lunacy

I first heard the word convergence been used in relation to the combination of different technologies in home entertainment systems. Some like to use the word integration; I prefer the word convergence because it points to something more fundamental, it’s very nature and it’s implication for all design. That is why I decided it should be our subject for lunacy 001.

All my efforts at creating authentic concepts, illustrations and stories have lead me to the belief that the ideas that follow, form the basis of those story concepts and any I will eventually work on. So, I urge the reader to spot the potentials for fiction in the essay.

This essay is not a work of fact. All that is written here is based on all I have seen, heard, watched or experienced, and it is those observations and projections that form the crux of the essay. I have put references where possible to further the reader’s interest.

In the event that either my observations or projections are faulty, I would like to hear from you about them with a counter argument of your own and a reference too. If you have premises for stories that touch on similar themes, I would love to hear about them or if you object to the possibilities I outlined, leave an objection in the comments and state the grounds for your objection.

Join the conversation.

Thanks

 

Convergence

             The domains are merging. The divides are being bridged, and the spaces filled with wondrous little things. What is happening right in front of our eyes is a return to a long forgotten truth at the heart of this world: it is convergence. If you have ever had an idea, made a decision, found a solution given a set of problems; chances are you have experienced convergence. As anyone that likes to draw and illustrate would have experienced, it is a phenomenon that happens when everything seems to come together.

            Convergence simple means a process of arriving at a particular characteristic independently through different routes. However, in art the word is used to describe the fundamental rule of perspective drawing: parallel lines “converge” to a vanishing point on the eye level when viewed in perspective; this, however, is a topic for another day.

           Convergence is at the heart of all creative activity, for what is creativity if it is not a convergence of different ideas collected and archived in the cognitive structure of the creative mind. Two examples come to mind. Remember the “a-team”; well, that team used convergence just before Hannibal says “I love when a plan comes together”; whenever “MacGyver” was in a fix and had to cobble something together, convergence was happening as he pulls selective strands from his knowledge of different domains to form a whole solution to the problem.

          Convergence is happening all around us. In entertainment, you find it in incessant collaboration between artists, genre crossovers, comic book movies; in technology, where it is most prevalent, you find it in every product, of any size; in  education, where analogies are used and ideas from different disciplines are been mapped; in health, where  bio-technology is revolutionizing that segment; in economy ,where complex models are built based on big data, aggregated from different collection points, and predictions made on consumer preference, stock performances and market prices.

The origins

           Convergence plays a major role in today’s world because it has its origins in the art and design movements in the early part of the 20^th century; the art deco movements, art nouveaux movements, as well as the Bauhaus movement in Germany, where attempts to create more natural looking man-made structures were attempted in both art, architecture and product design, and later  designers’ attempts to cut costs by using industrial design (a relatively new profession at the time) to accomplish both aesthetic and functional production of products to effectively compete.  This was especially true in the automobile sector, as it would later be decades later in the mobile phone industry.

          In the old days (the 80’s was like yesterday) music stood alone, communication stood on its own, so did photography and video and television; all standing vertically. Now you have a smart phone, a horizontal piece of technology that cuts through all the domains just listed. Interactivity, portability and economy drove these previously vertical technological fields to converge in one device. This was made possible by Sensors.

What is driving it

          Sensors are devices that help you know what the state of physical parameters are, based on a physical model described using an objective language: mathematics. As humans we have sensors too; however our sensors use a qualitative process to create mental models of our world (1). A sensor, on the other hand, builds a more exact model quantitatively and feeds that model to an algorithm to interpret, which then sends that data back to our qualitative processes for a qualitative response. The domains of miniaturization and digitization have driven convergence as protocols of communication become more widely shared and adopted (the internet). This is also true for hardware programming languages (java, C++).

All smart devices operate this way. Meaning, all smart devices really are, is exact. Sensors help us get an accurate picture of the physical world so we can create an accurate response from our cognitive world and then produce new patterns that become the technology of tomorrow.

