Staring Down a Revolution: Questions for Sid Karin

Mark of THE CITY writes "Mark of THE CITY writes "Since helping to found the San Diego Supercomputer Center in the 1980s, Sid Karin has distinguished himself as a national expert on digital technology and its possibilities for scientific research. Go here for the full interview."

Re:"Technological revolutions don't happen every d

[kfg]

A bicycle is technology.

KFG

His revolution: seemingly infinite storage

[ReformedExCon]

He likens terabyte storage to the numerous technological revolutions of the past. His opinion is that at some point storage will become so plentiful in personal devices that the concept of "having it all" will be a reality. His first example is loading all recorded media onto a personal device. His second is storing photo-realistic images in car navigation systems. This is his revolution?

Having infinite storage is interesting, but if you consider the Internet to be the same type of thing, there are already limitations. First, you need to realize that 90% of everything is garbage. The other 10% may be useful, but to whom? The tiny fraction of a percent of all information that may be useful to you personally needs to be able to find its way to you. So we have tools like search engines to help us. They are slowly getting better, but the tide of information only comes in, so though the engines are getting better, the quality of results is increasingly getting worse.

What would I do with all recorded music? I couldn't possibly listen to it all in my lifetime. I'd need some sort of intelligent agent to find things that I'd like and play those so that I don't waste time listening to things I'm not interested in.

This isn't some future revolution. It's reality now, and for the most part it works okay.

What will we do with infinite storage? Probably just hoard more data, I think. There's only a small amount of data that is actually usable to any one person, expanding storage capacity isn't going to change that.

Okay...

[WhiteHat101]

So, now that we have a terabyte of space in out GPS we can use that to scroll ahead to find out the current gas price. How does that work? Won't that require access to the Internet or some other source to get current images anyways..? So that terabyte of space would be wasted because you're not going to be able to get that much current information that quickly!

I'm also confused on his ideas on buying a license for all music... and then playing $.16 for each song... Don't those ideas contradict themselves..?

I'm sure most people will think "I don't want to listen to half the music out there" and once they are done with that I'm sure purchasing a license for all music is going to be rather expensive, especially when you don't want a whole lot of it.

I personally would prefer to carry my iPod from place to place instead of paying $.16 for each of the thousands of songs I have...
Assuming I just have 1000 songs that all cost $.16
$.16 * 1000 = $160.00
I'm not gonna pay $160.00 for a home copy, and another $160 for a copy at work or on my laptop or whatever! I have better things to spend my money on!

I am with him, there.

[imsabbel]

Maybe you cant follow me, but the mere fact that one can have all the books of a large library on your computer, fully indexed with the possibility to do boolean and regular searches is as much an revolution as thethe printing press, imho.

And just like that (the press), it will take decades to slowly get recognition to its worth.

There wont even the possiblilities of "Burning libraries" anymore if everybody can store the whole history and culture of his country/region/religion on his ipod mk9...

Re:Slashdotting apps?

[Poromenos1]

I guess it does, if you actually sent the email :P

Re:Dupe

[LordNightwalker]

Not to mention the fact that you still got no clue who did the interview or what the interview was about.

Click here for the interview... THE Interview!!!

WHAT INTERVIEW?????

Yes, I know I can click the link to find out, but would it be so hard to actually describe the article in the short blurb? Imagine every submitter fucked up like this, then we'd have to RTFA on every single new slashdot headline. I'd never get around to getting actual work done...

Re:"Technological revolutions don't happen every d

[kfg]

using the time honored, "was it created before I was born" rule of thumb. . .

That is the rule of thumb for tradition, not technology.

They'll be technology to me when you mount lasers on 'em.

Invented in 1958. By your rule of thumb not technology, unless you are older than myself, and I'm turning grey.

Same year the integrated circuit was first actually produced, although the invention goes back some years, to the same year the first nuclear power plant went critical.

Ahhhh, but what about that modern icon of technology, rocket science and space exploration?

The multistage rocket dates from 1650 and the first animal launched into space and successfully recovered by parachute. . .1806. Liquid fuel wont save you. That's still pre WWI.

On the other hand bicycle chainwheels are now so sophisticated that they can only be designed and cut by computer analysis and CAM, each individual tooth having a slightly different profile depending on where it lies in relation to the power stroke, other teeth and the size of the gear.

Be careful about your rules of thumb, or all your lights might go out. First city to city transmission of three phase AC current; 1891.

KFG