Signs the Future is Already Here (biotech edition)

Couple things that came across my radar this week, despite being a few years old.

1) Doggie DNA testing service.

Unsure of the pedigree of that mutt you got at the point? Test their DNA and get a family tree of breeds.

2) Genetically-modded fish, trademarked, owned, and available for purchase as pets!

I was at the petstore with the kids and saw some day-glow (tropical looking) freshwater fish for sale. I noticed a (r) beside the name, Glofish, and thought, hmm, maybe they are GMO fish? Sure enough, yes.

(photo from Glofish.com)

Anyhow, this would have been the stuff of sci-fi only a couple years ago. Hmm....

Book Review: Distrust That Particular Flavor

Usually, I'm not a fan of these types of books, where a publisher has persuaded an author to throw together a bunch of previously published articles, talks, and the like, into a collection for sake of putting it on a shelf.

That said, I found this book pretty good for a couple reasons: (1) It was interesting to learn some background on Gibson's writing process and his, well, I'll call it 'observational research'. (2) There were some interesting bits of background on books of his that I read that gave me new appreciation for them (e.g. I feel much better about Pattern Recognition now), and (3) it was interesting to read these different pieces from over a decade or two, that were each mini-time capsules of futurism, upon which Gibson gives some additional commentary.

If you like speculative fiction and near-term futurism, this is a good read.

Distrust That Particular Flavor

Book Review: Logicomix

For a while now I've been whittling away at Logicomix, a graphic novel about the life of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. I've never had any particular urge to learn about him, but I saw several positive reviews of the book popping up from time to time so I decided to give it a whirl.

While the book is loosely a biography, it really uses this for it's real purpose, providing the reader with a history of the development of logic at the turn of the last century. In doing so, it uses Russell as a central figure but also talks of the work of Frege, Pointecare, even up to Turing (the latter mentioned only later in the book as a 'look where this lead' type of example).

One complaint is that I would have liked some of the subjects treated in Scott-McCloud-style graphic illustration, while they instead are treated only with text, with the illustration just being of Russell or someone else discussing the idea.

In covering these subjects so sweepingly and in graphic novel form, it doesn't go into the detail some might want, but it does give a palpable sense of the different schools of thought prevalent at different times and how they evolved. This it does in a pretty compelling way, in a book that's interesting and beautifully illustrated.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Book Review: A Short History Of Nearly Everything

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a brief history of the physical sciences.

Bryson takes the reader through an introduction to geology, paleontology, nuclear physics, chemistry and a host of other topics. The book is both a crash course in how they work and fit together, as well as the history of each field.

The coverage is pretty lightweight (it would have to be, for this wide a set of topics) and humorous as Bryson pulls numerous memorable trivia and stories on the persons involved. Anyone who's a fan of James Burke (of Connections fame) will find this book to their liking.

 The only down side I can think of is that he goes on a tangent of doom-and-gloom for a while, which I found was laid on a little thick, but I still quite enjoyed the book.

 A Short History of Nearly Everything

Book Review: The Mongoliad: Book One

Fast paced, medieval sword-n-shield, knights vs mongols, action. The fast action swashbuckling of System of the World, without the lengthy political in-betweeny bits. I tore through this one really quickly. My only complaint is that the next book isn't due out for a while and the cliff hanger at the end has me wanting more.

Book Review: Rocket Men

Fantastic book. Most know the story of the Apollo 11 mission to moon, at least in short form. In Rocket Men however, it's covered in a great level of detail, with interviews from crew members, ground crew, researchers, etc, and in doing so really carries across just how amazing a feat it was.


There's also a lot to learn about the way large organizations work. Examples of them both accomplishing amazing things and also being blindly bureaucratic.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon

Book Review: Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition was... ok. Liked the premise, typical cyber-thriller plot that's more speculative-present than future, with a cool-hunter as protagonist. The first 2/3 of the book are pretty good, giving a real palpable taste for the various scenes (in multiple senses of 'scene').

However, three main flaws were that made me give the low rating. First, Gibson didn't really convey the cool-hunting thing other than giving the protagonist a kind of an ingrained ability/allergy that let her sense what would work. Secondly, and a far more egregious sin, is that the ending is a real failure. These are the types of stories you want to come together in the end, where the threads of stories and different characters wind and twist closer together until everything is brought to a tight finish. Stephenson is a master at this, for example. However, in Pattern Recognition, Gibson just has it kind of suddenly happen and that's that. Kind of hard to explain without spoilers, but suffice it to say that it's an unsatisfying end. Third, and related to the last point, is that several of the characters, including the main antagonist, just kind of dead-end.

Fail. skip it.

