Via TED - This demo by Pattie Maes of the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry, was the buzz of TED. Sixth Sense is a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment.
Comments
Sorry about that Dave. I couldn't resist.
But there was a serious point behind the Kit Carson comment. This thing is one with the trend to make a machine purporting to take the hard work out of knowing your surroundings and learning about the world. No machine can do that for you but people are so dazzled by the tech that they think it can, or rather, they so very much want to think it can.
This can lead to a casual attitude toward things that you shouldn't be casual about because the machine knows all and will guide you and save you. I have seen this in aviation. Push that GPS direct button and go. Easy. Very little work involved. Where did that mountain come from!?
To really know a subject, place or thing you have to work at learning. You can never stop working at learning. I am deeply skeptical of machines like this because I think they make our impulse to be lazy easier to indulge. To cite and example from the clip-about going to the bookstore and selecting a book; when you arrive the machine lets you know what Amazon thinks of it. That is ok. But how many people will go beyond that? How many people will go to this site and research the books available on small wars and really learn something about what is available? Why should the lazy man (most all of us) do that when he can just ask the machine when he gets to the bookstore about what happens to be on the shelf?
Your comment about small unit leaders having to sacrifice SA use this thing is the heart of my objection to it. If this would help somebody manage a surfeit of information, wouldn't that just encourage more less than useful information to come in thereby reducing SA, especially the awareness to judge what is useful and not?
The tech looks impressive but will it really be a genuine help or just something else to curse when it crashes? Whenever I read about these kinds of things I always think to myself that Ike and the boys beat the Heer with mimeograph machines and manual typewriters.
Dave,
I can see some apps.
Pros: You could use it to interact for quick FRAGOs, collection, and maybe even recognition of people or substances from relevant data bases.
Cons - I think it would have to be secure for our purposes, bandwidth in somebody else's backyard requires you either build, bring or steal (acquire) the use of some body else's network - and this probably would require significant bandwidth the way I would want to use it - also if you are remote then you'd have to put up platforms with significant payload capability to extend your reach.
Oh yeah - I want it to run forever on AAs.
I glossed over some of the leadership discipline issues we've discussed elsewhere. Something like this in situations where the enemy is hard to distinguish from civilians would be handy, and I suspect if the tech becomes cheap, the enemy will also find decent ways of employing it.
I absolutely am not in favor of brain implants - the effect would be like a drug.
Best, Rob
Come on guys - I found this fairly compelling and thought it quite a potential for information management as it matures. I dont think a platoon or squad leader will sacrifice SA in order to use this type of technology - but there are others - analysts, planners, etc. who have to digest magnitudes of information and pare it down to a manageable and relevant level.