Technology

The New Age of Telepathy 🧠

Posted on by chrisbpowell

BrainNet recently enabled 3 people to directly transmit their thoughts. At the moment it is merely a Tetris like game, where rotation instructions are transmitted from the mind of one person to another. But like any new medium, the bandwidth is low… for now. Considering the development from morse code to telephone voice calls, to today’s wireless video chat across the world, it’s likely this medium’s bandwidth will grow much the same.

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So this got me thinking about how we communicate and when do we start calling it Telepathy?

The Collins Dictionary defines Telepathy as:

Telepathy – Communication between minds by some means other than the normal sensory channels; transference of thought

Now this concept has always fascinated me, in fact, the landscape of communication itself has always triggered a sense of wonder for me.

I see communication as a way of externalising the inner mind, or in many ways making the infinite finite. Distilling abstract thought and sensory information into varying levels of explicit information that can be observed and experienced by someone else’s perception.

From the early days of evolution, the ways by which life could communicate are directly related to collective behaviour and the sense of self. Think back to early cavemen and the indicative grunts, sounds and movements which allowed them to warn of dangers, collaborate and bond. From there we upgraded the operating system of our mind and language was born. We can now use shared mental models to describe complex stories and emotions through our voice, to anyone in our vicinity.

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HealBe GoBe – Technologies bridging the gap between our primitive instincts and modern intentions.

Posted on by chrisbpowell

We are at quite a unique stage of our evolution, where we are constantly in a struggle between our ancestor’s primitive need for immediate survival, and our contemplative capacities, which lead us to dream and wonder about both the past and the future. We respond to this the only way we know how – create items and capacities which allow us to bridge the gap between the two.

At a recent BBQ, I had a great conversation with a friend, where they expressed their concern that we are becoming too dependent on technology. This stemmed from both dependency on tools for function (ie. Navigation – Google maps), and the deterioration of our own capacities due to our behaviours (ie. obesity, deteriorating eyesight etc.). Ultimately, the sort of fear represented in movies which either represent humanity becoming dependent on technology and near useless (WALL-E), or the apocalyptic style ‘what happens if all technology dies’ scenario.

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The conversation then swiftly turned to the focus of evolution and how we truly became to such a situation in the first place. In a previous post, I have discussed how our bodies have physically changed due to the what we design. In other words, our physical experience is altered due to the products of our mind. Ultimately, our bodies have gotten weaker, due to the fact that the tools which we create give us greater function than what biological evolution could in such a time frame. We surpassed the need to be the biggest and strongest animal in the kingdom, purely by being the smartest.

Our brains evolved the unique capability to contemplate and create, which lead to our ability to design tools for our needs. As discussed in a previous post; technology, a product of our own thought, shapes and defines us, just like our use of language does. With this in mind, technology essentially is our evolution. Therefore, we are not so much losing capability, but more so creating the capabilities which we desire.

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SMS – What we design, designs us in return

Posted on by chrisbpowell

Technologies such as mobile phones and SMS seem pretty ordinary to us now, but over an incredibly short amount of time have completely changed how we live our lives, and even how our brains work. This is one example of how what we design, designs us in return – also known as Ontological design.

With the first SMS ever being sent in 1992 and not becoming commercially available until mid to late 90’s, it hasn’t really been around that long. Despite this, it has had an incredible impact on our world. It has also been shown to physically light up different parts of our brains and have influence on memory and other capabilities. Essentially, our brain is adapting to a new medium which we’ve never had before and changing how we interact with the world.

To my mind, these findings closely relate to the observations of Shakespeare’s writings and how his craft and creation of words excites and stimulates our mind. This has been shown through brain imaging technology, which once again lights up differently as to when consuming “common” language. Our brain is forced to work outside the bounds which it is used to, due to his creative use of language.

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Google Pixel – Moving from intention to intuition

Posted on by chrisbpowell

A couple of weeks ago now, Google announced their move into the hardware market by launching their own phone (amongst other devices). The response has been huge and is set to be a serious contender in the mobile phone market. I believe this is the first big step towards moving the emphasis from our physical tools to our virtual environments and fitting technology to our intuitions rather than our intentions.

