Eye-Fi

[Micro_Fur]

Alas, Sir Andrick stumbles upon the last remaining hurdle in the wetware wars. Though the journey had been perilous and daunting, he none the less persevered. Though nothing in his long quest could have ever prepared him for this. We find our hero on the field of a one-sided battle, out of munitions, a handfull of badly damaged weapons for close combat, and low on health to fight an army of midless zombies, all the result of a corrupt beaurocrat controlling the masses. Will he survive? *Rolls a D-20, landing on 17* As if by the grace of God allmighty, he charges through the crowd slashing through the zombies, most people he never knew. He sees the control nexxus not very far, and gains strenght through his perserverence. He takes a strike at the device. *Rolls a 7* He manages to damage the device, some snap from the zombie state and begin to fight the remaining away from Andrick, but one got past them and is charging with a blade in hand. Andrick raises a piece of scrap to block the attack. *Rolls a 2 * Thou art dead, your keen and speed were no match for the plasma sabre, then again you knew full well you might very well die from the beginnig, impossible odds are just that.

Micro_fur - I really don't know where that came from, really!

[Nyamaza]

Um, Nyamaza? Wouldn't such a thing enable "thought police" and such policing strategies? Wouldn't it also create a demand for countering devices that only the powerful and well connected could have in spades? Wouldn't such devices contribute to the development of statist/despotic rule and a citizenry living in perpetual paranoia?

I dunno, I kinda' like having "trust" as part of a living lexicon and a vaunted valuation rather than an obsolete term.

=0_o= Fweh?

Ummm... I meant that gaydars could potentially have interestly good consequences. I wasn't in any way saying that they were all-wonderful things, or that the world was fully prepared for such a device. And I wasn't even talking about Eye-fi in that post, if that was your interpretation.

Overall I jsut got... confused over what jsut happened.

[Allan_ecker]

Whoa. Double topic derailment.

I think Andrick may have been pointing out that highly effective gaydars would probably be used by opressive regimes to hunt down "deviants" while the elites of those same regimes enjoyed countermeasures.

Effective measures of any form of detection for pollitically unpopular persuasions could have significant negative reprocussions.

It's for this reason that about as many people know about the GayDar as know about the time machine in my basement.

[Sylvain]

It's for this reason that about as many people know about the GayDar as know about the time machine in my basement.

Which is no doubt a good thing, given that governments, banks and employers are already trying to get all the information they can about us! Thank you, Saundra, for helping to preserve what little privacy we have left!

[Zaylas The Bard]

Sorry to come into this discussion late, but life and CNA training has been keeping me busy lately. However, I wanted to throw in some thoughts to teh advantages of Eye-Fi ware from a purely artistic point-of-view.

I could see something like this being a big boon to both writers and other artists in terms of being able to create. Speaking as a writer, the brain can often run far faster than one can type, leading to frustration at times when you're trying to get ideas down for use later, only to realize you can no longer remember quite what it was. Neuro-ware like this would be an excellent tool, in that one could pull up a word editing program and 'type' down all their thoughts, ideas, and research information for whatever writing project they're working on. I know I could put this type of software to excellent use in my writing, because my typing speed... leaves something to be desired. I could also bypass the frustration of knowing what I'm trying to say and not be able to get it out on paper.

Eye-fi would also be excellent for the graphic artist, particularly for digital media. I'm sure anyone who's drawn anything before (Allan?) can testify that what you see in your mind doesn't always end up the way you want it when drawing it out. If nothing else, one could create a rough outline of what they want, and then use that to draw/paint/sculpt their new creation. Or, just create it completely in one's mind, and then load it from the Eye-fi to a regular computer, if that's even needed.

Anyways, just some thoughts from a lethargic python. I'm going to crawl back under my covers now. *grumbles about not being able to afford heat and grabs another blanket*

[The_Fox]

The idea recording, and real time thought typing I can find no fault with. But nothing will replace traditional art. For a few reasons, I believe...

First, if everyone could do it, it would cease to be special, and magical. At least, it would seem so to me. I have respect for artists (other than myself, because I'm lazy) because they work hard at what they do. They practice incessantly to get to where they are. Thus, work by hand will always have a special...value, attached to it. As it takes more work, and skill, than merely thinking of something and saving it as a JPEG on your eye-fi.

Second, I fault the execution. The following is only true of me, that I know of. It may be true of others. Basically, the problem is this...my mental pictures and images are only clear until I attempt to focus on, or analyze them. The more effort I put into visualilizing them, the blurrier and more faded they become. They distort, and end up resembling little. I know this from my artistic (HAH!) works. What I think of is always better than what I draw...so I have attempt to zoom in on my mind's eye version of what I want to draw, and see how the lines and shapes flow. But when I try, it distorts, and I gain nothing. Perhaps that's just my trouble visualizing things, but there you have it. I hope that was comprehensible, but I doubt it somehow.

- Jarylan, wishing it would work that easily

[Zaylas The Bard]

The idea recording, and real time thought typing I can find no fault with. But nothing will replace traditional art. For a few reasons, I believe...

First, if everyone could do it, it would cease to be special, and magical. At least, it would seem so to me. I have respect for artists (other than myself, because I'm lazy) because they work hard at what they do. They practice incessantly to get to where they are. Thus, work by hand will always have a special...value, attached to it. As it takes more work, and skill, than merely thinking of something and saving it as a JPEG on your eye-fi.