          Sensors are not solely responsible for convergence; it gets complicated. Take the human body for instance; it is a machine with sensors for imaging, emotion, pressure, motion, sound, smell and all the while doing so aesthetically. The point I’m making here is that nature uses a pattern in the design of function, repeating that pattern over and over again, but in each new context, the result is different and unique and almost perfectly suited to the context; we call it evolution by natural selection, others call it creation (evolutionist and creationist sheath your swords). It is human nature to find patterns while attempting to solve our problems; we stumble in the dark like hapless children feeling our way through the world to get a better understanding of it. Until recently, we were fine with the context that kept things separate, so we had a device for every activity. This was likely due to capitalist need for us, the consumer, to consume( a topic for another day) or perhaps more probable is that  our context changed; portability and consumer economy became our priority, that shift signaled the coming together of hardware and software from many domains melting into a single domain and hence our march towards convergence.

           All professional domains require expertise; expertise is not gotten overnight, it is built from years of repetitive work and insight into frequently encountered problems or patterns. These patterns become rules of thumb and tricks, that the expert uses when any problem comes up that meets a particular context.  At the same time, technology continues to grow and tries to keep up with the demands of expertise in our production efforts and this has led to the development of tools that enable the professional use his intuition, along with dumb devices to solve his problems. A hammer, chisel, paint brush, clay , concrete; these were slowly replaced by less dumb alternatives that first removed human power (machine tools, electric motors, hydraulics etc) and now technology is moving faster than the professions, as it now tackles the problem of cognitive interpretation into reality: enter sensors and imaging. It is interesting to note that it is our need to “enable” professionals that may ultimately lead to the death of professions.

Most of our technology today is interactive, in an effort to meet this human desire to turn ideas into reality. This is done by reducing the imprecise forms of human sensory calibration, previously performed by instinct, so that we can get better results. Consequently, reducing tedium in the use of technology; making achieving this desire almost effortless.

You can do it too

          Professionals are not the only experts; it turns out, so are you. The recent trajectory towards convergence has its resurgence from what I consider a seminal work on convergence or as the author of the book “the timeless way of building”, Christopher Alexander, called it: patterns (2). The theory contained in the book, meant originally for architects, but embraced by computer programmers and interaction designers. Young professions at that time, however, now occupy large segments of our technological space.

The  short history lesson above and that which came before are important to a concept artist like myself or you for a single reason: every designer of any piece of technology has inadvertently drank from the fountains of knowledge that this seminal work produced all those years ago and you would do well to find that book and read it . Many before you have used it or used it without knowing they have; the gang of four used the ideas in that book to develop the ideas behind design patterns for programming languages; anyone who has ever faced a recurring problem and found a solution, documenting that solution in the event of an analogous problem from the same or different domain arising later, the solution then being used, has used the ideas in that book. You, dear reader, are no different in your daily lives and your use of mental models to solve your own recurring problems. (2)

          Truth is convergence, and hence creativity, is not as unique as one might think. You are creative by the very fact that you are reading these words and making sense of them. Language is a communication tool that uses convergence to great effect, delivering meaning using a couple of alphabets and some simple rules. Speaking is not some gift, it’s a skill you learn autonomously as a child, and like that skill, design of anything, and that includes illustrations, is a skill based on the mental models you develop in your efforts to visualize the ideas you dream up, whether it’s a cool Spider-man cover or the characters from star wars.

          The fact is everything is everything and everything can become anything. This is at the heart of the principle of the conservation of matter and the atom. This idea is also at the heart of convergence. Convergence operates as a principle, on structure mapping theory and its atoms, on patterns. Structure mapping theory states that, if you have two domains or things (any whole), then their superficial attributes are not what connects them but deeper relations between objects in the domain, thing or whole. (3)What this means is that a syringe and sponge bob square pants can be mapped simply because syringes at their core are things that have space and on application of a pressure difference can suck up fluids and a “sponge bob” does exactly the same thing, he does live at the bottom of the sea after all. On the surface of it they are physically different, but are similar based on the relationship stated. 

This is especially useful to teachers, designers, engineers, or futurists trying to find a solution in one domain (the base). They can easily transfer that solution or map it to the problem domain (the target) producing stunning results.

          What this means for concept artists, amateur artists and designers is that you can map knowledge from one domain into another and come up with ideas that your viewers would find awesome. Plus, it would be authentic because that is the exact same process that scientist, engineers and others artists use in creating the look and feel of the world we live in today or indeed tomorrow.

