Kyle Brady: A Blog

It probably wasn’t widely covered, but this blog (and the first I’ve heard of it) that gorillas have been seen using “weapons” for the first time in combat recently. Hmm… didn’t we (humans) have a similar moment in time? Other articles have suggested that certain groups of apes/chimpanzees/etc. are developing higher level intelligence through advanced usage of “tools”, hand/signal-based communication, etc.

Pretend With Me

We all evolved from some form of ape, right? Unless you’re one of the few staunch believers in “creationism” as being a realistic idea of how we currently exist (along with the dragons and made up stories), this is the general idea of our history. So, let’s pretend that a species of ape is currently in the midst of “evolving up” (a phrase I just made up to become fully sentient and highly advanced… let’s go with chimpanzees.

Since these chimps are currently (in pretend) making the slow-but-eventual leap towards a stature like ours, you can only assume that at one point they will be physically interacting with us, in an exploratory way, with language. Let’s also pretend that the year that happens is 2020.

What Happens Now?

As wonderful humans, we have the luxury of being the only sentient and advanced (as far as we know) species on the planet. Dolphins are credited with being highly intelligent, but we’ve yet to be able to communicate with them… maybe when we do, they’ll turn out to be like the dolphins in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Anyways, we only have to deal/interact/argue with ourselves. What happens when you add another species to the mix?

Not a podcast, but you get the idea.

In general, humans have been waiting for the appearance of another life form to appear from the skies for hundreds of years… always assuming they will be of higher intelligence and with more advanced technology, waiting to greet us with open arms. Are we prepared to deal with a still-developing species?

Interaction

When the chimpanzees first approach humanity, what will their language be like? Will they still have all that body hair, or will that have been “evolved out”? Will they understand how alike our two species are, or will they see humanity as a strange foe?

I’d like to think that we could live in a peaceful harmony, but something named “history” tells me otherwise. Assuming we come to an understanding on a language basis… what then? Do we let them integrate into our culture and society, if that’s what they want? Or do we try and keep them removed from us so they can develop on their own? Do we provide them with human knowledge, or do we keep them in the dark from even the most basic of things?

Actuality

In truth, chances are that any newly-arrived species that comes from Earth will be directly affected by humans, whether we want to be involved or not. Human rights activists will probably be fighting to “help” them, while others argue against it. But either way, they will see how we are dressed, how we act, and how we live… and it will effect the course of history forever.

Fast Progress

Given everything I’ve said/created/pretended so far, it all adds up to one eventuality: a super-fast hyper-evolution. One day, these chimpanzees will walk out of the forest and communicate with us… another day, not too long from that, they will be our equals. Why? It took us an astronomical amount of time to get to where we currently are, but that was without any outside help (assuming no aliens came down and showed us things). These new super-chimps will have the benefit of human knowledge and experience, and be able to come to a very quick equalization with humans in a fraction of the time it took us.

What if these were the same creatures you saw in a zoo? What then?

Prepare Now

I think this is something that truly needs to be addressed in the scientific community, now. Everyone likes to talk about how “cute” and “humanlike” chimpanzees and other apes are, but I’ve yet to see or hear thoughts on when and how we deal with the eventuality of another branch of evolution (except Planet of the Apes… and that doesn’t count). It may be 200 years or 1000 years, or maybe only 20… who knows?

But it’s going to happen. Think about your grandchildren… do you want them at war with a new species? Or do you want them to learn and interact with this new species for the benefit of everyone?

posted on November 27th, 2007 at 12:05 pm by Kyle - Comments

Tags: Apes, Evolution, Future, Hmm...

A random article suggests that anger/rage may be a genetic trait. While the article is pretty short, and doesn’t link directly to the study, if it’s true, it could mean a few things in the future…

It’s like an angry Picasso…

Baby Killing

Want a Utopian society? Well, if this rage gene is truly a “rage gene”, and can be detected early on, who’s to say that “the government” at the time (a world government?) doesn’t ban babies with these genes from being born? “Baby Killing” would be extreme, because we all know abortion is around, but either way it amounts to the same thing.

Super Soldiers

You know all of those movies where there’s a race of super soldiers? That could easily become a reality if “the government” decides not to prevent these rageaholic infants from being born, but rather makes sure to …acquire… all of them for early , and life-long, military training.

Segregation

Pretend that a bunch of these super-ragers figured out their genetic secret, and started banding together. You could very easily end up with a segregated, or “caste” if you prefer, world: the super angry in control of the world, and the rest of us “normals” living in subhuman colonies.

