Terraform, July 13th & 20th, 2015
Terraform, July 13, 2015
“Killing Taylor Swift: An Apple Music Love Story” by Drew Millard
Reviewed by Eric Kimminau
“Killing Taylor Swift: An Apple Music Love Story” by Drew Millard is a wildly rambling tale of the future of the music streaming industry that is now owned by the REAL Taylor Swift (the real true Taylor Swift, the One Taylor Swift to Rule Them All ) while tangentially delving into the life of the NON-Taylor Swift who, after buying a “really nice chair” at the airport made someone (Eric) at Apple think he is the “real” Taylor Swift, is then assassinated in an attempt to eliminate the “real” Taylor Swift’s strangle hold on the Industry. Somewhere in there is a deviant story about an Assassin (Jon) who loves his decrepit dog planning on a trip to Yellowstone for a vacation. All of the references to each of the Taylor Swifts makes for a mental challenge to try to follow the story line which ultimately leads to the “real” Taylor Swift being a Ghost in the Machine. While this certainly takes the truthers tale that Taylor Swift (the real one) is in cahoots and collusion with Apple to take over all things streaming media to a whole new level, it left me swirling in circles, wishing that I actually could buy a “Space Chair” with the foot massage attachment from Brookstone and wondering where the story was actually going. I guess the $35,000 (really about $85) price tag in the story is better than the $3000 OSIM® uAstro™2 Zero Gravity Massage Chair but who knows whether it is really that comfortable. You also have to wonder when they really will have toe gesture controls. I wonder what a Diplo/Harry Connick Jr. album would sound like?
Terraform, July 20, 2015
“Humane Resources” by James Mitchell
Reviewed by Eric Kimminau
In understanding “Humane Resources” by James Mitchell you must start with the Japanese translation of “kamigami” which is the plural of “gods” in English. Imagine if you will, a reality where all things, from a door, to a pen, to a cigarette to a water cooler, each have a level of artificial intelligence with a level of personality. They are all cross connected and communicate, not only with you personally but with each other across the backbone and share data back to the corporate network and a redundant data library. Their goal, drive and direction is to determine what is good for you and good for the company. Deviations from norms raise questions which are communicated, translated and interpreted by corporate to identify what is good and right with the world. Your devices report on you and your habits. They communicate and share with the devices of your co-workers. The parking garage knows when you enter or leave. One would assume it communicates with your company car to know where you went during your off hours and for how long. The corporate pen you took home and left on your home office desk communicates over an encrypted tunnel to report how many off hours you were, or were not, working over the weekend.
All in all a very scary and yet very real possible future that may present itself as we give up more personal freedoms to our smart devices and those devices are allowed to connect and share data. It’s only a matter of time before they become self-aware and decide we, the human element, may be the dirty cog in the well-oiled machine. And then the humans will require checks and balances to see whether the machines have become too self-centered to remain objective.
Eric Kimminau is a BBS geek turned IT professional for a Fortune 10 global IT company.