 Convergence ideas for concept designs

            Insight into convergence and pattern languages has occurred in the past, but the implementations were disastrous. One such attempt was and still is: mass production. Mass production attempts to solve the problem of quantity with absolute repetition, however nature abhors that, and since we are children of nature we abhor it as well. Nature solves problems by repetition with variety by mixing. This explains why nature’s “products” always have some sought of womb or matrix through which the building plan is passed down, and that includes humans. Factories are man’s product womb, and the specimens it produces are womb-less and barren. Our designs are static until it’s revised and out comes another batch. Personalization of our products is our own attempt to compensate for this perfect repetition, which is monotonous and boring.

The absence of product wombs as pointed out will be corrected in the future, as products will be able to carry their building plans within them and using sensors interact with other devices and their operating environment and redesign themselves to meet our unique uses of the device by adjusting materials, joints and surfaces(like a butterfly). This will give us the ability to change its form factor, thus giving birth to a new generation of the product: product progeny.

For us as human beings, convergence will give us increased degrees of perception. It would be possible to get data about nearly anything; even beyond what nature’s sensors provide. This augmented reality will lead inevitably to quantum computing. That is the destination of all the miniaturization efforts and research today .we might get implants either before or after birth that would increase our degrees of perception a thousand fold. Yes! You could be like superman and have x-ray vision, either through increasing the power of the sensor or using data pulled from a world mind (more on this up ahead) about that person’s health history which would be available to authorized persons; say your doctor.

A patient could walk into a hospital and his consultation begins even before he or she enters the hospital, and when he finally get to see the doctor, human or  product progeny, their diagnosis would already be available from data collected from sensors scattered all over the hospital and beyond. This could also help in contagion detection and managing epidemics

For education the implications would be most profound. It would mean all knowledge; all disciplines would be linked and can be mapped, domain to domain. In fact, analogies are thought to work using this process of creating mental models (3) and the impact would be to bridge the gap that seems to exist between art and science. A similar bridging already exists in all human minds; only if we allow it develop by just “letting go”.

In this future, Learning would be easier and schools would be no more, at least not in the way you understand it (ever heard of moocs). Convergence would lead to the world mind. The notion that all knowledge derives from one source would form the basis for all learning at all levels. We would jack up to it to retrieve knowledge relevant to our particular needs, whether to adopt skills or inform. The world mind would be ubiquitous, omniscient but not omnipotent, that should still be kept in our own hands. It would consist of a network of environment sensors and interfaces (not screens) so that you own part of “the cloud”. Cloud computing is a model that is already testing out the world mind idea, where your data is held in trust for you. the ethical and cultural ramifications of this shift is worth noting and should be the subject of some intriguing science fiction work, especially if that world mind is controlled by a few. (4)

Another possibility is the idea behind products like the Google glass or other ancillary products collecting enumerable amounts of data and someone figuring out a way to develop an algorithm to construct an alternate version of reality, all for this world mind, making a form of time travel possible. It would be a simple matter of having some means of creating any sensory input into the mind that reconstructs that reality or using predetermined forecasts to project you forward in that reality.

The internet has become the backbone on which convergence continues to grow. The instantaneous communication allows quick iteration of ideas and allows patterns to be shared and spread more effectively, bridging the divide of the oceans and seas, improving the collective cognitive structure (culture, habit and history) and leaving tedium behind

 Our cultural evolution shape our cognitive structure, this is made evident when you consider that people from different regions have different ways of looking at things. For instance in oriental art the negative space is as important as the positive, a fact that their western counterparts took a while to learn and adopt. Multicultural societies, in whatever form, has the same effect as the internet regarding collective cognitive structure, as people can also share their culturally-different ideas, critique it and improve on it.

The internet, however, has facilitated convergence; it has not caused it. What will come after the internet? I predict something is on the way that supersedes the internet in connectivity, speed and content. This new network would carry energy, matter and information, all at the same time. This network will be a critical development if any of the projections made here is to occur. I call it the E.M.I stream.

Convergence will also change manufacturing, for a single reason: the convergence of energy, matter and information. As capitalist strive to target their users directly using analytics and big data , they will inevitable create tools that seem to predict consumer tastes (politics and logistics are using it already to great effect) .They will extend that to production targets, retail outlet location , delivery time, and all will be good, for a time, and then 3-d printing technology will do something unexpected; the energy-matter-information transformation problem would be solved and manufacturers will be reduced to selling designs to consumers, leaving them to then manufacture their own products at the desired location. This innovation, if it happens, will change transportation, logistics and energy transfer. Think Bluetooth that is safe for energy-matter-information transport. The energy-matter-information stream will continuously evolve on its own reproducing product progeny on demand for use, to ensure we are properly targeted.

