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Utopia Is Creepy

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Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#31

Post by icebraining »

rbanffy wrote: post #25

My problem with the video is that it's the kind of depiction you get when there is nobody able or willing to say "this is impossible to do". Every display seems capable to project 3D images in the air, some of them translucent, others opaque. At the same time, there are screens hung on walls (or on fridge doors). There is also a translucent touchscreen that seems to project different images on each side. Technically,…

It's far from impossible. It's not even implausible.

3D projection in the air is already being done: http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_research/2006/20060210/2...

As for the translucent screen, projecting different images on each side is (at the same time) is just an assumption. It could very easily have a accelerometer to detect the 'flip' and change based on that.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#32

Post by icebraining »

kabdib wrote: post #30

You never see anyone actually /create content/ in one of these things -- they're just sliding stuff around, or examining that already exist. Are keyboards dead in the future? Are we doomed to cut-and-paste only the dead bits of the past? The only things possessing motion are vehicles and clocks. Everything seems so pointless and sterile; even the beggars.

The guy in the office is using a keyboard. The girl is writing on the screen with a pen.

And not seeing someone creating content is far from unrealistic: most people nowadays don't either. Content is creating by a small minority, even if the tools are widely available.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#33

Post by moe »

borism wrote: post #26
potatolicious wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " There are a ton of animations between slides in the screens. This is a waste of time."* Given the popularity of iOS and the growing popularity of OSX, I'd argue that most users disagree. Given the direction of Windows 8 it looks like we're getting more animation in the future, not less, and I for one am happy about that. Animation offers important cues as to the nature of the UI and data you're dealing with (the…

As you have correctly noted, there is NO below-class in this vision (well maybe except hotel concierge). We may only imagine how we might arrive to such future.

As you have correctly noted, there is NO below-class in this vision (well maybe except hotel concierge).

There was also the video-beggar in the subway station. Which struck me as extremely cynical.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#34

Post by rbanffy »

icebraining wrote: post #31
rbanffy wrote: post #25

My problem with the video is that it's the kind of depiction you get when there is nobody able or willing to say "this is impossible to do". Every display seems capable to project 3D images in the air, some of them translucent, others opaque. At the same time, there are screens hung on walls (or on fridge doors). There is also a translucent touchscreen that seems to project different images on each side. Technically,…

It's far from impossible. It's not even implausible. 3D projection in the air is already being done: http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_research/2006/20060210/2... As for the translucent screen, projecting different images on each side is (at the same time) is just an assumption. It could very easily have a accelerometer to detect the 'flip' and change based on that.

OK. There is both light subtraction and emission happening on both sides. You could have a middle-layer of LCD shutters between a sandwich of translucent LEDs.

But I think the worst offenders are the desktop-mounted 3D display and the projection-capable PDA.

I am aware you can light up a voxel of air with enough energy. I am not sure you can do it in full-color, from a battery or whether the user would be able to interact with it without an aluminized fire suit. If I had that kind of power source in my pocket, I'd be warping space into stable wormholes instead of taking cabs.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#35

Post by extraNick »

So we have a bunch of screens to look forward to? Yay, looking at screens of various sizes and sitting at desks. Wow, what an improvement in the quality of life? Wouldn't you say?

This is absurd I mean in an uninspired way. It is absurdly uninspired. Why is technology today so concerned with what can be displayed? The people in these videos are basically holding iPhones and wearing 3d glasses. Carrying a brick around with me was never appealing no matter how far the screen extends to the edge.

The phone (brick) is NOT the best form factor for mobile technology. It is not attached to your body and only complicates the business of living day to day living... "Where did I put my brick and my keys?" All of these ideas of carrying around screens and sitting at office desks looking at screens are only visions of Utopia to people waiting to die.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#36

Post by rbanffy »

Tangaroa wrote: post #18

On the title, YMMV. Enough people find Disneyland non-creepy enough and even attractive that it stays in business. On the second half of the article, these are ads. They're going to show people happily doing productive things with their futuristic devices, not gritty mobsters calling in hits from across the continent or terrorists using GPS and Google Images to make sure they're blowing up the right building or all t…

It's been some time since Tomorrowland ceased to depict a technological utopia.

And I find it and the people who go there absolutely fascinating.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#37

Post by rbanffy »

icebraining wrote: post #32
kabdib wrote: post #30

You never see anyone actually /create content/ in one of these things -- they're just sliding stuff around, or examining that already exist. Are keyboards dead in the future? Are we doomed to cut-and-paste only the dead bits of the past? The only things possessing motion are vehicles and clocks. Everything seems so pointless and sterile; even the beggars.

The guy in the office is using a keyboard. The girl is writing on the screen with a pen. And not seeing someone creating content is far from unrealistic: most people nowadays don't either. Content is creating by a small minority, even if the tools are widely available.

> The guy in the office is using a keyboard.

The curve is one of Microsoft's finest products. I like the natural better, but, when space is constrained, it's a great choice.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#38

Post by iso8859-1 »

jakeonthemove wrote: post #14

Utopia as its often depicted does suck, but the video shown by Microsoft is in no way utopian - it looks like the present, only with more displays (and invisible batteries). Also, it's 6 minutes of software perfection - I have that sometimes... before Windows throws me an error, my Bluetooth stack fails and disconnects my headphones, my virtual machine hangs up, my phone's browser freezes and I can't close it (damn y…

You can enable killing apps by long-pressing the back button in Cyanogenmod.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#39

Post by philwelch »

TamDenholm wrote: post #24

One thing i think a lot of futuristic guesses miss but that got pretty well illustrated in the movie Minority Report, is that the future will include a VAST amount of advertising. All this technology wont be invented to make our lives better, it'll be invented to make money. I think the iPhone would be the best current day example of it. A product of excellence that was created to make money (and boy did it) but has…

There's a huge difference. Advertising makes money by making our lives worse. Something like the iPhone makes money by making our lives better. They're fundamentally opposing forces.

Re: Utopia Is Creepy

#40

Post by fleitz »

It looks pretty lonely and soul crushingly transactional. A world where we know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Why don't we invent technologies that let us spend more time with friends and family and less time worrying about the production of goods and services?

Wouldn't it be much more fun for the mother and child to spend time together baking something, than sliding recipes around the world? They've created a vision of the future that allows a father to manage his daughters homework like an employee in a cube farm, simply to avoid interacting with her and spend more time with Excel. Congratulations, but it's far more important to destroy work than relationships.

The medium is the message and this medium says it's far more important to have some slick glass thing 'interacting' with people than to just spend time with them. This ideal takes us so far away from being present in the moment. I could care less about the productivity of the future, I care far more about the personalization of the future.

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