[ExI] Attention Spans Decreasing?

[spike]

Subject: Re: [ExI] Attention Spans Decreasing?

 

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 8:51 AM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

 

>.I recently was asked by a neighbor who knew of my academic background (Ph.
D. exp. psych) and a hobby, gardening, and brought a bug over for me to
identify.  When I went to get my bug book he said that he was devastated
that I did not know right away.  After all I was so smart, right?  Bill

 

Entomology is far too vast to even attempt memorization of anything other
than a few score of the more common species.  The field of buggery is just
too big to get our heads around it.

 

What I want is to carry all my bug books with me by some means.  I think
some derivative of Google glass is the answer.  I don't need to carry it on
my head.  My tablet already has a camera good for close-up applications, or
rather adaptable for that purpose.  It has a standard-spectrum light source,
so the internal camera can get color, it has a big enough memory to do
practical image matching.  

 

I want an app (coder jockeys among us, note my consumer wishes) which would
let me go out and take a picture or video of a bug or beast, then have it
figure out what I am seeing and tell me some cool interesting things about
that bug or beast.  Having casually observed insects for decades, I am
astonished at how often I find new interesting insect behaviors and species
I don't recall having seen before.  I want my entire entomology library
right there with me.  I can't even hoist my paper version of that library,
and even if I had it right there in a shopping cart, I could never find the
relevant info in a reasonable time.  Bugs are too big and too numerous for
that (kewalllll.)

 

In physics we talk about parallel universes.  We have a parallel universe
right under our feet: bugs and humans coexist with each taking little notice
of the other except in a very few special cases, such as ants in the house.
Under the feet of the bugs exists yet another universe parallel to theirs,
with life forms too small for the bugs to see or notice or care about.  I
want a special instrument that I can carry, a digital microscope, where I
can observe that parallel universe, then have that instrument Bluetooth the
image to my tablet, and have my tablet look it up and teach me things, right
there in realtime.

 

When doing that kind of observation, there is no need to travel far; there
are vast stretches of unexplored territory in your own backyard.  If you are
a high-rise condo dweller with no backyard, a vast parallel universe of
unexplored territory, teeming with life waiting to be discovered, can be
found in the flowerpot on your balcony.

 

spike 

 

 

 

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