Wednesday, June 27, 2012

What do you think about color coded email messages based on their stress potential?

Here is an interesting audio recording (5min). At first I thought it was just funny because I get many emails every day and many of the important ones might have a higher stress level. So I could already see my inbox being red to a large extend. That would for sure increase my stress level.  But when I listened to the whole recording I learned that they have some very interesting points regarding communication automation towards the end. That is partly fascinating and scary. There are so many tasks that get automated and it is mostly good. In this case I'm not so sure it's good because someone has to write the applications to show you what to think (e.g. in this case to see a message has a high stress potential). By using the apps don't you allow the app provider to influence and guide your thinking, to think for you?  Why would you trust the app provider (which you most likely don't even know personally) to tell you what to think?

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Climate change is a huge opportunity

Wow! Isn't that a very provacative statement? When I first read the headline of this article with Richard Branson I was stunned. Anyway once I got over the first surprise I thought he has a very valid point. The only way to achieve change and to have many people actively driving that change is that people can benefit from it economically.
To say "just do less of what is harmful" is not enough. In this article that would be flying. While I think it is good to say "I want to fly less" it is very unlikely that this will actually happen. Everyone has some interesting places they want to see, people they want to visit or some business travel they have to go to. Do you stay at home to save the climate?
It's easy to expect that from others but there is always a reason why we have to travel. So it's a noble but futile gesture that doesn't really drive change. Instead I like Branson's approach to say let's use our brains and come up with something new. We can't and really don't want to go back to the past, so let's take the future in our own hands and make it a good one.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Digital Gatekeepers

This article is one example that shows how big companies like Facebook and Twitter become gateways to the internet. That means certain applications are not available to you if you are not a member of these companies (as an example).  I think this is a troubling trend because the different sites exchange data, your data!
While we already have a privacy challenge with companies like Facebook this exemplifies this challenge. Do you know what companies get your data? What they do with it? If you can remove it at one point if you want to? How easy or difficult it is to remove any data?  How this data drives what you see on the internet?

I'm all for sharing, exchanging ideas and communicating with others but I think you should be very careful what data you provide to whom to make sure you don't regret your decisions at one point. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Thought controlled Robotics

This is a fascinating article about the potential to positively impact the life of disabled people. Wouldn't it be great if technology could them to make life better? In addition to that I think it could open endless opportunities in other areas as well. I think about steering a car, open and lock a house, turn on the TV,  control all kinds of machines (e.g. your lawn mower etc.) writing a report or controlling your smartphone etc.
It is simply fascinating to see what might be possible. Now a word of caution, whenever there is a big opportunity there are big pitfalls as well. What if someone tries to monitor your thoughts? If someone wants to control what you like or don't like? Since the chip is implanted it would be possible to influence what this does, kind of like a virus on a computer. Scary and fascinating at the same time.