Book Review: Benjamin Franklin - An American Life

When I read the Steve Jobs book a while back, a friend of mine remarked that he'd preferred the book on Benjamin Franklin by the same author, Walter Isaacson. I added it to my list and then ended up doing it as an audio book, covering the bulk of it this past week while at E3, as I was staying far out and had a lot of rental car time.

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, like the Steve Jobs book, is a good introductory book to Franklin. A pretty thorough work in the account of his history and accomplishments, it doesn't excessively focus on any one area.

If there's any fault to it, it's that it doesn't do too much to get into Franklin's head and discuss emotional state, relationships with those in his family (e.g. it talks about his relationship with his wife but not the emotional state of that relationship). Now granted, in order to do so, I'd imagine some poetic license would need to be taken.

Franklin was an amazing person. Like many, he was not without flaws. Still, if you've read no other work accounting his history, this is a good place to start.

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Book Review: Beware Dangerism

This was a great little Kindle Single by Gever Tully (of Tinkering School and 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) fame).

It is a nice short outline of his argument (one I share and have debated with several parents, including the one I'm married to) about the trend toward 'dangerism'. Dangerism is a term he defines as the circular ratcheting up of fear around certain activities, the hardening of safety measures around those, and the subsequent further ratcheting up of the fear induced by the hardened safety measures. For example, people fear merry-go-rounds are unsafe, so they remove them from a playground or two, which then incites other people to assume they are unsafe because they've been removed from a few playgrounds, etc.

In the book, he breaks down the numerous factors contributing to this, among which are media fear-mongering, fear of litigation, tendency of individuals to focus on risks they can have effect upon, and more. It's a nicely structured argument in a short format.

I fear that it's not robust enough an argument to withstand someone who's decided to believe in one of these dangers - maybe that's not even possible - but it can at least provide helpful fodder to the debate.

Beware Dangerism!

Book Review: The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Browsing at Powells (aka The REAL Happiest Place On Earth), I happened on Cory Doctorow's The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, a sci-fi novella coupled with a transcript of a lecture on copyright and the arts, and a trascription of an interview with Cory from a couple years back. It was a cheap buy so I picked it up and threw it in my travel bag.

The lecture on copyright is good, but offers little over other talks I've seen him give, so while good, it did little for me. Same goes with the interview. Feels like the publisher added them to pad it up and justify the book price.

That said, the novella was quite clever. It's about a transhuman boy who is sort of an alpha-version of an immortal, who is separated from his inventor/father and forced to make sense of what he is while finding a way to fit in with a very strange and evolving future world. There are a few surprises and twists along the way. Like many of Cory's books, Disney artifacts play a role in the story as well.

It was clever and I quite liked it.

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Book Review: The Next 100 Years

A while back I reviewed George Friedman's The Next Decade. Before he wrote that book, he wrote a coarser-grained, longer term look at the future, The Next 100 Years. I mentioned that while I disagreed with much of the 'decade' book, I enjoyed the gaming out of the possibilities, and that it gave food for thought.

I found less of interest in The Next 100 Years. It's expected that the error bars would grow wider looking further out in time, but it's not that I disagree with, it's the author's methods. He picks selectively from influencing forces, picks and chooses from coarse or fine grained elements and in the level of specificity.

By the time he had a coalition of the Turks and the Japanese attacking the US by flinging rocks from the far side of the moon, well, I had a hard time continuing on. I forced myself through the book, but can't recommend it.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

Book Review: Screw It, Lets Do It

I picked up Richard Branson's Screw It, Let's Do It at the library in audio book form as something to easily get through on a recent business trip where I was going to have a bunch of driving.

I was a fan of his earlier book, Losing My Virginity, and had mixed reviews for Business Stripped Bare. This latest one rates somewhere between the two. More generalized advice, less detail on the early days of Virgin Music and Virgin Atlantic (Losing My Virginity covers both well), but does cover some hairy tales of his sailing and ballooning exploits. Some of these stories overlap with the earlier book, but its interesting enough storytelling that I didn't mind.

Screw It, Let's Do It

3D Printing and wonders of the Internet

Top of the list of things I will NOT be using my 3D Printer for? Buttplugs!

That said, the fact that someone is using Republican candidate approval rating data visualization to cast molds for 3D printed buttplugs, well... if this doesn't demonstrate the wonders of maker culture in the Internet age, I don't know what does.

Book Review: How to Fix Copyright

In late 2009 I reviewed William Patry's great book, Moral Panics And The Copyright Wars. I had high praise for many elements of the book, but dinged Patry a bit for not having a prescriptive solution for any of the issues he raised. I don't think I was alone in this complaint as he responded with a follow-up book late last year entitled How to Fix Copyright.

