So this book introduced me back then to the concept of E Inks. Now part of various devices and particularly made famous by Amazon’s Kindle, the e ink eventually as a technology aimed to become printable on surfaces as thin as the newspapers.

Today FastCompany published an article that talks about T Shirts that will allow for E Ink printing, thus giving a huge avenue to advertisers to use people t shirts as a dynamic display medium. The possibilities that something like this brings about are enormous like maybe even cell phones could eventually get integrated into clothing.

Check out the interesting prospect of E Ink on cloth:

And you can find the complete article here.

Check out the complete flikr photoset here  – http://www.flickr.com/photos/13084997@N03/sets/72157608258335431/

The creator, Linden Glendhill, wrote that the shapes have been made out of water based paints and sound come from a speaker. The motion is captured with mic triggered flash units controlled by StopShot.

Some relevant links:

Some photographs of the set up – http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/04/13/135377949/how-sound-can-create-sculpture

How to do high speed photography at home – http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_high_speed_photography_at_home

Some other beautiful high speed photography results – http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/04/08/beautiful-and-creative-high-speed-photography/

Read more about it here:
http://www.corning.com/news_center/features/A_Day_Made_of_Glass.aspx

Below is a video that talks about some of this (in its later part). It is also a very nice watch if you like data visualizations.

Think of the brain as a collection of nerves, thin pipes with openings to the outside world in form of organs, the eyes, ears, skin, etc.

The internet is also a collection of network pipes with opening to the outside world in form of input devices.

In the brain the input stimuli passes as a signal triggering reactions. If lots of nerves see/hear/feel the same event then there is a consensus formed in terms of what happened.

Similarly if some major event happens in the outside world, bloggers, news agencies , etc, all cover it extensively, these being the input points which help the internet brain in developing a consensus.

This brain, like our brain could one day become the basis of driving something bigger than itself. Well, if we come to think of it, the internet has already started to drive its end points. It is getting to the point where it can create a consensus in the actions of the organs, like how the when the brain tells to grab something, then all the parts, the arm, the forehand, the wrist, the finger all come in unison to complete that task.

Open source software is a successful example of this coordination.

When Web 2.0, social networks reach their logical culmination they will make sure that every one is part of the conversation, which will mark the formation of the full fledged internet brain.
It even makes sense to think of the human brain too as a conversation, between our memories and the run time inputs.

If we delve deeper into understanding the exact working of the internet, of social networking, of open source software, we might be able to unlock the secret of our brains, and hence open the frontiers to the ‘next’ in science.

This article is inconclusive, ’cause its intended to be more a conversation than a static piece.

“To err is human but to really foul things up you need a computer” quotes Paul Ehrlich.

The computer history has witnessed major disasters which had led to loss of people, property and money due to the failure of so called “thinkable machines”.
Failure of technology in a field can lead to major disasters. Therefore “technological disasters” when taken together as a phrase suggests situations in which large numbers of people, property, infrastructure, or economic activity are directly and adversely affected by major industrial accidents, severe pollution incidents, nuclear accidents, air crashes , major fires, or explosion. But is it all due to the failure of a technology? The direct causes of these disasters or emergency situations are identifiable human actions, deliberate or otherwise. In this article we will identify that the causes of these disasters are mostly from the generalized set of human errors and unethical practice of their profession, irrespective of the field of disaster.
On analyzing the tech disasters, a common pattern of negligence and errors can be identified. Taking into consideration the technological disasters it can be found that there is a recursive pattern of similar flaws which leads to the major disasters. To start with, these disasters were the result of a combination of
- Legal
- Technological
- Organizational
- Human errors.

These four forms the major part of the generalized set of errors responsible for failures. The results of the errors are further exacerbated by the failure of containment and safety measures and by a complete absence of community information and emergency procedures during the disasters.
When we talk of organizational errors, it involves disputes among inter and intra team members working on the same project, lack of communication among the team members and personal gains (cost effectiveness).Followed by technological errors like incorrect assumptions while coding, incorrect usage of the software and error in logical calculations. None the less human errors form a big part of the fault pie chart. Human errors are mostly because of the negligence and unethical behavior of the professional at their workplace. The failure to review the final design plan and the failure of efficient test plans, add to the reason leading to the major disasters.
In order to discuss the pattern of errors, I will throw some light on major disasters:

