And if it's not happening now, and Global Warming continues, what will be the tipping point? When will the profiteers start to look for ways to cash in? Should we be investigating who is invested in the sunscreen companies?

A Trip to Walgeen's

I find one of the most incredible technological experiences is making a trip to Walgreen's. My mom had a neck-ache not to long ago and she asked me to get her some aspirin. So I headed over the pain medication section and looked for aspirin. There was no aspirin. There were about 500 different possible medications. gelcaps, tablets, caplets, liquids... is it a back-ache? There's special pain relievers just for back aches. Are there any other symptoms... maybe cough, cold, fever... allergies? Are there allergies? No just a neck-ache. Okay, so I found the closet thing to pain old aspirin which was buffered version of aspirin.

Then I thought, gizmos and gadgets. I love gizmos and gadgets. What gizmos and gadgets could I get to address this neck ache? So I could have got her a heating pad, but that wouldn't have been interesting. I went to the gizmo and gadget area of Walgreen's because now every drug store has them everywhere. I narrowed down my choices. I could get a disposable heating pad where you rip off a backing and then stick it in place and it provides heat right to the area for a number of hours OR a snake shaped object filled with sand that could be put in the microwave, heated up and then put on the problem. I got the snake.

Anyway the point is that the local drug store that used to just dole out a few over the counter medications and fill prescriptions now offers millions of choices. It's almost impossible to make a decision. Where is this all going? Will we eventually not need to go to the doctor at all? Will we all have portable heart defibrillators in our houses?