Reality Askew

Subject says it all.

I saw something yesterday about a mechanical storage medium that would harness power in a flywheel device and then return it on demand. The cool part was the fact that the flywheel was suspended in a magnetic field so that it never really touched the sides and thus reduced friction significantly. This got me to thinking, why couldn’t you do the same thing for car wheels and their relationship to axles? Simply suspended the tire in an electromagnetic field. Imagine the fuel economy of this type of arrangement. By fuel I’m of course referring to electric cars, as doing something like this for gas cars doesn’t seem practical. Of course if you could go back and retrofit gas cars, that would be a game changer as well.

Okay not sure exactly how this would work but woke up this morning wondering if there was a way to use a device to quickly map out a fire by carbon dating the room. So you’d set the device on a tripod in the middle of a room and then it would scan the room and determine the age of the burned areas. Then it would send the data to a program to quickly map it out in 3D for fire investigators to look at.

Of course later on the device could be miniaturized to the point that it would be a attachable to someone’s helmet and then display the data in real time on a small heads-up display, like fighter jet pilots have. Sort of a roadmap would be super imposed on the room. I’m guessing different shades of colors to indicate age of burned area.

Was doing some grocery shopping with wife this morning and made the comment, wouldn’t it be nice to grab a pair of shopping glasses at the entrance that would tie into a custom shopping application. Then as you walked around the store, any item on your list would be highlighted on the shelf. You could even add in navigation via virtual arrows on the ground.

I was surfing the internet and found a quote (sorry couldn’t find it again) about space just being atoms and free space. At first I agreed and then thought about it a while and decided I disagreed with that statement. Open or free space isn’t just nothing, everything is something. What I mean to say is that even though we don’t understand it, how to measure it, or see it, everything is something. Space isn’t a nothing, every minuscule part of space is something.

One of the greatest threats to any country is an air detonated nuclear blast. The reason this is so deadly is the resulting EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) which essentially fries electronics, specifically chips.

So here’s the pitch, if you wanted to protect, say an aircraft carrier, from any airborne threat, say cruise missle, why not put up an EMP type shield to essentially fry any incoming threats? Imagine replacing the current Phalanx system (gatling gun) with one that shoots emp pulses in front of approaching threats.

So I was watching a video on a new Russian submarine being referred to as the Black Hole, due to it’s uncanny ability to avoid detection using typical underwater sound related methods. So this got me to thinking, isn’t the use of sound as a mechanism to find something underwater so 1945? What about using something a tad more modern like say laser? Couldn’t you theoretically use a laser (in a wide beam) to scan a section of water and when it detected a blank space, where no water existed, it could then narrow it’s beams to render the void into a 3d model or sorts? Water good, no water……nope fish. Water good, no water….submarine BAD. Also this sort of scanning might enable the scanner to not reveal their location or even that fact that they were scanning in the first place.

Thinking more, I wonder how well lasers work under water? Maybe the final solution wouldn’t involve the use of lasers at all, but instead some other technology.

So I was reading something about tanks and the new types of armor they have to combat the new advances in weapons.  However I was struck by how basic the thought process seems to be, big tanks, bigger bullets needed.

So it got me to thinking, why not a simple projectile that, upon impact, emits a concentrated EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)?  Since most tanks are fully computerized, this would effectively render it useless, right?  With the added benefit that all of the vehicles communications systems stop functioning too.  So you’ve got a disabled tank that can’t talk to anyone.

Given weapons, vehicles, even airplanes are becoming more remote controlled or autonomous, this seems like a natural progression in weapons.

** This is very much a work-in-progress **  I started it a while back but it sat in a “draft” form and decided to push it out and work on it live.

Timeless – not affected by the passage of time.

Immortality, since the dawn of man it’s been the driving desire of an entire race.  Death is final in a way we cannot comprehend so we create avenues for embracing the inevitable.  Some even spend a lifetime creating a legacy to ensure they live on in spirit.  What if I told you it’s now possible to leave a representation of oneself that your immediate and future generations can interact with?  Imagine after you pass away your loved ones can still virtually interact with you.  For instance your wife or husband comes home and they are greeted by your face on a monitor saying “welcome home sweetheart.  How was your day?”  This could simply be achieved with rudimentary recordings and facial recognition software.  This technology exists today but has not been adapted to this logical next step.

