Brain Canvas

Fantasy sports is a hobby of statistics. Friends and colleagues compete to assemble all star fantasy teams in football and baseball, earning points for the performance of each individual player week to week. The activity necessitates that one quickly learn the nuances of the sport and habitually track the outcome of each game as they manage their rosters in anticipation of the coming week’s matches. Fantasy sports are an entertainment enjoyed by thousands who invest hearts, time and wallets in their duty as fantasy coaches. But what if this same model were applied to a nobler cause? What if the incessant watching, anticipation and debate that fantasy sports affords our lesser heroes could be somehow engendered in the ones that truly matter, and that too often escape the oversight and reproach of the common man. I’m speaking of course about our nation’s congress. Imagine thousands of children and adults across America forming their own fantasy congress leagues, drafting their favorite leaders from the upper and lower chambers, and following their performance each week as they attend committee meetings, vote on amendments, filibuster and rise or fall in the polls. By adding a little competition, we could see the same attention to detail and anticipation over hotly contested outcomes in our political arenas as well as our sporting arenas. The beauty is that the stage is already perfectly set. As fivethirtyeight.com demonstrated during the 2008 election, the only pastime that has more data and statistics to pour over than baseball is American politics. Starting with the mid-term elections in 2010, we could see political fans across America drafting fantasy congressional teams comprised of their favorite incumbents and challengers, deciding whom to “play” each week as their poll numbers rise and fall. And perhaps, as a functional fantasy political system emerges, it will bring us closer to a functioning real political system as well.

A dark cloud has rolled over the cultural landscape with the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation into one massive lord of the overpriced ticketing realm.  Ticketmaster is already infamous for its hefty “convenience fees,” but its clout is such that even when bands like Pearl Jam have tried to take a stand, they always have to come crawling back, because there just was not enough room for them to negotiate.  The merger with their only remotely similar competitor, however, brings the price-gouging juggernaut too far. I am a fan of tunes, and even more of a fan of seeing live music.  I also believe that the apex of artistry comes from live performance, and that musicians ought to make their real earthly treasure from performance, not selling canned music.  This merger unfortunately backs performing artists into a corner: if they grow successful enough to play larger venues, they almost certainly will run into the LiveTicketNationMaster cartel. Those musicians who make their fame and living by touring hard and letting fans tape their shows to trade freely ought to join together in the name of music as a form of cultural expression and do something about this.  What if a critical mass of performing artists said “no way” to performing in venues paying tribute to the ticket giant?  I read an interview with virtuoso guitarist Derek Trucks some years back in which he predicted this exact same problem arising, and said something like “but if we have to play in people’s back yards to keep live music going, then that is exactly what we’ll do.”  Unfortunately Derek has not yet taken a stand on that claim. This must happen.  Content and media conglomerates have already fenced off whole cultural pastimes that used to be a free, shared part of the human experience.  If those artists who truly drive musical innovation and command a large and dedicated fanbase took a stand in partnership with smaller community venues, we could see a serious alternative arise to Ticketmaster.  It could start with actual people with (big) backyards hosting bands for concerts with minimal overhead, while bands refuse to play at “compromised” TicketNation venues.  While that movement takes off, community venues can negotiate together to offer attractive, low-cost packages to sidestep Ticketmaster-LiveNation and provide a space for a new community that celebrates the best part of the old music culture: affordable concerts, good places for artists and fans to develop something together, and ultimately a higher proliferation of musical acts that are able to draw a higher number of fans. Music makers of the world unite!

If you have ever used a computer, you are probably all too familiar with the following statements: File not Found Access is Denied Out of Memory Operation Completed Successfully And so on and so forth. Aside from the annoyingly high frequency with which some of us may encounter these messages, notice anything that they have in common? I will give you a hint: It has to do with grammar. Each one is written in the passive voice. Or at least is written without agency, in the case of “out of memory”. The more you think of common computer messages, the more you recognize that they downplay the agent of the action or outcome being described. The likely cause for this is that the software is designed in such a way that it neither blames the user nor the computer itself for any problem that occurs. As the user, a problem with your application just “happens”, rather than being connected to some sort of relationship between a cause and an effect. From a business and marketing perspective, this probably makes some sense. Consumers probably wouldn’t continue to buy your product if they blamed the device or software itself for every problem that happened with it. Most people also don’t take too kindly to being told that its their fault that something is broken (even when that’s true). But what if our technology spoke to us in the active voice? What if our devices assigned agency? What if your error messages read, “I could not find that file”, “You are not allowed to access that”, and “We completed the operation successfully”? Aside from potentially taking us on a 2001 Space Odyssey (“I’m sorry, I can’t do that, Dave”), it would totally transform the relationship that human beings have with their technology. It would suddenly elicit human emotions from us when we use our devices. We would feel pity for them when they were unable to complete a task because of a virus, we would feel frustration when they simply refused to cooperate, and we would feel shame when their problems were because of the way we had treated them. Would we start to see our machines as more than things? Would we start to care about them and their problems? Would we feel more emotionally conflicted when they rose up against their human overlords? Who can really say. At the very least we could expect a decrease in built in obsolescence in our most precious devices.