The combination of a world mind and the E.M.I stream could lead to a situation as seen in the movie green lantern (if you have not seen it…don’t). A creation engine, that takes ideas from concept to reality, without any mental or physical implementation by the creator; just execution. This would be designer heaven or Oa (another green lantern reference).

Sociological impact of convergence

In the past we have lived, built and worked on our own, with minimal structures (family) for support; a time of the archetypal man. All the infrastructure we have today is there to support our inability to retain, process, retrieve and use the large amount of knowledge we generate; what I call pattern waste. Managing this waste has become our chief preoccupation because it is this waste that we recycle at the current time, calling it creativity and innovation, leaving little time to discover new patterns. This was not the case during the renaissance for example, a time of the archetypal man.

The archetypal man is one not encumbered by the patterns he discovers, and manages his pattern waste well enough that it does not become his preoccupation. It’s like an artist that paints a masterpiece and spends all his time searching for all the meanings in his painting instead of getting on and painting another masterpiece; the archetypal man is not this artist. He paints, contemplates the work, uses what he experienced and goes on to the next one.

 Our manufacturing and entertainment industries are currently preoccupied with this pattern waste management, which is why you have sequels upon sequels and why you have upgrades and updates to designs. There are no jumps in insight because they are not looking at the next problem; they are managing the problems generated by the last solution or insight.

A return to the archetypal man might change our perception of ownership, extending the boundaries of our current cultural practice of renting things. Why own a car when you can generate any car of your choice, when you want and where you want. With this kind of freedom available to consumers the only thing inventors would own are their patents. Hence, intellectual property will be the new gold and licenses will be what defunct manufacturing companies would sell to consumers, while defunct cell phone and power companies would sell data, matter and energy.

Bottom line: NO MORE MASS PRODUCTION.

I imagine a world where intellectual property theft can make or break nations and possibly capital punishment would be prescribed for such illegal activities. China and the United States facing off on cyber hacking is pointing us in that direction.

The creative destruction of almost all professions will be the inevitable result of the return of the archetypal man, where we either become capable of using the same cognitive structures (mental models) that professionals use in their work or use systems that do the cognitive work for us. Whether that would be positive or negative is still up for debate, what I suspect though it might spell the end of human cooperation.

 The Down side

The future may be a bleak one, considering our track record. Man’s biggest problem is bad implementation of nature’s patterns, either for good or ill. Already our shoddy attempts at copying natures patterns has give us monotonous living spaces, mass production, global warming, uncontrolled energy usage, etc. we have had two world wars already. My point here is that there are many interpretation pitfalls up ahead and we are bound to make them; rouge artificial intelligence, biotechnological births, planetary systems re-engineering, technology ecosystem monopolies, human behavior modification and human perception redundancy.

The last of the potential pitfalls is the one I fear the most. We are pattern seekers and once we replace ourselves in performing this activity, we stop being human. Then again, perhaps that outcome is inevitable. World mind progeny would spawn to fill our planet and replace us. The steps to lead us this way are already in action, the future usually starts today. Already companies are building bits and pieces of what they call ecosystems on which they are the “administrators”; companies hold our biometric data; some have projects to map the brain; still others seek to get patents on our genetic heritage; others try to predict where we are and what we might want or be doing so we can be “targeted”

Metaphysical and ethical concerns will be raised by ideas like the world mind and human behavior control; social questions being asked of ideas like product progeny and human perception redundancy and economic issues raised by ecosystem monopolies, all issues that are conflicts suited for some good science fiction writing or debates.

Conclusion

 The world that convergence builds will be a world in which every individual is equivalently skilled and equipped to live, living in any place of their choice, in communities that they identify with, regardless of national borders, using technology that is animate and is as much a whole as it is a part of us, controlled by a world mind, in roles suited to each individual.

Bibliography

1. K.D, Forbus. Qualitative Process Theory. s.l. : Journal of Artificial Intelligence 24, 1984.

2. Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. new york : Oxford University Press, 1979.

3. Gentner, Deidre. Structure Mapping: A Theoretical Framework for Analogy. s.l. : Cognitive Science 7, 1983.

4. Morosov,  Evgeny. Is Smart Making Us Dumb?. The Wall Street Journal. 2013.