a hundred avatars

Knowledge Navigator from Apple 1987

via Mark Avnet

Navigating knowledge and projecting what the future could look like. The video was dated "September 2011." Siri launched October 2011.  

Besides just the techo-stuff that seemed futuristic in '87 I also love how it positions how changes in technology affect human behavior. The professor is not only able to access more data (although why wouldn't he bring this awesome thing along to lunch?) and be more connected (technology) but is able to pull off a really cool presentation to his class even though he's totally waiting until the last second.

Sound familiar?

 

Richard Serra -- If Not Now, When?

Moderately painful because this address was given at Williams College, but I came across this again and it's fantastically straightforward and inspiring.

Just like Richard Serra's work.

Take risks. Break. Invent tools. Form obsessions. Cut through the weight of your education. It's difficult to think without obsession. Repetition not rote.

Play, where there are no ends, only means. (I don't often think 'play' when I think Richard Serra)

Process takes precedence over results (!)

My concern is that experience by proxy is a poor substitute for the reality of the interactive space we inhabit. As a sculptor I believe that perception structures thought and that to see is to think and conversely to think is to see. The virtual reality of the media, be it television or internet, limits our perception in that it affects our sense of space. It immobilizes our ability to apprehend actual physical space. Don’t let the rhetoric of simulation steal away the immediacy of your experience. Keep it real, keep it in the moment

If not now, when?

 

 

Transcript available here.

More Social Things

Between today's news from Jawbone + Fuseproject and the video below, today has been the day for the internet of things. Oh, and how the social aspects of machines will begin to shape us.

More research will go down in the coming months on the subject. In the meanwhile, the video below isn't terribly insightful (especially considering the production values and costs) and is kind of depressing, but the events it contains are around the corner...

Related news: I hope that I'm not too excited for the MoMA show Talk to Me

 

Tesco South Korea: Great bridge from outdoor to digital to home

One of the most talked about ideas at Cannes 2011. Great link from outdoor to mobile to home. Whether or not it's great outdoor or digital or mobile, but it is a great stunt...

 

Envisioning the Next 25 Years of Technology

This chart from Fast Co Design is a lot of fun. Reminds me of Gibson's quote: "the future is here, it's just poorly distributed."

Stuff near the center is technology we have today. Big nodes are the types of technology. Move out from the center, and you move out to the future. via @mavnet

 

A day made of glass

Qwiki Information Experience

Pretty cool. Saw this in Most Contagious 2010 (oh yeah, go check that out too)  .

In a cruel twist of fate, it's the future of the internet, destroying TV by becoming more like TV. Not sure where this will go, but it's cool

.

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

The Social Inbox

Plenty of coverage elsewhere about Facebook's email, but this video does a great job of explaining why you should care. It reminded me that Facebook is about people, and the more they remember that, the cooler and better their innovations will be.

Really nice job.

How to perfect the one sentence pitch

Common sense, but not too common. Right for startups, but also for any kind of pitch.

 

Madlibs for Pitching from Video4 on Vimeo.

Augmented Tachikawa