Therac-25 tragedy
(The field of medicine has also witnessed tragic disasters due to the failure of software in their field. The most famous is the case of Therac-25. Canada’s Therac-25 radiation therapy machine malfunctioned and delivered lethal radiation doses to patients. Because of a subtle bug called a race condition, a technician could accidentally configure Therac-25 so the electron beam would fire in high-power mode without the proper patient shielding. The above disasters were the result of the human error and negligence.)
What actually went wrong which lead to this disaster? The general consensus is that the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is to blame. There was only one person programming the code for this system and he largely did all the testing. The machine was tested for only 2700 hours of use, but for code which controls such a critical machine, many more hours should have been put in to the testing phase. Also Therac-25 was tested as a whole machine rather than in separate modules. Testing in separate modules would have discovered many of the bugs. Also, if the AECL believed that there were problems with the Therac-25 right after the first incident then it is possible that most of the 5 other incidents could have been avoided and possibly the 3 fatalities.
In another case of Kansas tragedy, due to disputes between G.C.E. and Havens,
• The design changed from a single to a double hanger rod, simply because Havens did not want to thread the entire rod in order to install the washer and nut.
• Another problem was the lack of communication between G.C.E. and Havens. The drawing prepared by G.C.E. was only preliminary sketches that Havens interpreted to be the finalized drawings. Another large error was G.C.E.’s failure to review the final design which would have allowed them to catch the error in increasing the load on the connections.
It can be concluded, that the negligence and human errors can be seen as a part of a generalized set whose subsets leads to major disasters.
Due to unprofessional, unethical and ignorant behavior of the employees, their careless decisions had lead to major disasters.Taking the software disasters into account, it’s clearly visible that the cannons of the software engineering code of ethics were breached at the stage of decision making which had finally lead to the failures. If the associated software firms would have been stringent towards the code of ethics, these tragic disasters could have been easily avoided.

But the question arises over here that why these firms were unable to adhere themselves to the fundamentals of the code of ethics?

OR

Can we say the software code of ethics is an inflexible pot-pouri of principles?

Human is infallible, viable of making errors so when it designs the product, the testing of the product is as essential phase as the designing. But the companies due to time lag are not able to devote the required time span to the testing phase.

In Hartford incident, the programmer of the CAD software used to design the coliseum incorrectly assumed the steel roof supports would only face pure compression. This design was also supposed to be delivered on time, and thus the smallest designing flaw lead to the biggest disaster.

ACM/ IEEE had created their cannons, but some of their cannons are overlapping. In order to fulfill client’s interest sometimes the firms are ready to compromise with essentials of public, product, management and judgment principles. There is no authority to check whether the code of ethics is being strictly followed or not. Similar failures of software had been repeated in history and had cause major loss to the society.

This problem stated above is not only with the software community but other engineering communities face the same. There is much more to be added to the software code of ethics in other to make it more profound and grounded, which might also help in avoiding future disasters. In comparison with code of ethics of other profession, my study suggests following points should be added.

- Software engineers who have knowledge or reason to believe that another person or firm may be in violation of any of the provisions of the “code of ethics” shall present such information to the proper authority in writing and shall cooperate with the proper authority in furnishing such further information or assistance as may be required.

- Software engineers should seek opportunities to be of constructive service in civic affairs and work for the advancement of the safety, health and well-being of their communities, and the protection of the environment through the practice of sustainable development.

- In order to make software professionals more vigilant towards their responsibilities, they shall not affix their signatures or seals to any engineering plan or document dealing with subject matter in which they lack competence by virtue of education or experience or to any such plan or document not reviewed or prepared under their supervisory control.
“To err is human but to really foul up things you need nothing more than a careless, irresponsible human mind” .

My personal opinion states that, however hard we can strive to make professionals realize their responsibility, by creating code of ethics but this disasters will continue to happen until each professional realize their own responsibility towards the public and society. There is need of revolution within ourselves in order to realize responsibility of each decision taken by us.

By Heena Rastogi:

She is currently  a graduate student. As a part of an under graduate curriculum she did research on technological disasters and code of ethics by ACM-IEEE for SE in the light of these disasters..

These are fascinating topics of discussion, but this particular post is dedicated to some of the coolest robots of the past decade. Some time ago GoRobotics.net put together a list of the top 10 robots of the past decade.

