TERMINAL ANACHRONISM: The Textbook Industry (ENDANGERED)

 Apple, Internet, iPad, Mobile, Technology, Technology & Education, Terminal Anachronism, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Jan 182012
 

Terminal Anachronism #4
The Terminal Anachronism series focuses on devices, institutions, and the complex artifacts of society that still exist but are very much on a kind of technological death row (see also: magazines & newspapers, VHS, the publishing industry, etc.).

TODAY’S CANDIDATE: The Textbook Industry
VERDICT: Endangered Now; Obviation Likely Inevitable

Apple is making an education-related announcement on Thursday – and it’s already assumed to be related to building better digital books. So yeah, deeply embedded & entrenched and nearly irrelevant textbook industry, it’s been a good run. But the worlds’s most valuable company and their little iPads & stuff (somewhat popular) are preparing a hostile takeover. And most of your customers will be elated. So yeah, you’re done.

It’s going to sound a little something like this:

“All your contents and customers are belong to us.”

Geeks, hippies, and normals can all agree. Unless you’re over 50 and working for a paper publishing dinosaur, it’s basically impossible to argue that this isn’t a fabulous idea. If you don’t understand the horror that is the textbook industry, then you probably haven’t been to college.

Go Apple, go.
Oh yeah, and on a related anachronistic note, someone also please tell those phonebook people about this new internet thing.

[ARTICLE VIA WIRED]

The Disabled Wage War Against the Wheelchair and Begin Test-Piloting Transhumanism

 AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, CareBots, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Human Augmentation, Military Robotics, Neurology, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Jan 102012
 

Burn it Down
This lovely young woman is doing her part to destroy the wheelchair industry. And she’s a hero. Practical, admirable, and necessary, movements such as ADA and other anti-discriminatory legislation were essential for their time, but we should all be happy when technology renders them irrelevant.

As I’ve said before, the technology that is the wheelchair has helped millions, but its time is finished – and the time of the wearable robot exoskeleton is approaching. Unless you build wheelchairs or access ramps or any other specialized wheelchair-centric equipment, you’ve gotta agree that a mobility revolution for the disabled is long overdue (and if you do build such equipment, it’s time to diversify, yo).

This post is really an update; this exact system came up here last May, then Berkeley Bionics (now renamed Ekso Bionics – a real lateral marketing move, I think) was just testing their prototype wheelchair killer. Now the device is moving through medical trials and appears to be fast-tracking to the market. These guys know what they’re doing – they’ve been at it since 2005, and their tech is also being used in Lockheed’s HULC exoskeleton.

The Physically Disabled as Transhuman Pioneers Continue reading »

Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens: Profound Philosophical Quandary! Ish…

 Anthrobotic Originals, Brain, Consciousness, Cybernetics, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Neurology, Prosthetics, Technology, Technology & Work, Telepresence, Transhumanism, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Nov 252011
 

My Eyeballs Rule. But…
I’ve always known that my superior vision makes me better than most people (of course), but as the years go by and these lenses improve, I’m kinda looking forward to the decline of my, to use the medical definition, “Awesomer Than Perfect” vision.
(This point of hubris might chafe, but I don’t care – I’m incompetent in almost every area of human endeavor, but when it comes to seeing stuff and skipping rocks, I’m World Class Champion League. I shouldn’t even be allowed near WordPress, really – unless it’s for like, you know, looking or throwing rocks at it. You work with what you got, son!)

You Won’t Need a Phone or PC
A research lab at the University of Washington is continuing to advance data-centric contact lenses for us to someday get data from – theoretically cybernetic prosthetics providing an augmented/virtual reality overlay of the world around us. It’s a rather profound concept – both practically speaking and for the simple and timeless philosophical question of:
“What the Hell is Reality, Yo?”

Looking Out From My Skull
Skip forward lots of years – but not too many – and a simple contact lens with high-res capability could theoretically replace almost every screen you find yourself looking at on a day-to-day basis. Continue reading »

Moving a Robot/With a Kinect/Over the Internets/Is a Revolution

 CareBots, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Internet, Japan 日本 Tekk, Medical Robots, Medical Technology, Microsoft, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Technology & Labor, Technology & Work, Telepresence, The Beginning is Near, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Nov 242011
 

Yasakawa Japan has retrofitted one of their robots with an off the shelf MS Kinect. And just like that, telepresence takes a huge leap forward.

[VIA KURZWEIL AI]

PRODUCTS RELATED TO THIS POST:
Support anthrobotic.com – Buy MS Kinect at our Amazon Affiliate Store!
Anthrobotic’s Amazon
Tech Products: Kinect Sensor with Some Games, Too.

The Brain During Orgasm: fMRI Knows Exactly How Women Feel

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Medical Technology, NBI, Neurology, Technology, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Nov 222011
 

Our Secrets’ Days are Numbered
Anthrobotic has previously covered these new, well… kinda “mind reading” technologies, and this is the latest volley (SEE ALSO: Movies of my Dreams & Am I Lying?). This latest method of analysis, developed by Dr. Barry Komisaruk, Orgasm Specialist (that’s capitalized, yeah?), allows for viewing activity across various regions of our brains when we’re, you know, getting off.

Nan Wise, a 54 year-old PhD candidate at Rutgers, climbed into an MRI machine an rubbed one out for science.

Which Comes First?
- I really need to stop doing that with section headings -
One assumes the effects of orgasm on/in the the brain, and those subsequent from brain back to body, are mostly autonomic, and aside from invasive alteration of some kind, not much we can change about them – we can observe, take notes, and go “Oh. That happens.” The automatic activity of the brain probably can’t tell us a whole lot about the individual.

But orgasm causality – that’s a different story. Discerning what exactly people are thinking in the lead-up to an orgasm could be a fascinating, lucrative, and potentially horrifying reveal on human nature. Continue reading »

Prosthetic with Nokia Smartphone Dock: An Anachronism Trapped in an Anachronism!

 Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Human Augmentation, Medical Technology, Prosthetics, Technology, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Oct 282011
 

AHHHHH!!!
This is a delicious contradiction.
Yet not, but kinda – on so many levels – I hardly know where to begin…

Well, first I want to give this guy all due respect. It’s a great idea and I hope the news gets out post-haste. I hope all of my 6 regular readers will share this idea. Not all amputees can kick out the cash needed for the Luke Arm or the Stark Hand or other super-tech prosthetics, so there’s obviously great value in augmenting and/or retrofitting the prosthetics people already have.

As such, props to Trevor Prideaux.

The Humor of Tech
Buuuuut I can’t steer too far away from what’s hilarious here: an antiquated prosthetic with a smartphone dock built-in, and the smartphone is also antiquated. It’s a technological timeline dissonance matryoshka – or something!

But again, congratulations and all respect to Mr. Prideaux.

[VIA TELEGRAPH UK]

 Older Entries  Newer Entries