harryprofprac

[harryprofprac]

POST #4

Create a surveillance-proof wearable or process that confuses tracking technologies.

The main way each and every one of us can be recognised is by our unique faces. For this reason, hiding the face is the first step to not being recognised or tracked in your daily activities. This is becoming more and more of a movement as drone usage becomes more popular and many begin to fear drove surveillance.

In the image you can see some light up glasses sold on Amazon that are purely for fun. This being said the light they emit over the face makes it very difficult for a camera to focus properly and register whose face is behind the glasses. This design could simply be altered to be less obvious and would work against almost all modern surveillance techniques.

What technology are future smart cities likely to use in order to make our daily lives easier?

Everyday many cities are become more and more full of technology designed to make the occupants lives easier or more convenient at every turn. With technology like E-Bikes and city wide Wi-Fi it is easy to see many of these cities transitioning into the smart cities of the future. The question now is, what other technology is on the way to help form our smart cities of the future?

Almost all modern cities require some sort of street lighting that is used during night or darker times of year so that the residents can function as normal at all times. Most cities currently use standard electrical lighting using huge amounts of energy. Interact Lighting and other companies are now starting to work alongside cities to create a more connected and energy efficient lighting system that is better for its occupants and the environment. They even boast that the money cities can save in energy efficiency can then be reinvested into more steps to make a smarter and greener city. This makes it one of the best first steps a large city can make towards being more eco-friendly.

No matter which city you go to, transport is always around you and can often cause issues. The air and noise pollution of many cars can damage the cities look and the environment. Many train lines are old fashioned, loud and not eco-friendly. So what would a smart city of the future use? Well instead of using technology to find a new means of transportation, we can instead use it to make cycling and walk ability far more available to people in their everyday lives. This can be in the form of bike hire schemes similar to London and Paris or even congestion charges to encourage walking to and from work more often. This can lead to “Reduced congestion, improved air quality, promoting health and reducing health costs.” With public health issues and NHS health costs at an all-time high, this could be something that makes a difference to our country as a whole and not just the city it is implemented into.

Something not that often thought about as a smart city feature is Climate resilience. This is the ability for a city to withstand nature’s effects which can range from strong winds to earth quakes and flooding. We can learn about this from countries that have already been forced to deal with these issues. For example, Japan has had to learn to make flexible buildings that can withstand the force of a strong earth quake. This is something cities will have to adopt as they become more built up and at risk of catastrophic failure due to climate change. The way each city will do this is vastly different depending on the location but is seriously important if we want them to still be there in the future to come.

Space can be very hard to come by in a built up modern city and how we use that space can be the some of the most important decisions for any city. As the climate crisis starts to hit us it is more important than ever that we focus on sustainability and that means within the cities as well. EconomicTimes believe that we need to “create compost from waste, reduce the amount of waste generated by the construction, restoration and destruction of buildings, and manage water resources more effectively.” This is something a lot of cities are already focused on, but for a true smart city to function the way we do this and the effectiveness of our strategies must improve greatly or we will find our cities full of waste and starved of life.

TechRepublic. (2020). Smart cities: A cheat sheet. [online] Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/smart-cities-the-smart-persons-guide/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

Smartcitiesdive.com. (2020). 21 Features of the Future Sustainable City | Smart Cities Dive. [online] Available at: https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/21-features-future-sustainable-city/285946/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

economictimes.indiatimes.com. (2016). How IGI Airport moved from 101 rank to world's best - The Economic Times. [online] The Economic Times. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infrastructure/how-igi-airport-moved-from-101-rank-to-worlds-best/slideshow/52076292.cms [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

[harryprofprac]

POST #3

How will synthetic meat be implemented in our everyday shopping, dining, eating-at-work, or restaurant experience?

Synthetic meat is considered by many to be the future for all meat eating on the planet. This is mostly due to the environmental and moral issues with modern animal farming. Many scientists already agree that our earth cannot handle more agriculture than is already present and thus we must search for new ways to feed the population.

Synthetic meat will likely need to be phased in by having a separate section in supermarket so that people can try it out and get used to seeing it. Then as meat prices rise higher than ever, many will move onto more sustainable synthetic meat products. I think it is also important that people are informed about the synthetic meat products by advertisement campaigns.

Is it ethical to grow organs for human transplant inside other animals?

Animal-to-human organ transplants are something that has gained a lot of steam since the start of 2020. As Shelly Fan’s article on Singularityhub says: “The idea of human-animal chimeras immediately triggers ethical aversion” I believe this to be a very true statement and I even had this ethical dilemma when first approaching the subject matter.

Scientists have already grown organs within pigs and then transplanted them across into baboons (a stand-in for humans in this case) which have lived for over half a year before being put down. This was done entirely using pigs organs, but could we grow actual human organs inside another animal to better fit our transplant needs? Well no, not currently, but scientists are getting closer and closer in to figuring it out with estimates that we could have human organs for transplant grown in other animals in as little as two years’ time (2022). This raises the question; is it ok for us to grow new organs inside other life for our own personal gain/benefit? Well in countries like my own (England), there are firm rules/laws in place to make sure all testing of such things stays safe for humans and in the United States “Anyone doing xenotransplantation in the U.S. has to get clearance from the Food and Drug Administration”. This means you not only need funding and materials, you also need to get specific permission to start testing anything on a living being. This being place definitely makes it safer for the average person/animal but it does not mean no animals are being harmed in the process, far from it in fact.

