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Google, as we once knew it, is over. The Google+ project is just about 1 month old, and at an estimated 20 million users already, it could be here to stay. To me, at a high-level, Google+ indicates a potentially massive tectonic shift in Google’s overall strategy that will directly affect pretty much all facets of the company. Google’s search technology has always (loosely) been about an algorithm interpreting your search and spitting back the results it thinks are most relevant to you. This old search and find process was only the beginning of search technology, and Google is making a bold bet that the real future of this technology looks a whole lot more social than this.

Google has long acknowledged the need to evolve into the social networking space, but has been 0/2 on attempts thus far with both its Google Buzz and Google Wave products. But as great companies and people often do, Google is learning from its mistakes, and is storming back into the social media arena with a vengeance. And this time, they ain’t fuckin’ around.

Google+ is pretty nifty

With an estimated 20 million users just weeks after a private beta launch, Google+ is almost certainly the fastest social network of all time to reach this figure. Right now, Google+ just early-adopters (read: tech geeks), but I think it’ll be a household name before long. If you’ve used Google+ already, then you know it’s pretty slick–so slick, in fact, that it really almost looks like an Apple product. And if you haven’t used Google+ yet, then trust me–it’s pretty slick. But the purpose of this blog post is not to run over the tech specs of Google+–you can familiarize yourself here if need be. Rather, these are just some ramblings on some things I find noteworthy about Google+ and some thoughts about the future.

The ‘folding in’ of Google’s software products

A major piece of this whole Google+ frenzy is the fact that Google is going to fold all of its current software products under the same Google+ roof. That is, services like Blogger, Google News, Adwords, Analytics, Picasa, Youtube, and Google Docs, etc. are all going to be accessed from within Google+, as opposed to existing as standalone products. By bringing all of it’s services under one roof, Google is making the following statement: “The web is too spread out. It’s time to consolidate and simplify everything.” I have to say I agree with this. Hopefully the days of having contacts, web apps, and news sources spread out across a million different places will soon be behind us. The “next era” of consumer web is all about consolidation. The ways I receive and share information on the Internet will all be wrapped together under fewer and fewer roofs.

The sharing strategy behind Google+

The million dollar question these days seems to be: is there room for Google+ in the already crowded social media space? That is, with the likes of Facbeook, Twitter, and Email so heavily ingrained into our daily routines, is there even room for Google+ as yet another content sharing and discovery source in our daily lives? I recently read this brilliant article by Jonathan Allan of SearchEngineWatch.com which goes into great detail on this subject from a network theorist perspective.

One particularly interesting conclusion from the article was that Google+ very well could exploit a currently gaping hole in online communication: the one-to-few level of communication. The article goes on to explain how email has essentially mastered the art of 1-to-1 communication, Facebook & Twitter have mastered the art of one-to-many communication (aka broadcasting or ‘over-sharing’), but nobody has mastered the art of one-to-few communication. Facebook hasn’t been able to succeed at this mainly because of its confusing sharing and privacy settings. (Does anyone actually use Facebook lists anyway?). But Google+ is all about this idea of leading the user to make a conscious decision about who particular information is shared with instead of just making it as easy as possible to broadcast to as many people as possible.

The profile psychology behind Google+

Christian Oestlien is Google’s product manager behind this whole Google+ shindig, so I was excited to find and follow him on Google+. I was reading his wall one day and stumbled upon a very interesting quote. See below.

Facebook is about who you are, and Google+ is about who you want to be.

I have no idea who ‘OH’ is in this post, but I do know that Christian makes a bold and curious statement here, and I’m a bit surprised that it wasn’t picked up and written about because it’s such a bold distinction he makes here and it really sheds some light on the long-term vision behind Google+. It also makes a bold statement about the whole psychological approach Google is taking when it comes to its users’ Google+ profiles. To me, this is Google saying they want to be the “most authentic” version of you on the web that exists. They want to put your creativity and personality on exposé as well as your professional status and whereabouts. (And they’ll achieve this by bundling all of the Google software products under the Google+ roof so your profile can boast more robust versions of your photos, writings, music, links, etc. than Facebook can).