Like the Moral Panics book, How to Fix Copyright is an even-handed, and extremely thorough treatment of the topic. If it comes off as "copyfight"-leaning to some, it's only because he is critical of the current state of copyright, which leans heavily in favor of rights holding organizations and companies.

Those interested in the topic needn't read the first book, as this one covers the arguments, history, and current state of the law adequately enough with numerous case examples. Perhaps not as deep as the first book in background, but deep enough.

In terms of prescribing solutions, he does this time around. Among his suggestions: Basing the debate on empirical evidence rather than moral panics and biased metaphor, enacting reasonable (shorter) terms of limited monopoly, conditions that take into account the difference between media types, and modernization and unification of rights-holding organizations to allow for international licensing. He also examines several of the issues around international licensing costs and piracy that are really failures to address different  market needs - i.e. Failed business models masquerading as copyright issues.

Some will be frustrated by Patry's refusal to offer a bullet-point list of solutions. He opts instead to weave them through the book as he notes that the issues are complex and nuanced. I admire his sticking to his guns on this. Not all in life fits on a powerpoint slide.

My only fault for the book is this: The first book didn't propose solutions, the second proposes the 'what' but not the 'how'. It's difficult to see the steps toward making these things happen giving the existing regimes and laws, the entrenched interests and their lobbyists. A debate based on fact is a great idea, but how to make one happen, let alone unwind elements of the DMCA? Granted, these aren't easy questions (Some are ones that caused Lessig to go chop at roots).

The above 'fault' is really more a wish. I hope he continues to do great work on this important topic. In the meantime I recommend this book. He's an engaging writer that makes this subject matter highly engaging.

How to Fix Copyright

Is the 3D-Printing Tipping Point Upon Us?

I've been on-and-off following the 3D printing scene since first seeing one at Siggraph about a 2000 or so. I, like many others, noted that initial price points were, like color laser printers, only suited to high-end professional use but poised to fall quickly. The implication, of course, is that eventually it hits consumer price points and then something big happens.

At that time, units costed in the neighborhood of $30k. In 2009, Makerbot introduced the cupcake at about $1000 in kit form. Makerbot's gone on to improve the products in that price range while others have taken the barebones kits even lower. Printrbot launched a Kickstarter project in late 2011 with a $544 price point for their printer in kit form.

Recently, my friend Billy launched his own design via Kickstarter, with beta kit prices at $300 plus shipping. I'm on the list for one and am excited that I can roll up my sleeves with the tech while supporting a friend's project.

Anyhow, the fall in pricing for kit-form printers certainly feels Moore's-law-esque, or something close to it. Interesting point will be when pre-built, ready-to-print devices hit the market at sub-$500. I'll go out on a limb and say: CES 2014.

Some other anecdotal indicators:

This weekend, Alisa and I went out to DC for a long weekend to check out the Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian and to do some sight-seeing. First, on the flight on the way out was a documentary about various pop-science stuff, and one segment was on 3D printing. It speculated that in the near future the corner Kinkos will have one for printing replacement parts for your air conditioner, etc.

Then, on Saturday night Alisa and I were out having dessert in Georgetown and a table of college kids there with their parents were discussing 3D printers. The interesting thing was that they were non-technical people, but clearly enthused about it ("I have no idea how it works - maybe layers of paper or something - but it ACTUALLY BUILDS PHYSICAL OBJECTS").

There's something significant about technology that captures consumer layperson interest when there still isn't clarity about what the killer app is. I don't know what it will be, but there are hints. Easy-to-use CAD apps like Tinkercad. Print-your-own-toy applications. Lots of innovation happening in the space.

If there's interest at this stage, then imagine what happens when a killer app finally does come along... BOOM. Tipping point.

Really feels like we're close to it.

Book Review: Rainbows End

It's sometimes said, only half-jokingly, that Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash had such an effect on people that a fair number of them ran off and started VRML-related startups. There is some truth about it's influence. For example, J Allard often cited it as an influence when laying the initial plans for Xbox 360 & Xbox live. Snow Crash's influence had little to do with the book's plot, and far more to do with the compelling vision that Stephenson painted of the Metaverse

What Snowcrash was Virtual Reality, Rainbows End may be to Augmented Reality. I flagged it a while back to read (it was written in 2006!!), but decided to pop it to the top of the stack given renewed excitement around AR.

Vigne paints a truly compelling picture of the tech's possibilities. Some may be father fetched than others, but this doesn't matter. I found it to be intellectually stimulating on the subject of AR and it's possibilities for entertainment, informational and geographic navigation, advertising, education, and tons more.

It's a must read for anyone in tech for that reason alone. If you need more reasons though, how that the book also has...

Octogenarian hackers, mech-powered ARGs, terrorist librarians, crowd-sourcing riots, fan-fic universes, persona-hijacking, "War Against Computing",  materials-hacking shop classes, and at least one waskally wabbit, all involved in giant embroglio that comes to a page-turning crescendo.

