There are still hundreds of ways to provide solid value to people– and more all the time. To prove the point, I decided to spend an hour and think up some new ideas– none of which are (at this point) taken. Feel free to develop them as you wish
Here are ten examples of Web applications we still need–either desperately or just for an interesting use of technology:

1. An app to traverse and navigate bureaucratic websites (ie. taxation agencies, the DMV, etc.) so one is able to keep up with the status of their information– WITHOUT having to use those infuriating, horribly-designed sites.
2. A website that keeps track of where your food products are coming from (this may be fertile territory for future businesses). I know that certain things are already happening in this field, but there is PLENTY more work to be done– and it will only become more important in the future. It would be particularly great if you could someday snap a picture of the label on a tomato and figure out exactly where it came from and when.
3. An iPhone app with a really gorgeous interface that lets you order food delivery from multiple nearby restaurants (and saves frequent orders), automatically using your credit card (stored on file) etc.
4. An iPhone and computer app that shows you the actual, projected upload/download speeds of the networks near you (based on an algorithm involving signal strength, network status, and network type).
5. An app that uses the combined databases of multiple mobile-accessible websites, to collect an aggregate of activity in a given area and “reflect it” back to an iPhone in that area (one can see what types of activities are being done by people around them).
6. A program or website that handles RSS in a much more helpful way– putting stories in context through a “wrapper” that adds additional value and improves readability (Acrylic’s “Times” app is closer to what I’m envisioning, but it’s still very limited in approach)
7. 7. An iPhone app for use by people with various mood disorders that lets them quickly chart and track their moods (and triggers) over the course of their life. There are numerous apps that do this right now, but they’re all TERRIBLE. Optimism, a Mac app that does this very elegantly, is immensely helpful but requires access to a computer every day to be useful (that may not seem like much, but it would be far more useful and accessible in a mobile device).
8. A new online, pervasive personal assistant in the vein of the incredible (and now dead) “I Want Sandy”, with Jott support or its own rewritten speech-to-text engine. Tell your iPhone to remind you of things, and have it sync up to a server somewhere so that you get to move on with your life!
9. A highly-sophisticated iPhone app that can train, listen and offer suggestions about instrument playing (”I hear what you’re doing wrong, try this”, or, alternately, a real “musical thinker”– like having your own composer assistant: “try these chords at the end instead” (quite ambitious, but potentially doable).
10. “Home”, a location- and preset-based app that works with your AirTunes, electronic lighting and heating systems, etc. to automatically trigger changes when you leave and enter your home– putting your favorite playlist on, turning the lights up, altering temperature based on weather forecast, etc. Would be best if it had multiple “moods”, involving both music and lighting, that could be switched between easily. This is slightly silly, but would be really cool– especially in day to day use.

And a bonus– just for good measure!

11. A website (and maybe an app, too) that tracks “the answers” given by multiple “authority sources” throughout history. ie. What is our purpose in life? Here’s what Islam says, here’s what Christianity says, here’s what Sufism says (in plain english); here’s what Steven Hawking says. This would work best if it covered many different types of questions, and made an effort to make the answers as similarly-worded as possible so one could explore the subtler differences between them.

Finally, a hardware bonus– why hasn’t ANYONE made a keyboard that works with the iPhone?? Do this and you will have MILLIONS of sales. I promise.

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/10-web-and-iphone-apps-that-need-to-happen-stat/feed/ 1 http://evolationmedia.com/10-ways-to-stop-wasting-time-online/ http://evolationmedia.com/10-ways-to-stop-wasting-time-online/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:37:28 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/?p=77 I’m fascinated by the sheer volume of information on the Web.

Many of us are at least partly familiar with the “Wikipedia effect” (captured succinctly below by xkcd’s Randall Munroe). You start off on one, well-intentioned search, and minutes (or is it hours? or is it days?) later you’ve found yourself reading up on something completely unrelated. It’s hard to say what causes such scattered thinking: part of it is interest, certainly, but there’s more to it than that.