Finals thoughts

There’s no doubt that Google+ has passed the initial ‘cool test.’ Twenty million users in like a month is absolutely nucking futs, even if they are geeky early adopters, is enough to classify this as a smashingly successful product launch. Google+ already officially occupies a permanent tab on my browser. And considering that until now, I only granted “permanent tab status” to email and calendar, this is an impressive feat in the world of Jesse Davis.

The big question is obviously whether or not they’ll continue to penetrate quickly into the next round of users–the casual user. I dunno, I don’t really see this happening in the traditional way. That is, I don’t think Google+ will just grow via the network effect like Facebook did. Instead, I predict Google+ will grow via the backdoor route–by forcing current Google product users to join Google+ if they wanna keep using the products. Case in point: my dad uses Facebook, Gmail, and Picasa. He has no intentions of signing up Google+ because from his perspective there’s no need–one social network is enough. He would, however, join Google+ if all of a sudden Google said “you are gonna have to create a Google+ account in order to keep using Picasa and Gmail.”

Last thought: Google is going to know everything about me. And ya know what? I’m fine with that. I’ve got nothing really to hide and to me, the value of their services outweighs the potential loss of personal identity. But what do you think?

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I just love me some Science Daily. Science Daily is awesome because it presents breaking science news at the level of the lab, which means that by reading it, you’ll be hearing about science breakthroughs at their most nascent phase. Typically, things that get talked about on Science Daily are years from being commercialized into household products and the likes. The best part about Science Daily is that the articles are written in such a way that even the most recreational science lovers can understand. For everything from astronomy to psychology to quantum physics, SD has become basically my only science news source (okay, okay, I read Pop Sci occasionally).

Without further adieu, I’d like to present two particularly interesting recent scientific breakthroughs that I found particularly curious…

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source: http://bit.ly/mvxJyV

We’ve made a huge step forward in being able to stop diseases like cancer and cystic fibrosis by literally altering our genetic code. All of us are the way we are because of the way our DNA instructs our bodies to make proteins. Playing a critical role in this whole process is messenger RNA, or mRNA, which take instructions from the DNA and actually direct the steps necessary to create the proteins. Now if there were some way to alter these instructions, we’d be able to make sure that certain disease-causing proteins never got made, effectively eliminating the disease before it starts…and this is just what researchers have successfully done at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The research team figured out a way to create “guide RNAs” that latch themselves onto specific mRNAs and alter their instructions (if you’re interested in reading about how the guide RNAs actually carry out this function, be sure to read the full article). Personally, I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a bigger deal made about this. I think this is a huge step forward in our eventual ability to re-code our DNA from the inside out, allowing us to both avoid diseases as well as improve our physical and mental attributes. Of course, the latter of the two is where ethics most clearly come into play. I mean, it’s one thing to alter our DNA as a means toward avoiding disease. It’s a whole ‘nother ball game when you start talking about altering our DNA to create a superior physical and mental human race. It might sound outlandish, but how could you see this technology going in any other direction? For realz.

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source: http://bit.ly/dJgudA

Since our brains are the most powerful and complex computers that exist, it makes sense that computer scientists have been on a quest to create computers that essentially mimic the human brain. To date, one of the biggest advantages our brains have over computers is the fact that our brains can both process and store memory simultaneously, while computers still have to separate the two functions, thus inefficiently consuming time and power.

Well, now researchers at the University of Exeter have successfully demonstrated simultaneous information storage and processing–a MAJOR leap forward in creating computers that function like our brain. This discovery is noteworthy for two reasons. First off, it marks a certain level of understanding of the way that our brains work. These researchers were able to accomplish this result by literally recreating the synapses and neurons found in our brains. Secondly, this breakthrough is the most obvious leap forward I’ve seen in creating a computer that mimics our brain, opening up a whole new world of computer function. If computers could work like our brains do, the power savings and computing abilities of computers would grow exponentially to a point where computers can accomplish scary levels of function beyond our wildest dreams. This is what Ray Kurzweil talks about when he forecasts a sentient computer than could can AIDS in under a second, or build blueprints for interstellar spaceships, for instance.

