Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: how Staffworks and my Heart Radio and I love all
Speaker 1: things tech and Happy New Year. But the last several
Speaker 1: years and I've said aside an episode at the end
Speaker 1: of the calendar year or beginning of the new year
Speaker 1: to make predictions that will follow in the months ahead,
Speaker 1: I do pretty well, and most of the time, I
Speaker 1: you know, I end up being at least partly right
Speaker 1: about a few things and entirely wrong about other things.
Speaker 1: The future is pretty hard to predict, even for someone
Speaker 1: who's really smart, So for a goof is like me,
Speaker 1: it's nearly a coin flip situation in some cases. So
Speaker 1: this year I thought I would change it up a
Speaker 1: little bit. I thought I would give myself a break.
Speaker 1: Rather than make predictions of what I think might or
Speaker 1: might not happen over the next year, I am going
Speaker 1: to talk about what I hope to see happen. So
Speaker 1: these are based off of stuff that happens to be
Speaker 1: going on today and the outcomes that I hope to
Speaker 1: see from those things that are going on. I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily believe that all or even most of these outcomes
Speaker 1: will happen, but I figure we can all engage in
Speaker 1: a little wishful thinking now and then, as long as
Speaker 1: we remember that it is in fact wishful and not
Speaker 1: necessarily realistic, and it gives us something to work for now.
Speaker 1: I'll warn you some of you might find this episode
Speaker 1: to be preaching, and I understand that, and I can't
Speaker 1: really argue against it, though my intent isn't to preach,
Speaker 1: but to beseech perhaps or just kind of explain where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from. However, if you find the whole idea
Speaker 1: to be off putting, I won't blame you for skipping
Speaker 1: this episode. I understand. I would rather you spend your
Speaker 1: time doing something you enjoy doing, and it's totally fine.
Speaker 1: There's no hard feelings on my end. So if you
Speaker 1: think it ends up sounding preachy and you don't want
Speaker 1: to listen to it, that's fine. You don't have to
Speaker 1: write me or tweet me to let me know, because
Speaker 1: you know I'm doing it anyway. So here we go.
Speaker 1: With that in mind, let's start with transparency. Ifen had
Speaker 1: one super strong theme for some of the biggest companies
Speaker 1: out there, and talking about companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. It was that there was a
Speaker 1: lack of transparency in general, and it can make a
Speaker 1: tricky situation turned into a disastrous one. So, for example,
Speaker 1: it's bad if you discover a data breach, right if
Speaker 1: you find out someone has managed to get hold of
Speaker 1: information that should have been under protection, that's bad. But
Speaker 1: that bad situation can be made much worse if you
Speaker 1: then try to keep that information quiet. If you're trying
Speaker 1: to keep it away from the public until it is
Speaker 1: no longer possible to hide it and then it all
Speaker 1: become public. That sort of behavior breeds distrust and anger,
Speaker 1: and it should because the general public tends to be
Speaker 1: unknowing victims of these breaches, so it's only fair to
Speaker 1: let them know what has happened as soon as possible
Speaker 1: so that they can, you know, make moves to protect themselves.
Speaker 1: So my hope for twenty nineteen is that companies adopt
Speaker 1: a more transparent approach in general, not just for data breaches,
Speaker 1: but for other stuff too. They should think ahead about
Speaker 1: the possible impact that their decisions are going to have
Speaker 1: on their customers and the public. At large, they should
Speaker 1: explain those decisions as best they can without you know,
Speaker 1: obviously getting into the point where you're revealing too much
Speaker 1: about your strategy or you know, you're talking about insider
Speaker 1: trading or something like that. They should consider the consequences
Speaker 1: and make better choices and be clear about those choices
Speaker 1: when communicating them to the world at large. So, if
Speaker 1: a company experiences a data breach, I would hope that
Speaker 1: after the initial investigation, which I think is still necessary,
Speaker 1: if nothing else, just to get a handle on what
Speaker 1: the scope of the breach was, after that initial investigation,
Speaker 1: the company probably should come forward and let people know
Speaker 1: so that they can in fact go out to try
Speaker 1: and make sure their their stuff is as safe as
Speaker 1: it can be and to help mitigate the amount of
Speaker 1: harm that can be done Otherwise. Likewise, if a company
Speaker 1: decides to make a change in policy that's going to
Speaker 1: affect customers or employees, I would like to see them
Speaker 1: do that in a clear and honest way. When Apple
Speaker 1: admitted that it had been throttling the performance of older
Speaker 1: models of the iPhone, ostensibly to preserve the battery life
Speaker 1: of those old phones, that was a bit too late,
Speaker 1: because people had already figured out that Apple was throttling
Speaker 1: those old phones, and they had already assigned motivation to Apple.
