What is google wave?
Answer: I have no clue. Everyone is talking about it though, so I went to the best research tool ever, Wikipedia, to figure it out.
Apparently it is “a personal communication and collaboration tool,” which means nothing to me because I am not technologically-minded. Layman’s terms please! I scrolled down. It can also be described as a “web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol.” Huh?
Okay, scroll down more.
Hold up. What? According to Wikipedia, the name Google Wave comes from the Joss Whedon, cult-favorite TV show Firefly, because a “wave” is the electronic communication tool used on the show. And the “development of external extensions” (whatever that is) for Wave had the nickname “Serenity” after the show’s spaceship, Serenity, and the 2005 movie version of the show, also titled Serenity. Oh, and an earlier test version of Google Wave was named Dollhouse after another Whedon show, Dollhouse, that was recently cancelled. Ok, forget figuring out what Wave actually is, let’s focus on the fact that the people at Google are wayyyy nerdier than I’d ever imagined! And the fact that a sixty-person agreed on this title makes it that much better. Forget Intel’s whole “Our rockstars aren’t like your rockstars” campaign, cause Joss Whedon makes Ajay Bhatt (co-inventor of the USB) look like the high school quarterback.
I love unabashed nerdiness, however, so props to them. Although I’ve never seen Dollhouse, Firefly, or its movie counterpart, I’m looking forward to the day that Google Buffy the Vampire Slayer is developed, whatever it might be.
Oh, and for anyone who really wants to figure out what Google Wave is, you can check their self-described “loooong” video here.
In other technological news, I learned about Project Natal recently (pronounced NAH-tahl), which is basically Xbox’s somewhat disturbing venture into artificial intelligence and video games without controllers.
Watch a demo in a short video here.
Okay. The whole controller-less thing is cool, and in theory, the AI capabilities of the main character in the game, Milo, are also cool. But watching him react to things and understand the game player is also kinda creepy. Three other questions that I have about this game:
1) Once the novelty wears off, who really wants to play a video game that is, in essence, an exercise in babysitting a pouty ten-year-old kid?
2) If possible, why not just go outside and have mundane interactions with the real world or remind your own kid or sibling to finish his or her homework?
3) And what happens when Milo learns how to love?
I hope that Xbox has the answers to these questions, especially since the name “Project Natal” has a sinister ring to it, don’t you think?
Filed under: Computerz, Kind of Creepy, Don't You Think?, Science-y stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: artificial intelligence, firefly, google wave, joss whedon, milo, project natal, xbox
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