Rants & Raves
Warning: Graphic Content
I found it highly ironic that your Infoporn feature ("This Is Your Life," Wired 8.02, page 80) began with the quote from Edward Tufte: "Good design is clear thinking made visible." The highly stylized 3-D graphs created by Asymptote Architecture contravene nearly every information-design principle advocated by Tufte - most significant, the ideal that design should serve the data and not the other way around.
I puzzled for minutes over each graph, trying - and ultimately failing - to tease some meaning out of the gorgeously rendered surfaces. These graphs are the truest exemplars of what Tufte has called "chartjunk" that I have ever encountered; I hope he is able to feature them in future editions of his books as demonstrations of how the misuse of technology can decrease understanding.
Mark Tye
mtye@mediaone.net
Aye, Robot
I just read Kevin Warwick's article ("Cyborg 1.0," Wired 8.02, page 144) and am quietly at peace. I am astounded by his vision and achievements. Kevin and his wife, Irena, should be applauded for their courage. I have known since I was a kid - when I sat around reading Bradbury, Anthony, Pohl, Niven, and especially Asimov'sI, Robot and hisFoundation series - that someone would one day interface the human brain with computers. I did not, however, think it would happen in my lifetime.
Warwick shouldn't denigrate himself for not being in the category of people like Bell, Lindbergh, or Kennedy. His efforts will change history at least as much as theirs have.
David L. Rice
drice10@bellsouth.net
Warwick has every right to carry out his experiments. However, I question the new frontier he is attempting to pioneer. As if we haven't already had exceptional blows to privacy, now we have to worry about "electronic telepathy." Our thoughts and emotions will be beamed to satellites and redirected to servers, where they will be logged and saved to disk. People will tap our minds as easily as they do phone lines. Hackers may get a chuckle out of accessing those satellites and - for example - sneaking the actions and emotions of animals into our brains. (Ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a chicken?)
Progress is a good thing. The Internet is progress. Warwick's experiments are just high weirdness.
Dan Sale
ds2000@mediaone.net
Adam Sandler looked great on your cover. Who knew that a man dumb enough to star in Big Daddy would be smart enough to start a cybernetics revolution?
Russ Schroader
russ@paraben.com
I applaud Kevin Warwick for pursuing this line of research - and especially for his personal involvement. In the technology industry, I have often heard the expression "We are not talking about solving world hunger." In the case of cyborg technology, that statement may no longer apply.
Terry Parsons
tarlton@mindspring.com
I was fascinated by Kevin Warwick's experiments, and wanted to suggest another simple one: recording his response to a poem or piece of music that has some meaning to him, and then sending the signal back to see if it alone is capable of inducing the same response. In the next stage of the experiment - in which Kevin's wife receives an implant - he could see if the signal re-creates a feeling in her of the original sensory input.
What intrigues me about this possibility is that it might enable a very skilled artist to transmit the full force of his or her work to an audience. Imagine the ability to customize existing pieces of art. Could you condense the total effect of a Beethoven symphony down to a single second?
Todd Silverstein
toddsilv@wharton.upenn.edu
A salute to Kevin and Irena. But "thought-to-thought communication"? Analyzing motor impulses traveling from the spinal cord to the hand can be valuable for developing mind-controlled prostheses, but the sensory impulses going the other way may be unintelligible without also duplicating the brain functions that process them. The raw input from the optic nerve does not by itself produce vision. Deciphering the traffic between a parallel port and a printer might tell us about fonts but is unlikely to reveal anything about the internal workings of the CPU.
Richard V. Johnson
rjohnsonr@mindspring.com
Kevin Warwick has indeed developed a remarkable machine, one that seems to get him into the media at the flick of a switch.
If I put my electric garage opener in my mouth, will you write an article about me? "Brian Millar: He's more machine than man now. See him put his mouth next to a plate on the wall, and pow! the door opens. He reports difficulties in eating but says this is a small price to pay for becoming a cyborg."
Professor Warwick has long been quoted in the British press. The more switched-on technology journalists over here have treated him with the skepticism he deserves. I am surprised and disappointed thatWired was credulous enough to put him on the cover. When will somebody pull the plug on this cybore?
Brian Millar
brian@myrtle.co.uk
It's a shame that people aren't grasping the idea of chip implants as fast as they should. But often the general public refuses to accept such radical ideas (they once thought the sun revolved around the Earth, after all). The possibilities for these implants - in personal identification, medical uses, and security - are endless. I'm a very sane person, but if I could make it over to Warwick's lab, I'd be first in line.
Cory Johnson
corwen@telus.net
After reading "Cyborg 1.0" in the latest issue ofWired, I was speechless. I had not read anything truly revolutionary in a while, and Kevin Warwick's work has reinstilled my faith in science. I'll be seriously disappointed ifWired does not follow up on his results.
Boris Feinstein
highpotent@aol.com
As a scientist, I'm fascinated by Kevin Warwick's work in the field of cybernetics and by the potential it offers. I currently work with computers, and one day I hope to see more intelligent and efficient interfaces between man and machine. Keyboards and mouses may have brought us this far, but I look forward to the day when direct neural input is a reality.
Sean McDonough
solace@fuse.net
I am completely blown away after reading about Kevin Warwick. He is truly a pioneer in this new and fascinating field - and in our new century. These research advances could unleash such potential in so many areas; the possibilities are endless.
It's scary, yet this technology seems to be the next step in our evolution. What Warwick is doing is incredible and most brave. I think he will prevail in the pursuit of his goal.
I would like to extend my offer to participate in such experiments, should he need volunteers.