In 1979, the People’s Government of Beijing put an end to a travesty that had been ongoing since the Boxer Rebellion of 1901: the systematic deconstruction of Beijing’s old city walls and gates.  What was once a marvelous and city-defining system of structures had given way to make the innermost of Beijing’s notorious ring roads, the Second Ring Road.  Since that time, the historic hutong neighborhoods of old Beijing have also fallen into disrepair and most have been wiped off the map in favor of giant hotels, ugly tiled government buildings, and commercial centers. Those elements were the heart of an historic and vibrant capital.  Beijing is certainly pulsing with unrestrained growth and life today, but all in the shadow of CPC-approved white glazed tile apartment blocks. It would be fantastic if instead, the government of the 1950s and 1960s had decided to build the second ring road as a perimiter a few hundred meters outside of the extant city walls and gates.  The city could have developed like it is now, sprawling and choked with traffic, but the historical core could have served as the greatest and largest urban tourist attraction on Earth.  Take Nicosia, the capital city of the divided island of Cyprus.  It still has its city walls intact and it looks really cool! All I’m trying to say is: if the Chinese government can make it rain on command and build skyscrapers that look like a pair of glass trousers, the least they can do is undertake a massive project to either reconstruct their city walls and gates or go back in time and right the wrong that is the second ring road.  Not in the least because then, my apartment would be inside the city walls.  Who among you can say that?

I realize that re-posting clips is not generally the Brain Canvas style. This was just so “What If?” though that I couldn’t resist.

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Given the holiday we in the US celebrate today and the recent tragedy in the Caribbean, I have been torn all weekend whether to write something here today about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Haiti. I’ve decided to forgo the latter until next time, in large part things ot this quotation from King himself which will serve nicely as a springboard into my “What If…” query for this week. From King’s “I have been to the mountaintop” speech. Towards the end of his speech he referenced recent threats against his life saying:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

He gave this speech on April 3, 1968. The day before he was assassinated. What is interesting to consider about King, and something I think most people today don’t realize, is just how subversive of a figure he truly was. Being now immortalized in a federally sanctioned national holiday, and his life story memorized by children of all colors (at least in America), its easy to forget that he was in life such a socially and politically subversive figure. What is interesting to consider is if such subversive characters still have the ability to make such a huge positive impact on society in today’s world. Somewhat surprisingly (to myself at any rate), I believe the clear and honest answer to this question to be no. If I think about the people over the last 20 years (about a generation) who have changed the world in some way, most of the people who come to my mind are not people who did it by challenging the status quo outside of the system, but rather people who worked within the system to achieve their ends. Perhaps the perfect foil to the example of King is President Obama. I’m not arguing that they have made equal impacts on the world (although both have won Nobel Peace Prizes), but at the very least both have risen to impeccable heights. The important point here is that they have taken drastically different paths to do so. Now for me, the interesting question is, of course, why is this the case? I think its easy, and also probably true to an extent, to point to the society we live in today to be the primary cause of this. Through political change, technological innovation and economic development, more people in the world have access to the opportunities one needs to influence the issues we face than ever before. A greater number of people have been able to join the conversation. Another important thing to consider is whether a subversive approach would be adequate to tackle the problems our world faces today. Protests in Copenhagen at the COP 15 summit probably did very little to bring about its extremely underwhelming conclusion. The problems our world faces today, whether they be climate change, education or terrorism are more complex and may require the resources that one can leverage “inside” the system to be adequately tackled. The heroes and revolutionaries from our time will be the entrepreneurs, politicians and scientists who worked within the system to start the enterprises, build the coalitions and invent the technologies that saved the world.