Second, I fault the execution. The following is only true of me, that I know of. It may be true of others. Basically, the problem is this...my mental pictures and images are only clear until I attempt to focus on, or analyze them. The more effort I put into visualilizing them, the blurrier and more faded they become. They distort, and end up resembling little. I know this from my artistic (HAH!) works. What I think of is always better than what I draw...so I have attempt to zoom in on my mind's eye version of what I want to draw, and see how the lines and shapes flow. But when I try, it distorts, and I gain nothing. Perhaps that's just my trouble visualizing things, but there you have it. I hope that was comprehensible, but I doubt it somehow.

- Jarylan, wishing it would work that easily

This is why I wish I had something like Eye-fi right now, my friggin' fingers are frozen. Anyways...

Yes, I can see how the visual arts could lose some of that 'magical' aspect if everyone could do it, however, after thinking on it, I could see some of the benefits to it also.

Eye-fi could be very useful to someone who may not be able to create in the traditional way. For instance, lost a hand in an accident, bad hand-eye co-ordination, etc. Okay, granted, prosthetics are probably common for someone with a missing limb, but what about neurological diseases, something that may affect motor skills?

It could also be useful for beginning artists. Using it to create a basic framework of a building, pose, anything, and then go from there. True, some people would use it to create the entire thing, but there are people who would also just use it on occasion if they're not sure about a pose, or a perspective, etc.

Ironically enough, I tend to have the opposite problem of you. Everything remains hazy until I start to concentrate on it, then it becomes crystal clear in my mind. For instance, the current story I'm working on, I can see in my mind nearly every crater and scar on the character's ancient, battered cybernetic body. This is what really frustrates me with drawing, and part of the reason I'm reluctant to go back into it. I can see clearly what it is in my mind, but trying to transfer from mind to paper... yeah, it turns out trash. And then I get angry because I have a piece of junk on paper, while the image is still in my mind.

[Allan_ecker]

It would seem appropriate at this juncture to toss in my 20 milicreds.

Go look at one of the first few Umlaut House comics.

Now, after the burning sensation in your eyes subsides, look at the current episode.

Now imagine that what is in your head is the current episode, and what you have drawn is that earlier comic.

Now imagine that every time you draw anything, you get to experience that discontinuity. Oh yes, it takes a very *special* kind of masochism to be an artist.

And it is that masochism, actually, that makes the artist.

I contend that that masochism will still be *in* there if you're laying down images in your mind to be picked up electronically. Because of course that vision in your head has got to be refined, polished, sharpened.

And while many people will be able to do far more than they could before, those who share visions of things that have never been will always have some muse to satisfy, some quest for a perfect vision. Art is in the quest, not the attainment. And the quest won't go away just because the tools get better.

[Andrick]

Case in point: synthesized sounds. Despite the fact that digital devices can reproduce any sound that musicians or lyricists can make has not stopped the musically inclined from following their craft.

[Allan_ecker]

I imagine that using the EyeFi to write comics would work something like this:

Panel layouts would appear in your mind's eye, not quite in the right places at first, to be shuffled around, rapidly. A viewer seeing your head's-up-display projected would observe the panels changing shape and size, sometiems with text or rough outlines of characters or both inside, blipping from configuration to configuration in a matter of seconds for each draft. As the layout became more finalized (with occasional tweaks occuring to it all the way till the end), the words, characters and objects in each panel would resolve into sharper focus, starting as rough outlines and refining as details were thought up to be added.

Since details cost so little time and effort to the designer, I imagine this age would be populated with a whole lot of cluttered, baroque, crap and a few genuinely beautiful expressions. Oscar Wilde's addage will come back home to roost: "If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

[Jeremy.Ruhland]

I don't know about you but when they start selling those eye-fi's I'm gonna get a failsafe off swich on the back of my neck.

[Andrick]

I still keep thinking about that experiment some years ago where a rat had a device wired into its brain and was made to move and do very un-ratlike things by remote control.

...

Introducing the new Sony Eye-Fi!

[Jeremy.Ruhland]

If anyone has read the book Nuromancer you could say everyone is flat-lining. For those of you that haven't read it, flat-lining is when your EGG (brain waves) go to zero when you are connected to the matrix. I don't think thats what actually happened but it's close enough.

[Allan_ecker]

Huh. You know I never intended to spark a serious debate into the safety/usefulness of neural implants. Not that I'm complaining.

The implications of this first attack will be... largely hidden from the audience. There's kind of a balancing act I'm working here; I want to keep the overall tone of UH2 upbeat but not completely dismiss the seriousness of situations that arise. I also don't want to talk about serious technoethics if I can at all get away with it. Umlaut House is about people, not technology, or at least that's the design intent. The brain melting, the wireheads, the antigravity technology and even the time portals are just tools I use to create funny and/or weird interpersonal situations. If they ever upstage the characters, I've made a mistake.

That said, all this debate gives me lots of food for thought when planning later comics.

[Andrick]

... The implications of this first attack will be... largely hidden from the audience. There's kind of a balancing act I'm working here; I want to keep the overall tone of UH2 upbeat but not completely dismiss the seriousness of situations that arise...

That's why God invented "backgrounds," Allan. It's a good place to stick snippets of information or action which need to be noted without intruding on the story at hand. A poster here, a newspaper article there, a snippet of extraneous conversation by filler characters and you've done your due dilligence. Make the medium work for you.

[Allan_ecker]

Indeed. I'm reading "Transmetropolitan", so I know exactly what you're talking about.

Notice, I said "largely".