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Forget devices; the future of technology is seeded in biology
A lot of you, dear readers, may remember a time when mobile phones didn't exist, let alone smartphones with touchscreens, apps and pro-grade cameras. Some may even recall a childhood completely devoid of TV, when the phrase "playing in a sandbox" meant literally that. Not content with books that glow in the dark, among other electronic conveniences, we're now strapping computers to our heads and a second smartphone screen to our wrists. io9's Annalee Newitz and Joichi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, took to our Expand stage to talk about what technology of the future might look like, and both agreed we'll see much less built from circuits, and much more from (somewhat) natural ingredients.
Live from Expand: Thinking Ahead: the Future of Consumer Electronics
It's time to look ahead. We've enlisted MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito and iO9's Annalee Newitz to help us separate the fads from the future and predict what precisely is on the technological horizon. November 9, 2013 2:00:00 PM EST Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from New York City right here!
Sony nominates three new board members, looks for fresh perspective
While Sony has been improving its bank balance as of late, most of that turnaround has come through job cuts and office sales -- the company needs new strategies to thrive in the long run. Accordingly, the firm has nominated three new board directors with experience outside of its core electronics divisions. Tim Schaaff (at right) is a relative insider with his board position at media-focused Sony Network Entertainment, but the same can't be said for his two peers. Eikoh Harada (left) has been turning around McDonald's Japan as its CEO, while Joichi Ito (center) is well-known for his roles as the director of MIT's Media Lab and the founder of Digital Garage. Both Harada and Schaaff also worked at Apple several years ago, giving them experience at one of Sony's main rivals. Provided the three become board members at a shareholder meeting on June 20th, they could bring new thinking to a company frequently accused of clinging to business as usual.
WoW is a Work of Art, part 2: Blizzard's masterpiece
As you read the word, "art," what do you think of? Van Gogh? Beethoven? Academy Awards for Best Picture? What is it that established mediums of art, such as painting, music, and film have in common? In many ways, World of Warcraft is a combination of all these media, and yet it is something of it's own too. WoW has vast landscapes to explore, interesting characters with their own meaningful stories, and powerful music to thrill you or spook you or make you feel awe. Not only does WoW combine these elements together in a deeply satisfying way, it stands out as a carefully balanced masterwork of the "game" as a creative human expression. In other words, WoW is basically a web of overlapping problems to overcome alone or as a team, for which all the visual, musical and story elements are metaphors that open the doors into this central element of the game's experience. Not only is it fundamentally interactive, exploratory, and progressive, but your choices, from the way your character looks to the way you chose to play him or her, all represent your own investment in filling out the open space the game has made for you and the community of players. You and your friends are the final keystone in the edifice of the WoW work of art -- your progressive interaction with the game and your cooperation with others is designed from the beginning to be the main stimulating force on your mind and spirit, just as looking or listening is with other forms of art. Of course art is a subjective thing, like beauty itself. One person may be profoundly inspired and uplifted by her WoW experience, while another may be left shaking his head and wondering why he wasted his time. In their own way, both are right; art is never art without a certain kind of participation by the one looking at it, listening to it, or engaging with it in some way. The perceiver of the art always has to be open to the special impact that art can have on your mind or spirit, and be willing to make that leap of faith into the work of art and see what its creators intended. For some to be unappreciative of one art form or another is commonplace and natural -- people have their unique likes and dislikes after all -- but the fact that a certain work of art touches some people, perhaps many, in a profound way is what sets it aside from mere entertainment.