There seems to be something intrinsic about the nature of Web-based information that allows for such a freeform approach to learning new things. Decades ago, when television allowed us to flip channels and potentially explore new (and unrelated) things, we remained hooked in to the whims of the channel operators. We might discover something new on the cooking channel, but it was dictated largely by whatever the cooking channel happened to have on. For those of us who grew up without cable– wow!– that cooking channel might not even exist.

Now, of course, things are radically different from the various forms of entertainment and knowledge accessibility our parents and grandparents enjoyed. Virtually all information online is put on equal footing (though it might be filtered and condensed by blogs and Google) and there are no barriers to discovering content that might previously have been hidden for nationalist, cultural, lawful or ideological reasons. This is an open ocean, and we rely far more on others to direct our attention.

Ahh. That’s the problem, isn’t it? As Nick Carr wrote in his (now-famous) column for the Atlantic, “Google is making us stupid“. But Gary Small, director of the Memory and Aging Center at UCLA, has found that “digital natives” — those who have grown up with technology and spend 9 or more hours per day online (that’s me!) are superior at complex reasoning and decisionmaking, as well as being able to quickly parse new information.


“The next generation, as (Charles) Darwin suggests, will adapt to this environment. Those who become really good at technology will have a survival advantage – they will have a higher level of economic success and their progeny will be better off.”

All this brainpower comes, naturally, at the expense of interpersonal skills– which take place in a slower, more ambiguous and more “intuitive” realm. As Generation Y 2.0 asks, “Will the future stars be capable of knowing when to respond by email or phone?”

One can make the point that perhaps these skills are not as relevant as they once were, due to the increasing demand for skilled work from remote locations, but it would be hard to deny that we are losing something by trying to attend to so many incoming datastreams. As a report in the UK’s Telegraph writes, “Internet use could improve brain function and speed up decision-making, but it comes at the expense of empathy and the ability to think in abstract terms.” There’s only so much we can handle. I was struck by a quote from Marc Garnaut, whom I just started reading:


I can feel my system straining at the edges though, and I’m intensely interested in what happens when the seams burst. Does our head expand and expand until it pops, splattering all over the cubicle walls? (via)

Let’s not blame Google for our inability to focus, folks: we’ve forced this on ourselves by trying to take in more information than we can possibly digest. We need those filters, and we need to balance our rapidly-shrinking attention spans with the processing of timely and relevant information. While Small’s “digital natives” are clearly more adept at doing so than their parents, the volume of information–the noise crowding around the signal– will only increase. We, on the other hand, are already operating at or relatively close to our capacity.

As a self-confessed “internet junkie”, this is a lot scarier to me than it probably is to you (though if you’re reading this, I count you among the unsaved). Despite all this, I’ve found ten valuable ways to cut down on unproductive time online, while retaining the benefits of access to such incredible volumes of information.

This is one of the longest posts I’ve written to date, so be warned.

1. Decide ahead of time which questions you want addressed.

Easier said than done. My favorite technique here is to keep a note near my desk (or on my Mac) that lists all the specific questions I intend to look up in the near future. By writing them down and crossing them off just like any other to-do list, I am reinforcing that these are one-shot deals. My instinct to continue investigating is calmed immensely by doing this.

2. Use “real-world” information and resources as much as possible.

This includes making phone calls instead of sending emails, asking people at work or school before turning your question to “the masses”, or–and I can’t believe I’m advocating this– turn to direct communication systems such as Facebook or Twitter and get in touch with people first, before trying to conduct your own online research. More things are done through one-on-one communication than through any online system. Even if you don’t get the information you wanted immediately, you have involved other human beings in your quest–which they will remember, and continue thinking about–and often, the results are far better. Don’t use the Web as an excuse to stay stuck in your head–often, the real solutions present themselves through other people. As I wrote in an article for my last internship, “no one has ever gotten hired by using their computer to talk to other computers.” If your information/request/idea/resume doesn’t end up eventually making its way to a person, it’s as though you never put the time in.

