Product Description

i in the sky is a collection of essays by over 40 experts, including leading writers Charles Handy and Don Tapscott, giving their personal vision of the future of information.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3116160 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From the Back Cover
i in the sky is a collection of essays by over 40 experts, including leading writers Charles Handy and Don Tapscott, giving their personal vision of the future of information. Information here is given its widest meaning and includes such subjects as the Internet, electronic commerce, cybernetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and even computers as fashion accessories.
Information as a phenomenon pervades all areas of life and its evolution has consequences for everyone. Many of the papers have central themes such as the future of computer intelligence, library and information services, interactive Internet marketing, and networked learning in higher education. One paper links the technology enabling remote and online communication to the deconstruction of the corporation and the rise of flexible working. Professor Kevin Warwick writes about cybernetics and artificial intelligence, and describes an experiment involving a surgically implanted computer chip in his arm. Other papers deal with scholarly communication, smart houses and intelligent appliances. Two of the chapters are written as fiction, one by contemporary fantasy writer, Lise Leroux, who paints a menacing vision of human error in a tale of virtual reality.

Excerpted from I in the Sky: Visions of the Information Future by Alison Scammell. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Extract from Chapter Two
The man with X-Ray arms - and other skin-ripping yarns by Kevin Warwick (Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University)

Introduction

I remember, as a child, being fascinated by a film entitled The Man with X-ray Eyes. In it, the main actor, Ray Milland I think, put some drops in his eyes and instantly obtained x-ray vision. After a while the effect of the drops wore off and his sight returned to normal. Later he tried it again and again, until, in true Jekyll and Hyde fashion, the effect no longer went away and he was left with a permanent skeletal view of the world. Whilst such a person would obviously have no problems getting a job in a hospital or airport, their life in general, under such circumstances might be somewhat restricted and rather hazardous.

But might it be possible in the future to feed directly into our human brains such information as x-rays, radar, infrared or ultraviolet? Not as a replacement, as was the case for Ray Milland, for our normal senses, but as an extra, perhaps in an easily switchable form. At present this information is converted into a two-dimensional image and fed onto a screen so that our human brains can understand it. Yet computers, that are supposed to be far less intelligent than ourselves, even now, have no problem directly making sense of the information obtained. Cannot we, as humans, be given a chance of having a go ourselves? Well, maybe we can.

The secret lies on the interface between humans and machine, principally between the human body and computers. Historically the two things have been kept physically remote with communication merely by touch or sound. But things are changing fast.

Wearable Computers
Wearable computing has been seen as a way to make individual people smarter [1,2]. This means to augment everyday wearables, such as clothes, shoes or wristwatches, with some element of computing power. It is claimed [1] that in this way, wearables can extend the senses, improve memory and help the individual stay calm.

It appears to be a good idea to make use of everyday items that are worn and to enhance them with some computing power. Why not have medical monitoring information in a watch, glasses with an in built display that only the wearer can see or quite simply a belt which contains a computer?

It is said that we will think differently about ourselves when we have computers in our clothing. Indeed, that may well be true; however, the critical element is that the computer is external to our body, so it doesn't actually change who we are other than merely in terms of our self-perception. In terms of our intelligence or abilities these remain the same as when we make use of a portable computing system, apart perhaps from a small time saving in use.

It is not known whether or not wearable computers will make an impact on our lives. The commercial possibilities of computing power on board a watch would appear to be reasonably good, although it may all be down to fashion and what is socially acceptable as to how much it all takes off.

Wearables suffer from a number of drawbacks in that they must, almost surely, be very light weight, easily visible or accessible, fairly low cost and low power. All of these characteristics tend to restrict, at the present time, what is actually achievable. However, where the positives of a wearable device are apparent, such restrictions are lifted, as is the case with a Global Positioning System.

Wearable computers are designed to be with the user at all times and to be part of the everyday life of their wearer. In practice however, most of the suggested devices so far do not tend to fit that bill. In A.P. Pentland's 'Wearable Intelligence', examples given of wearables include dancing shoes which convert dance steps into music, social wearables which are worn as a necklace and flash to communicate the names of their users, stress monitors, and a video camera fixed to a baseball cap, which, it is claimed, enables the wearer to call themselves a 'cyborg'. It therefore appears to be an interesting area in itself, with commercial potential, but with little to contribute to the interface between silicon and carbon, that is machines and humans.

It is worth stressing that wearable computers, in common with portables and even main frames are subject to the usual human-machine interface problems. To translate signals from the human brain to machine brain, and vice versa, a laborious process must ensue, involving conversion from electronic signals to mechanical movements and back to electronic signals again. This all takes time and energy, and is prone to error. The true merging of silicon and carbon will need a much closer interface if we are to move forward.

Silicon/Carbon in Humans - Why?
Not only have we seen quite a number of science fiction writers pointing to a near future in which humans and technology are inextricably linked [3], in recent years many scientists have also pointed in this direction [4]. Partly this is felt to be due to the unravelling of DNA molecules, possible allowing for computers themselves to be constructed from living DNA, and partly it is felt to be due to the likely acceptance, amongst humans, of the use of implant technology to enhance their capabilities. A key driver amongst this is the potential for linking the human neural system with the artificial version.

References

[1] A. P. Pentland. 'Wearable Intelligence.' Scientific American 9 (4), 1998, pp. 90-95.

[2] S. Mann. 'Wearable Computing: A First Step Toward Personal Imaging.' Computer 30 (2), 1997, pp. 25-32.

[3] W. Gibson. Mona Lisa Overdrive. Voyager, 1995.

[4] J. Forsythe. 'Merging Man and Machine.' Newsweek International, March 1999, pp. 42-43.

Customer Reviews

A clear, concise and fascinating read.
As an information science student, this book was recommended to me as an excellent introduction to current thinking in this subject.
The fact that each chapter is an individual article makes it just as easy to dip in to individual chapters as to read the book from front to back.
The relatively short chapters and clear and concise language makes this book an excellent read for both experts in the field and those with just a passing interest.
I couldn't put it down and its not often you can say that about a course text book!