Speaker 1: A lot of people believe that the whole reason it
Speaker 1: was done was the company was trying to convince people
Speaker 1: to upgrade to newer iPhone model. You know, you just
Speaker 1: sit there and say, Wow, my old iPhone just doesn't
Speaker 1: run as fast as it used to. I guess I
Speaker 1: need a new one. That was what people were saying
Speaker 1: Apple's intent was, and maybe that was true. But assuming
Speaker 1: Tim Cook was sincere when he said that Apple wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to push people into buying new phones, but rather
Speaker 1: they were throttling the old ones so that they wouldn't
Speaker 1: burn through battery life so quickly, that was the official
Speaker 1: uh explanation. Even if that's true, that explanation came too late.
Speaker 1: People had already made and believed another story, which again
Speaker 1: might also possibly be true. Sometimes I think it's necessary
Speaker 1: for a company to make a change in policy in
Speaker 1: order to do business or to optimize the technology, and
Speaker 1: sometimes those changes, while necessary, are not popular with customers.
Speaker 1: But I think it's for that reason that companies need
Speaker 1: to be more transparent about the whole thing. I think
Speaker 1: people are more likely to accept, even if it's begrudgingly
Speaker 1: a change, if they at least understand the reasoning behind
Speaker 1: the change. Otherwise they get the feeling that companies are
Speaker 1: either hoping their customers are ignorant or stupid or unobservant,
Speaker 1: that we're all marks. In other words, we're all suckers.
Speaker 1: And if you feel a company holds you in contempt,
Speaker 1: you're not likely to feel particularly warm toward it. So
Speaker 1: I hope in twenty nineteen we see companies treat the
Speaker 1: general public with a little more respect in these policies.
Speaker 1: I also hope to see companies respond more quickly to
Speaker 1: concerns that have legitimacy behind them, if customers have a
Speaker 1: legitimate complaint about a product or service, or if employees
Speaker 1: object to corporate policies, or and I think this is
Speaker 1: incredibly important, if an employee brings allegations of sexual harassment
Speaker 1: or sexual discrimination against a fellow employee or an executive.
Speaker 1: I want companies to treat those events with the attention
Speaker 1: they deserve, and not to be slow in doing so.
Speaker 1: In ten there were stories of companies failing to do this,
Speaker 1: or at least failing to do it adequately. And timely,
Speaker 1: until public scrutiny and criticism essentially forced them to change
Speaker 1: their policies. Google was faced with enormous pressure, both from
Speaker 1: within the company and from outside the company to change
Speaker 1: its mandatory arbitration policy. That was the policy that required
Speaker 1: employees to try and resolve conflicts, including allegations of sexual
Speaker 1: harassment and discrimination internally inside Google. That usually meant that
Speaker 1: very little was being done about the problems, and it
Speaker 1: perpetuated a harmful culture in some departments. Now Google has
Speaker 1: since backed off this policy. They've decided to make the
Speaker 1: arbitration optional, not mandatory, which is a really good step.
Speaker 1: I want to see companies like Google be more responsive,
Speaker 1: and that is to say, I want there to be
Speaker 1: a reckoning, but not like a reckoning against employees, but
Speaker 1: against bad policies. I want these companies to prove that
Speaker 1: they take these matters seriously and will investigate and react
Speaker 1: in appropriate ways. I think that changing the culture within
Speaker 1: those companies will be a step in the right direction
Speaker 1: to create workplaces that are more productive and positive in general,
Speaker 1: and then that improvement in workplace culture will manifest in
Speaker 1: the actual work. So, in other words, companies are going
Speaker 1: to get better results with better work environments. Now along
Speaker 1: that same vein, I want to see a continuation of
Speaker 1: a trend of seeing a greater representation in technology at
Speaker 1: all levels for anyone who's not young and male. And
Speaker 1: that's essentially what I mean by representation. Uh, young, male
Speaker 1: and white would be even more specific, although in technology
Speaker 1: we're seeing other folks besides just Caucasian men in the field.
Speaker 1: I want to see more of that. I want to
Speaker 1: see people who are of all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations.
Speaker 1: I want to see more of everybody in technology. I
Speaker 1: think that the world of technology needs to be a
Speaker 1: reflection of the world around us. That way, the stuff
Speaker 1: that we're making tends to be representative of who we
Speaker 1: are as a collective group, and it doesn't leave people out.