Great book, highly recommended for anyone interested in AR's potential, or those that enjoyed Snow Crash or Diamond Age or others of that nature.

Rainbows End

Someone asked me what I thought of the PSP Vita

To me it seems a physical embodiment of Sony's frantic desperation. As if they threw every controller/button/sensor/gizmo on to the thing that they could in hopes that SOMETHING would resonate with consumers & developers. All these things made the device bigger and pricier too, though. 


In the end the handheld device that the Vita best emulates is a shovel. One which Sony is using to dig themselves a tiny bit further into a hole.

Book Review: Seven Fables

I've read (and reviewed here, here) a couple of my friend Mark Meadows' books here before. Last year, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a book of fables that would exist as an iPad app/ebook and a limited edition hard copy. I backed it both because I knew he'd do an interesting piece of work and because the hard copy looked promising.

I'm sure glad I backed it. Wow, what a treasure the hardcopy is. A large, leather-bound book with thick prints of his hand-painted illustrations. A couple pics off his kickstarter page:

Branding the leather covers

One example illustration

They are fables in the traditional sense (more Grimm than Disney-esque) and so a bit gruesome for youngsters in a place or two - though not so bad really. A fun read with the kids and a real conversation piece to have on the shelf.

Book Review: Republic Lost

I had Lawrence Lessig's recent book, Republic, Lost on my to-read list for some time. However, after hearing that he narrated the audio version, I snapped it up in prep for a recent road trip. Lessig is a fantastic speaker and in general I believe that audio books narrated by their authors are better than those narrated by others.

Best known in the tech community for his work on copyright & Creative Commons, Lessig turned his attention a few years ago to corruption in government. Republic Lost is his first full-length book on that subject.

It is an important book that I highly recommend reading, though I can't promise you'll find it uplifting. It's downright depressing in parts. Solutions are offered but the author is the first to admit that they have very slim chance of working and that without them things will only get worse.

The main point of the book is that government (and he focuses on Congress in particular) is corrupt, and that this corruption is not so much the corruption of individuals but rather a systemic corruption that makes it impossible even for honest politicians to succumb to it.

What makes it a unique work is that Lessig, in his usual style, provides what to me anyway seems like a near-bullet-proof breakdown of his argument. I fail to see how someone, in the face of all he argues, could deny the systemic corruption exists or hast the effect it does.

Lessig provides a number of options on how it could be addressed, ranging from the likely-possible-but-minimal-impact (e.g. everyone should post/tweet every example of such corruption they see) to the high-impact-but-near-impossible (hold a constitutional convention for campaign finance reform). He himself acknowledges that most of his solutions have a very slim chance of working, but as he also puts it, what choice do we have but to fight?

Personally, I'm going to do three things: First, I'm going to read more on the subject and post when I see good examples, per Lessig's recommendation above. Secondly, I'm going to give some money to his organization, RootStrikers. Finally, I'm going to recommend this book to others, which is what I'm doing here. Go read it. It's important.

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Book Review: The Numerati

Had a lot of plane time this week on the way too/from Beijing, so I finished off some books. Among them was The Numerati by Stephen Baker. It was a somewhat interesting read, despite the fact that it suffered from some flawed thinking.

The book makes the point that all fields are benefiting (or suffering, depending on your point of view) from a change brought on by the information age: the sudden influx of massive amounts of data. The author asserts that those that learn to master this fire hose of data and make sense of it will revolutionize their industries and beat their competitors.

The book then looks at how this availability of enormous data has affected a number of industries, talking to experts in fields including politics, marketing, security and online dating, among others.

There were a number of flaws in the book. The first of two that stood out was that the author asserts that 'the numerati' will rule the world. Those that can crunch numbers will of course have more value, but in many cases they'll just be acquired/managed/leveraged by those already in power in one way or another.

The second, and I think bigger issue, is an assumption implicit throughout the book that given a wide and deep enough sampling, all these fields are solvable or predictable. This of course isn't the case. Some problems are too noisy, some are influenced by outside factors far less dependent on past trends. And of course sometimes the link between the data and the result may non-existent (look up Phrenology if you want an example to wrap your head around ;-). The book should have spent some time looking at Wall Street quants and their collective miss on the mortgage securities bust, as an example of a field too reliant on a flawed model.

In the closing section of the book, the author acknowledges these flaws and some others as well, but after ignoring them through the rest of the book it feels like he's just doing it to offset potential criticism.

Though I found the book to have these flaws, I nonetheless found it interesting, as the anecdotes from the different fields was interesting, and overall it provoked a lot of thought on my part. I would just read it with these flaws in mind.

The Numerati