Ken’s Blog

When the IPad came out in 2010, I had a vision of a universal anonymous device. When you picked up any IPad that happened to be handy, its front facing camera would recognize you. That would then become your IPad, customized with your data and preferences, until you put it down again.

Clearly this is not what happened. Like the IPhone before it, the IPad became a singular possession, a sign of status and wealth, like a car — as in: this isn’t your car, this is my car.

There are many examples through history of technological objects which are anonymous: The telephone booth, the piano, the typewriter and the taxi cab, to name just a few. You don’t need to own any of these devices to use them. They are designed to be more or less interchangeable with other devices of the same type.

But the data tablet and smart phone are different, because they contain your personal data. Which means you don’t want anybody messing with them, and thereby potentially messing with your private information.

Yet we now live in the world of Blockchain, of end to end encryption, of fully secure WhatsApp messages. There now exist widely adopted mechanisms by which individuals can store their data in the Cloud without needing to worry that their data will be stolen.

So the next wave of personal information devices — arguably the first generation of wearables — might be able to get it right. The moment you put on a pair of cyberglasses, the device will do a quick retinal scan, fetch your data from the Cloud, and essentially become your personal customized device for as long as you are wearing it.

And the next person who puts on those same glasses will have a similar experience. Which means that wearables will, like pianos, and guitars, and plates and bowls and forks and spoons and screwdrivers, become anonymous interchangeable machines.

They will not be tethered to any one person, but rather will be equally useable by anyone. And that will make a lot more sense, won’t it?

Suppose Donald Trump ends up being thrown out of office because of the whole Russia getting him elected thing. What are the ramifications?

Do we get to roll back his nutty executive orders? Do we get to throw out the anti-environment head of the EPA? Do we get to throw out the anti-education head of the DOE? Do we get to throw out his entire rogue’s gallery of crazies?

Most important, do we get to ask Neil Gorsuch to leave the Supreme Court? And can we then replace him with somebody who was chosen through a legitimate process?

What, exactly, are the rules when a fake President, who got into the office through chicanery, finally gets tossed out?

Yesterday I was asked by my friend Charles whether I would like to join him in a swim this morning, promptly at 8am, in the English Channel. I was hesitant to say yes, because according to my NYC subjective clock that would be 3am.

Yet sure enough, this morning promptly at 8am I went down to the beach. And then, here in Brighton, I happily went for a swim in the Channel.

To my surprise, it had turned out not to be difficult at all to make my appointment. Every fifteen minutes, starting at around 6:30am Brighton time, I had found myself waking up. I kept trying to go back to sleep, but would then find myself promptly reawakening every 15 minutes.

It would appear that some force deep within my soul really really wanted to wake up and swim in the English Channel. And so I did.

The water was far warmer than I had expected, but the waves were intimidatingly high. As I walked out from the shore, feeling wave after wave crashing against my body, I started to laugh in sheer glee.

I recognized that particular laugh: It was my five year old self, laughing aloud with sheer animalistic pleasure. There was something so crazy, so wonderfully beautiful, about walking straight into those crashing waves, that I was overcome with a completely irrational and childlike sense of joy.

Just before I plunged head first into the breaking waves, I realized that in its way, this experience reminded me of the one time I had gone sky diving. On that occasion, I had had exactly the same thought, which goes something like this:

Nature, in all of its lovely and infinite magnificence, probably doesn’t care about me at all. But it’s probably not going to kill me either.

Today I arrived in Brighton England for the Develop computer games conference. The first decision to be made was in which room I would stay at the Hilton Metropole hotel.

Apparently there was a choice: Either I could have a really big room (which is what they assumed I would want), or I could have a really tiny room looking out over the beach and the sea (actually the English Channel).

I unhesitatingly opted for a room with a view. When I arrived at my room, it was indeed small — although I prefer the more upbeat appellation “cozy”.

Then when I opened the shades, a magnificent view of the beach and the water beyond stretched out before me. I was in heaven.

To me, it is obvious, given a choice between a large room with a view of the parking lot, and a small room with a room of the English Channel, that one should choose the latter. Yet it occurs to me that this may not be an opinion universally held.

Clearly I am one of those people who cares more about virtual space (space you can see), rather than physical space (space you can walk around in). Could it be that each human lies upon a spectrum? On one end you have the visual space lovers, and on the other end you have the physical space lovers.

I’m not sure we will ever be able to make both of these groups happy.

Today I was reading an article that talked about espresso in a way that made me curious about the origins of espresso. Typing ‘espresso’ into Google took me to the Wikipedia page.

From there I learned that Angelo Mariando received an Italian patent for an early version of an espresso machine in 1884. Seventeen years later his invention was improved upon by Luigi Bezzera of Milan.

That patent was then purchased in 1905 by Desiderio Pavoni, and in 1906 La Pavoni became the first industrially manufactured espresso machine.

It occurs to me that at some point in the near future, through a combination of wearable technology and various applications of artificial intelligence, I will be able to acquire all that knowledge essentially in real time.

