How Far is the Near-Future ?
We have all came across the term “Near Future” some point in out life. What is this future we are referring to and how far exactly is this future from us now ? Stories from future reminds me of all the Sci-Fi movies that I've been watching in recent times. Not only they captured my attention, but also provoked me to dive deeper into knowing and exploring the realm of artificial intelligence, the core of future automated world.
What do you think will be the future in, say 20 years, is a question we all have came across whether be it in out minds or asked by anyone you know. The question is actually very diverse in its own way. Answer to this has been researched upon day in and day out by scientist and other curious minds over the many years. Mostly the basic and obvious answer will be AI and how Skynet is a reality more than a movie gimmick. Is this the ultimate? or is there something more to it?
“What is the future for you?”
This was exactly the question shot towards us during the IOT workshop weirdly named “Unconference”. Seriously, HOW would the world be like in future? What are we looking for? Is the future near or is it already here? I’ll describe briefly what had happened in the first two days of the “Unconference” session of telling stories from the future.
The first day of stories from future, we sat down to write stories with wildest of ideas which we perceive to be the looks of the-not-so-very-distant future. My story was revolving around common child hood voodoo where kids end up losing their play toys under the bed.
The story progress as the kid is playing with his toys and one of the blocks goes under the bed. And he ends up not finding it between the hassle already under the bed. He wonders if there’s a secret portal under the bed in which his play toys goes through and thus it vanishes. The kid further muse on what if he can put his hand through if at all he finds the portal. What would he find? can he touch different things in another world? another place? what if he can touch things that he has only seen on TV and the Internet? This got him thinking.
The curious little soul decided to take a visit to the nearby AI-GUYS help-desk to ask about his wild queries, to see if they could help him.There was a scientist at work there to receive him. The kid asked his doubts. To his wonder, the scientist replied he has something interesting that he’s been working on and that’s something similar to the kids idea. there the scientist showed him a device which can mimic the surfaces and textures of any material in the whole world. Be it a sheet of metal, or a the skin of a snake from amazonian forest.
As for the eucatastrophic ending of the story, it leaves the contains elements to look up, to research upon and reflect on. So on the second day, we were asked for a short performance to enact the concept. The play was interesting and challenged us to prototype the ideas and somehow mimic the working of the concept. We were given cues as to how to use Arduinos as a prop to narrate the stories better.
The question was, How do I display the concept? Use an Arduino was a comment. HOW an Arduino was my concern. Well, make blinking lights and beeping sounds, give the feel of a scientist Laboratory. All those days spent watching Dexter’s laboratory came for guidance. Mimic sensors using people, use lights to simulate activities, servos to move things automatically and improvise on dialogues, help each others out. The act was short but was fun.
The following day, individuals got feedbacks on their performance and ideas on post-its by all others in the group. This is a very important step as far as collaborative learning is considered. Feedbacks included areas of improvement, where to look into, consideration of bigger concerns, reality check and lots more.
Glimpse of feedback statements were as follows :
○ Shape changing interfaces.
○ AI feedback interface.
○ Touching radioactive materials.
○ Materials in other planets(space exploration)
○ Should AI be a service or Interaction.
Considering all these and more, I am looking forward to tweak the storry and bring in the bigger picture to the screen.