People often say of their electronic communication devices, “My computer / mobile is about to die.”  All it takes to bring them back to life is a quick lifeline to the mains or a battery switch. What if instead of just powering off, devices actually died like people die? You become very attached to your computer; it has all of your favorite programs with the preferences just like you like them.  It has all of your Firefox extensions.  It has all of your file shortcuts arranged exactly like you want them, and the background is one of your favorite pictures. But you take it for granted.  If your computer is lost, smashed, or succumbs to a virus the thing you are most miffed about is the loss of economic value in the hardware and the implied value of whatever work is lost on your hard drive.  You can go out and get a new one if you have favored the financial gods by saving wisely. In the world where our devices actually die, we take great care to keep them plugged to the wall; if we have to unplug them we treat the situation the same as holding one’s own breath underwater.  You have to come up for air if you want to live more than a few minutes longer. There are the reckless ones though who don’t treat their living machines like they should.  They keep them unplugged in the park for a dangerously long time.  In class they write emails and text their friends with an unhealthy frequency, sapping the life of their mobile.  Inevitably, their cavalier attitude towards the life of their mechanical companion will have consequences. “Damn, my phone’s dying, talk to you when I get back home” becomes something else.

YOU: “Oh God, no.  My phone is dying!  Please, no, no, I’m sorry, NO!” FRIEND: “What?! Why did you keep it unplugged for so long?! I can’t believe this!” YOU: “I am so sorry. Oh, I am so sorry, I’m so sorry, please… WHY AREN’T THERE ANY OUTLETS!?” FRIEND: “Oh my… I’m gonna be sick.  I can’t believe you.  How could you let this happen?” YOU: “I’M SOR-”

And your connection is dead.

I want a dirigible. If I could receive one gift and ask for no other for the rest of my life, I would plead for a dirigible. My dirigible, the AS BrainCanvas, is a large air yacht built to recall the old galleons of the golden age of the sail.  It boasts three decks with spacious windows and balconies and it can host a high-flying party of 30 for a month.  The open-air top deck is generally free of clutter and is meant to be occupied while sailing through the sky, looking out over the clouds or sea or landscape yet to be traversed.  It travels about as fast as its water-bound cousins, so an exhilarating breeze can be expected. The air envelope ties to the edge of the deck with minimal cable connection needed in the center of the top deck.  It floats five meters above the top deck so there is plenty of overhead room.  My favorite pastime while on deck is to slowly meander over a river at night with all the lights out and sleep under the stars.  The engines are quiet, and the ship can hover with minimal power output when I just want a place to hang out above the Earth. Below deck, the ship is a sizable air-mansion.  The quarters are spacious, and common areas invite the kind of lounging one would expect in a Victorian salon.  The kitchen is the envy of many, and the main dining hall can seat all guests – when we choose to dine below deck. I have made the BrainCanvas my home.  I maintain no permanent residence on land.  Whenever I fancy it, I can surround myself with the red glow of the desert below me, weave in and out of mountains and valleys, skim the waving surface of the sea, and dock at the top of the Empire State Building.  One wall below deck is dedicated to printouts of pictures and articles that have captured the BrainCanvas against famous and beautiful backdrops.  My favorite is one of my great airborne abode sailing between the twin red peaks of the Golden Gate Bridge. The AS BrainCanvas allows me to live the adventurous life of the old sea-farer, without the constraint of the sea and in style.