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I recently heard about OhSoWe, a social network designed to bring residents living in the same neighborhoods together. The site, started by OpenTable co-founder Chuck Templeton, caught my attention and earned my loyalty before I ever even created my profile. How did they accomplish this? With a postcard.  OhSoWe requires you to confirm your address before creating a profile, which you can either do immediately online with a credit card or via a postcard with a verification code snail-mailed to your door. I chose the latter. I was impressed when I received my postcard literally 48 hours later. But the fact that it was addressed by hand impressed me even more.

But it’s the small things that matter… As soon as I saw the handwriting on the postcard, I opened up a new tab in my browser, filled out my profile, started a group for my neighborhood, and invited 20 friends in my area to join my new group. It’s not hard to connect the dots:

-> Company does one small thing (handwriting this verification code)

–> I notice and get a positive feeling about the company

—-> I am intrigued to interact with the company

——> I sign up for their service

———> I engage with the product, forming OhSoWe’s first-ever Madison, WI neighborhood community

————> I tell 20 friends to use the company’s service and join my neighborhood community

—————-> I write a blog post telling the world (or realistically like 1,000 people) praising the company

in a world of distrusted companies.

Our trust in companies has plummeted in recent years. In fact,

…the proportion of brands that consumers trust fell from 52% in 1997 to 22% in 2008, according to Y&R, an advertising agency – Economist May 21, 2011 issue

So if people really aren’t trusting brands all that much anymore, then those companies that we do trust are all the more powerful. And it might really just be the simple, seemingly mundane things that do matter the most. Come to think of it, I bought my car from this one particular dealership because they always offered me soda and a snack when I came in the door. And actually, I go to one particular gas station in town because they have hand sanitizer at all the pumps. Brilliant. It really is the small things…

The takeaway

The best part about this whole thing is that it realistically only took someone at OhSoWe 45 seconds to handwrite my address and verification code on the postcard. In return, OhSoWe acquired up to 20 new users, and at least one (me) loyal user with a vested interest in creating and growing the community. Sounds like a pretty solid ROI to me.

back of postcard

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I’d like to welcome the world to Entrustet.com. Launching our Beta version last week was the culmination of some 21 months of work. But the thing is, it has never once felt like real work. Okay, maybe there have been a few times it felt like real work, but overall, I feel like a kid in a candy store of ideas.

Looking back on how Entrustet got started, I can’t help but feel almost overwhelmed by the mysterious, yet fateful and obvious way the Universe tends to unfold itself. Whether or not Entrustet ends up being a long-term financial success or not, nothing can deny the silly number of coincidences that have brought it to this point. First, I had to stumble upon that Ellsworth story in The World is Flat. Then, for some inexplicable reason, at the jovial age of 21 I decided to focus all my attention on death. I knew nothing about starting a tech company, and I knew nothing about estate law, but I did know there was a major thought gap in society’s mind: what happens to all our digital assets when we die? After months of Googling looking for someone or some service out there with a solution to this question, I was convinced it did not exist. But I was also convinced a solution was needed–wasn’t it obvious? I remember being kept up at night saying to myself, “this is SO obvious it hurts.”

I believe in fate. I believe that often the path of least effort actually allows the world to unfold in your benefit right before your eyes–that is, if fate is on your side. After losing in the finals of Northwestern University’s Entrepreneur Idol competition, I was THIS close to calling it all quits. I mean, after all, what the hell was I thinking trying to put together a company that basically went against all common thought and law at the time. Moreover, I had no partner, no advisors, no programming experience at all, and most of all, no cash.

