The May issue of the trend-scanning magazine Business 2.0 (from Time, Inc) has an interesting section on "What's Next?" Some of the new ideas are fried chicken, but item #10, p. 33 "Forget Nanotech, Think Claytronics" caught my eye.
Claytronics is the new science of mainulating programmable clay that can "morph into a working 3-D replica of any person or object, based on information transmitted from anywhere."
Computer scientist Todd Mowry, Director of Intel Research in Pittsburgh, is the prime mover. Inspired by his hatred of video-conferencing ("Its like visiting someone in prison" Mowry says,) he had a brain storm -- why not just FAX your body-replica to the meeting, where it could mimick your bodily motions in real time and speak with your own voice. More real than real!
Business 2.0 admits that the idea seems "utterly nutty". The illustration is not merely nutty but terrifying: a conference table with a bunch of flesh and blood people chatting it up with Mr. Claytron, a dark looming presence.
Coming soon to a school or college near you?
Could we check out that video-conference set up one more time?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment