Successful Prediction

A successful prediction pertaining to robots is the 1956 prediction of George Devil and Joseph Engelberger. Devil predicted that industrial robots would “help the factory operator in a way that can be compared to business machines as an aid to the office worker”. (reference)

Listen to the entire gabcast on this successful prediction Successful Robotic Prediction #1


Successful Robotic Prediction #1

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Joseph Engelberger is referred to as the ‘father of robots’ building early robots with his and Devil’s company Unimation Inc. Their robot Unimate was the first industrial robot at General Motors (Engelberger).

Other gabcast references include a Brian Huse article of ‘How Robots Will Affect Future Generations’

The Asimo reference can be found here. **In the gabcast I said Asimo was built by Toyota...it is actually built by Honda**

Hope you enjoyed the gabcast!!

~Michelle

Prediction - Material

My predictions will be based on areas of interest including medical, military, and innovation. I believe these three areas are the 10-15 year focus of economic growth. The medical industry will be growing exponentially because of the amount of money that will be pumped in due to the upcoming baby-boomer retirement. Military will always have money because of the constant taxes while innovation will be the American focus due to the lack of cheap labor for manufacturing and physical work in America.

My predictions will include materials, artificial intelligence, and robotics. First, materials....

This first prediction is on a material called Aerogels. Aerogels is a 'frozen smoke' deemed to be the lightest solids. It is a gel that water is extracted from and carbon dioxide added. It can protect against direct blasts of 1 kilogram of dynamite and blowtorch heat. This type of solid (in a somewhat gas form) will be used for daily medical and military purposes by 2017. Medical purposes will include insulation for the body and absorbing blood during surgeries. Military application will be for protection and insulation. NASA has already been using this material to collect space debris. From an innovation perspective, this material can also be used as a pollution absorbant for America and mostly other countries whose pollution is growing out of control. Overall, the aerogels material will be the fastest growing material for use across multiple domains for the next 10 years.

Gabcast Link

Here is the link to listen to my Gabcast. http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=12475 It was very easy and fun! I will be posting more Gabcast, I think it is easier for others to listen rather than read all the blog entries. Enjoy!

Gabcast - Google and Web 2.0

In my gabcast, I reviewed the Google Web2.0 applications. Below is th text version of the gabcast. Enjoy!

Google Taking over Web 2.0

Web 2.0 to me means a higher level of interaction of people, ideas, and overall activity on the web. Interaction such as email, groups, and photo sharing are all part of the Web 2.0 experience. I will be reviewing some Web 2.0 applications and how Google is quickly becoming the front runner.

Google Email: This email tool goes above and beyond other email services such as hotmail by keeping a conversation with the same people and same subject. It will also detect an invitation and automatically link Google Maps or Google Calendar to assist in getting to the party

Google Maps: The Google maps are 3-D dynamic, and can be viewed with or without satellite overlays. Google Maps is the fastest over Ask.com and Yahoo maps per CNET reviews (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6526615-3.html?tag=txt). Some of the competitors such as Mapquest, Yahoo, and Ask have more features, but overall Google was a trailblazer for satellite imaging.

Google Earth: Another interactive tool from Google that allows users to visit places around the world using satellite imagery to get the feel of being on vacation. For those longing to be somewhere else but don’t have the money or time to travel, it’s a great tool to immerse you in another world.

Google Calendar: Calendar allows you to manage appointments and bring in from various sources. The added feature of integrating email and appointments send by email to the Calendar makes the tool integration a plus (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6514569-4.html?tag=btn).

Google Talk: Google talk also integrates with Google Calendar and Gmail with additional instant-messaging tools built in. This beta tool has ideal ease of use and is clear as a regular phone when speaking to users.

Google Spreadsheet, Writely beta, SketchUp: These tools replace the traditional Windows hard-drive hogging applications. The one dependency is that the users have to be online to use the tools.

Google Picasa: This tool allows for photo sharing by uploading albums to the web and photo organization. In contrast to Flickr, the ease of use is better and automatically loads all pictures from your computer in the tool. You can then decide which ones to upload to the web.

Google Desktop: Google also provides search tools of the entire hard drive as well as linking to your Google email. You do have to configure the preferences based on your acceptance of the amount of data Google will catalog, but that seems to be the Web2.0 world we live in now.

There are other vendors providing many of the same tools, however Google provides the packages to interact throughout each tool which enhances the overall experience. Google is definitely branches out beyond search capability and leading the way for Web2.0 applications.

Money & Production

How relatable is money and production power to quality of life? We discuss how knowledge is creating more productive societies that are increasing their wealth, but does that directly relate to quality of life? I think there is a knee in the curve where some money does directly relate to quality of life, but not more and more money. It seems at some point the worry about getting more money and the drive to continue to make more and more outweighs the lifestyle and overall quality of life.

Wrong Prediction

In 1998, PC World predicted 'executive types of the future may dump traditional laptops for PDA-like Windows CE-based mininotebooks'. The mininotebooks were a stripped-down version of Windows 95 with a smaller keyboard at around $500. This prediction did not come true because 1.) Only simple data input was usable and WiFi capability had not hit yet and 2.) Nobody could predict the handheld convergence with phone service and new technologies such as texting and WiFi. Smaller is not always better if there is not improved capability while harder to use for the same benefit.

~M

Home Phone Genome

I visited the genome project site that has information on each chromosome and their contribution to the make-up of humans and disease. I also read excerpts from a book evaluating the health care effects of genome therapy [1]. The negativity (i.e. fear of uncertainty) seems to be the constant focus as opposed to how to solve potential problems. Currently the government controls the gene therapy testing (process, process, process) which on a side note has slowed the progress. I would imagine the government will control what information about each gene screening is shared with HMOs or a spin-off of HMOs in the future (of course preceded by massive law suits making the government have strict confidentiality agreements with physicians). I say the entire health care structure or lack of freedom physicians have because of the handcuffs the HMOs provide must be re-structured. Do we really have to wait until government steps in to re-structure health care.....because that will take FOREVER. Will gene therapy ever be a reality with the current health care structure in America? Not to mention the additional information HMOs have with all medical care online.....


[1]'The Human Genome Project and the Future of Health Care' by Robert F. Murray, Mark A. Rothstein, & Thomas H. Murray (http://books.google.com/books?id=GRGxRIFGc9cC&dq=human+genome+effect&pg=PA202&ots=mggoSlDOjX&sig=rA-3lFL42qvtT_ZOQCmfRdvu-qc&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26rls%3DSUNA%252CSUNA%253A2006-36%252CSUNA%253Aen%26q%3Dhuman%2Bgenome%2Beffect&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1#PPA203,M1 Chapter 3 and pages 202 & 203),