Ian M. Fintak
ianfintak@hotmail.com
Wired contributes sensationalism to the confusion of "cybernetics" with "cyborgs" by presenting a devotee of the latter as if he were a representative of the former. The reader is left with the incorrect impression that Warwick's idiosyncratic passion significantly overlaps with the interests of the cybernetics community in general. It does not.
Cybernetics began with a recognition of the role of feedback in goal-directed systems and then moved on to examine the principle of subjectivity in human cognition. The application of cybernetics to engineering, education, anthropology, biology, or even "cyborgs" is a personal choice, but for the author to so grossly conflate cybernetic principles with applications is self-serving.
I do not agree with Warwick's conjectures about how the nervous system might work, and I don't think implanting a sensor under his skin makes much more sense than using duct tape for the purposes of a particular experiment. Although Warwick has every right to his conjectures and experiments,Wired has a responsibility to balance his narrow viewpoints.
Paul Pangaro
pan@pangaro.com
Digital Education
Your piece on Michael Lynch's development of Autonomy from the 250-year-old work of the Reverend Thomas Bayes ("The Quest for Meaning," Wired 8.02, page 172) is really quite remarkable. Beyond the very exciting idea that computers can be taught to learn, contextual language is the strongest refutation of the typical student's question, Why do I have to study this?
It amazes me that people are often unaware that we are not the first generation to actually think of something. Steve Silberman's article should reside on every teacher's desk for the doubters who feel that a broad-based education is a waste of time.
Richard Garriott-Stejskal
rgstejskal@hubwest.com
Brick and Morpher
I wanted to thank you for your many articles on the integration of technology, information, and architecture - the brick-and-mortar kind of architecture ("Making It Morph," Wired 8.02, page 152). I think young architects sometimes feel that their field is not properly represented in the various forms of media used today. To have visionary architects, buildings, and materials featured in your magazine illustrates that others are interested in the importance of architecture and the way it can be used to enhance our high tech information culture. I hope that the American public comes to value more the quality of their designed environment.
Brett Anderson
raskol@eagle.cc.ukans.edu
Steel tensegrity, lenticular screens, and inside-out, partially submerged sushi restaurants - I am convinced we are in the midst of spectacularly unexpected creations here. Thanks to your deliciously penetrating piece on the daring duo Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, I not only see the importance of first-rate representations of representations, but can now confidently and effortlessly identify distinctive works of architecture by such audacious and imaginative devices as inexplicable fog, TV sets glued to walls, and pockets sculpted by forced air. Imagine: Chocolate-covered pipes and "daring" critiques on the culture of surveillance could soon be the rage on construction sites everywhere!
Osvaldo Valdes
ov@earthlink.net
High Score
It's startling and more than a little sad that no one under the age of 6 might ever know what a pinball machine was. "Game Over" (Wired 8.02, page 180) makes a point that's always worth remaking in today's world - that bigger/faster/stronger/more digital isn't always better. It would have been nice for pinball to have remained viable indefinitely, as a reminder that there are forms of entertainment that survive and thrive because they bring something unique to the table, not because they have the fastest gameplay, the best graphics, or the most floor-rattling sound effects.
When the ball goes airborne and smacks the underside of the glass - is there any better sound on Earth?
Tony Granata
tonygranata@hotmail.com
As an avid player, I think it's sad that pinball is slowly disappearing. But the manufacturers share some of the blame. A lot of the lament about how fragile pinball machines are, compared with videogames, could be addressed by making the friggin' flippers and solenoids more durable. I'm also bugged by the extra gadgets on the playfield, placed without any logic. I could have used a little less Dotmation graphics in exchange for better play.
Pinball didn't have to die. The trick was knowing that videogames and pinball require different skills and attract different players.
Frederick Bosick
kcisobderf@aol.com
"Game Over" was interesting, though I wished for less celebration and more lamentation of the passing of pinball. It is a loss both for those of us who have, in Roger Sharpe's words, "an organic relationship" with the machine and for those who will never know the pleasure and power of the Dance.
The average playtime for a ball is 50 seconds. Not much of anything can be learned in so short a time. But for those of us who play until the sweat pours and the muscles ache, the reward is total exhilaration - and the more romantic feeling that the machine, too, is satisfied.
Jeffrey Oliver
jo13a@aol.com
Ball and Chain
Nice job on the Richard Saul Wurman story ("The Wurmanizer," Wired 8.02, page 160). Gary Wolf captured the essence of the TED conference - and of Wurman. I've been to six or seven TEDs, and even got engaged to my wife onstage at one (it really happened the night before, by the water, but Richard wanted to replay it for the audience).
Though these days, a lot of TED is focused on the star power, in the beginning, the conference seemed to be more about ideas.
Chris Fralic
tedologist@aol.com
Commercial Investment
While reading the article on Super Bowl advertising ("Hot Spots!" Wired 8.02, page 96), one thing became extremely clear to me. We are watching a major shift take place in advertising and marketing. Companies are advertising during the Super Bowl to attract investors - that's where the big money comes from. Customers seem merely to be a byproduct.
Jon Buonaccorsi
buonaccorsi@mac.com
Undo
Hope, Too:Futura Deluxe Bubble Fountain (Wired 7.12, page 36), created by Steven Raspa and Aaron Wolf Baum, is a sculpture made of white acrylic, PVC, formica, wood, vinyl, bubble machines, sound system, and fluorescent lighting. ©1999 Steven Raspa. ... Clearance Sale: A 266-MHz iMac with a 6-Gbyte hard drive retailed for $1,199 last year ("Never Say Die," Wired 8.03, page 234). ... Rightward Shift: Shimano's Auto-D shifting system is pictured at right in "Wheel, Reinvented,"Wired 8.03, page 178. ... Zzz: Recliner execs made the band Lazy Boy change its name to Big Lazy (Music, Wired 8.03, page 260).
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