John K. Davis, Independent Distributor, SendOutCards

The Intimate Machine

October has been a weird time for me and mine. We had a personal crisis that forced us out of our home, me out of my office and what we could salvage was moved into a hotel room. Doing life while the places I rely on are in flux is unsettling--I didn't pack everything I need, most of my computer equipment is in storage, the restoration work is not going smoothly, my routine and rituals have been decimated and the simplest things seem more difficult to deal with. I am looking forward to having things back to normal soon.

Despite my whining, there has been much to celebrate. I am showing Scopeware three or four times a week now. Thanks to Antonio de la Cerda, Will Bowen, Lawrence Hess, Thomas Pastuszka, David Spierman and Lucas Wellman who were added to the list of those who have arranged for me to show Scopeware to friends or associates.

Did you catch The Intimate Machine with Alan Alda on PBS last week? If not, you can view the program online at:

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1303/video/watchonline.htm

It does not take great imagination to understand where the technologies featured in this program will take us.

For a more thoughtful treatment of these issues you can read "Whither Psychoanalysis in a Computer Culture?" published at Ray Kurzweil's website.

In the early 1980s, MIT professor Sherry Turkle first called the computer a "second self." With this essay, she presents a major new theory of "evocative objects": Wearable computers, PDAs, online multiple identities, "companion species" (such as quasi-alive virtual pets, digital dolls, and robot nurses for the elderly), "affective computing" devices (such as the human-like Kismet robot), and the imminent age of machines designed as relational artifacts are causing us to see ourselves and our world differently. They call for a new generation of psychoanalytic self-psychology to explore the human response and the human vulnerability to these objects.

The Intimate Machine

October has been a weird time for me and mine. We had a personal crisis that forced us out of our home, me out of my office and what we could salvage was moved into a hotel room. Doing life while the places I rely on are in flux is unsettling--I didn't pack everything I need, most of my computer equipment is in storage, the restoration work is not going smoothly, my routine and rituals have been decimated and the simplest things seem more difficult to deal with. I am looking forward to having things back to normal soon.

Despite my whining, there has been much to celebrate. I am showing Scopeware three or four times a week now. Thanks to Antonio de la Cerda, Will Bowen, Lawrence Hess, Thomas Pastuszka, David Spierman and Lucas Wellman who were added to the list of those who have arranged for me to show Scopeware to friends or associates.

Did you catch The Intimate Machine with Alan Alda on PBS last week? If not, you can view the program online at:

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1303/video/watchonline.htm

It does not take great imagination to understand where the technologies featured in this program will take us.

For a more thoughtful treatment of these issues you can read "Whither Psychoanalysis in a Computer Culture?" published at Ray Kurzweil's website.

In the early 1980s, MIT professor Sherry Turkle first called the computer a "second self." With this essay, she presents a major new theory of "evocative objects": Wearable computers, PDAs, online multiple identities, "companion species" (such as quasi-alive virtual pets, digital dolls, and robot nurses for the elderly), "affective computing" devices (such as the human-like Kismet robot), and the imminent age of machines designed as relational artifacts are causing us to see ourselves and our world differently. They call for a new generation of psychoanalytic self-psychology to explore the human response and the human vulnerability to these objects.

It's A Gift

Life is interesting. I am sitting at a nice desk in the penthouse room of the Holiday Inn where we are now living, hooked to the Internet via a T1 line, looking out the window to beautiful San Diego Bay below. The lights around the Bay sparkle as though calling to the lights of the city. A full moon hangs in the sky above the Bay and its reflection in the water looks like a glimmering pot of gold at the end of ribbon path leading directly to treasure. Everything seems right with the world.

It is not, of course--not even my world is "right" these days. A water pipe broke two stories above our home a couple of weeks ago. Our place was flooded. This morning restoration construction begins. Four walls will be replaced, the interior painted and new floor coverings installed. We had all of our personality moved into storage and we moved into the Holiday Inn. Things are not right at all.

When it seems difficult, Janet or I turn to the other and say, "It's a gift." We wanted new flooring throughout the house and indirect lighting in the office. Much of the cost to make the changes we wanted anyway is being borne by the insurance company. They also paid to pack all our stuff, move it into storage and return it when the changes are complete. They are paying for the penthouse room at the Holiday Inn. It's a gift.

Matt is here, too. He is staying in a nice room just below ours. We might also have hosted Jon Steven, but he would rather sleep on the floor at a friend's house.

Russ and Joan Allen came for the weekend (they stayed in a penthouse room at the Holiday Inn, so we pretended we were vacationing together) and we had a lovely dinner at Laurel restaurant with Jim and Marlys Frahm Saturday night--they were visiting San Diego for a doctor convention. Life goes on even when everything seems all mixed up and out of sorts.

We hope to move back into our place in a week or ten days. It's a gift.