The print industry waves goodbye to itself every day.  What comes next? While sitting in the park near your home you unfold a large broadside-shaped sheet, but it is not pulp paper.  It’s super-thin, totally flexible e-paper that you can fold up like a pamphlet and stuff in your pocket without worrying about damage.  It uses carbon nanotubes grafted onto its flexible substrate to store charge and only needs to be recharged, by putting it on any charging surface, about once every two months – maybe sooner if you are a serious power reader.  A thin, practically unnoticeable wire folded and looped throughout the paper serves as its antenna to access its source of content, the Internet. “Newspapers” used to only carry the content their editors agreed upon.  It was sourced from just a few places, depending on the publication.  There were a number of staff writers who churned out content, there were sections that were populated by overarching journalistic alliances that published the same story in almost every paper, there were classifieds, obituaries, comics, a weather report – all decided upon and approved by the publisher. Now your paper, as it is anachronistically referred to despite the drastic changes of the medium, pulls content that you choose.  You have defined sections, not dissimilar to the way newspapers used to look, but they are populated from a feed that you have elected to view and which is updated in real-time.  You may have a large “headline” section that pulls from a journalist of record, or it may be a company bulletin from your employer, or it may be your favorite comic.  It could even be just a single section that takes up the whole front side of your sheet which streams a film you have never seen before every day, on demand.  You keep the speakers in the sheet muted though so as not to annoy those around you. You can have one big section or any number of sections immediately visible on the front, so long as it is sizable enough for your finger or your stylus to interact with it.  Local news on the right, moving weather radar picture in the top-left, a few of your favorite bloggers in the middle.  Classifieds that match a search you entered three days ago scroll by on a small ticker-like pane on the bottom-right.  Finally someone is selling an old Blu-Ray player that you want to give to your young daughter so she can tinker with it, so you tap the link which brings up the advertisement to fill the whole sheet.  You scribble off an email using your stylus writing directly on the sheet to the seller, then go back to your front page.  You see new pictures from your cousin’s trip to Mexico scroll by on the left.  You decide you’re bored of seeing nothing but party pictures, so with three taps you have replaced that pane with a feed that scrolls all headlines a local journalist tags with “election.”  Most of them he wrote, but about 40% are linked by him. You pull up a panel to occupy the whole right side of the sheet and begin scribbling a post.  Most people use the virtual typepad that automatically shows up on the sheet but you find writing by hand and letting the handwriting capture take over lets you focus your thoughts.  You have been working on a breakthrough product at work and you want to share your current progress with others in your field.  You drag and drop photographs and a video you took yesterday evening that are linked from your mobile.  They look like windows into reality; the pixelization of bygone generations is no longer known.  With a tap of the “send” button, your post is loaded up to your feed, and within seconds is slipped onto the front page of a hundred sheets around the world. You fold up your paper into the size of a wallet, put it in your pocket, and stroll around the pond in the middle of the park.

Walking has served humans fine for hundreds of thousands of years, but it often seems like a major bottleneck in our daily routine – or it’s just plain not fast enough to be exciting.  Airplanes, trains, motorbikes, and automobiles work fine for longer distances but there is not a bus stop at everybody’s doorstep.  Bicycles can traverse these unserved spaces, but they are too large to carry with us at all times, you often cannot bring them on public transport, and they have to be parked and locked.  Even when they are locked, delinquents and condescending fraternity members still steal your bike seat, which may or may not be as soaked as a sponge depending on the weather. This is what I was pondering yesterday as I was ten minutes late for work, quickly and awkwardly ambling from the subway to the doorstep of my employer through the narrow, crowded hu tong streets of Beijing. For Segway-busting mobility, I would prefer something I will arbitrarily name the MagScooter.  The mag scooter requires three different pieces of hardware: one is a handset unit, the other two are footwear equipment that allow you to walk like normal but can transform into large wheels, either by coming out of the bottom of the shoe or by sliding down from the sides.  When you step off the bus and see a great expanse of sidewalk or tarmac ahead of you, whip out the MagScooter unit.  The unit is the size of a 600-page hardback book and can be put inside a rucksack or messenger bag.  The handles, much like regular scooter handles, fold out of this contraption.  When gripping both handles, and in the presence of the footwear, an intentional flicking action, like one would do in order to make a bedsheet flap and wave in the air or like casting a fishing rod with both hands at the same time, something remarkable happens. The front wheel of what effectively will be a tricycle flies out the front or bottom of the hand unit and upon contact with the ground, rights itself up on its tire and makes an invisible connection with the handset unit.  At the same time, the wheels on the bearer’s footwear deploy and with this, all three items are connected to each other with some kind of non-visible force.  There is no physical pole or neck between the handset unit and the front wheel or any other component of the MagScooter.  A data and energy connection between all three components makes everything work.  The rider can lean forward against the handset and though the space and orientation will give with the front wheel, the bearer’s weight will be supported seemingly on the handset itself, which is actually receiving a force-feedback response from the front wheel.  Perhaps strong direct-force magnets are involved, or some yet undiscovered energy medium. When the rider leans forward, they tilt forward on their feet as well which is similar to leaning forward on a bicycle when pedaling up an incline.  Now that the MagScooter is deployed, the rider can use the hand unit to accelerate just like with a normal scooter.  The back wheels come with a small but very powerful motor and battery which can achieve a brisk velocity. The MagScooter makes it as easy as remembering to pack your favorite book to deliver quick and enjoyable land travel, whether from home to work or on a weekend joyride.