3. Get your “info-fix” from sources you already know, not “novelty” aggregators. You’ll never escape them.

An article in the Wall Street Journal details the neuroscience behind our “novelty-seeking” web browsing. “When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us ‘infovores’”, says Dr. Irving Biederman. The article goes on to demonstrate the problem:

For most of human history, there was little chance of overdosing on information, because any one day in the Olduvai Gorge was a lot like any other. Today, though, we can find in the course of a few hours online more information than our ancient ancestors could in their whole lives … technology is playing a trick on us. We are programmed for scarcity and can’t dial back when something is abundant.

I maintain that the biggest waste of time online is stumbling onto some heavily-hyperlinked, content-rich, brand-new site that appeals to you. I’m not telling you to stop exploring, but you should know that these types of sites (wikipedia, oddee, flickr, arts & letters daily, et cetera) are about the worst thing you can do for any kind of productivity. Give yourself a time limit. Bookmark it and come back to it later. Do anything that will keep you moving away from the computer (put the kettle on for some tea!) As Tupac said, “resist the temptation.”

4. STOP READING ONLINE NEWS.

You’d be amazed at how little you actually need to know about what’s going on in the world. News that matters will travel fast, through all the other communications channels you already use– you don’t need to actively seek it. If your job requires you to keep up-to-date on all the most recent happenings, then check the news as infrequently as you can– no more than once a day, and ideally less than three times a week. Cutting back on television is the single smartest thing you can do with your time, but cutting back on online news is almost as good.

5. And if you must read news, use RSS.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, lets you get the “stories” you want beamed directly to you, rather than having to search them out. It’s very useful, especially in taming the deluge of information. However, there are issues with using RSS. As Slate’s Paul Boutin wrote,


If I don’t check in every few hours, my RSS reader fills with unread blog posts. Rather than feel relieved that I can catch up on my missed surfing, that long list of bold headlines gives me the sensation that I’m hopelessly behind and won’t ever catch up. I’ve got enough to do at home and at work that I don’t need Web surfing to seem like a chore.

The best solution is to use RSS only for news that you know you’ll be interested in reading as text. RSS rapidly forces you to consider everything as a task (like email), so save the fancy, beautiful webpages for real browsing sessions; you’ll enjoy them more that way.

6. If you have an obsession, stop reading news about it and buy books instead.

Stop mooning over the specs on Apple’s new laptop, Nikon’s new lens, or what-have-you. Stop reading “pro tips”. Stop reading what people think of the new gadget or gossip. If you’re interested in something–whether anthropology, fashion, design, or tea– buy some quality books and spend some quality time with them. It makes all the difference in the world. You’ll remember more, you’ll feel better about the time you’ve spent, and you’ll stay away from the timesink of online debate and discussion.

7. Use the absolute best online sources for the information you need, and ignore the others.

Trendwatching– way back in 2006– called it “Infolust“. We want the power that comes from knowing we found the best deal, that we’re insiders, that we’re players.


Experienced consumers are lusting after detailed information on where to get the best of the best, the cheapest of the cheapest, the first of the first, the healthiest of the healthiest, the coolest of the coolest, or on how to become the smartest of the smartest. Instant information gratification is upon us.

If you use online sources for your information– and who doesn’t? — it pays to use the absolute best, most relevant, and most restrictive.

In the interests of putting everyone on something of a level playing field (with regard to perceived coolness), I’ll mention a few of the areas I think this advice is particularly relevant for.

• Airfare – use kayak.
• Local food / restaurant reviews - use yelp. (US and UK)
• Comparison shopping – I still use pricegrabber, though if there are better (more complete) offerings out there, I’d love to know about them!
• Cool things to do in your town - for many US cities, there’s flavorpill. I don’t particularly like citysearch but it has far more content (some of dubious value). For San Francisco, there’s the fairly-awesome SFStation.
• Online music – create your own radio station (and hear new recommendations) on pandora, then buy music on amazon mp3. DRM-free, high-quality, cheap music in standard formats make this the best deal around for (legally) acquiring your music. Some is even free! Sign up for their twitter deal feed for even more kick-ass bargains– especially on older or more popular stuff.
• Personal Development / help and advice with life problems – Steve Pavlina’s blog is the best there is. No need to go anywhere else!– his articles are lengthy, complete, and thoughtful.
• Direct answers to your questions – forget Yahoo Answers, it’s garbage. Try Ask Metafilter for virtually anything from help picking a moving company to “what’s that movie with the dog and the bear in Alaska?” You can only ask one question per week, but the answers are absolutely top-notch.
• Knowing about something awesome your co-workers don’t – there’s always the cool hunter.

