The futurist’s glossary

Why? Because it’s tough to keep up with all the made-up-stuff neologisms out there. 

Accelerometer: it’s the thing in the iPhone that can tell if you’re looking at pictures straight up, or on the side. More interestingly, it’s crucial to using augmented reality (AR). Together with GPS-positioning that tells where your mobile is, and an in-built compass that can tell which direction you’re facing, it helps. Not sure how yet, but working on that. It works like a gyroscope.

AR (augmented reality): a nifty new idea that layers information onto reality. So as you walk down a street and the system recognises something, it gives you relevant information on that thing. Say it sees a restaurant, it could tell you today’s specials. Say it sees a friend and its been fitted with a working facial recognition algorithm, it could tell you information about your friend, such as latest blog posts, Facebook updates etc. Find out more about AR at the awesome Games Alfresco blog.

Crowd-sourcing: the theory that many are better than one; think of the ‘ask the audience’ on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Email apnea: you know that feeling when you keep wanting to work but you can’t help but check your email every few moments? This is the result of all that awful and, let’s face it, pointless excitement. After all, you’ve stopped working to find a PR, a company you once bought a shirt from or Friend Reunited is trying to sell you something. Even worse, it’s actually actively bad for your health, and it’s called ’email apnea’, as discovered and described by Linda Stone. It’s, and these are direct quotes, ‘a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email’. It was coined by our Linda in February 2008, and just to make sure people don’t think she’s just doing it as a way to keep her in the limelight and in speaking appearances, she got together with a whole host of health and research experts to back up her point. You can see that here. 

Geotagging: when I first heard of this a few years ago, I have to admit I laughed. I thought I’d heard too too much new fancy names that meant nothing… but this concept is crucial in the new AR-enhanced world, and a world where information is becoming more contextualised, relevant and useful by the day. Oh, and what does it mean? Tagging something by its location. 

HCI: means ‘human computer interaction’, referring to the next generation way that we communicate with technology. It’s all about making it easier, more natural and more intuitive for us to get the most out of technology. (Let’s face it, human fingers weren’t originally designed to use a QWERTY keyboard.) At present it’s about making computers as user-friendly to us. Hopefully it’ll stay that way, rather than changing us to fit computers – though I heard a story about a man who had his thumb whittled down so he could text more efficiently. Wearable computing (QV) is big here. 

Libertarian paternalism: as outlined in Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s Nudge, this is where liberal democracies are headed. Libertarian because we’re still free to choose. Paternalism because, goddamnit Mary, put your clothes away. That is, we’re still children who need telling what to do – as shown by brilliant behavioural psychologist/economist’s discoveries like the hot-cold empathy gap which show that our Reflective Systems are much smarter, more rational, sensible and, frankly, trustworthy than our Automatic Systems. Hint: the Reflective System is the one that says I’ll only have three drinks and be home by midnight because I’ve got to be up early working, the Automatic System is the one that says ‘another one’ and stays out till 3am. 

NEA: This one’s from an internet guru called Doc Searls. NEA refers to the great stuff out there on the web like email blogging, instant messaging – as opposed to owned platforms like Twitter. It stands for  Nobody owns them,
Everybody can use them and Anybody can improve them.

Tagging: the 21st century version of filing. Filing was created for real world, . The problem with it is that each thing has/had to sit in one folder. By definition, once something solid’s been filed in the real world, it’s in one file. For the first few decades of computing, we used files too. But then, because this stuff is electronic, someone worked out that something could sit in more than one file… because it’s electronic the machine could offer more than one route to accessing the information. And then, rather than file it at all, it’s easier to ‘tag’ something. Why’s that useful? Well, an amazing new hotel in Mexico could be tagged: Mexico, design, architects, opening in 2010 etc. And you might want to access all restaurants that you’re keeping tabs on, or everything opening in 2010. The word’s origin, btw, is grafitti tagging, where hooligans like Banksy would write their nom de spray can/fat marker pen on the train/park bench. 

Wearable computing: er, as it says on the tin. Computer stuff you actually wear, like a shirt or trousers. You haven’t heard of the iPants? You haven’t seen someone walking along the street with a laptop strapped to their chest? Where’ve you been? OK, enough attempts at humour. Wearable computing is all about devices that are that next step closer to the body. Think of Bluetooth earpieces that look like they’re straight out of Star Trek, or LG’s new watchphone from Orange (in the UK) or what the military calls the head mounted display (HMD). Wearing one of these means as well as seeing what’s there you see information that’s revelant to the stuff that’s there – similar to the view that Robocop used to get, or the now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t alien in Predator. The most exciting next step for mere mortal like you and me is Vuzix’s AR (QV) glasses, which will augment what you see with information, yet prevent you from looking like a freak. 

Zigbee: a sort of WiFi for low energy devices. Sounds to me like it could be useful for smart dust sensoring.

I’m working on this page as and when I come across new terms. If there’s a term here or anywhere else you’re confused about, please email me, I’ll try to help.