Feel the anger, my child…

Bleak?

I realize I painted a pretty bleak picture, and there’s obviously ways this could never happen (like, if it’s not real), but it’s always fun to try and figure out how apocalyptic movie scenarios can happen in real life, don’t you think?

posted on November 17th, 2007 at 1:20 pm by Kyle - Comments

Tags: Apocalypse, DNA, Future, Hmm..., Rageaholics

R/WW had an article today about “Web 2.0 Hit the Mainstream”…

So, 37% use a “web application” on a “regular basis”? Hmm… let’s think for a second. What do you imagine this “web application” mainstream users are …using?

W3 R w3b 2[dot]OH!

The Obvious:

• Gmail / Hotmail / Yahoo Mail / [some other email app]
• Google Calendar / [some other calendar app]
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Flickr
• MySpace
• Ebay / PayPal

The Less Obvious:

• Google Reader / [some other RSS aggregator]
• Box.net / DivShare / [some other file sharing site]
• Digg / [other"social news" sites]

Those are things that have useful integration into daily life, or are used by enough people to have become beneficial for use. But what are people not using mainstream?

Potentially Useful, But Not “Big Enough” …Yet

• Pownce / Twitter / [any sort of messaging community]
• Goodreads / [targeted social networks, mimicking real-life situations like book discussion groups]
• Blogs

Not Useful Whatsoever, And Rightly Ignored

• SecondLife / Gaia / [any type of online "virtual world"]
• [stupid things like "Pirate Poking"]
• Ning / Metacafe / Imeem / [all of the sites that claim to be the "next [whatever]” of “[something]“]
• Mint / [other sites that you give your bank data]
• [anything else that TechCrunch typically loves, but is a copy of something, or has no actual purpose]

Seriously people. When you are thinking of what new project you can start, and hope to be rich off of… you have to think of the end result. Don’t create things that won’t make a dent in the world outside of Silicon Valley or the early adopters crowd. Don’t believe me? Think about the target audience of the successful web-based businesses… what does Amazon do? Or Google? Or AIM?

Let’s be smart about this…

They provide services people want in an easy to use format and don’t target an obscenely small audience.

Why does no-one understand the basics of marketing at these “companies”? No-one wants (or needs) another pointless social network.

posted on September 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm by Kyle - Comments

Tags: Code, Hmm..., Rant, Social Graph, The Internet

I read a story just now about how a telecom company in France is going to provide all of their customers with an OpenID, immediately, without any action on the part of the customer.

OpenID, an open authentication system

In principle, OpenID is a good thing. But there are definitely better ways to “open the social graph.” Here’s a repost of something I wrote on Pownce [reference no longer valid] a little bit ago:

All this talk about microformats and the “open social graph” is all well and good… but how many places are going to open up their data? How many services are going to want o implement a centralized-server setup, and be the center of that wheel?

There is only one real solution: a big-name player in the industry has to step up, and take sides. Google is rumored to be creating a centralized social network database… where all those Web 2.0 services can pull things from (like your favorite movies, foods, hobbies, friends, etc), instead of typing them in 29 million times in different places.

There are only three companies who have the power and capability to do this:
Microsoft, Google, and Facebook (Yahoo is outdated, and no longer matters)

Microsoft isn’t trusted enough to be a part of this, so that leaves the battle between Google and Facebook.

On one hand, Facebook already has the most social network data on the most people, and has already opened up portions of that data. The next logical step would be providing a system of cross-referencing and caching that data through different sites.

Conversely, Google has the power and the money to destroy any market they see fit. Not only do they hold the sway of the search community, but also have data on many many people who use their singular Google Account for many services. They already have this database in place… they just need to expand it. They already have the functionality of access in place (Google Base), it just needs to be realized and publicized.

I’m hoping these changes come soon. I’m tired of hearing about OpenID being the future. I’m tired of re-typing my data. I’m tired of how useless, but highly flaunted, microformats are in a closed environment. I’m tired of small, next-to-meaningless services wanting to be THE hub for all your data.

We need this. We need it now. And if “the Internet” is to become what everyone of Web 2.0 wants it to be, outside of the nerd fiefdom, it needs to be done right… perfectly, the first time.

posted on September 24th, 2007 at 5:20 pm by Kyle - Comments

Tags: Code, Hmm..., Microformats, OpenID, Social Graph, The Internet