HCIs IN SFMs

After the reading, the words "interface metaphors" make much more sense.....
Out of all the example that were mentionned, I must say that I liked the examples in the "Other I/O Technologies" section. I have not seen "Minority Report" in a while but all these great ideas and concepts that struck me when I watched it hit back me back. As said in the reading, one enormous factor that gives this movie so much credit is the long research done on society's evolution. One element that i noticed in the movie, but is not discussed here, is the size of the commercial boards on the streets, they are the actual walls of the streets and talk to you and show you video clips when you walk by them....I thought that was so true. Commercials move back in front of nothing, they are more and more in our faces, it is just a matter of time before something like this actually happens in my opinion.
Another "interface metaphor" i thought was interesting is the "gesture technology", how computers detect your gestures for commands. This was first seen in "Johnny Mnemonic", as a way to use the internet. And then seen again in "Minority Report" as a way to arrange a visual puzzle like pieces on a desktop. I thought these concepts were really interesting because they are not overused and both used them in different ways, with different visual supports.
The "Babel-fish translator" is one of a kind. I did not see the original version of the "Hitchhicker's guide to the galaxy" but I recently saw the remade version; where I found out about this natural new technology. I was so used to see some crazy electronic, surreal, digital invention to make the movie more futuristic, (because in our head future means new and improved technological devices that help us) that I was plesantly surprised to see that the discovery of a natural "bug" could beneficiate the human. Especially for a good cause like the simplicity of communication. I thought that was a wonderful "interface metaphor".
The neuro-technology, technology based on brain activities, is now a famous concept that still makes its impact. I think the enormous popularity of "The Matrix" made this concept not so far-fetched, a little "out there" but not so much after all when you look at what goes on in the world today. The brain is the processor of the human, what makes us think, believe, have emotions, etc... I find it normal that this part of the human anatomy is given an extreme importance. So it is no surprise when in "Johnny Mnemonic" it is viewed as a safe for information, a guardian of privacy, the last thing that we own, or try to. The brain is our weapon, and it is constantly under attack, it is a fort to change. This idea brings me back to the matrix example, how by plugging devices straight in our heads takes us to other worlds, other dimensions......
Going back to the "Other I/O technologies" section, I found the idea of liquid ink quite crazy. I mean all the previous examples and concepts discussed earlier and in the original text could seem possible, with an advance in techologies, or with a open mind. But liquid ink that changes journal titles on a simple sheet of paper seems to far for me. This liquid ink would have to be kept in between the sheet of paper and an extremely thin layer of a material to keep it on the journal, and pre programmed to alternate between different news, all this on a tool that is very probably going to end up in a trash can. One thing that I noticed in the evolution of technologies is its direction towards long term use. I am not talking about the actual long term use of the object you are using, like a computer or a phone, but what the object will represent in the near future. You know you will always need a phone, everyday, just like the computer, and maybe you will soon have one object that combines the both of them, which is an increase in technology. But you wil have a different newspaper everyday, which is not really ressource efficient, an important factor on earth today. And I know for sure that these journal are not recycled in the movie, because I rememeber that in one scene, there are newspaper lying around everywhere in the streets and metro......