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Tech Titans Need Entertainment Too

All Entertainment Today Is Tech Enabled

Here we cover both the technology of entertainment and the technology in entertainment, as well as just plain old fun things for techies. We also capture some great tech humor. Please let us know what you think about any of our entertainment content, we would love to hear from you.
Be sure to also see our special section on Science Fiction, which also has some great context on that special niche of entertainment.

Lessons of Science Fiction Computer Interfaces

Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel co-authored the book “Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction.” The book hits on a relationship many of us in the IT world have enjoyed for years, the interconnected nature of science fiction and the innovators who are creating products of today. In the book, Shedroff and Noessel not only point to the relationship between SciFi and products, but extract lessons for designers.

Shedroff points out that everything in the design process is fiction till it gets on the market. Design all starts with imagination, just like good SciFi. Shedroff and Noessel also point out that not everything you see in SciFi is great design. There are plenty of failures (of course! but we are not going to harp on that, why be a downer?).

For an entertaining and enjoyable look at SciFi and computer interface design see Chris Noessel’s short presentation here:

For more on this theme we recommend Chris Noessel’s blog: scifiinterfaces.com

And for more on technology and the media see our Entertainment and SciFi pages.

 

Electric Dreams: Amazon Turns Philip K. Dick Short Stories Into 10 Standalone Movies

Thanks to Amazon you can stream Electric Dreams.

Philip K. Dick is one of the most prolific, and greatest, SciFi authors. His writings have been far more than just entertaining, examining philosophical, social and political topics humanity has long needed to wrestle with. His mind has brought us great stories like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), The Man in the High Castle, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, Ubik and many others, including a total of 44 published novels and over 120 short stories.

Amazon has taken 10 of his great short stories and produced 10 standalone movies. You can stream them now at Amazon here.

What are we in store for? Here is the trailer:

You can tell from the trailer this is going to be a wild and wonderful ride! Frankly not every episode is great. The first is slow, the second is awesome and thought provoking. The others are a good solid mix of great PKD stories and fantastic acting. So really, even though not every one is perfect SciFi, every one is worth watching. All will help you think through the future we want for humanity.

Electric Dreams has a star-studded cast, including Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Janelle Monáe, and Greg Kinnear.

While waiting can we recommend some other great SciFi? Stretch your mind with:

And consider why SciFi is so important to conceptualizing what may come by tracking the latest in robotics:

Altered Carbon: SciFi Action Exploring Concepts Of Bio-Sciences and The Ultimate In Personal IT

Altered Carbon is a great series examining lots of interesting and thought provoking questions of what our future might be and what we might not want to see happen to humanity. It is based on an award-winning cyberpunk novel by Richard K. Morgan, and stars Joel Kinnaman (which you may recall from Robocop). We most strongly recommend the series to any technology professional. It may help you think through the future we are building so you can decide what to accelerate and what to delay.

Before watching the series, you can see the short clip below meant to get your brain in the game. It is made to sound like a documentary, and is narrated by by “Mr. Fun At Parties” Neil deGrasse Tyson himself, with great thoughts by the author of the Altered Carbon book Richard K. Morgan.

This quick concept intro is of course a lead in into the series. But watch for the mind expanding questions and context:

And to watch the series, see Altered Carbon on Netflix

Look for more great Science Fiction at our SciFi Page, and examine entertainment for techies at our Entertainment Site.

Stream New Science Fiction Web Series “ExHumans” on Amazon

The first season of the Science Fiction series ExHumans is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Set in the far future, the show follows Chrystal (Georgia Theodoulou) who is brought back from the dead at the Cryogenia Institute.

The series examines many advanced concepts we should be thinking about now. Since you are a savvy news reader you know there have been incredible developments in health and genetics and continued real world research into extending life. There has also been incredible research into freezing life in attempts to extend life. This has NOT been done yet, even though a startup is claiming they will freeze your brain in the hopes that one day someone will figure that out. Anyway, sure seems like we should think through the future right about now, and this series is a big help in that.

The show’s director Harry Boast put it this way: The series is about identity: who are you? What makes you, you? And, if you can’t remember who you are, how do you know you’re you? This was the main theme we wanted to explore.”

Will you like the series? Well, reviews are mixed. Acting is ok, scenery is meh, plots good and the fact that they queue up interesting topics is good.