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It is amazing what huge news the release of a new mobile phone is, but when you think about it, it is little surprise. Our phones become a part of us and are our sense or connection to the virtual world and each other. But despite the (quite likely) perception that this is their strategy to increase revenues through hardware sales, I believe the implications of their strategy go much deeper.

A few of the key features of the phone are their artificial intelligence (AI) assistant and their unlimited, full resolution cloud backup of information on the phone. In fact, the only part of the phone that they really promote other than this is the camera and how fast the phone can charge. I believe that the entry into the hardware market allows Google to remove the value from the phone itself and create emphasis on the virtual experience. This is something that other providers are seemingly (yet) unable or unwilling to do. Read More

Big Data – Defining ourselves to recode the world

Posted on by chrisbpowell

Big data is ultimately our ability to measure, analyse and understand massive amounts of information, observing and unpacking the complexities of life. We are beginning to reverse engineer, manipulate the world around us and change how we interact with it. With data being collected at an ever increasing rate, the actions we take can more directly influence the world around us. If you are not familiar with the term ‘big data’, the below video might help you get up to speed.

Ever since (wherever you define) the start of our existence we have grown and changed to best suit our environment and and adapt to our needs. Seen in the biological world with evolution over thousands+ years with every generation, every iteration, changes being made to progress. An example of this is how animals may have once developed larger claws to be able to climb a tree. Now that we have the consciousness to be aware and actively attempt to influence our capabilities, the rate of biological evolution just doesn’t cut it.

From way back in our evolutionary history we have observed and created tools to progress our species and and capabilities further. Think of the first use of tools, or the harnessing of fire and electricity to use at will. But we didn’t do this individually, we naturally have the tendency to collaborate and leverage the collective capability. Growing from small groups or tribes to the high density cities of today. We use collaborative power to increase the rate of change, which is emphasised by the internet and connectivity capabilities now available. Big data is the next step in this process, observing increasing amounts of information collected from a massive amount of sources.

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Virtual Reality – The benefits of hacking our consciousness

Posted on by chrisbpowell

In my previous post Virtual Reality – Experiencing the infinite, I explored the prevailing technology of Virtual Reality and some of the implications it may have. Not only am I excited about the form of the technology, but also how it is used, as like any new tool this is key to its success. Despite still being relatively young in it’s current form, there are already some uses and trends which I have found really interesting, which achieve much more than just simple entertainment.

As far back as we can see we have always found ways to hack our senses and natural systems. How we experience the world today ultimately became that way due to survival. At some point each sense or response served a purpose by merely facilitating the avoidance of immediate threat. In our more recent history we have found ways to hack these systems to feel the rush or bodily effect, without actually experiencing the danger itself. A simple example of this is a roller coaster or sky diving. These both lead the body to kick in natural systems to a heightened state of awareness, releasing chemicals into our body that have a variety of effects.

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Despite the adrenaline inducing examples above, there are other ways we can create immersive experiences and involve our thought in the here and now. Throughout history there are examples such as grand architecture like cathedrals that create a feeling of awe, psychedelic drugs used for dreamtime, complex musical arrangements, theatre, and forward to the cinema experience of today. They are all finding new and greater ways to change our frame of mind, experience something new and communicate complex thought and experience to one another. Read More

Virtual Reality – Experiencing the infinite

Posted on by chrisbpowell

Virtual recently captured my attention when using it as part of a solution on a project I recently worked on in financial services. In a seemingly unlikely place to use virtual reality as a solution, I began to see the benefits and implications this technology does, can and will have on society and on how we perceive the world. The more I researched, the more engaged I became in this area and the more exciting the future of it seemed to me.

