Day 10 -- All About Tech, My Second Love: Part 1

I live, breathe, and dream tech and the future.  It consumes most of my brain power throughout the day.  My sister Josie asked me the other day into which decade I wish I could have been born, and my answer was of course 2050.  I think we are right on the cusp of the single most dramatic series of changes humanity has ever experienced.

I'm not entirely sure we will make it to the year 2100.  I do share some of the worry and pessimism of thinkers/futurists like Martin Rees in his TED Talk Is this our final century? and Bill Joy in his Wired article Why the future doesn't need us.  However, for the most part, I'm optimistic and see a future in which aging, disease, and poverty aren't even concepts familiar to our transhuman descendants.  The future, shaped by technological advancements, truly is my second love -- behind my smokin' hot girlfriend Mariah.

Senior Prom '10.  She's only gotten prettier

I think I'll try to structure this two part post as follows:  Part 1) current technologies that I use and that are exciting to me; Part 2) how I envision the future and the technologies that are super exciting to me.

Tech is such a vastly encompassing topic, and I only know so little about so few industries within it.  So I'm going to focus on some of the tech that is a part of my everyday life.

Activity Trackers

For a long while I was on the wait list to be invited to buy a Basis B1 Band, which is conglomeration of fitness/sleep tracking sensors packed into the body of a sleek watch.  By the time I received my invitation to purchase, there was already a number of consumer reviews I was able to read.  Turns out, like many things, the first iteration isn't as stellar as was hoped.  So I put off purchasing the B1 and got the new Jawbone UP 24, a more established tracker with a highly reviewed smartphone companion app to illustrate steps, sleep, and food. CES 2014 has a ton of wearable tech being showcased - from camera ski goggles to glove-worn golf swing analyzers to pet activity trackers.  Check it out here.

IFTT

With the UP band, I can trigger actions through IFTTT (If This Then That)/Put the Internet to Work for You.  For instance, I have a "Recipe" that says "when I wake up" then "send me today's weather report."  IFTTT allows you to create a whole bunch of different recipes like "if I take a picture" then "upload it to Flickr" or "if I'm tagged in a photo on Facebook" then "download photo to my iOS Photos" or "if a device's energy costs are more than $___ in a day" then "turn off that device" (using WeMo).  

Saga

I've been using an app called Saga to compile various aspects of my life in a social way.  For instance, I have my calendars, iPhone camera, Facebook, Jawbone UP, Foursquare, Google+, MayMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Tripit, and Twitter all connected to Saga, which then chronologically compiles any event into the Saga Lifelog.  I love being able to find a specific day and review all my activity - location, fitness, sleep, food, social, cyber, etc.

Lifelapse/Narrative Clip

So for about 11 months from November '12 to October '13 I wore my iPhone around my neck in a pouch I fashioned from a beer coozie and old charging cable.  I had the now developer-abandoned Lifelapse app running at all times, taking a still picture every 30 seconds.  I stopped because the app isn't compatible with iOS 7.  I compiled approximately 500,000, depicting 11 months of my waking life in 30 second intervals.  Here's a video I uploaded to YouTube last winter.  George's 2012-12-27 Lifelog.

Fortunately, the fall of Lifelapse didn't mean the end of my photographic lifelogging adventure, only a several-month hiatus.  I backed the Kickstarter project Memoto Lifelogging Camera.  It is now the Narrative Clip, and mine is set to ship on the 27th of this month.  I'm ÜBER excited.  Check out what it'll do in the video below.

Lima: the brain of your devices
Another Kickstarter project I backed is Lima, a set-and-forget device that unifies all your devices.  The way they encourage people to think of it is as the "brain" and the individual devices (desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet) simply become the frames through which you access your information.  I'm very excited to receive my Lima!  Kickstarter video below.

I'm starting to hit the length limit I've set for each post, so I'll leave it at that for today with more to come tomorrow on tech and the future!

TED
To hint at the futuristic world I'm anticipating, here's a talk by Boaz Almog: The levitating superconductor.  This is what's happening right now -- can't you just not wait to see what applications room-temperature superconductors will have in the future???

Wikipedia
It is the Accelerating change portion of the Technological singularity article that I want to draw to your attention.  The rate at which technological capabilities doubles has historically been exponential (first over hundreds of thousands of years, then thousands, then hundreds, and now as short as 14 months).  Some predict technological and economic doubling with occur on a weekly basis in the not so distant future.  This is the cusp on which we are, and with prime viewing seats.  Get ready.

Spanish Word
futuro -- future

Everyday Photo

January 10, 2014
(with my futuristic mustache and sweatband)

Until tomorrow!

(Feel free to comment below on your tech interests/concerns or request other tech topics)