I liked this book because it made things seem like reality that I've always dreamed about having. For example, when I was 9 I read an article about a new car that would drive itself, traveling down the road at 180 MPH. I wondered about this and then saw an example on Minority Report, I thought it was pretty cool. But Norman does a good job of telling me that not everything that glitters is gold; there are problems.
He also did a good job of letting us know of interesting ideas that will be more annoying than good, such as the automatic house. If the house sees you going to bed, it will turn off the light, turn the air down etc. But this isn't always good; what if I were just laying down and not going to sleep? What if I wanted to read a book? And if I were making eggs for a friend (and you KNOW it would deny me eggs), it wouldn't let me get eggs because my weight is not good. I always thought these futuristic devices were good, but the book did a good job of letting me know it ISN'T all good. Also, it gave me good insight about automation, and not to use too much.
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Thanks man, but if I have time later on, I'll prob go out to some of their events to check it out. Glad to see that you liked the book. He does indeed mention alot of things that seemed to work fine in sci-fi movies, but i guess thats still just a fantasy for now. Even if we were able to create something similar, to fully integrate that into society today won't be an easy task, nor would the cost necessarily be justified.
ReplyDeleteI thought some of his ideas were a bit "out of this world." I know many scientists have been talking about automating everything for a long time, but there is a limit as to how far you can go. Personally, I would hate if my fridge told me I was not allowed to eat something. It's my life, I can eat what I want.
ReplyDeleteGood point. One of flaws with the house was not being able to determine a person's state of mind. They explained that the use of sensors could predict what a user might intend to do. Unfortunately, their predictions aren't always 100% correct. As you said, you could be laying down with the intention of not going to sleep. Machines can't read our minds, so these type of issues will remain a problem for quite some time...hopefully. Mind-reading machines don't sound too great o.O
ReplyDeleteYep. I think everyone in the class is on the same page with this one. Generally good ideas, but his freak-out factor was a little high and impractical.
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