Speaker 1: You also see less chance for things like bias to
Speaker 1: be inserted into the design process. I talked about that
Speaker 1: with artificial intelligence and machine learning and about how bias,
Speaker 1: even unconscious bias, can find its way into these sorts
Speaker 1: of systems and that can be harmful in the long run. Well,
Speaker 1: with increased representation, that can be something we can reduce.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about just throwing people in there
Speaker 1: for the sake of throwing them in there. There are
Speaker 1: lots of people who are very interested and qualified in
Speaker 1: these fields who are finding it difficult to get a
Speaker 1: real working job in those spaces. I want to see
Speaker 1: that chain. So I also want to see changes in
Speaker 1: our various institutions to encourage greater representation. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: from education, to employment, to entertainment, because we've constructed this
Speaker 1: reality and then we've reinforced this reality. This idea of
Speaker 1: to be in technology means that you need to be
Speaker 1: a guy that tends to be the the messaging that
Speaker 1: we make with our various systems and even our entertainment
Speaker 1: and culture. I don't believe it's necessarily real. Some women
Speaker 1: have no interest in these fields. That's true. There's some
Speaker 1: women who have no interest in technology, but there's some
Speaker 1: men who don't have interest in technology. Some women are
Speaker 1: very much interested and accomplished in these fields. But these
Speaker 1: women must frequently work against a reinforced system that discourages
Speaker 1: their participation there, working even harder than men are in
Speaker 1: order to just be in the field. Not saying that
Speaker 1: they have to work harder than men to succeed, but
Speaker 1: rather they have a system that does not favor them,
Speaker 1: they have to work to get past that. And I'm
Speaker 1: talking about women versus men, But a lot of these
Speaker 1: concepts applied to those other factors like ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Speaker 1: We've constructed ideas of where people should fit based upon
Speaker 1: whatever categories they seem to belong to, and in my mind,
Speaker 1: that has been a huge problem, not just for people
Speaker 1: who find themselves having to overcome those preconceptions, but for
Speaker 1: all of us. Now, I really believe that technology improves
Speaker 1: as we include more people in the design and construction
Speaker 1: of that technology. So by encouraging a wider spectrum of
Speaker 1: people into the field, we bring in new perspectives, we
Speaker 1: bring in new ideas, new approaches. Are stuff improves because
Speaker 1: we're getting more of the best ideas and implementations. When
Speaker 1: we discourage people from going into these fields that they
Speaker 1: are otherwise interested in, we're denying ourselves the benefit of
Speaker 1: their work. So remember, the first computers weren't electronic, They
Speaker 1: weren't even electro mechanical. The first computers were women who
Speaker 1: are calculating ballistics tables for the military. Let's not do
Speaker 1: anything to discourage that representation. Now that's the super heavy
Speaker 1: stuff I wanted to talk about I got it all
Speaker 1: the way. First thing. When we come back, we'll go
Speaker 1: to some more general ideas about technology that aren't quite
Speaker 1: so heavy handed. The first let's take a quick break
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. All right, let's talk about some
Speaker 1: of the other wishes I have for nineteen. One of
Speaker 1: those wishes is something that a lot of people have
Speaker 1: been asking for for a very long time. I want
Speaker 1: us to see. In twenty nineteen, Twitter introduced the option
Speaker 1: to edit a tweet within a certain amount of time
Speaker 1: of having posted that tweet. That way, when someone posts
Speaker 1: something that has a typo in it, or maybe it's
Speaker 1: not a fully formed thought, maybe they accidentally posted it
Speaker 1: before they had even finished writing out the tweet. Maybe
Speaker 1: they posted something and thought, oh man, no, that really
Speaker 1: needs a little more context. It's easy that you could
Speaker 1: add another tweet to that, You could thread tweets to
Speaker 1: explain it. But it would be great if you could
Speaker 1: edit it. It It would be nice if you could do
Speaker 1: so so that the tweet isn't immediately seized upon by
Speaker 1: the general Twitter public, which is pretty judgmental. If you've
Speaker 1: been on Twitter, you can see that a bad tweet
Speaker 1: can get a lot of very negative reaction very quickly,
Speaker 1: and it might be the case where someone didn't intend
Speaker 1: for the tweet to come across the way it did. Now,
Speaker 1: in some of those cases, it's pretty undeniable someone's trolling
Speaker 1: or just espousing terrible beliefs or thoughts or whatever. But
Speaker 1: in other cases, I think it really just genuinely comes
Speaker 1: across as a goof. So it would be really nice
Speaker 1: if we could edit it now. I don't think the
Speaker 1: edit feature should allow people to change tweets years after
Speaker 1: they made those tweets. Maybe the time limit could be
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes from the posted tweet, just a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes max. And I wouldn't even mind if
Speaker 1: the tweet indicated that it had been edited, that if
Speaker 1: anyone saw the tweet after the edit, it would actually
Speaker 1: show this tweet has been edited at such and such timestamp.