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If you have not yet been able to experience (basic levels of) virtual reality, I encourage you to do so. It is not until you really experience it yourself you begin to understand these experiences are much less than a simple gimmick. This technology is here now, already in very accessible ways such as Youtube. If you filter Youtube video results for 360° you will find videos recorded in 360 that you can navigate by the arrows on your keyboard or by clicking and dragging (such as this video). Better yet, observe these on your mobile phone through the Youtube app and you will be able to look around by moving your body, which is detected by the accelerometers in your phone.

This technology for the first time is allowing our consciousness to be separated from our physical environment. We are hacking our senses to have experiences that may not have been possible otherwise. The experience doesn’t just stop at our vision though, there are many developments which are allowing these experiences to involve many or all of our senses which are used to construct our perception of reality. Some examples of this are soon to be virtual reality theme parks such as The Void which create complete multisensory virtually enhanced environments using a variety of technologies.

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Think Less, Remember More – How technologies of today are changing how we think

Posted on by chrisbpowell

On occasion I find myself on my commute to work playing games on an app called “Lumosity“. This is an app that markets itself as “brain training”. I primarily used it as a novelty to pass the time, but there is definitely an emerging market for applications / products such as these. Interestingly, in an article recently posted by BRW, they claim that the secret to having better memory is to actually use it less. They don’t mean merely to stop thinking, but they propose the use of technological recording and organisation of information to allow us to better learn new forms of information (reinforced by this article from the University of California).

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This does not seem too revolutionary – if you are trying to remember less things at once, you can remember new information better. But when you look at this in regards to how we live our lives integrated with our technological tools today, it becomes much more relevant. With the amount of inputs, task and information we interact with constantly, technology becomes an enabler to being effective in this environment. Our tools (when used well) are ultimately becoming an extension of ourselves and of the capabilities of our mind. Read More

Live Modification of Reality is HERE – Earbuds that allow you to modify how you hear the world

Posted on by chrisbpowell

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to change reality as it is happening? What it would be like to be able to adjust your surroundings to better suit you or how you feel? Our technologies are continually becoming our way to escape from a particular situation. It is second nature for us to put our headphones on to listen to our music in order to escape the annoying chatter on a train, or put on sunglasses to avoid that annoying glare. But now our integration with technology is continuing to allow us to further modify what our senses perceive as it happens.

Well here is Here, the product that allows you to directly modify what you hear in real time. These ear buds allow you to augment your own reality by modifying how your senses perceive your surroundings. The concept is relatively simple, have a microphone which takes in information, a processor which allows you to modify the signal and then a speaker which produces the sounds you actually want to hear (with other fancy technical abilities, of course). Via an app, you can modify how you would like the signal to be processed and have all this done close enough to real time our senses can’t perceive the difference. Read More

Natural Technology – Music that can only be played in the woods

Posted on by chrisbpowell

Can you use technology to enhance a natural experience? Or are natural and technological experiences mutually exclusive? John Moose (The band) say they can compliment each other, by allowing their album to only be sampled in the woods.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to go on a trip to the Blue mountains and experience the awe inspiring natural beauty which is there. It is not until you are literally standing on the edge of a cliff face overlooking a waterfall that travels hundreds of meters before it reaches it’s base that you start to appreciate how incredible it really is. On the many walking tracks that we completed we were continually astounded by the diversity of the natural landscape and how the tracks (which were made over 100 years ago) allow us to explore so easily without ruining what is naturally there.

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It was nice to have a weekend away where we hardly used any digital device for entertainment. We used no computers, watched no movies and in fact didn’t even have a television where we stayed. Instead, we had a cabin which sat hidden in the bush with large glass windows for two of the four walls, a fireplace in the centre of the room and walking tracks which lead straight to the mountains.

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Despite my passion and interest for technology and the future, I am always fascinated by natural landscape and the incredible experiences our planet has to offer. I find the common debate between people on the extremities of each the nature / technology camps (that often tend to present them as mutually exclusive) both frustrating and ineffective. The natural environment and the intimate company of others is a beautiful thing, but so are the wondrous human creations and tools we use to better connect, enhance, collaborate and share what is inside our minds. Read More