8. Avoid debates in comments whenever possible.

This rules out the majority of slashdot, etc. Comments are a timesink if ever there was one. Not only do you read an article, but you read what everyone else thinks about it — and then argue with them? There’s a profound difference between commenting on a lone blog post and getting into a flame war with some nut in Thailand. (No offense to Thais, of course!)

9. Find your “digital curators” and stick to them.

For every field, there are people dedicated to separating the wheat from the chaff. It’s an important job, more so all the time, and I hope to do this for the emerging fields of holistic psychology, integrative neuroscience, radical sustainability and organic technology.

A good way to start is by finding what others in your niche are reading, then seeing what they link to (it’s almost always of higher quality). People don’t link to things unless they like them, and usually that means liking them more than their own work (ooooh, I just gave away the blogger’s secret, didn’t I?) Only problem is, you may be bored if your digital curator doesn’t update frequently enough. If that happens, you know you’re addicted. Get some fresh air, get a good book about your niche, and realize that curators exist for a reason: to put good content in front of your eyes. If you’re not seeing any new content, that means that a) there might not be more good content, and b) there’s no reason to replace the careful curation with inferior, lesser-quality news in order to have something to do. Embrace your boredom. Do something positive!

10. Keep track of how much time you spend online and for what initial reasons.

Did you go online to check someone’s last name, but end up playing poker with six random people in Europe? Did the last six hours pass by in minutes? Keeping a simple log — even just noting the time you went online today — is a great reminder of the passage of time. Optionally, you can note your reason for doing something (”email”, “twitter”, “wikipedia on JFK”) and see how far from the target you stray over the course of a day or night. Doing this is probably the most mindful way to stay in control of your late-night browsing sessions, and has helped me the most of all.

I hope this has been useful in curbing unwanted web surfing. These suggestions have certainly helped me (even though 95% of what I do involves Web technologies), and I hope they work for you. I’d really appreciate it if you passed on these tips to others you think might find them beneficial– and if you have any other suggestions, feel free to leave a comment. Now get off the Web!

Technorati Tags:
change, improvement, internet addiction, web, surfing, information, overload, info, habits, psychology, technology, online

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/10-ways-to-stop-wasting-time-online/feed/ 1 http://evolationmedia.com/the-post-digital-lifestyle/ http://evolationmedia.com/the-post-digital-lifestyle/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:36:28 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/?p=63 I recently came upon the term “post-digital”, here described by its (presumed) creator, John Maeda.

I am often asked what my term “post digital” signifies. It is a term that I created as a way to acknowledge a distinction between those that are passed [sic] their fascination with computers, and are now driven by the ideas instead of the technology. It is not an expression of Luddite-ism nor is it a loaded term like that icky “post modernism” business. If we are to consider the book by Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, as an affirmation that the computer has arrived, then the “post digital” generation refers to the growing few that have already been digital, and are now more interested in Being Human. Buying a good computer is easy. Being a good person is something that cannot be merely bought… even on the great god of eBay.

This idea is really interesting for a few reasons: for one, it’s important to realize that technological “breakthroughs” don’t necessarily signify real progress. The only progress we can measure is what happens in our own heads, the awareness we have of ourselves and our world, the new thinking that comes with these new technologies. If we don’t acquire a fundamentally new (or fundamentally more complete) reality as a result of our technologies, we are actively losing ground.

Technology’s Not Evil

When I say “losing ground”, I don’t mean that technology is evil, or that we should work to decrease our reliance on it (at least, not necessarily). What undeniably seems to happen, though, is that each new breakthrough affects our belief in previous paradigms. When given appropriate evidence, we instinctually believe our previous ideas to be in error (or shaky, at the very least). Until we’re fully aware of what a new technology can do, we tend to assign it more capabilities, greater capacities, rather than less. But until we actually know what’s possible, this “leap of logic” distracts us from the mastery we’d otherwise have.