Speaker 1: That's fine. Just let me fix my typos without having
Speaker 1: to delete and repost a message or follow up with
Speaker 1: a done goofed up tweet. We should also see in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen some early deployment and roll out of five
Speaker 1: G technology, and I haven't really talked about five G
Speaker 1: on tech stuff very much yet. So I'll have to
Speaker 1: do an episode on it pretty soon. But it is
Speaker 1: the next generation of wireless data transmission protocols. It is
Speaker 1: a promising um uh technology. We're gonna see some pretty
Speaker 1: wicked speed from this thing, like a gigabit per second
Speaker 1: download rate for users, which is really fast for wireless.
Speaker 1: I mean it's I consider it really fast period. I
Speaker 1: can't get a gig a bit download on my service
Speaker 1: and I have the best that I can possibly have
Speaker 1: in my neighborhood. I'm pretty sure we won't see global
Speaker 1: five G coverage until about at the earliest, but we
Speaker 1: should at least have some areas covered in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: and some technology incorporating five G in it. So my
Speaker 1: wish list is for me to be in that coverage
Speaker 1: area so I can change how I access the Internet
Speaker 1: at home. Yes, this is a selfish wish that is
Speaker 1: ultimately all about me. More generally, I look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing how five G can support new technologies, including expansive
Speaker 1: Internet of Things technologies. If I had one big wish
Speaker 1: for it, it would be that all the people building
Speaker 1: the tech that's going to be running on five G
Speaker 1: are doing so with security in mind, and that the
Speaker 1: tech would be really strong against hackers and people who
Speaker 1: want to leverage and exploit that system, because it presents
Speaker 1: an incredibly tempting target and a potentially rich environment for
Speaker 1: people for to actually exploit it. So we've got to
Speaker 1: be careful out there. I think we're gonna see a
Speaker 1: lot more large scale renewable energy projects come online in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, So my wish is that these are successful
Speaker 1: and can show how renewable energy, when properly deployed, can
Speaker 1: help offset our need to depend upon fossil fuels. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty much convinced that renewable energy has to be at
Speaker 1: least part of our strategy to meet our energy needs
Speaker 1: moving forward, at least until we can crack sustainable fusion.
Speaker 1: My wish is that the global community, the US included,
Speaker 1: would invest more in building out renewable energy power plants,
Speaker 1: and that we use that to decrease the load on
Speaker 1: fossil fuel burning power plants rather than just generate and
Speaker 1: then gobble up extra energy. That is a big wish
Speaker 1: because typically when it comes to stuff like electricity, we
Speaker 1: just tend to use more if we generate more. We
Speaker 1: don't tend to say, oh, well, now we have more
Speaker 1: electricity than we need, so we can shift of our
Speaker 1: production to renewables or whatever. So my wishes that we
Speaker 1: buck that trend, we really start moving off of fossil
Speaker 1: fuels as much as we can. And on a related note,
Speaker 1: my wish is that we as a whole will develop
Speaker 1: an adopt strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, whether that's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, embracing electric vehicles more and then also making
Speaker 1: sure that the way we generate electricity doesn't use a
Speaker 1: lot of fossil fuels, or also that we come up
Speaker 1: with more strategies to capture carbon from the atmosphere, and
Speaker 1: this would help us mitigate the effects of climate change. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, even if I'm being at
Speaker 1: my most optimistic, there's no way that we're going to
Speaker 1: reverse the trend on any sort of near term basis
Speaker 1: for climate change. For that we're talking generations down the road.
Speaker 1: But we can work to reduce climate change is impact
Speaker 1: in the lifetime that we have, and then we can
Speaker 1: also set the stage for recovery for future generations. It
Speaker 1: requires us to be a little selfless, because we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to make some sacrifices on the way in order
Speaker 1: to make that happen, but I think it's absolutely necessary
Speaker 1: if we want to avoid global catastrophe. Another wish I
Speaker 1: have to see in twenty nineteen, or I hope to
Speaker 1: see in twenty nineteen, are some good advances in autonomous
Speaker 1: car technology. I did all those episodes and I talked
Speaker 1: about where we are and where we need to be.
Speaker 1: We've seen a ton of progress so far, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong. I mean, I am incredibly impressed with where
Speaker 1: we are, but I also feel we're not nearly as
Speaker 1: far along as would be indicated with the launch of
Speaker 1: something like Weymo one, or at least the way it's marketed,
Speaker 1: or the deployment of Tesla's autopilot feature. Um, these things
Speaker 1: give us, I think, an unrealistic expectation of where we
Speaker 1: are with autonomous car technology. We're not nearly as far
Speaker 1: along as I think a lot of people just assume. Now.
