There’s an essay written by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang over on Samsung’s DigitAll Magazine called “Raising the Floor” (Link) that’s worth reading for those who regularly visit here. It’s mostly about the future of manufacturing. I’ve just read it. It’s well-written. But if you’ve followed my posts on this blog – like the “rocket launcher” (reLink) or the “smiley face” entry (reLink) – you’re probably familiar with or already have a sense of the possibilities about which he writes. I’ll pull out a few pieces and elaborate.

These capabilities will also give manufacturers the chance to learn more about how their products are used. In some cases, networked products will report back to manufacturers throughout their lives; in others, products will keep digital diaries that companies can recover in eco-friendly takeback programs.

This one is simple. A kirkyan is, for me, a special circumstance of just this scenario which Pang paints for his readers (for more on kirkyans try these links: reLink1, reLink 2, ISHUSH). I’m not especially interested in Big Corporate processes; I’m interested in the Individual. In Democratization (Note: my anti-piracy rants aren’t for the benefit of greedy corporations; they’re for a future of independents). Consequently I don’t recall previously posting how a kirkyan fits into their future systems (at least not on this blog). Personally, I’d rather not see that happen because it’ll be a privacy nightmare imo. But I expect it will.
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As a fan of retro science fiction movies (including… yes… Flesh Gordon), this puppy gets a big smile out of me. The above image is the ManMelter 3600ZX, one of several “rayguns” apparently in development as part of a line of a WETA Raygun Collection (Link). I’ve not found a price or any other shipping information, so I’m guessing these are limited edition niche products. I bet they sell out of these in a day.

If the Long Tail increasingly fills with this kind of stuff, I myself may actually turn into a normal consumer. Maybe. But with so much neat stuff – like the found art pieces I mentioned some time back (reLink) – I’d have a tough time deciding what to get and shut down altogether. There ya go, another reason we’ll need Filters more than Distributors in the years ahead.

via Boing Boing

{Image source: WetaNZ}

I was lucky enough to catch an interesting post discussing Second Life that is, in my opinion, accurate in quite a lot of unfortunate ways. It’s called “Second Life: The Failed Experiment” (Link) and is worth a read.

Without doubt, to me SL is not what the 3D internet will eventually become; it’s a precursor of sorts. A testing ground. And perhaps a bit of an experiment in how it might evolve and how we learn to interact through it. Of course sometimes what we learn says less about what we’re observing and more about the vantage point from where it is we’re making our observations. The world moves more quickly when you’re looking out the window of a train.

It’s long, but if you manage to read through it, you’ll also find my comment at the bottom which sees things through a different lens; a different train. That doesn’t change the observations, but it does change the interpretation.

It’s nice having the Interactive Architecture blog back up and running. Some of the most interesting stuff seems to be happening in the space between architecture and robotics and I can always find something curious posted there on the topic. On one end of the spectrum we get wild stuff like interactive, morphable architecture (see earlier posts – reLink) and on the other end we get stuff like the above, a robotic art installation piece by Bill Vorn which InterArch brings to everyone’s attention (Link). Cool stuff. I need to find time to take a good long tour of Vorn’s website if for no other reason than the excellent images.

{Image Copyright © 2006 Bill Vorn}

A few moments ago I received an email from a former design colleague. The answer was “No”. He did not have the skillset needed to create virtual content. In fact, none of the Industrial Designers I know have the skillsets needed. They know surface modelers like Alias and Rhino; know solid CAD applications like SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER. But none of them have done any videogame modding or even dabbled in the relatively simple world of Second Life. They’re basically clueless.

Now some people would say “Who cares? There are others out there who can do it.” Not quite and not for much of the content. For anyone who has done 3D development work in some of the videogames out there (including mods) or has seen what’s coming in the nextgen titles, it will probably be obvious that the skillsets needed to create compelling content are going through the roof.
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