The implications, the possibilities, are not what matters. What matters are the ways that things really work, devoid of all theory or philosophy. Discovering agriculture actively changed the way that things could be done, or even thought about. Designing messaging systems that are instantaneous (email) and available anywhere (txts) drastically affects the flow of information, making everyone “available” at all times. (This regardless of whether anyone actually wanted to be available.) When rockets and space travel became possible, we knew that certain aspects of our consciousness would not (or could not) stay still for much longer. We had no more excuses, no more reasons not to move beyond our prior bounds.

In many respects our current technologies are little more than refinements. The necessary cognitive “reorganization” required to operate them was put in place (in most cases) some time earlier. In the case of computers, we were already able to understand the notion of a machine that exists for our personal use (something granted by basic agriculture), the idea of an adding device (the calculator/abacus), and a communicative device (the telephone). What really requires a leap of logic is the instant-on, always-accessible world granted by mobile Web access. But is our being surrounded by knowledge (or, perhaps, lack of knowledge) a step forward in our day-to-day lives? As Nicholas Carr wrote in The New Atlantic, is Google just making us stupid?

In a word, yes. Not only is Google making us stupid, but having access to Google means that our mode of thinking, by defWhaault, includes Google as a viable solution. Google becomes an answer in itself.

What we really need are new questions. We’ve moved far beyond “the medium is the message”; now, we need new messages. We need worthwhile messages. In a truly post-digital world, the only survivors are beauty, truth, and awareness.

One finds beauty by removing complexity, by confronting ambiguity, by stopping to observe without judgment or desire.

One builds truth by confronting your sources, by examining your beliefs, and by reframing your questions.

One builds awareness by looking in the right places, by uncovering a wider range of potentials, and by thinking holistically.

No technology can do this for us. It may bring us towards the right places; it may give us more sources to question, or things to observe, but it cannot and will not take these steps for us.

These are thoughts I certainly hope more of the developed world embraces in the future, as they have the potential to reverse a lot of fundamental wrongs– such as the ways in which our culture has systematically eradicated much of the world through insistence on “more”. Take the process of creating and distributing our (genetically modified) food, for example. Remove the complexity and one finds that a beautiful life is one in which food is grown closer to home. Confront the ambiguity, and one finds that beauty is when food is comprehensible and direct. Stop to observe, and you’ll find that beautiful food is food that your body runs well on.

Now do the same for truth: where does this food come from? Do I want that? Is there a way I can find similar advantages by doing this differently?

And awareness: what if better, more nutritious food is available elsewhere? What foods have I not tried, but might be best for me? What does my action (or inaction) perpetuate? If one billion people behaved exactly like me, what does the world begin to look like?

Living in a post-digital world, in a Human (capital H!) world, means living in harmony with beauty, truth and awareness. Whatever means you use to get there, whatever technologies you employ, know that in asking the questions you are in fact Being Human, using the digital world as a tool and not as an occupation. You are using technology for its beauty, for its potential to reveal truth, and for its ability to further your awareness.

Ask these three questions as often as you can, and you’ll find your life almost miraculously shedding bullshit. People who bother you will seem different. Things you wish you had or think you need might be forgotten entirely. Ideas you spent your life working on may just “not feel right” anymore. And most importantly of all, you’ll learn to think for yourself.

Er, I mean, you’ll stop Googling something every 30 seconds.

Hey! I’m working on it.

Image: Ages Astray by Michael Cook.

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/the-post-digital-lifestyle/feed/ 0 http://evolationmedia.com/nanophotography-captures-natures-microscopic-beauty/ http://evolationmedia.com/nanophotography-captures-natures-microscopic-beauty/#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:34:57 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/?p=42 A new gallery of microscopic photography over at Wired presents some stunning glimpses of the very small. This gold crystal was captured through a state-of-the-art imaging process which runs tiny lasers back and forth across a surface, detecting even the smallest textural detail. Beautiful work.

