In Mind Wide Open, you operate a computer that allows you to move a bike.
It's using neuro feedback technology, which reads brainwave activity from outside your skull. The brain emits waves that have recognisable patterns, some associated with paying attention or falling asleep etc. You take the information read by the electrodes and give it to a computer through a USB cable. That information can control things on the screen the way a mouse or keyboard would. I tried software that tries to encourage your brain to reach more focused, attentive states. Whenever your brainwave activity shows you're paying attention, a little bicycle moves across the screen. It's one of the most extraordinary things I've experienced. You are literally sitting there with a wired-up helmet on, and controlling something onscreen with your brain.
You coined the term Googlehole?
I'm a huge fan of Google but have noticed troubling things developing in Google's results. The way Google works skews the results slightly. For instance, if you try to search on a product, sites with a lot of links to them tend to rise higher in the results. The blogging world has become very powerful over Google's results, so things that are of interest to the blogging community tend to rise higher in the page rankings because of all the linking. I benefit as I'm the top result for Steven Johnson and number two for Steven!
How long have you been blogging?
About a year and a half. I tend not to post 25 times a day. I use it more for ideas that aren't quite big enough to write as an article or aren't fully formed. I've become kind of addicted and now it's like the writer's version of going to the gym _ you have a workout to keep your brain sharp and you feel better for it. There's also the social connection of getting to talk to all these people, too.
Is Moore's Law holding true?
Moore's Law seems to be still valid as the chips are getting faster and cheaper but I don't know if we're finding enough uses for all that power, other than games, where you could use chips that were twice as fast and cheap. The web and email aren't particularly computationally difficult. It's like we are using a nuclear power plant to drive our horse and buggy!
Are we moving towards having one home server that will take care of all our computing and entertain ment needs?
I'm Mac-based, so I use iTunes to play music in parts of the house. I'm dying to get a wireless TiVo that will let me stream pictures and TV. I use the AirPort at home.
Which of the emerging technologies are you watching most closely?
I wrote a piece for Discover about Aibo, and people creating Aibo personalities then downloading them to their pet robot dog. An artist in New York has experimented with creating robot dog personalities as exhibits. It's not so much the idea of "the robots are coming", but the idea of the robot as a medium you can be creative within.
Steven Johnson's bookmarks
http://boingboing.net
www.plastic.com
www.buzzmachine.com
www.hyperorg.com/blogger
www.gawker.com
www.wonkette.com
www.buzzmachine.com
Visit: www.stevenberlinjohnson.com
