First Post
This is the first post of my blog. This is an exercise in writing, expressing my thoughts, and discipline. I have no large goals for this blog. I expect it to go unread. However, I've been trying to record my thoughts down recently, and am practicing an exercise in collecting those thoughts at the end of the day. This blogs won't be long. Maybe on the weekends I will expand on a topic. For now, this is more of a public diary. Me posting my thoughts for my own record.
My first thought is on the importance of simplicity in technology. That is what makes technology inherently useful. It is a tool that helps us do the things we do in a better, faster, more efficient way. intermediaries are cut out, and ease of use increases. Two thoughts on this.
- Bitcoin and blockchain are not close to solving this issue, and that will hinder widespread adoption.
- Machine learning assisted AR will be the next platform because of the simplicity it will bring to people's lives.
On point one: Bitcoin is hard to use. I'm extremely bullish long term on it, but I don't delude myself into thinking mainstream adoption will be anytime soon. Securing private and public keys, hardware wallets, simple understanding the technology... it's a lot. I think that will be a big hinderance to future adoption.
On point two: machine learning will make things easier. I believe that Apple will kick off the AR revolution with a pair of glasses coming out in 2020. That's conjecture, so let's dial it back and just think about what product we would want to have if we could, and what we would want it to do.
We'd want it to be fast. But fast doesn't just mean how long it takes from the time you unlock your phone to the time an app loads. Fast is the time between you wanting an action to occur and the time of it occurring. If a device had context about where you are, and could act on it in a privacy safe, hyper effective and hyper accurate manner, it would be huge. Machine learning will be needed to detect these events. Whether its location based, audio based (Apple did just buy Shazam and the AirPods seem like the start of something new), or visually based, machine learning will be needed to analyze the surroundings of an individual and make predictions on what actions the user wants to perform.
AR will be integrated if glasses are the platform that these innovations come through. Real world prompts will be displayed on top of our everyday reality. Facts and information could flow in to a user, showing all relevant information that will help the user be more efficient.
As I'm writing this I realize some of it sounds dystopian. What if the algorithms box you in to a world where you aren't seeing new information? And do we really want to be 'disconnected' all the time if we're looking through glasses that are flashing and showing us notifications constantly. The ideal scenario would be making glasses that help people perform better, so they can take the glasses off and have more time to relax. More on that idea to come.