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/nanophotography-captures-natures-microscopic-beauty/feed/ 2 http://evolationmedia.com/farewell-clarke/ http://evolationmedia.com/farewell-clarke/#comments Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:03:12 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/farewell-clarke/ Arthur C. Clarke, one of the pioneering minds of science fiction and a significant scientist and inventor, passed away at the age of 90 today. Many of his words have served me in my deepest inspirations over the years, and his startlingly prescient novels somehow become more relevant with time. From 2001 to Childhood’s End to (my favorite) The Light of Other Days (coauthored with Stephen Baxter), Clarke’s stories entangled Eastern thought with a Science both powerful and savagely human; his characters, flawed and often unaware of the significance of their actions, confronted awe-inspiring and immeasurable ethical, spiritual, and moral challenges with ingenuity, maturity, and of course, incredible new technologies that, more often than not, caused more problems than they solved. Ultimately mankind, at least in Clarke’s mind, would always rise to the occasion… even if it meant growing up a little.

Rest in peace, Arthur. We owe our future to you.

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/farewell-clarke/feed/ 0 http://evolationmedia.com/followup-to-macbook-air/ http://evolationmedia.com/followup-to-macbook-air/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:19:44 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/followup-to-macbook-air/ I wanted to take a moment to reaffirm what I had stated in the previous post on Macbook Air, and to respond to some criticism about my thinking. Now that it’s actually been released, and we’ve actually seen it, I hope to explain my ideas in greater depth (while, presumably, being a little less long-winded!).

So we didn’t get inductive charging--yet--and we didn’t get an always-on wireless connection. What we did get is 802.11n, a wider-range wireless standard, a backlight keyboard, and dimensions even less than we expected. The Macbook Air fits in a manilla envelope, for God’s sake. It’s got more than its fair share of design compromises, but it’s also got a virtually unheard-of flexibility.

Going back to why I was convinced of the importance of this product, it’s essentially because we will very soon be entering a world in which cords simply don’t exist. The internet has already reduced physical space requirements dramatically: what we’re seeing now is design beginning to reflect our innately human need to move and be and do, wherever we are.


This is not about computers getting “thin”--it’s about the fact that computers begin to be built and thought of as entirely mobile objects, divorced from their essentially corded and enmeshed beginnings. And the Macbook Air is a design I see encapsulating that trend. Not in its current state, or even in a few subsequent revisions, but it is a “look” that is already strangely iconic. It is quintessential. In much the way that the original Mac just felt “different” to be around--more human, more conscious--this feels like a radically new paradigm. Stop thinking of this as just another design update and start thinking of the technology that will eventually make its way into something that looks and behaves exactly like this. WiMax, the aforementioned inductive charging-- all of these are technical updates. What matters it that the body now exists where, I have no doubt, all these technologies will converge.

That said, I don’t think I’ll be buying one due to its specs at this moment; I need at least double the hard drive space if I’m going to do much photo work on a laptop, and the lack of Firewire is disappointing (if somewhat warranted). But I stand by my previous post: this is the beginning of something really extraordinary.

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/followup-to-macbook-air/feed/ 0 http://evolationmedia.com/macbook-air-and-what-it-maybe-means/ http://evolationmedia.com/macbook-air-and-what-it-maybe-means/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:47:20 +0000 D.M. Cook http://evolationmedia.com/macbook-air-and-what-it-maybe-means/ I really must be a nerd, somehow, or one who’s really just affected by design in some (possibly-twisted) way, but…


(Images from Wired Blog: this is a mockup (not a photo) of an envisioned ultra-thin Apple laptop featuring wireless charging, a multi-touch input system, and an always-on, ubiquitous wireless connection that replaces the need for ethernet ports.)