But then fate came in. In the next 10 days, three people independently told me I had to meet this kid Nate Lustig. And meanwhile, three people independently told Nate he had to meet me. Needless to say, we met. From there, the pieces of the Entrustet puzzle have fallen together like dominos–all it took was that one initial push and they all followed suit. We found a top-notch programming firm and well-respected Madison law firm willing to partner in exchange for a slice of the Entrustet pie. Two hurdles cleared. Then we found  a free advisory board to basically act as in-house consultants, answering emails whenever we needed and meeting in person once a month. Then a popular blog about the topic popped up, and news articles aplenty showed up all over the place. Then estate lawyers started blogging about the topic. People started wondering about the topic. Horror stories of reasons to protect your digital assets could be found strewn all across the Internet. Then we were asked to speak about the topic at South by Southwest. Then we raised more money than we ever expected to, and then the local government gave us a forgivable loan. It was all topped off by this ABA article and this NBC 15 video.

Whether or not you are a big believer in fate, it’d be hard to deny there is something more powerful moving this thing along than just Nate and me. Although I am a co-founder, I really cannot take all that much credit for Entrustet. This is the product of so many countless people’s hard work, that taking much credit for this company would just be silly. All I can do, and all I have been doing, is sit back, watch, and react as the whole thing continues to unfold right in front of my eyes.

I invite anyone out there reading this to check out Entrustet and let us know what you think. It is in Beta mode, so we’re still working out the kinks, but even in it’s testing state, I am confident you’ll see the value in it. From 18 year olds with 200 online accounts to 65 year-olds with just an email address, we’re all HIWIs.

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The Red Bull Stratos Project is truly fascinating. At some point this year (specific time & date TBA), Felix Baumgartner will ride a helium balloon up to an altitude of 120,000 feet, at which point he will step off the ledge and perform the most amazing feat skydiving has ever witnessed. Felix will shatter a number of skydiving records including: top speed of dive, altitude of jump, and longest freefall, amongst many others. To get a grip of just how insane this is, here are the highlights of Felix’s jump:

• • • In just 35 seconds, Felix will break the sound barrier (690 mph). By contrast, typical skydives never break 120 mph.
    • Felix will free fall for an unworldly 5:35
    • 120,000 feet is 23 miles! That’s 4x the altitude of commercial airliners
    • Felix will break the highest altitude flown in a manned balloon by 7,000 feet, just for a kicker

This is just awesome. And talk about the marketing budget RedBull must have! This will have been a 3 year project when all’s said and done. The team consists of up to 20 of the most highly skilled (and highly compensated) scientists and engineers in America. This guy is also doing a ridiculous number for research. Never before has such an impressive fall been attempted, so it’s unknown how the human body will react to such a feat. Felix is doing a serious service for science, as the data recorded from the flight will be publicly made shortly after the dive. Check out the website to see/hear/and read more.

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Little things can go a long way in making your startup company appear bigger than it is. Carelessness about these seemingly small details can leave big blemishes on your credibility, directly limiting your ability to grow. And ability to grow is undoubtedly one of the single most important strengths that any startup can prove to investors, allies, and competition alike.

The days building up to any startup’s launch are overlooked insofar as research and case studies are concerned. These are the days when the company’s entire foundation is laid; partnerships are formed, suppliers are contracted, distribution channels get established, competition is approached, investors are engaged, networks are constantly contacted, and internal operations and responsibilities are ironed out.

This foundation period, this first several months, is when you have to start looking big, not later. Looking like an established company will help you:

• get noticed
• get responses from contacts
• get good deals from service providers
• get your name out and about around town
• get credibility from investors (both current and future, alike)

and

• not get taken advantage of

10 (simple) ways to look bigger than you are:

(starting with the most basic)