Speaker 1: I hope that the various programs that are in place,
Speaker 1: like Weymo one, are able to gather more information and
Speaker 1: build out better and better models so that we can
Speaker 1: get to autonomous cars where we feel safe with them
Speaker 1: on the road in wide deployment. And I'm hoping we
Speaker 1: see a lot of that In twenty nineteen, we see
Speaker 1: a lot of advance toward that. I honestly don't think
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to a future where autonomous cars are
Speaker 1: going to integrate seamlessly with traffic for another probably five
Speaker 1: or six years. I would guess at least that's me
Speaker 1: being kind of conservative with those I think really or
Speaker 1: actually being generous, because I think, really it's going to
Speaker 1: be more like ten years before we're really really certain.
Speaker 1: And that's because driving as such a complicated process, and
Speaker 1: so many different things can happen that you can't easily
Speaker 1: plan for when you're building out an autonomous system. But
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see a lot more advanced
Speaker 1: in it next year, just not to the point where
Speaker 1: we're going to have super duper robot cars. Now. Shortly
Speaker 1: after this episode airs, I'm going to be in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: Nevada to attend or Nevada. I'm sorry to attend the
Speaker 1: two thousand nine teen ce S. So here are some
Speaker 1: things I hope I will see at CES. There's some
Speaker 1: things I know I'm gonna see. I'm going to see
Speaker 1: the latest in televisions. You know, they're gonna be ultra
Speaker 1: high definition, beautiful four K, eight K sets. I'm going
Speaker 1: to see all that kind of stuff there. I hope
Speaker 1: I'm going to see some truly cool innovations in some
Speaker 1: technology that's just kind of hitting a slump right now,
Speaker 1: stuff like virtual reality and augmented reality. You know, those
Speaker 1: just haven't really been able to take hold the way
Speaker 1: people were hoping just a couple of years ago. And
Speaker 1: I still think both technologies are really incredible. There are
Speaker 1: also technologies that tend to be hard to promote for
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. One is that they all all
Speaker 1: tend to be pretty expensive. Most of the time, you
Speaker 1: have to pair the headset with some other piece of technology,
Speaker 1: such as a game console or a high performing computer
Speaker 1: or a smartphone. So if you're just starting out that
Speaker 1: you don't have any of these things, you may have
Speaker 1: to buy several pieces of equipment, not just the headset
Speaker 1: or a headset and a controller. So for consoles and mutters,
Speaker 1: that typically means you've also got a physical cable connecting
Speaker 1: the headset to the device. There are some wireless solutions
Speaker 1: out there, but they're not many, so I'm hoping I'll
Speaker 1: see some wireless tech on display for a R and
Speaker 1: v R at c S Sough, then itself is a
Speaker 1: challenge when you go to a show like CES, because
Speaker 1: they're just hundreds of companies showing off wireless technologies. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of potential interference at c S. But
Speaker 1: I hope to see it anyway. Beyond all these technical
Speaker 1: and economic challenges to getting VR and R out the door,
Speaker 1: there's another big obstacle. It's really hard to promote these
Speaker 1: technologies without having someone actually experience it. It's one of
Speaker 1: those things that you kind of have to try to
Speaker 1: get a feel for how incredible it could be. Also,
Speaker 1: I tend to be a little reticent to try these
Speaker 1: kinds of technologies at c S cause you're in an
Speaker 1: enormous convention with tens of thousands of people, many of
Speaker 1: whom have tried that technology before you got there, which
Speaker 1: seems like a really good way to get conjunctive itis.
Speaker 1: But my wish is to see better v R and
Speaker 1: A R technology and some really cool applications this year
Speaker 1: at CES. There are a lot of outlets predicting that
Speaker 1: we're gonna see various foldable screens at c E S,
Speaker 1: which could be cool. I'm talking about like things like
Speaker 1: foldable phones and laptops that are taking advantage of oh
Speaker 1: LED technology, screens that you can actually fold themselves, so
Speaker 1: it's not just a hinged thing, but something that can
Speaker 1: fold and bend because of the nature of the o
Speaker 1: LED technology. My wishes to see really innovative designs that
Speaker 1: take full advantage of this quality, for the novelty factor
Speaker 1: wears off. The nice thing about ce S wishes is
Speaker 1: that I'm going to find out if they come true
Speaker 1: or not right at the very start of the year,
Speaker 1: so that will get out of the way pretty early on.
