The Learning Curve

Posted by on

Have you ever heard about MessagEase, the extremely fast and efficient text-entry method for small devices? Probably not, even though it’s been around for a long time. And why not? I firmly believe that it’s because of the learning curve — it takes at least a few hours of practice to see any real speed improvement over whatever method you’re using now.

It’s ridiculous, because if you enter any significant amount of text in a device, MessagEase will save you lots of time in the long run. But most people would apparently prefer to limp along on what they already know than invest a little time in learning something that’s superior in every way.

Once the iPhone version of it becomes available (it’s supposed to go into beta before the end of this month), I’m sure more people will be exposed to it. We’ll have to see how many of them adopt it.

“Boffins invent automatic net-hookup roboffinry machines”

Posted by on

(For the British-challenged in the audience, “boffin” seems to mean “scientist.”)

Why, when I read this, do I get a mental picture of a modern-day Paul Revere, buzzing through the streets on a moped, yelling “The Singularity is coming!”? 🙂

Despite the rather alarmist tone of the article, I really don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I’ve done a lot of thinking on the social ramifications of this sort of thing, and I think it’s highly likely (to the point of inevitability) that humans and machines will merge, rather than machines taking over and wiping humans out.

And I’m not talking about some kind of Borg-like merging, either — we’ll just continue to incorporate useful technology into our lives. Once the brain is thoroughly understood, that will include mental enhancements. The line between natural intelligence and true artificial intelligence (which indirect evidence suggests is only a few years from its birth) will blur to the point that you won’t be able to tell the difference between them, because there won’t be any.

“Conficker Doomsday Worm Sells Out For $49.95”

Posted by on

All that fear and hype, and it turns out to be nothing more than a spam-generator and password stealer? The author(s) really ought to be ashamed of themselves.

An amusing bit from the end of the article:

I’m personally grateful that it brought to mind a moment from the original Die Hard film.

“You want money? What kind of terrorists are you?”

(Laughing) “Who said we were terrorists?”