Find ExHumans on Amazon at: https://bit.ly/ExHumansUS

 

Time For A Fourth Law of Robotics

Science fiction fans recognize Asimov’s prescient thoughts on robot programming, captured in his three laws of robotics. In Asimov’s sci-fi world, robots were all programmed to protect their humans (the first law), to obey their humans (the second law) and to protect themselves (the third law). These laws laid the foundation for many fantastic, futuristic stories and have long provided actionable concepts for today’s robots, including those we launch over our modern battlefields. As the stories advanced, he later added another law, called the “zeroth” law, which had priority over all the others, “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

Experience, especially experience in cybersecurity, has opened our eyes to the need for another law of robotics. Our robots, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are all designed to communicate continuously when operating, and, unfortunately, these communications have been shown to have vulnerabilities. Many UAVs operate with light or no protections on their internal systems or the communications they have with other systems in the air and on the ground.

The enduring challenges of cybersecurity and the need to include security in the design of our systems from the beginning means it is time for a new law, a fourth law, of robotics.

The new law of robotics is:

There will be no unauthorized access of any robot communications.

Read more about the need for this law and its implications at The Cyber Edge blog at AFCEA.

Read more about robots at Things Cyber Robotics Page  Robots and Robotics What You Need To Know.

Could A Technology Loop Be Causing Your Epic Mind Fail?

It is a fact of modern life: We all run the risk of getting too distracted by our IT, especially IT connected to our social media. Today, for example, my priority is finishing a White Paper for a favorite client, and I promise I will do that, but I just saw this really cool clip on YouTube from Portlandia and I had to share it with you. Then I promise I’m turning off all external comms and getting back to my writing.

In the clip, the great modern social philosopher commentators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein use a bit of humor to show the dangers of getting stuck in a technology loop. Watch it and be warned! And laugh! But then think of how better your life might be if you unplugged for a while.

Watch The Technology Loop

For more fun:

The Battle For Your Head Is Underway: VR from Oculus, Sony, HTC/Valve competing at GDC2016

GDC2016 is the largest game developer conference in the globe. By all accounts it will be the biggest yet for virtual reality. It has become so huge a sub-conference has been organized called the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC).  It expands beyond games to help developers produce immersive entertainment of all kinds, from games to CG movies to filmed experiences to simulations.

Oculus Rift’s consumer version (called CV1) is already available for pre-order and its hardware specs are well known. But we expect to see more announcements around the software platform and a great deal of buzz about entertainment titles available. We do not expect to see an announcement on availability of the new Oculus designed touch controllers. For now it ships with an Xbox controller.

oculus-accessories

Note, Samsung’s GearVR is powered by Oculus software and will very likely be able to run VR software the CV1 does.  Look for more on this this week too.

samsung-gear-vr-oculus

The Sony PlayStation VR is a console-based VR headset. So high end gamers will not need to invest in another PC to use the Sony VR. This is a huge plus. Release date will probably be Q2, maybe late June.

playstationvr

The HTC/Valve Vive is available for pre-order. They are focused for now on providing SteamVR games.  If you are a hard core gamer, this may be the approach for you.

htc-vive-set.0

Overall, I believe if you are a home user the Sony VR path may be the best. Enterprise users will want to consider the Oculus path. Hard core gamers may want to leverage all these options.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Great Science Fiction Full of Thought Provoking Visions Of Our Near Future

The-Future-CityReady Player One is great science fiction set in the very near future. It is well done drama that leverages totally realistic visions of what technology is rapidly evolving to. Imagine a world where virtual reality and global connectivity enables universal access to high quality education. Incredible. Awesome. And achievable by us if we put our minds to it. I love visions like this.

The book does not paint our future as a wonderland for all, for most it seems the new VR is the greatest thing in their lives. I’m hoping that is not the future we build, but for this drama it works.

The book does a great job introducing many of the ethical consideration people are already encountering in today’s high tech world were issues of big business, personal privacy, war, peace, healthcare, wealth and poverty are all impacted by our new technologies. It describes situations and a technological environment I believe to be very realistic if you consider the current capabilities of big data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and mobility.

There are also plenty of lessons for cybersecurity professionals, including an interesting plot element involving an insider threat.

I highly recommend Ready Player One for any technologist. But I wonder, could it be that I like it so much because of the many references to the video games of my youth? Might it be that those from the generations younger than mine might not be so entertained? Please give it a read and let me know what you think.

Related Reading:

US Navy CNO’s Navigation Plan 2014-2018: Warfighting first. Operate forward. Be ready. 

Cybersecurity: Is AI Ready for Primetime In Cyber Defense?

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