Speaker 1: One other big wish is I would love to uh
Speaker 1: see some innovative, engaging new social networking platforms emerged in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I feel like face books a year and
Speaker 1: provided a lot of lessons to learn about how to
Speaker 1: conduct business, how to treat customers, both on the user
Speaker 1: side and advertisers. But I also think that once you
Speaker 1: have a really large established company like Facebook, it can
Speaker 1: be really hard to create actionable plans based on those lessons.
Speaker 1: It's it could be hard to enact those lessons. I'd
Speaker 1: love to see a new take on social networking that
Speaker 1: would be guided by those lessons, and I'd love to
Speaker 1: see that get traction. That being said, there's been plenty
Speaker 1: of social networking sites that have tried to rise up
Speaker 1: to challenge Facebook over the years, and none of them
Speaker 1: have had much success, at least not in the United States.
Speaker 1: Some of them were smaller endeavors like Diaspora, but others
Speaker 1: were from big companies like Apple which had Ping do
Speaker 1: you remember Ping? Or Google with Google Plus that's gonna
Speaker 1: shut down in twenty nineteen after a couple of big
Speaker 1: data breaches became public. But someone's got to be able
Speaker 1: to come up with a new approach that's in aging
Speaker 1: enough to get people to adopt it. I mean, we
Speaker 1: think of Facebook as being enormous, but my Space was
Speaker 1: enormous before Facebook came along, so it's not unprecedented. It
Speaker 1: just requires a social networking site that is compelling, it's
Speaker 1: easy to use, you know, it's well designed, and it's
Speaker 1: very transparent in its policies. That's what's needed. And even
Speaker 1: then after that, you still have to convince people to
Speaker 1: go over there and use it. That's the toughest part,
Speaker 1: I guess, But I'm hoping that we see that. If
Speaker 1: nothing else, it would add more pressure on Facebook to
Speaker 1: make changes that would be positive for all of its users.
Speaker 1: I have a few more wishes I want to share,
Speaker 1: but first let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor.
Speaker 1: I hope to see a lot more focused and enthusiasm
Speaker 1: around science and technology from an educational perspective in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: We're starting to see some of that stuff now, which
Speaker 1: is great. I want that trend to continue. Uh. There's
Speaker 1: a fun documentary in eighteen called Science Fair, which in
Speaker 1: parts seems to revel an absurdity because in some cases
Speaker 1: they're they're likening science to something like being a rock star.
Speaker 1: But I think that's awesome, and to be fair, I
Speaker 1: think the documentary brings that out too. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're making fun of the kids, and it's not like
Speaker 1: this is unprecedented. Their figures, like Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla,
Speaker 1: Albert Einstein, they were all treated as not just brilliant people,
Speaker 1: but celebrities. I think elevating science and technology in this way,
Speaker 1: not as a cult of personality, mind you, but it's
Speaker 1: something that's just really interesting to pursue is a fantastic idea.
Speaker 1: I want to see more people from all backgrounds encouraged
Speaker 1: to dive into that world. I want to see schools
Speaker 1: and organizations invest in it to give young people the
Speaker 1: chance to try out new ideas. Now I'm nowhere near
Speaker 1: the first person to say this, but one of the
Speaker 1: most amazing things about young people is that they don't
Speaker 1: know what is impossible, so sometimes they find ways to
Speaker 1: accomplish things that older people like myself have long dismissed
Speaker 1: as being outside of our capabilities. And so time and again,
Speaker 1: young people prove that old folks like me are wrong,
Speaker 1: that were narrow minded, that we're not considering all the potential,
Speaker 1: and the impossible is in fact achievable. In some cases.
Speaker 1: This is a source of unending inspiration for me, and
Speaker 1: so I want to see twenty nineteen bring with it
Speaker 1: a culture that supports and encourages that kind of participation
Speaker 1: in the field of entertainment, getting into some real, fluffy stuff.
Speaker 1: I would love to see some hopeful science fiction. I
Speaker 1: think dark science fiction definitely has its place, and I
Speaker 1: love it. A lot of my favorite novels are in
Speaker 1: that kind of dystopian sci fi realm, like four Brave
Speaker 1: New World or Fair Night fifty one. Science fiction has
Speaker 1: often been the vehicle that authors have used to warn
Speaker 1: us about potentially catastrophic scenarios that could come about, sometimes
Speaker 1: due to misuse of technology, sometimes despite our ability to
Speaker 1: use technology. And I don't think that those stories should stop.