Keepon

It features the very cute (and not necessarily as advanced) KeepOn, designed to allow a broad range of interactions with children (particularly the ones with Autism) which otherwise are impossible to have. Also on the list is the advanced Predator Drone, used in many military strikes by the US recently.

Others on the list are

• Pleo (the dinausaur toy),
• PackBot (the search bot),
• BigDog (one of the most advanced rough-terrain robot),
• RoboSapien (the hackable toy),
• ASIMO (Honda’s flagship robot),
• Aibo (the useful dog),
• Lego Mindstroms and
• Roomba (first commercial floor cleaning robot)

The following video presents the cute Keepon dancing to Spoon’s, “Don’t You Evah”.

For the full article on GoRotics.net click here.

Also do check out the ‘dream the impossible’ documentary at the Honda site where it shows off  its ASIMO robot. http://dreams.honda.com.

The following video presents one of the works of Motionhouse Dance Theatre, a touring dance group that creates remarkable dance theatre, fusing images, action and dynamism to surprise, challenge and delight.
The piece presented here is called Scattered.

Quoting Motionhouse:  We are creating a startling interaction between film and live performance, where dancers glide in the air or rapidly move around the space using aerial silks and harnesses. Performed on a huge curved floor (think of a half pipe), which disappears skywards upstage, Scattered uses projection technology to create a world in which the dancers move in, on and through the image.

Scattered delves into the majesty and savagery of water, a fundamental force in our lives as seven dancers plunge into an ocean, tumble down a waterfall, gasp with thirst under a scorching sun and slide on an avalanche to a frozen landscape of arctic beauty.

Such works keep reminding that the space where art and technology merges is a unique and fascinating space, that we need to nurture and appreciate

Motionhouse Dance Theatre ‘Scattered’ from Article19 on Vimeo.

Artist Lee Jang Sub (www.leejangsub.com) tries to find harmony in the complexity of Seoul city map. He argues that a tree, though complex, has a harmony when seen from an overall perspective. Similar is the case with cities.

Patterns exist everywhere, in space and in time. Some can be easily explained mathematically while others are too chaotic to make sense of.

Fractal geometry is the branch of study that tries to find sense in this chaos.

But what could possibly be the relation between fractal geometry and self organization? Well, it seems that self organization follows fractals laws and results in systems with a fractal pattern.

The aim of any system is, generally, to continuously be in a state of stability.

This stability is constantly being tested by both internal and external forces. So when a complex system (and non linear) becomes stressed, it becomes unstable. The system then tries to make changes to reestablish its stability. These changes can either be first order (linear, predictable, moderate, and incremental) or second order (chaotic and drastic). (Sandra Bloom, 2000). Generally in simple cases, these changes are either a division of the system or integration with another system. More often than not pattern of this integration or division is constant across the whole system both in space and time.

(Source: New York Times) The left photo shows connections between 3 neuron cells in a mouse’s brain while the right photo is a snapshot of the current state of the universe (as found while doing a computer simulation of the evolution of the universe).

When a drastic change (2^nd order) occurs to bring back stability, we call it Chaos. But Chaos always has a higher order but it comes on its own, spontaneously and unpredictably. It is self organized. (http://www.fractalwisdom.com/#paradigm). The order implicit in Chaos is unpredictable on a case by case basis, but still reliable and workable on the long run.

Quoting physicist Paul Davies (from his book The Cosmic Blueprint (1988)):

There is no detailed blueprint, only a set of laws with an inbuilt facility for making interesting things happen. The universe is free to create itself as it goes along. The general pattern of development is “predestined”, but the details are not. Thus, the existence of intelligent life at some stage is inevitable; it is, so to speak, written into the laws of nature. But man as such is far from preordained.

In this video Dr. Ron Eglash explains his research on the fractal patterns he noticed in villages across the African continent.

Some good references about fractal applications and self organization:

• Chaos, Complexity, Self Organization and Us - Sandra L. Bloom, 2000
• Connecting the Fractal City – Nikos A. Salingaros, 2003
• The Genius of Swarms – National Geographic, 2007
• Photo-essay of fractal patterns in Beaches – Michael Welland, 2009
• Boderline, a fractal poem – Ed Seykota, 1986

Here is Amber herself explaining Cyborg Anthropology in a short presentation for Ignite.

PS: Cyborg is short for “cybernetic organism,” a being that is part cybernetic machine and part organism.