I don’t know how else to express it, but this look–even though I know it probably isn’t quite the real thing– is so beautiful, so absolutely essential to our time, that I hesitate in saying that this might in fact change our entire sense of what technology is. Not now, oh no… not with Leopard’s bugs and a window-based interface and the clumsy hacked-together kludge of the Web at this particular moment. Not even, maybe, for ten or fifteen years. But this is the first object that may well be designed for who we really are as people. We are explorers. We were out there hunting and gathering and using our hands–that is, until we recently decided to take that little industrialized break and coop ourselves up in our homes. We spend a lot of our time feeling like we aren’t really doing enough, and that worry leaks out in our aggressive spending, our internal dramas, our petty goals. We stopped being in touch with what it really felt like to be alive. We built great tools, and gradually our tools became our focus; somewhere along the line, we lost track of the absurdity of this compromise.

The real promise of the Web has always been its omniscience. It has nothing to do with information, or information overload– it has to do with ubiquity and transparency. It has to do with offloading the sum of human consciousness and leaving it floating out there, a sea of awareness permeating us like a second soul. Think different, people. This has nothing to do with specs. Nothing to do with current technology–or the lack of an optical drive. This is about coming a step closer to organic technology.

Like the iPhone, which was the result of a realization that people like to control THINGS, not the abstract representations of them, this Macbook Air heralds a different kind of future. One in which our primary untethered-ness is finally understood; one in which our need to just live life is finally brought back into focus. Computers are a long long way from being truly intuitive, but this design evokes something incredible, something thrilling in me. We are leaving behind the wires, the force, the efforts of communicating with a stupid machine. We are free, and so is it. We are endlessly capable, and so (battery life willing) is it.

When Apple does its best work, they create products that are so perfect in their approach that they literally cannot be reimagined.

Looking at this machine, I can honestly say that it is this level of perfection. Not necessarily in specs, in its minutae or in daily use; I mean as an idea, as a created object, as a trendsetter. The iPod wasn’t perfect either when it first debuted, but it was obvious why it was needed. It removed everything but the experience of choosing what to listen to and hearing it. It removed the technology and became an extension of one’s life.

The Macbook Air, with inductive-based charging and ubiquitous networking, if such things ever came together (and if they came together tomorrow? oh my god) is another of these ideas. Something so radically ahead on a fundamental level that we don’t even know how amazing it will become.

For Apple to come back to the “tiny laptop” game, they realized they needed something new, something revolutionary to justify the absence. We’ve been expecting decent upgrades from them, but we forget that this is a brand-new Apple, one so visionary as to often arrive at solutions before anyone understands the depth of the problem; a company that innovates even when no one understands what it is they can see. When they made a music player, they made the iPod, for god’s sake. When they made a phone, it wasn’t a phone– it was a new way to communicate with technology.

Well, they’re back, and they removed such a huge part of the “computer” from the equation–the charging cables, ethernet, tethered disks (Time Machine backup to AirPort MUST be coming…) the extra weight, and maybe even the need for wi-fi tethering–that it is now the digital equivalent of a notebook. It is ever-present, yet completely unobtrusive. It is as ready as you are. Long ago I envisioned (as many have– it’s not at all an original concept) a device I called “the Reader”–a notebook-type wireless communication system. This device simply existed to tap into the framework of human awareness in as unobtrusive a manner as possible. Gesture-based, context-sensitive, intelligent and uncomplicated, it would express a nearly infinite potential without ever feeling overwhelming.

Many of these ideas may make their way more readily into an Apple tablet, but I can see that their design language is definitely on to something. It’s the teardrop shape. The colors (neutrals yet superbly beautiful). The organic, weightless feeling of it. It’s the sense that this is no longer a foreign object. It’s the first step towards something altogether new–a true fusion. And it’s weightless the way we are weightless, ultimately free of any connection to anything but the earth we’re born on and the identity we give ourselves.

I know it’s all hyperbolic, and perhaps I’m simply overthinking, but if the device Apple releases tomorrow is anything like this image, it’s a bigger deal than anyone but a few people at Apple realize.

Just think about it.

(And I really don’t comment on technology much, as you know, but I feel that this is truly significant)

Technorati Tags:
evolving, life, apple

]]> http://evolationmedia.com/macbook-air-and-what-it-maybe-means/feed/ 1