Speaker 1: We have a need for stuff like Black Mirror there
Speaker 1: reminds us that we need to be careful. But I'd
Speaker 1: also love to see more hopeful aspirational science fiction stories
Speaker 1: that contain not only conflict, but wonder and innovation. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see something closer to Star Trek the next generation. Now.
Speaker 1: I think it's good to have both kinds of stories
Speaker 1: out there. On the one hand, you want to remind
Speaker 1: everyone that technology by itself can be misused, or it
Speaker 1: can be designed in such a way that it causes harm,
Speaker 1: whether intentionally or otherwise. But on the other hand, I
Speaker 1: think we also have a need to have inspirational stories
Speaker 1: that remind us that this isn't necessarily the only outcome
Speaker 1: for the future. We can shape that future through our choices,
Speaker 1: and if we make good choices, we're more likely to
Speaker 1: have a good feature as a result. So here's to
Speaker 1: hoping for more aspirational sci fi in twenty nineteen. We're
Speaker 1: gonna see several new premium streaming video services emerge in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and we're not really sure what's going to
Speaker 1: happen with Hulu next year as Disney asserts majority control
Speaker 1: over the service. My hope, though, is that we continue
Speaker 1: to see innovative programming on these various services. So it
Speaker 1: can be frustrating as a consumer to see the proliferation
Speaker 1: of so many services scattering the various types of content
Speaker 1: we want to see across numerous subscriptions. I mean, one
Speaker 1: of the big motivating factors for cord cutting is that
Speaker 1: you don't want to pay for all the stuff you
Speaker 1: don't want to see. But then if all the stuff
Speaker 1: you want to see gets spread out over a competing services,
Speaker 1: the only way to see all of it is to
Speaker 1: subscribe to all those competing services, which just seems like
Speaker 1: it's it's complicated in a different way. So my hope
Speaker 1: is that more storytellers are going to get cool opportunities
Speaker 1: to bring their ideas to life thanks to those streaming services.
Speaker 1: I don't wish any of them to necessarily just go away.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, people their livelihoods depend upon these things.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in such a way that it
Speaker 1: makes sense for consumers, and I want to see more
Speaker 1: stories get a chance to come to life. Though I'm
Speaker 1: sure I'll still be grouchy about how many of those
Speaker 1: services I'll be subscribing to, because I see that when
Speaker 1: that notification pops up in my email each month, I
Speaker 1: just think, but I need them. Oh and since Disney
Speaker 1: has now acquired Fox, I kind of hope we start
Speaker 1: seeing stuff like the X Men get incorporated into the
Speaker 1: Marvel Cinematic universe. That's kind of outside the scope of
Speaker 1: tech stuff. That's just what Jonathan hopes to see in
Speaker 1: theaters moving forward. But sticking with entertainment, I'm going to
Speaker 1: get really granular here. There's another Jonathan specific wish. I
Speaker 1: hope that Bethesda is able to sort out and salvage
Speaker 1: fall Out seventy six. I'm one of a relative the
Speaker 1: small percentage of players who enjoys the game, or at
Speaker 1: least I haven't grown so frustrated that I won't play
Speaker 1: the game. But I think anyone who is being intellectually
Speaker 1: honest test to admit that game has a lot of issues.
Speaker 1: But as has already started to address some of those,
Speaker 1: They've rolled out various patches. I would love to see
Speaker 1: Fallout seventy six reach a point where people playing the
Speaker 1: game don't feel like they have to justify their decision
Speaker 1: to play the game. So, in other words, I want
Speaker 1: to see Fallout seventy six reach a point at which
Speaker 1: the average critic would say it's a good game. Maybe
Speaker 1: not a great game, but a good game by the
Speaker 1: end of tween nineteen. That might take a lot of
Speaker 1: work considering how hard a lot of critics slagged this game,
Speaker 1: and again, I can't blame them for their reactions. I
Speaker 1: don't hate it, but I definitely see the reasoning behind
Speaker 1: the criticism. I'm also hoping that we see many more
Speaker 1: high quality podcasts emerge in twenty nineteen, whether they are
Speaker 1: ongoing series or a limited run. One of the things
Speaker 1: I love about podcasts is that it can give people
Speaker 1: who have in credible stories to tell a platform upon
Speaker 1: which they can share those stories. Whether it's an investigative
Speaker 1: podcast that dives deep into a subject or an event
Speaker 1: in order to tell that really compelling story, or it's
Speaker 1: a more general podcast that covers topics like technology, or
Speaker 1: if it's a comedy podcast it's just really made to
Speaker 1: make people laugh. We're in a real golden age of
Speaker 1: content right now. There's way too much out there right
Speaker 1: now for anyone to listen to all of it. But
