The Grid - Faster than a Speeding Internet

Found this article about "the Grid," the next generation of the Internet.

The Internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

It's great that technology marches on but I find it amazing that the article gives three examples of the speed of The Grid in the first three paragraphs and they are all about entertainment. Not that research will be enhanced. Not that business will improve or that support will be more readily available. They do slip in a sliver of a plug for enhanced communications in the last sentence but that's it. The only thing that matters is that we can get our music quicker, our videos of people doing ridiculous things quicker, and our online gaming more powerful.

Perhaps they should have called it "The Matrix."

Pico Projectors - Putting Projection in the Hands of Everyone

For any of you who have tried watching a movie on a portable device (cell phone, ipod, etc.) you know that it's not the most ideal situation. But the entertainment driven culture has dived headlong into mini players full force. Now you can play video on just about any small electronic device that Sonyrola can fit a screen on. You can watch, you just can't see.

Well now that so many people have bitten into the mini-video apple (small 'a'), the gadget industry has created another market for themselves: Pico projectors. "Pico projectors" are "small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket" and will hit the markets later this year. They are working standalone projectors first and then looking to build them directly into cellphones and other small devices.

This, I think, is going to make for some interesting dilemmas. Personal video players have already caused challenges because people are taking their personal viewing habits out into public. But with Pico projectors, these same people will have the opportunity to essentially broadcast their personal video habits into more public realms. Porn is the obvious problem, we'll soon be hearing about projected porn showing up in classrooms or in other public places. How do you protect your kids from that? But that's not even getting creative. What about immature students projecting things onto their teachers backsides in the classroom? If the projector will show video, surely it will show text. Imagine the possibilities. Now multiply it by ten. Suddenly I have the ability to make your t-shirt say anything I want. Scary.

I'm all for moving ahead with technology. I'm sure a lot of very good and very creative uses will come from mini projectors and other new technologies. But I'm also concerned about the lack of a moral compass guiding technology. I'm not sure "entertainment" is the best guide.

Projectors to Magnify Cell Phone Cinema