At a recent conference in China, I was given the opportunity to speak to John Gage, Sun Microsystems` chief researcher, about what technology can do.
As a result of our meeting, I imagine that the guy must be awe-inspiring and terrifying to work with all at once. His attitude seems to be "if it can be conceived, it can be achieved", and he then sets about trying to conceive the most outlandishly advanced concepts imaginable.
Every motivational poster clich'e seems to apply to this guy with a ring of sincerity. There is no "how?" only "when?". And for someone possessed of what must be a brilliantly technical brain, his manner of speech is engaging and accessible.
He`s the kind of person you see in movies presenting papers to rooms full of sceptical academics, making concepts like cold fusion or global warming seem deceptively simple.
While he ambled amiably about the interaction between humans and machines, and how as yet, this union has not seen the synergy anticipated at the birth of the PC, I studiously took notes. At one point he paused, seeming to lose his train of thought, then pointed to my notepad.
"Look at what you`re doing," he said and then pointed out the insanity of me listening to what he was saying, making notes, then going home to type them into my computer so that his spoken word could be accessed by others in the written form.
His point was that there should be a simplification of the interfaces between me hearing his message, and my final transmission of it. It immediately occurred to me that the simplest dissemination of the spoken word is radio - a medium that has its niche, but has hardly retained its initial compelling hold on captive audiences the world over.
Every motivational poster clich'e seems to apply to this guy with a ring of sincerity.
Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm
But we`re not so far from a future where a recording device will be able to transcribe the words of a speaker, leaving the journalist only to insert appropriate observations or comments, either verbally or on an archaic old keyboard.
Gage had to cut our interview short to proceed on to his next demonstration of the clever things that are being done with software in the Sun labs, and I went to the auditorium to watch his presentation.
What had been developed was a solid pendulum that could be made to stand upside-down by minuscule adjustments of its centrepiece made by software feeding back into a computer in fractions of a second.
Gage pointed out that these fractional adjustments meant that when he gave the inverted pendulum a nudge, it would apply equal pressure back against his hand to maintain the equilibrium.
He told the audience that the way in which this pressure was exerted made the gadget seem to the touch like it was controlled by a human, rather than a computer.
It is delightful that such projects exist, seemingly without purpose, but with the ultimate intention of pushing technology to the furthest limits of its potential.
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