Smart Mobs Reflection, Chapters 4-6

Some of the more insightful passages in chapters 4-6 of Smart Mobs I found were from sources outside of Rheingold's own words. For example, a passage by Steve Mann in 2001 caught my eye.

Rather than smart rooms, smart cars, smart toilets, etc., I would like to put forward the notion of smart people.
In an HI [humanistic intelligence] framework, the goal is to enhance the intelligence of the race, not just its tools. Smart people means, simply, that we should rely on human intelligence in our development of technological infrastructure rather than attempt to take the human being out of the equation. An important goal of HI is to take a first step toward a foremost principle of the Enlightenment, that of the dignity of the individual. This is accomplished, metaphorically and actually, through a prosthetic transformation of the body into a sovereign space, in effect allowing each and every one of us to control the environment that surrounds us. . . . One of the founding principles of developing technology under the HI system is that the user must be an integral part of the discourse loop. The wearable computer allows for new ways to be, not just do. (Smart Mobs, 107).

This passage may help quell the fears of those who think we're heading down a path foreseen in The Terminator. Technology should be an assistance to life, not a way of life. For example, translation devices. Rheingold talked about a device that could read a sign in a foreign language and translate it into English. Could this technology possibly be auditory? Could people in foriegn countries begin wearing ear pieces that translated the language they heard into their own language? Imagine the cultural barriers that could be overcome by being able to understand each other in such an easy way. Another crazy thought I had was when Rheingold was discussing some sort of Virtual Reality system that allowed one to interact with the real world, using a system of glasses and cameras. This made me think -- could blind people see? Could we place a chip inside a person's head that could receive information from a camera located on a pair of glasses? I'm not really sure if that's possible with the human anatomy, but it is an interesting idea.

Rheingold also discussed the Cornucopia of the Commons to a larger extent. An example I have of such a group is Stumble! Located at http://www.stumbleupon.com/ Stumble is a fun and easy way to find new and interesting pages on the internet. Simply download the free toolbar, hit "Stumble!" and you're off. Users are allowed to "Share" pages on a variety of topics, including literature, games, current events, car parts, sewing, countries, religion, and dozens of others. Once you have your selected list, you can hit the Stumble! button and, based on your selection, it will either take you to a random page on any topic within your preferences or a page about a selected preference. Once at that page, you can see what other Stumblers have thought about it, and also give your own rating. The higher the rating, the more likely other people are to Stumble upon it. On the Stumble page, it states: Rating just a few sites a day will further refine your preferences, matching you to more similar people and more interesting sites. This is an awesome example of the Cornucopia of the Commons as well as the reputation system. Not to mention it's incredibly fun, an awesome way to explore the internet, and a great time waster! I think it's a great device because previously, outside of Google and my regularly visited pages, I never really knew how to explore the internet to find things that really interest me. Check it out!