B is for Behave
Behave? Tell that to the strange, the freaks, the weirdos, the atypical. These are the people who live futures that others will later have. The people who imagine new possibilities, and empower people with the power of their imaginings. These are the people who, says science writer Howard Bloom, turn science fiction into science future, inventing novel devices like cell phones. Although large scale human behavior is fairly predictable, and there’s a reasonable chance, according to mathematician Ian Stewart, that over the next century mathematics will reach a point where it can make real predictions about the future and the way people behave, what it can’t provide, is a good prediction of what a particular person will do. The problem with free will is not that we behave in completely random ways, it’s that we behave in coherent ways, but we strongly feel we have a choice. The inherent behavior of pine cones, on the other hand, even though considered dead as they no longer have a metabolism, can still open and close in response to humidity changes in the environment, and is currently seen as an inspiration for designers, according to architect Michael Hensel, for the development of highly, sophisticated performative architectures that won’t require the standard plethora of mechanical and electrical devices. And while we find that molecular, self-assembly is revolutionizing material science, due to the pioneering research of chemist George Whitesides, aiding the development of rapid, inexpensive fabrications of ultra-small devices, C5 Corporation, a data research group, says that in the future we will find that not only does all “data behave” according to 4 types of characteristics: “fold, spread, blossom and loner,” but there will be a 7-11 for algorithms, because algorithms will become the fabric of every transaction, every device, every single appliance, even clothing. In fact, Alisa Andrasek, in her fashion project, Genware, has already developed an algorithm, or what she calls, “bodyscapes,” which allows customers, after scanning their bodies, to pick different patterns that will “grow” on their physical geometry, adjusting to their various, specific body behaviors. As we move forward into an era where our objects and technology behaves, computer scientist Vernor Vinge remarks: “Humankind has thousands of years of experiences with biological systems in life-critical situations. For instance, a horse rider going through the desert. He’s depending upon that horse. The fact that the horse is biological and sort of a flaky system, that’s too bad. Do we really want technology based upon biological systems that are notoriously fickle and irresponsible?” Oh, behave!
February 15th, 2010 at 1:40 am
Soap and education are not as fulminant as a massacre, but they are more mortal in the long run.