1. Set up a formal entity. Most likely, you’ll be an LLC, but regardless of particular corporate structure, be sure to have one. If you are not set up, you are unlikely to get taken seriously by any number of service providers, potential clients, suppliers, partners, etc.
2. Get unique business cards made. Not having a business card is certainly one way to look unprofessional and unprepared in no time flat. Regardless of the fact that everything is digital now, and that it would make more sense to plug someone into your cell phone than hand them a paper business card, the world is resisting to change. Business cards are still the number one most trusted, fail-proof way to get into someone else’s rolodex (or gmail contacts). I emphasize getting unique business cards because most are boring and identical, thus business cards can surprisingly be a great way to raise someone’s eyebrows. Below is my business card, which I like simply because it stands out. Anything that stands out is good. Make your card dark black. Give it a camouflage background. Make it a circle instead of a square. Make it a fold out origami swan. You get the picture:
3. Be on Google. Everybody uses Google. If someone’s gonna find you, you better show up somewhere on a Google search for something about you. It’s easier than you may think: follow these instructions on Google. The longer you spend researching these instructions and acting on them, the better your results will be. But do yourself the favor and don’t miss this uber-critical step. If you cannot figure out your way around Google Webmaster tools, that’s okay! At least you tried. Now go and find a consultant in town who can help you out. Any SEO consulting firm will be able to help you out–it’s worth the money.
4. Get a domain name and build a website. And when people find you on Google, they’ll wanna click on the link to your website! Depending on your company, the website is of less or more importance. It goes without saying that it’s more important for a web marketing firm to have an elegant website than a local pizza shoppe. That said, any company has a lot to gain by having at least a clean and simple site. For the vast majority of startups out there, the site need not be anything more complicated than a place to inform potential customers and investors about your offerings and offer up a bit of your company’s personality in the ‘about us’ section. The cost building such a site will obviously vary greatly between companies, but should not necessarily exceed $5,000 in 99% of cases. If you pay more than that for a very simple, yet clean and easy to navigate website, you’re overpaying. A savvy Google-searcher will find a plethora of site development options, both in America as well as overseas.
5. Have a ‘full website.’ That is, don’t skimp on the details. There needs to be ‘about us’ pages, investor’s information, news & press, a blog, a ‘contact us’ form, and potentially a TOS and Privacy Policy (in the case of website startups that take, store, or distribute any user information or sites with credit card processing functionality). You cannot be blatantly liable to law suits by not having one of these last two, if you’re particular startup requires these.
6. Have good email addresses. At some point, a Gmail address isn’t going to cut it. Have your website developer set up a basic email system (I recommend using Google Apps–it’s free and carries the familiar and intuitive Google User Interface with it). Give yourselves email address at your domain name, and be similar across the board in terms of email names, for instance: Psmith@yoursite.com and Ljohnson@yoursite.com, NOT pamsmith121@yoursite.com and Lennyjohnson4life@yoursite.com.
7. Have an infrastructure (and show it off with your website’s ‘contact us’ page). Have a customer service department, a marketing department, a strategic partnership department, an investors services department, etc. even if it’s just the co-founders themselves pretending to represent an entire department. Correspondingly, your ‘contact us’ page should lead viewers to further informational email addresses such as info@yoursite.com, partners@yoursite.com, marketing@yoursite.com. Now, obviously you shouldn’t go overboard–most startups don’t have an in-house HR department, insurance branch, holdings corporation, etc. But still, the basics should be covered.
8. Write gooder (emails and copywrite). Writing clean, concise, response-worthy emails is an alarmingly underappreciated skill for any entrepreneur to hold. It can mean literally all the difference between getting responses from the people you need responses from, and never hearing back from anyone. You could write a 50-page blog post about how to write more efficient emails, and I’m not even all that efficient myself, so I won’t try to explain how to do this here. All I will say is this: re-read your emails before sending them, this should be more than enough to step up your email game big time. Most of the time, something blatantly wrong will stand out, and at least you won’t send stupid shit anymore. Sending blatantly stupid, arrogant, or incoherent messages is the fastest way to get people to click the ‘ delete button.’ Likewise, having good professional copy for site content, marketing materials, and advertisements is critical. Nothing makes a company look more vulnerable than a simple typo. Shows lack of focus. So focus!
9. Have professional-looking marketing materials (electronic and paper). Being able to say, “let me send along some of our marketing materials” is an incredibly powerful ability, believe it or not. People say to themselves, “o, they’ve got marketing materials? They’re legit. They must have people working on lots of different stuff around there if they’ve had the time to craft marketing materials.” And don’t just have them to have them, have them to show them off. Make them look good. Hire a consultant for a couple hundred bucks if you need to, but just make sure they are laid out nicely and can attract someone’s eye. And don’t forget about mass emails, too! RatePoint is a GREAT GREAT resource for this. Check them out and just try it for 30 days for free. The price is right, too, at just $10/month. You’ll get hooked.
10. Appear legally well-represented. This is as simple as putting ‘TM’ marks above your logos, copyright disclaimers at the bottom of Powerpoint presentations, or having Terms of Service/Privacy Statements on your website. Any lawyer can give you a run down of these specific basics, but they are really easy to do yourself–which saves money, of course! See the ‘TM’ above our logo on my business card above. This is what I’m talking about. That easy!

