The End of Cyberspace

The truest things, said in jest-- or on t-shirts

At the Institute, a couple of us have been talking about the declining perceived value of anonymity as one of the big impacts of Web 2.0. Social software (however you want to define that slippery term) encourages sociability by giving people stable identities, even if they needn't be identities that track back to a person in the physical world.

I think one of the consequences of the growing centrality of online identity is a growing recognition of how anonymity didn't work online: while there's an argument that it allowed marginal people to be heard in online conversations that they never could have joined in real life, it also served as a cover for-- or even promoted-- bad behavior, as this t-shirt succinctly put it:

[from Penny Arcade Store]

I was thinking about this recently while driving on the freeway, and having to put up with various drivers doing 80, occasionally passing saner drivers by zipping onto the breakdown lane. One of the reasons this kind of behavior happens on the highway is that if you do something bad on the highways, you can essentially drive away from the consequences of your actions. The odds are incredibly small that you'll be chased down, much less have anyone remember you at a time when they can do something to bring you to account. Contrast this to a small town where everyone recognizes your car, sees you in the coffee shop, and damn well is going to have a word with you if you cut them off on the road.

[via ack/nak]

Technorati Tags: end of cyberspace, internet

William Gibson on the novelty of cyberspace

William Gibson, whose new novel Spook Country is out soon, is interviewed in the Seattle Times. One interesting observation:

Fifteen or 20 years ago, the time we spent in digital systems was a special time. We spent less time there and we noticed it more. Now that's reversed. The increasingly rare time we spend is that which is not in the system. That's how it turns itself inside out.

That's why a term like "cyberspace" starts to go the way of all those things in the 19th century that started with the word "electro" — electro-water, electro-toothbrush. Electricity was a novelty. But as everything is increasingly transacted in what we used to call cyberspace, cyberspace ceases to exist. What becomes special is the world that's not in it.

Technorati Tags: end of cyberspace, science_fiction, William Gibson

Wizard newspapers

Previously I've blogged about Harry Potter and the Internet of Things, and argued that the Harry Potter series could inspire a generation of designers and technologists to create devices that behave like magical objects, and further break down the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds.

So I was struck by a ScienCentral News article about a new e-paper that invokes Harry Potter:

Hollywood needs pricey special effects to make Harry Potter's magical world come to life. But one bit of movie magic, Harry's full-motion-video newspaper, may not be so far from reality....

Purdue University's David Janes is using nanotechnology to create a high-tech display that could be used for a newspaper that updates itself, complete with moving pictures.

"So instead of seeing a static picture on your newspaper headline, you would actually see a character talking at you. Certainly I think this would be a way to do that," says Janes....

Janes' group uses transparent transistors containing tiny nanowires to light a flexible screen.

"I guess in my mind the thing that it directly replaces is the thin-film-transistors that would be the actual drivers behind your LCDs, or your plasma televisions," says Janes. "We will no longer be constrained by simply having this rigid, glass panel we hang on our wall or our desk, and we'll be able to wrap displays around other things."

It also happens to be transparent, so manufacturers could be embed it in clear surfaces like windshields, or even your eyeglasses, because everything from the nanowires to the electrodes has been fabricated using transparent oxide materials.

"If you're sitting on a train or on an airplane, you could just watch videos directly through your eyeglasses, and not have a separate display you carried with you," says Janes.

Technorati Tags: digital-physical, displays, end of cyberspace, epaper, Harry Potter, interface

The truest things, said in jest

The Onion reports on low sales of Sousaphone Hero:

Despite a catchy 1890s soundtrack and realistic-feeling game play, Sousaphone Hero, the third installment of Activision's massively popular Guitar Hero video game franchise, sold a mere 52 copies in the United States in its opening week, the company reported Monday....

Sousaphone Hero offers two dozen public-domain marches, including 1893's "The Liberty Bell," 1896's "Stars and Stripes Forever," and 1897's "Entry of the Gladiators." The bulky sousaphone-shaped controller coils around the body, and players wear white spat-like foot coverings fitted with sensors that monitor synchronized marching steps. As with the fret buttons on Guitar Hero's guitar peripheral, the sousaphone controller's three valves are color-coded to match on-screen notes the player must hit.

What's notable about this is that haptic game controllers are now familiar enough to be parodied. You can only get the joke if you're familiar with the Wii or Guitar Hero, and therefore can more clearly imagine how much something like Sousaphone Hero would suck.

Technorati Tags: end of cyberspace, games