Little Popping Sounds

Rusty Steel – a 100 word story

Don’t bring me those shiny steel rods. I like my steel rusty. I like it crunchy. I like steel that makes little popping sounds when I chew it. I like steel that slowly dissolves inside my body, leaving a warm sensation in all the right places. I used to nibble on rocks, but it wasn’t the same. Tiny pieces would get stuck in my teeth. It would take hours clearing. It was messy, and the taste was kind of stale. Now I’m on a steel diet. I’m telling you, rusty steel is the way to go. Here, try some yourself.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 18, Little Popping Sounds

Augmented reality is starting to supplement our everyday lives. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at augmented reality. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so – you’ve been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about augmented reality. Reality comes to us on a “what you see is what you get” basis, but what if we could add to it? That is where augmented reality comes, and draws added layers on reality. Today, most of the augmented reality you would experience would come through applications on your phone. You would hold your phone up to reality and it would draw additional things on it, from little pokemon entities to furniture. The augmented reality of today is used for everything from gaming to more practical uses like interior design.

Projects like Google Glass take augmented reality even further by placing augmented reality right in front of our eyes. It draws images on the lens of our glasses. Our glasses become little computers adding images to our everyday reality. Developers are already looking into using contact lenses as computers. The next step would be to embed computers right into our brains, and the day that happens is not as far as one might think. Computer graphics are becoming more and more realistic by the day and distinguishing what is real from what is actually augmented reality would eventually become very hard. I can’t really distinguish if the break I’m about to take is real or not. I’ll have to check that out. I’ll be right back.

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Knock-Knock – a 100 word story

Janice was a practical joker. The number of times we had to ask her “who’s there?” was ridiculous. We tried to stay away, but she would follow us, never understanding the hint. When they fired her, we all cheered. It was later that we read about it in the papers. She jumped off some bridge or another. Now she wanders the office floor telling us her knock-knock jokes. If someone refuses to play alone, he suffers dire consequences. Only five of us are left now. Here she comes. Let me utter the words that would keep us alive: “Who’s there?”

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Welcome back. Today, augmented reality can’t really be touched. It lives inside our screens. This is going to change once programmable matter becomes available. The idea of programming matter itself emerged in the 1990s and is currently being researched in various laboratories around the world. This would enable us to augment our reality with tangible matter, one that can be touched and shaped at our will, or rather, the will of skilled programmers.

Games are where the application of programmable matter would probably start, making gaming more exciting and real. Entertainment is a very profitable market and where there is profit, there is often groundbreaking research. Augmenting our reality by programmable matter would then bleed to more practical applications like designing your home or education. Unfortunately, military and crime are also very profitable so research into programmable matter and augmented reality would prosper on those two very questionable fields too.

People have a tendency to group into “them versus us” groups. When technology becomes too tangible this can become dangerous. Currently, augmented reality is drawn on our computer screens and is pretty harmless. Once it leaves our computer screens through programmable matter or gets drawn directly into our brains through implanted computers, it becomes dangerous. Programmable matter can be programmed to kill you and images can be put into your very brain that induce madness. This kind of technology can’t be stopped. It will come whether we want it or not. It’s inevitable. The question of how we decide to use it is, unfortunately, not really up to us but up to the people who profit from it. This concludes episode 18 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget – I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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