But beyond loved ones, what about professionals?  Imagine you are a physicist or scientist of some sort.  You could essentially do a knowledge dump for future generations to access.  Many years from now the virtual you could even continue to formulate and theorize based on your collective knowledge.  Sorry this does not mean you finally get that 3rd doctorate you wanted. :P

Phase 1:  Recording

You would have to record a wide range of voice recordings.  These would have to encompass a very long and structured representation of every day conversation.

1.  Daily Events
   1. Welcome home
   2. How was your day
   3. How are the kids doing
2. Questions
   1. Dad what should I do about girls/finances/life/love
   2. How can you tell which way is north when you are in the woods
   3. What was it like in the Army
3. Emotions
   1. I really miss you dear
   2. I’m sorry I left you alone
   3. Marrying you made me the happiest man/woman alive
4. Knowledge Dump
   1. These recordings would have to be laid out by the subject and then recorded in a very detailed manner.  The accuracy and depth of these recordings would determine their usefulness in the future.
5. Jokes
   1. If the person is a humorous sort then it will be important for them to record tons of jokes.  I know this sounds silly but I think from a psychology standpoint it will help with the healing process.

Phase 2:  Facial and Voice Recognition

Voice and facial recognition exists today but would have to be refined even more for this application.  You would want the virtual you to respond to changes in the person’s face and recognize pain, hurt, fear, sadness, etc.  Then appropriate recorded comments could be pulled up and delivered.

Phase 3:  Basic AI

Basic AI integration that “learns” and remembers the conversations you have had.  It would evolve in a sense.  You might sit down and discuss an impending marriage and the virtual relative would remember this.  Future conversations could now revolve around or touch on this event.  This would happen even if the subject had never recorded the conversations about this subject.  The computer would learn their speech patterns from the recorded pieces and synthesize new words to match the original subjects voice.  This would also apply for the actual image of the original subject.  As computer processes and applications evolved, the computer system would access the recording and make a virtual you for your relatives to interact with.  At first this might be really clunky, but as time progressed you would become, well more alive.

Phase 4:  Full Virtualization

At some distant time in the future, I predict we won’t leave our homes much if ever.  Society will gradually become more and more virtualized.  You will go to work by jacking into your virtual workspace and have virtual meetings.  When this happens, your virtual self will reach a point of being “real” again.

General Notes:

1. The subject should always record in front of a green screen.  This would likely have to be something we send them in their “Timeless” kit.  Having them film in front of a green screen means we can superimpose whatever we want behind them.  At first you could simply have them standing in front of their favorite motorcycle or tell the computer to put them on a beach.  Later as technology progress you could probably have your virtual loved one superimposed into a video you took on holiday.
2. Speaking of filming. I thought it was important that the subject also go to a facility that has one of those full body scanners.  This would not be so important earlier on, but later when they are being put into videos it would help the computer know their actual dimensions.  I figure most people will just want to select a “hotter” version of their body for their head to be put on.  All joking aside I’m serious, they will want this.  Vanity will transcend death.
3. I’m trying to get the domain Timeless.life.  It’s available but have to wait until next payday. :)
4. Another interesting idea is to record the subjects favorite cologne or perfume and somehow synthesize this to give the viewer with a sense of aromatic familiarity.

These days, most of our movies come to us via internet streaming through a service like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.  What if movie producers and advertisers collaborated and embedded hooks in the movies for live advertising?  Take for instance a movie like Blade Runner 2049 where there are literally tons of floating neon billboards going by scene after scene.  For this movie it would be extremely easy to put in a modern advertisement.  How long does an ad need to imprint on our minds, say one second?

I would think there would have to be a digital advertising format agreed upon in advance where the movie could alter the ads brightness, contrast, hue, etc. to make it fit to the movie space and not ruin the immersion.

As a note, the new advertisement for the movie should only overlap the original movie advertisement, so if the new advertisement failed to load or meet some checkpoint criteria, then the original movie ad would still be there.

Doing this would create a revenue stream (punn intended) for as long as a movie is ever viewed.