That’s about it for now. I hope this helps someone out there and good luck!

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Did you know that over 99% of  an atom is nothing but space? Did you know that you and I are composed entirely of atoms? Thus, we are all composed of over 99% free space. In fact, everything in this entire world is composed almost entirely of space. So why then, when you clap your hands, do they not pass right through each other? The answer is: electricity, which flows through all that free space, carrying negative and positive charges, which repel one another. Your hands do not pass through each other because electromagnetic charges are repelling one another.

The point I’m trying to make is that space is taken completely for  granted. At the risk of sounding esoteric, you do realize that it is space which even allows material to exist in the first place, right? Now apply this same concept to everyday life. If  something you’re working really hard on is frustrating you, then you get up and walk away from it for a while, you’ll most likely return to it with a refreshed attitude and be able to do better work.

Space is what allows energy to flow. Flowing energy produces thought. Thought produces action. Action produces material objects. You see; it’s no different in the real world than it is at the subatomic level.

Space is what allows things to evolve naturally, without intervention. For example, imagine you lose your job tomorrow, but instead of moping around feeling sorry for yourself, you see losing your job as new space entering your life, creating the room necessary for any of a millions new doors to open as a result. Calm and upbeat, you bump into a casual friend on the way home. They happen to work at a the company of your dreams, and offer to help you get an interview. A week later you have a dream job doing what you love, making a higher salary, and enjoying better hours. That wouldn’t have been possible were it not for space. It may have been more ‘mental space’ than physical, but again:

Space is what allows energy to flow. Flowing energy produces thought. Thought produces action. Action produces material objects.

So the next logical step toward creating and using our own space is figuring out how to effectively create space in our lives when necessary. This is where we all go our separate ways. There is no limit on the ways to create space for one’s self. One way I suggest going about this is to think about whatever makes you feel the most removed from your thoughts as possible. In other words, think about something that will make you daydream off into space and have people around you wondering, “why are you so spacey?” This glimpse of distraction, be it less than a second or over an hour, is oftentimes more than enough to halt an unconscious, yet incessant negative thought pattern.

For me, the one thing that I can always rely on to help me make space, is space itself. Outer space is shockingly under appreciated by the masses. Here are some of my favorite images:

Did you read the captions under some of those images? I mean, honestly, are you kidding me? These images above are real. Most of them are actual photos taken by real telescopes, so it’s not even as though these are artists’ renderings. Maybe it’s just me, but this stuff is wild. Our whole lives we are trained to view the world as limited. Your bedroom is only so big. Your house is only so big. Your city is only so big. The country is only so big. The Earth is only so big. But space is virtually endless. Can you fathom that? Just beyond our cozy little atmosphere lies a universe so large that our brains literally cannot conceptually grasp such a place.

And within this place lie some of the most incredible images and examples of physics we’ve ever witnessed. Have you ever thought about a black hole? Do you realize what it is? According to Wikipedia:

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravity well is so deep that gravitational time dilation halts time completely and an event horizon forms. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come.

THESE REALLY EXIST?!

