When Things Start to Think

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Claims that this world is part of the "digital age" may scream out of the pages of Wired and other tech mags, but Neil A. Gershenfeld isn't satisfied yet. In When Things Start to Think, Gershenfeld presents his look at the truly cutting-edge wave of digital technology — an age where the microchip is worn into every fabric (yes, even clothing fabrics) of our daily lives.

Ten years ago, the personal computer was a lot slower — and a lot larger — than the models coming off the factory lines today. Gershenfeld isn't satisfied with those self-proclaimed "sleeker" models, though. His digital world is made up of personalized money, computers that you can wear, and computers integrated into the fabrics that you wear. Interface design needs to evolve, he argues, so that it can be receptive to all our senses; computer science must incorporate discoveries from the biological world in order to truly maximize the potential for human-machine interaction.

This integration of living beings and computers presents a future where technology is humanized, even more so than the blue eye-like contours of the iMac; instead, the experience is one of complete integration, where claims that the digital realm will replace the currently existing analog one are shushed by the harmony of biology and technology working in synergy to forge into heretofore unimagined territories.

Maura Johnston

Claims that this world is part of the "digital age" may scream out of the pages of Wired and other tech mags, but Neil A. Gershenfeld isn't satisfied yet. In When Things Start to Think, Gershenfeld presents his look at the truly cutting-edge wave of digital technology — an age where the microchip is worn into every fabric (yes, even clothing fabrics) of our daily lives.

Ten years ago, the personal computer was a lot slower — and a lot larger — than the models coming off the factory lines today. Gershenfeld isn't satisfied with those self-proclaimed "sleeker" models, though. His digital world is made up of personalized money, computers that you can wear, and computers integrated into the fabrics that you wear. Interface design needs to evolve, he argues, so that it can be receptive to all our senses; computer science must incorporate discoveries from the biological world in order to truly maximize the potential for human-machine interaction.

This integration of living beings and computers presents a future where technology is humanized, even more so than the blue eye-like contours of the iMac; instead, the experience is one of complete integration, where claims that the digital realm will replace the currently existing analog one are shushed by the harmony of biology and technology working in synergy to forge into heretofore unimagined territories.

Ray Duncan

If Microsoft's demented "Office Assistant" is any indication, the prospects for things starting to think are pretty dismal. The amount of time, mouseclicks, and aggravation required to get work done in Microsoft Word has exploded since Monsieur Paper Clip arrived on the scene. Redmond's concept of "things that think" reminds me more than anything else of the proto-bird Archaeopteryx falling out of Jurassic fern trees in barely-controlled crashes. Personally, I only want to be cornered into interacting with things that think after they have become really, really good at it. Luckily, in spite of its title, this book has little to do with artificial intelligence (or artificial stupidity, as the case may be) -- it should have been called "When Things Start to Compute."

As computing power, memory, and bandwidth have become cheaper and cheaper, the incorporation of embedded microcontrollers into mass-market artifacts has become the norm, and the networking of these objects is following closely behind. Over time, this will have the effect of removing many of the hard edges from the world around us. When everyday objects can compute, store information, communicate with each other, and adjust their behavior to the user and the situation, the surface effect will be that the environment will adapt to our needs and support our goals, instead of us always accommodating to the environment.

I just bought a new car for the first time in 15 years, and was astonished at the hundreds of ways designers have taken advantage of embedded processors to make automobiles more tolerant of human frailties and more pleasant to use. For example, if you accidentally leave the dome light on, but lock the car and walk away, the car will eventually turn the dome light off anyway, preventing the battery from running down. Or if you have the radio turned up much higher than normal when you shut off the ignition, the radio will come back to life at a midpoint volume setting when the car is next used to avoid startling the driver. And anti-skid brakes are phenomenal!

The absorption of computing capabilities into the environment also allows us to push information "into the world" that we would have previously been forced to carry around in our heads or on stacks of paper. Smart devices can then deliver this information back to us whenever and wherever we need it, remind us of tasks when we are in the appropriate context, and take care of routine chores on our behalf. The use of email and calendaring servers by many folks as a sort of "filing cabinet" that can be accessed from wherever they happen to find network connectivity is only the first and most basic instantiation of this trend.

For example, I feel certain that future generations will be incredulous at the concept that someone would have to periodically look in their refrigerator, try and deduce what isn't there, write down a list, drive to the store, pick those items off the shelf, and tote the groceries home again. How much more sensible it will be for the refrigerator to keep its own inventory and communicate with our scheduling programs so that it is aware of our work hours and travel plans. The refrigerator can then send refill orders for milk and eggs to the market via the network as needed, and schedule the deliveries for a time when someone is at home to accept them.

Neil Gershenfeld works at the MIT Media Lab, a hotbed of user interface innovation since the 1980's, and in many ways the spiritual descendant of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Interesting projects described in When Things Start to Think include Gershenfeld's collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma to build a digital cello, wearable computers that are sensitive to location and objects around the user, "smart paper," printable computing devices, quantum computers, and the evolution of digital currency. Although the book is parochial in nature, and intended for nontechnical readers, it is a pleasant read and presents an essentially optimistic outlook on the sweeping changes that are already infiltrating our lives.
— Electronic Review of Books

Library Journal

Director of the Physics and Media Group and codirector of the Things That Think consortium, both at MIT's Media Lab, Gershenfeld has all sorts of provocative projects, including a book with electronic ink that can be reconfigured by microchip to display any book you want.

Booknews

Gershenfeld, co-director of the Things That Think research consortium at the MIT Media Laboratory, presents a compelling vision of a future where a shoe can exchange data through a handshake and a book change the printing on its pages. He traces the history of computing in order to identify our technological rights, which are now routinely infringed upon by the things around us, and looks ahead to investigate emerging technologies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Colin McGinn

...[R]eads too much like an advertisement....There is much discussion...of his many achievements in harnessing computer technology to more physical concerns. -- The New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

This book is the result of Gershenfeld's years of research as director of the Physics and Media Group at MIT's famous Media Lab — it lets us peek at the remarkable new digitized world he foresees. He thinks our digital world is immature and cumbersome. Personal computers are already as outmoded as typewriters; even the Internet and World Wide Web are just emerging from their juvenile phase. The present Digital Revolution features machines that merely entertain and dazzle when what we need is a digital world accessible to everyone and interactive on all occasions.

Although some of Gershenfeld's projects-such as a "personal fabricator" that orks with digitized atoms, an electronic cello, or moveable and wearable computers-may seem exotic, all aim at enhancing ordinary people's lives. Future digital books, for example, will be interactive, containing the best of traditional and digital worlds. "Smart" money will be able to be personalized and spent in many ways. Digitized educational opportunities will make many present teaching and learning practices obsolete. We must outgrow our two-dimensional digital world, Gershenfeld exhorts, and enter the multidimensional digitized world of sounds, sights, and even touch. The fact that a desktop needs a desk and a laptop needs a lap, he says, shows we are in the formative stages. New interface paradigms will allow children and adults to create, innovate, learn, and teach. But, he claims, the digital world must be in harmony with the natural world, and we can learn from biological models. Gershenfeld's vision of a digitized future is a humanistic one, finally: the cyberworld should enhance the real world, not replace it, and should empower people, not machines, to solve problems.

This can be done only in collaboration with digital researchers, academics, and the scientific community, but input must also come from common folks. Gershenfeld continually advances the cutting edge of the Digital Revolution, while striving to humanize it.