Speaker 1: I'm still hoping that twenty nineteen will bring with it
Speaker 1: some amazing shows with different voices telling important or entertaining stories,
Speaker 1: or that some of those podcasts that are already out
Speaker 1: there and are already amazing but are largely unknown. I
Speaker 1: hope they can rise up to the surface so that
Speaker 1: more people can discover them. Uh. I still really love
Speaker 1: listening to podcasts. I as a podcaster who does this
Speaker 1: all the time. I still think it's one of the
Speaker 1: most entertaining forms of connecting with people. So I definitely
Speaker 1: want to see more of those. As for things I'm
Speaker 1: not wishing for in twenty nineteen, I'm not wishing for
Speaker 1: flying cars. I know people are still working on that,
Speaker 1: but honestly, we are still dealing with trying to get
Speaker 1: terrestrial autonomous cars working. I can't even imagine what happens
Speaker 1: when we get the flying cars in there now. In
Speaker 1: some ways, flying can actually be easier for automated systems,
Speaker 1: particularly when you're at a high enough altitude where there
Speaker 1: are very few potential obstacles. But once you talk about
Speaker 1: a vehicle that should be able to operate both on
Speaker 1: the ground level and in the air above, say a city,
Speaker 1: you encounter some really difficult problems that we absolutely have
Speaker 1: to solve before we can safely roll out, so to speak,
Speaker 1: so ambitious a technology. I don't necessarily think flying cars
Speaker 1: will never be a thing, but I think we just
Speaker 1: need to kind of put that on the back burner
Speaker 1: for like a decade or so to make sure we've
Speaker 1: got the biggest challenges sorted out. I'm also not wishing
Speaker 1: for more marketing speech or on the concept of digital transformation.
Speaker 1: That is, you know, I can get behind the idea.
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, it suggests that we leverage technology, particularly digital technologies,
Speaker 1: to do work and solve problems. It's sort of an
Speaker 1: extension of the old paperless office concept, in which computers
Speaker 1: would remove the need for us to have all those
Speaker 1: darned paper files and everything. But the marketing around this
Speaker 1: concept tends to be very shallow. Um. It tends to
Speaker 1: be let's throw technology at the problem and that will
Speaker 1: fix everything, which I don't think is ever really true.
Speaker 1: I've seen businesses, organizations, and schools jump on this kind
Speaker 1: of idea because It almost seems like it's a shortcut
Speaker 1: to success, right that, oh, if we just throw computers
Speaker 1: at it, things will be better. But it's not just
Speaker 1: the technology that makes things better. It's the application of
Speaker 1: technology that's really important. Not not the acquisition of tech,
Speaker 1: but the way you apply it. So I'd like to
Speaker 1: see more tension devoted to implementing technology purposefully and thoughtfully,
Speaker 1: rather than just let's get the clothes the newest toys
Speaker 1: that are out there and give them to everybody. That
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily fix everything. In fact, at least in the
Speaker 1: short term, it can make things worse as everyone just
Speaker 1: tries to figure out how the darn thing works. And
Speaker 1: I don't think we're gonna see any enormous leaps in
Speaker 1: AI in twenty nineteen. We'll see improvement, obviously, that will continue.
Speaker 1: We'll see innovation, we'll see interesting ways in which people
Speaker 1: are going to apply AI. But I don't think we're
Speaker 1: gonna get the world's first self aware conscious machine or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But this is a wish list, not
Speaker 1: a predictions list. So my wish list is if we
Speaker 1: do get some sort of self aware, self conscious machine, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I think it's almost impossible, but if
Speaker 1: we do get it, my wish is that it is
Speaker 1: a genuinely helpful construct now that will augment our ability
Speaker 1: to learn and to grow as people. I would absolutely
Speaker 1: love for a I to become better human beings. That
Speaker 1: would be my my wish, And I know that's a
Speaker 1: huge wish on top of the possibility of this AI
Speaker 1: even existing, to make it a benevolent one that makes
Speaker 1: us better people, that's a huge, huge thing. It's not
Speaker 1: even close to being listed as one of the more
Speaker 1: likely scenarios in the wake of a sophisticated artificial intelligence emerging.
Speaker 1: But we are talking about wishes here. What about you, guys,
Speaker 1: what do you wish for in twenty nineteen? What are
Speaker 1: you hoping to see or experience? What are you hoping
Speaker 1: in the world of tech will happen. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: hear your thoughts and also if you have any suggestions
Speaker 1: for future episodes of tech Stuff, whether it's a company
Speaker 1: of technology, maybe there's someone I should interview, let me know.
Speaker 1: Send me an email the addresses tech Stuff at how
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