In most modern cases, the animal of choice for animal-to-human transplants is the pig. This is because they “mature very quickly, produce large litters and have organs of comparable size and function to human organs” Now we already farm pigs here in Britain just for consumption. According to Viva.org “Over a billion farmed animals in Britain are killed each year” and of those animals there are “over 10 million pigs”. So this begs the question; what is different about farming pigs for food and farming them for organ transplantation? Well pigs that are being farmed for human organ transplant have to be genetically altered to make their organs more suitable for humans. Other than that they live very similar and comparable lives to the pigs we eat with only a few small changes to their diet. For these reasons I personally feel that there is little difference between killing these two very similar pigs’ types. But is there a way that doesn’t harm as many animals in the process?

Using stem cell technologies we may soon be able to grow human organs in a lab, rather that inside another living animal. One great example of this from ScienceMuseum.org is the use of growing human eye cups made from people that have a rare genetic eye disease giving cells. These grown eye cups can then be to find treatments for the people suffering with the issues. This method seems far less morally fraught as there are not excess animals being harmed or killed in order to make this work. For this reason I believe it makes sense to carry on with this research as it will better fare our planet and the life on it, especially in comparison to raising a large amount of animals to cull and use their organs. Growing these organs from stem cells doesn’t harm any animals and it a technology we are so close to being able to use for many lifesaving treatments making it the future of human organ transplant.

Fan, S. (2020). The Top Biotech Trends We'll Be Watching in 2020. [online] Singularity Hub. Available at: https://singularityhub.com/2020/01/08/the-top-biotech-trends-well-be-watching-in-2020/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].  

  @hhansman, F. (2015). The Future of Animal-to-Human Organ Transplants. [online] Smithsonian Magazine. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/future-animal-to-human-organ-transplants-180956402/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].   

BIO. (2020). XENOTRANSPLANTATION: The Benefits and Risks of Special Organ Transplantation - BIO. [online] Available at: https://archive.bio.org/articles/xenotransplantation-benefits-and-risks-special-organ-transplantation [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020]. 

Viva! - The Vegan Charity. (2013). The slaughter of farmed animals in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/slaughter/slaughter-farmed-animals-uk [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].   

Science Museum Blog. (2018). 7 HUMAN ORGANS WE CAN GROW IN THE LAB. [online] Available at: https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/7-human-organs-we-can-grow-in-the-lab/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

[harryprofprac]

POST #2

Living with less

In modern times people have become obsessed with material belongings buying more and more each year. I personally also fall into this consumer trap but especially one type of item more than any other: books. For a lot of people, digital books will never replace a physical book and thus we buy more and more every year. In order to free up this wasted space and wasted resources we could use libraries but they are often too inconvenient. For this reason my idea is a drone based library service that can take books to your door quickly, and take old ones back all in a single journey. This would be better for the environment and better for the user because of the speed.

If we could track our personal energy data, would we change the way we live?

Every day, as humans, we make a series of choices that take a range of effects on our surroundings. One of the things being effected most is our beloved planet and the life that thrives on it. My questions is simple; if we knew what effect we were having as individuals, would we change our daily patterns to adopt ones that are more environment friendly?

In a 2014 post by Christian Wolmar he details many of the general public’s misconceptions about the energy efficiency of different types of travel. If you are like me you may have assumed public transport is far better than driving and also that planes are some of the worst culprits of poor energy efficiency in the travel industry but you may be surprised. In 2014, Airbus’s A380 could get “70 passenger miles per gallon of fuel”. If you check this against the average MPG (miles per gallon) of cars you may be shocked to see it is actually relatively efficient. NimbleFin’s car statistics show us that in the year 2020 most diesel cars can only do 43MPG and gasoline was even lower at 36. This makes planes far more efficient than many would assume, mostly because of the amount of passengers that can share one.

Another massive use of energy is the usage of the food industry. I am sure at this point that some of the population know that their food choices have an impact on the environment but most still do not know how or how much. According to ChooseEnergy our food habits make up 30% of all energy usage globally and a further 20% of all greenhouse gasses. Although the food industry will always be using a lot of energy, it is so inefficient that it is using it for all of the wrong reasons. For one example; not many people know that 49.5% of all the energy consumption in the food industry goes into handling which includes things like “retail, restaurants, packaging, and consumers”. A huge amount of this could be removed by changing old habits but the people buying it are not aware enough of the energy usage to see how big the problem is. This is why sites like ChooseEnergy are important to show us exactly how much energy is being wasted and put the power back in the consumer’s hands to do something about it.

