Spring has Sprung

Ah, Spring. What surer signs of springtime in Toronto than an industrious bee gathering pollen from the blooming cherry trees in High Park, or the industrious squirrel feeding on its traditional food, the muffin wrapper?

Getting an autograph from 500 km away

A few days ago I attended a speech by the computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil, where he talked at length about his optimistic view of the future of humans and technology and how they'll merge within the next 30 years or so. Afterwards I bought a copy of his book The Singularity Is Near and got it autographed by him while having a brief chat. What was most amazing about all of that was the fact that he was in Indiana while I was in Toronto. Being able to give a speech (and take questions) remotely was not a big technological jump, but the book-signing was. It was done by the Long Pen, a device which lets an author (or anyone else) sign his/her name or any other written text at a remote terminal using a haptic pen, and it gets transmitted to another haptic pen at the receiving end which then copies the signature onto paper, or in this case a book. Very cool. There was also a two-way video connection so I could have a brief chat with him.

Kurzweil's parting words at the speech were that we try to hang on and stay alive another 15 years since after that point medical technology might allow us to live as long as we want. As I plan to do so I hope the future me, with mind expanded by machines and nanotech, gets a kick out of reading this.