Tag Archive for 'futurology'

Semantic Services

Published
by
David
on June 3, 2008
in Tech
. Comments

If you’re a blogger or have any interest in semantic/content management technologies then you may be interested in a couple of new services which have recently launched with the aim of making content creation easier by automatically suggesting contextually relevant images, links, articles and tags which you may like to include.

Tagaroo

Tagaroo is based on an initiative called Calais by Thomson Reuters to “connect the world’s content by providing automated metadata services“. The video below sums the concept up pretty well -

It has an extremely slick and easy to use UI which sits neatly below the post editor on the Wordpress write page, suggesting tags and images as you type.

Underlying the interface the magic is carried out using “natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to extract the people, organizations, companies, geographies and events hidden within it”. To do this it connects to Calais via a free API (registration required). Pictures come from Flickr with a CC license.

My tests have found it pretty reliable and an extremely quick way tag your posts using a standard global taxonomy. At the moment the plugin is only available for Wordpress and Drupal however a number of other tools are currently under development.

Zemanta

Described as “a brilliant product for lazy or otherwise time-focused bloggers“, Zemanta is similar in many respects to Tagaroo, although perhaps a little more mature in its functionality (it’s European after all!). The video below shows how it works -

The tool uses its own database of content (indexed from over 300 “top media sources”) in order to suggest related pictures, links, articles and tags. It has a clean UI which integrates well with whatever backend you use and is offered either as a plugin for all the major platforms; WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and LiveJournal, or as a browser extension for IE or Firefox.

As someone who frequently links to Wikipedia in my posts I’ve found the link suggestion component an especially easy and quick way to insert these references with virtually no effort. Although the interface for picture insertion isn’t quite as nice as Tagaroo, Zemanta is currently my plugin of choice.

Yahoo also have a competing offering although it’s restricted to Yahoo content only so I’ve not taken time to review it.

Implications

Whether you call it Web 3.0, the Semantic Web or the Giant Global Graph I think these sorts of services are an important step towards the automated inference of knowledge from information. When we reach the point where machines can “understand” the content which they are parsing the implications are massive. Aside a whole herd of near-term applications I can also imagine scenarios in the not-so-distant future where every piece of content on the web is automatically linked to everything else which is relevant to it without the need for human interaction - Wikipedia without the editors or boundaries (or inherant bias?).

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The Future Awaits

Published
by
David
on December 1, 2007
in Future and Tech
. Comments

I was mulling over the technological progress which has been made over my lifetime so far and contemplating where it will take us in the future when it hit me that most of the “sci-fi” type developments predicted will only start to appear around the time that our generation are turning out the lights (taking into account that we live a bit longer than our parents). Will we see a person walk on Mars or have a brain transplant in our lifetime? Unlikely, but will our children? Probably. The next 60 odd years will no doubt see some amazing advances though so I wouldn’t get too depressed about it just yet - that’s assuming climate change doesn’t get us first!

Brain Image
© GE Medical Systems

I predict that much of what is to come will be driven by the deconstruction of our own physiology that we will mirror in machines/software which closely integrate with our own bodies as physical and virtual extensions of ourselves. This will redefine the notion and perception of consciousness and ultimately reality itself (is a virtual experience any less real than a physical one?). The process will not happen overnight and will be fraught with ethical issues as to how such technology should be used/controlled.

“It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So, man is an individual only because of his intangible memory… and memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind. The advent of computers, and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.”

GITS: Man Machine Interface Manga

While this may seem rather far-fetched we are already only one degree of separation away from realising a physical connection between man & machine. Already devices like iPhones and Blackberries give us a constant connection to an endless sea of information wherever we may happen to be, albeit currently limited by bandwidth. In a world where being offline has become synonymous with being out-of-touch dependence has crept upon us without us even noticing. Social networks are the precursor, or virtual toe-in-the-water, to forging our digital identities and relationships between others in a world no longer constrained by boundaries or borders. Exciting but somewhat daunting at the same time.

“If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it’s wired into the core of our being.”

Those who yearn after “the good life” will no doubt not be particularly enamoured by this vision of the future but I would seek to put it in perspective: humans have long pushed back the boundaries of exploration, be it mapping the worlds continents or landing on the moon, and to my mind this is the next logical step in our evolution as the world homogenises and our understanding of it increases. Added to this with the inevitable increase in population and growing scarcity of resources technology becomes even more important in providing solutions.

“All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.”

- all quotes Motoko Kusanagi & Puppet Master

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