For example, suppose you and I are having a conversation about espresso, and I start to wonder where the underlying technology originated. I could easily pepper my conversation with some unobtrusive keywords, and combine those words with a few small hand gestures and eye movements to quickly look up the history of espresso.

By the time it is my turn to speak, I might already know the answer. I will then be able to use that knowledge in our conversation.

This won’t seem like some sort of magic power, since everyone else we know will be able to do the same sort of thing. Instant lookup will simply be normal, a aspect of everyday conversation that will be universally taken for granted.

It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on human discourse.

There should be some sort of organized matchmaking organization. One the one hand there are brilliant creative individuals who create potential value, and on the other hand there are entrepreneurial individuals who would best understand how to convert that potential value into money within the marketplace.

Sometimes these people manage to find each other, but the process seems to be disorganized and haphazard. There are so many factors to consider, including geography, timing, personality, and sufficient shared technical understanding.

Even when you think you have found that “special business someone”, many things can go wrong. And then there is the possibility that you will never find anyone at all to complement your vision.

Shouldn’t there be a sort of equivalent of Match.com for creative geniuses and business development geniuses who want to pair up with just the right other half? Or does such a thing already exist?

Today we gave a demo to some potential funders of our research. The demo went really well. I mean seriously really well.

But more important than that was what we learned from the reactions of the people we were demoing to. Suddenly a lot of things that had been fuzzy made a lot more sense.

You can spend weeks trying to figure out what direction to take your research, but there’s nothing quite like actually showing your work to people who might use it in the real world. In moments, a lot of things become crystal clear.

It’s not until you see those people watching your demo that you know — deep in your bones — what is important versus what is not important. Now we know exactly what to do to make our demo even better. And it’s a great feeling.

Today my fancy new 2017 13″ Macbook Pro arrived. I had ordered it quite a while back, but because Apple has been changing over to newer models, the delivery was delayed, seemingly endlessly. A kindly grad student has been letting me use his computer in the meanwhile.

The new computer and I are still learning each other. Today I’m doing all the geeky stuff, like installing Chrome, and Homebrew, node.js, and various other words that will seem mysterious unless you program a lot.

The funny thing about upgrading to a newer model computer is that it’s kind of like moving from one house to another, but taking all of your stuff with you. You may have moved into a new place, but you pretty much have the same furniture, stuff in your closets, pictures on the walls, dishes and silverware.

Since I had prepared for this move, it was all pretty easy and painless. And now here I am, happily ensconced in my fancy new virtual digs.

Maybe I’ll start a garden. 🙂

Like most people I know, I am somewhat neurotic. We are each have our own particular neuroses, and we all learn to develop coping mechanisms to get around them.

One of my neuroses, which is not uncommon, is fear of failure in high stakes situations. The more that is on the line, the greater the chance I can get sidetracked by the possibility of failure.

Clearly this is counterproductive. After all, when a lot is at stake, clearly it is more effective to increase one’s focus, rather than becoming distracted by the possibility of a negative outcome.

Over time I have realized that when I am in such a high pressure situation, I arrange to fail at something else.

I don’t do this on purpose, exactly. It’s more that I end up finding something safe that I can fail at.

Once I have managed to fail at something else, my neurosis is satisfied: I have affirmed that I am indeed not perfect, so I no longer feel any pressure to pretend that I am.

My mind is then sufficiently liberated to focus on the other goal — the one with the higher stakes. And it all usually turns out well.

Sometimes there’s nothing like a little strategic failure to help you get through the week. 🙂

Hal Jordan was given a ring by a dying alien and became Green Lantern. Kal-El of Krypton traveled to another planet and became Superman.

But these are fantasies. In real life, encounters with outer space don’t confer super powers on anybody. Or do they?

If people are coming back to earth with super powers, you can be sure that sooner or later, the world will find out. And just this week, in a shocking development, one of these extraordinary individuals, Sandra Magnus, slipped up by revealing a long hidden super power to the world.

You may know Dr. Magnus as a respected American astronaut, a mainstay of the International Space Station, as well as a distinguished scientist with advanced degrees in physics, engineering and materials science.

Or perhaps you know her from her days as a designer of stealth aircraft at McDonnell Douglas. Or you might recognize Dr. Magnus in her highly prestigious current position as the Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

But this week all of that fell by the wayside as Dr. Magnus finally revealed her true superhero identity: Invisible Girl!

In a ceremony at the White House, the President and Vice President honored three U.S. Astronauts: Buzz Aldrin, Alvin Drew and David Wolf. Each was thanked by name for his service to our country, and both the President and Vice President shook hands with all three men.

Yet somehow, fellow distinguished U.S. Astronaut Sandra Magnus was able to stand not five feet away from the President while all of this was taking place. In a flagrant violation of the laws of physics, she apparently deployed her super powers to make herself completely invisible to both the President and the Vice President.

During the entire ceremony, neither the President nor the Vice President appeared to acknowledge or even notice her presence in the room. What would cause two such high ranking politicians to fail to even see an American Astronaut during a ceremony to honor American Astronauts?

There can be only possible explanation: Dr. Magnus is, in reality, Invisible Girl!