Now I don’t know about you, but this stuff can get me distracted and daydreaming in a heartbeat. If outer space isn’t your thing, then so be it. Maybe for you, it’s baseball. Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s drinking tea. Who knows?! But whatever it is, know that it exists, and if you haven’t found it yet, look closer. Don’t look harder, just look closer. You’ll notice it, whatever it is, the next time you doze off into space. And when you find it, grasp it, and use it every time you need some space.

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Well, my friends, we are officially too close to all the stuff we thought would stay relegated to science fiction movies. I did about 5 double-takes last night when my roommate directed me to this article about a very special contact lens that could hit the market in the next year or two. The goal of the project is to create a contact lens that projects images into the eye. Let me repeat: THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT IS TO CREATE A CONTACT LENS THAT PROJECTS IMAGES INTO THE EYE. The concept is the brainchild of University of Washington professor Babak Parviz, who says the inspiration came to him when he realized that screen size on mobile devices is an increasing constraint on the design.

“Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away,” says Parviz.

So what types of stuff could this be used for, other than to scare the shit out of us?

Do you remember The Terminator? Of course you do. Now, do you remember ‘Terminator vision?’ (see picture at left). Whenever Ahhnold needed more information about anything, his super duper bionic Terminator vision would display the relevant information right in front of his eyes. This is what these contacts aim to do. I kid you not.

As far as the real world is concerned, these contact lenses are just spilling with oodles of possibilities. Here are just a few of the proposed uses:

• Visual aids to help vision-impaired people (or Terminators)
• Holographic driving control panels
• Surfing the web on the go–right in in thin air in front of your eyes
• Subtitles when conversing with a foreign-language speaker (my personal favorite)
• Showing directions when in unfamiliar territory

All things aside, this is actually frightening

I love technology–astrophysics, info tech, bio tech, mechanical engineering, you name it, I love reading and watching shows about it–even though most of the time I can’t understand the majority of it!  I’ve stopped reading any and all news from traditional media outlets such as CNN, but I’ll spend hours each day reading about stuff like the craziest new NASA rockets, Google inventions, and unfathomably cool boat designs. But I had never actually felt like technology had officially gone too far, until reading about these contact lenses, and hearing quotes like this:

“A contact lens that allows virtual graphics to be seamlessly overlaid on the real world could provide a compelling augmented reality experience,” says Mark Billinghurst, director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Okay, see, that is just scary. Think about it; if someone can walk around being able to control what they see as reality at all times, then we begin to enter a world of virtual reality that’s not all that different from movies like The Matrix, Minority Report, and just about everything with Will Smith (yes, I’m very bitter that Will Smith was the man during his Fresh Prince years, but now won’t take a role that doesn’t have him saving the world…again).

I could go on forever about the doors these contact lenses open up, but I refrain until we see the exact commercial applications that spawn from the technology. So I will stop at that, but I’d be curious to hear what you think. Leave a comment if you’d like to tell the world how close you think science is to crossing that imaginary line between cool and scary.

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Looking for a good Blog Topic?

I’d like to think that I’m not the only blogger out there with a laundry list of posts that got started but never finished. All blog posts begin in the exact same way: with an inspirational thought. But in some cases, that inspiration quickly subsides, placing the post into the dark, endless abyss known as the ‘drafts folder.’ It is a hopeless purgatory where neglected thoughts meander aimlessly for the rest of eternity.

But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so my hope is to create a place where these unfinished blog posts can go, with the hopes of being picked up and finished by an inspired fellow blogger. Let me give you an example of how this could work. Let’s say I start writing a blog about the Health Care Debate and how it affects Gen Y’ers. Ten minutes into it, I realize that I don’t know even close to enough about the debate to elaborate my thoughts into a post worthy of reading…but someone in one of my social networks might. And when they see this post idea, they run with it, publish it, and get the words out that I sadly never could.

So I’m opening up the floor to everyone out there reading this right now. Submit your ideas by posting a comment to Blog Inspirationville.