Here, Shyam Sankar gives an interesting talk on the emergent capacities of humans and computers working together to solve problems. He demonstrates using many examples problems that were better solved using a combination of humans and weaker computers as opposed to supercomputers on their own.
Category Archives: Technology
On The Origins of Cell Phones
“Why should we allow such a wonderful, brilliant, and necessary product to be the cause of unnecessary suffering for human beings?” asks Bandi Mbubi in his TED talk below. He explores the origins of cell phones, their political impact on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and what needs to be done from here.
Take My Money
A few years back, a friend and I had a running joke about the words “need” and “want” because in most cases when you say you “need something”, you actually don’t. To illustrate:
- Need is when something is necessary, like when I whisper into the telephone to the police, “I NEED this stalker out of my house.”
- Want is when you desire something, such as, “I really WANT my dad to stop asking me what am I doing when I am in the bathroom.”
In most cases, people say they need some sort of object, like a jacket, a new computer or some space. We’d correct each other and say, “Is that a need or a want?” or “What kind of space, like the one between your eyebrows and your hairline because it’s come soon, dude.” But then there are instances when we knew in the depths of our hearts that we really needed this object in our lives because it’s too awesome and for f***’s sake just TAKE MY MONEY NOW.
Here are some things I recently saw and then proceeded to throw money at my laptop screen but nothing happened because I realized that I am an unemployed student and the “money” I was throwing were pieces of my hopes and dreams. Yes, this just got dark fast. Now onto the beautiful objects of necessity.
Macbook Pro with Retina Display
TopBrewer Coffee faucet by Scanomat – with iPhone control
Leap
Monolito and Megalito carbon fiber table
GroundWave Shadow Trainer that teaches you how to dance