One way people have started to track their energy data is in their own homes with the use of smart energy meters. This can help people to see where they are using energy unnecessarily and cut down on waste. This may only be a small step but it is empowering people with the statistics they need to make a change that not only helps the environment but also helps the user save money on a daily basis. For smaller businesses there are even products like PowerTracker which allows the user to turn appliances on or off remotely from home. This is evidence that when people get the chance to closely track their energy data, they actually act on that data to help themselves and the environment. So the question is: If we could track other energy data in our lives via a similar device/app, would we make similar changes to help reduce our energy usage? I personally believe that if we could keep it very convenient to the user (such as a mobile application) then yes, people truly would be able to take control of their own energy usage in areas they have been given zero data in the past. I also believe that this may be a necessary step as the climate crisis heats up in ways it never has before and people are looking for anything they can do to reduce their own impact.

Wolmar, C. (2014). Can you save energy by using public transport? It’s not that simple. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/big-energy-debate/2014/sep/10/save-energy-transport-christian-wolmar [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

 Chooseenergy.com. (2020). [online] Available at: https://www.chooseenergy.com/blog/energy-101/energy-food-production/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].   Go Green Generation. (2020). 

Energy trackers — Go Green Generation. [online] Available at: https://www.gogreengeneration.com.au/energy-trackers [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

[harryprofprac]

POST #1

What kind of data could be extracted from the VR/AR applications we start using and how could these be used by future companies?

At the time of writing this, Personalised advertising is one of Google’s best Ideas for making their products the best software in the world to advertise via. This is because they use data from your time looking at your own personal interests online and very carefully advertise things you will be interested to you. Much like internet browsing; VR/AR allows people to go a little bit wild and do exactly what they would like with very little boundaries, especially in comparison to normal life. For this reason, a huge amount can be learned from people’s VR/AR habits and thus large companies in control of this software can then use this data to better sell/advertise towards the user.

Will virtual reality grow the rift between those interested and involved in technology and those that are being left behind?

As both the hardware and software involved with virtual reality is getting better the levels of immersion are truly growing at a rapid pace. For some this is an amazing thing and presents new possibilities for what can be done in a virtual environment but for others it is simply scary and creating a new threat their way of life.

In his book Virtual Realism, Michael Heim talks about his theories surrounding people that don’t want anything to do with more modern technology as a whole (not just virtual reality) and how there has already been some backlash against technology. In the book he states; “a collision is inevitable between those passionately involved in the computer industry and those increasingly alienated from (and often replaced by) its applications” He strongly believe that the growing capabilities of the technology he admires will continue to grow a rift and even brings in ties to the Unabomber.

Ted Kaczynski, also known at the Unabomber, was an American terrorist that directed his terrible murders towards people that had strong involvement in the creation and growth of modern technology. Although Ted is now in jail, the reason he decided to start killing was technology itself and technology is going nowhere any time soon. Now this is a very dark case and right at the extreme end of anti-technology but it doesn’t mean that lots of smaller changes and acts are happening as some people choose to push back a bit against technology and virtual reality itself.

In a 2019 article on his own website, Investor Brad Feld shares his own strong worries about the use of virtual reality and his belief that it is just a step closer to a dystopian future using references like the matrix as examples. Morally speaking Brad is just fully against the idea of virtual reality for anything that is not very clearly a video game for light fun. Brad simply states: “I don’t believe humans want to strap a headset on” He says this because he is of the belief that it will stop people from wanting to go out and experience actual real things in the world around them. For me, the truly interesting bit of this whole web page comes from the comments section. Here we can see a few people that actually fully disagree with Brad and are willing to back virtual reality and discuss it with Brad on his own site. Both sides are very civil and discuss their own opinions and ideas with respect for one another. This is brilliant to see that both sides are open to learn from one another and can influence each other going both ways. The difference between an approach like this and the way Ted Kaczynski decided to share his voice is ginormous and it comes from the least likely place of all, an internet comments section.

It’s clear to me that a rift does exist, but is it possible to close that rift? ClassVR is a tool that can be used to teach children about all different parts of social interaction. I a world where bullying still exists, if virtual reality can help us teach children from a young age about empathy then surely that is a good thing for everyone? Well to reach a point where this can be a reality the rift between those interested and accepting of virtual reality and those that frown upon it and steer as clear as they can must begin to close. This being said, the dangers of virtual reality going into the future are as scary as people like Brad Feld believe and we could easily become complacent with the technology and replace important physical discovery with virtual replicates. For these reasons I truly believe that virtual reality does have the potential to grow the rift between those interested in technology and those that are not but the important thing is that we don’t ever let it reach that point because virtual reality can be used for brilliant things as long as we all work together.

En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Ted Kaczynski. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].   

Feld Thoughts. (2019). Anti-VR - Feld Thoughts. [online] Available at: https://feld.com/archives/2019/03/anti-vr.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

 Classvr.com. (2020). Anti-Bullying in Virtual Reality – ClassVR. [online] Available at: https://www.classvr.com/anti-bullying-in-virtual-reality/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

Heim, M. (1944)Virtual Realsim.Open University Press.