by
Mark Ollig
An
idea was presented to the public recently during a TED talks forum.
TED
stands for: Technology, Entertainment, and Design. It is a nonprofit
organization which holds frequent conferences with speakers discussing new
ideas and concepts before an audience.
We
know dolphins, chimpanzees, orangutans, elephants, and other living creatures
have incredible communication and learning abilities.
The
question being discussed during the evening’s TED talk: is it possible for the
Internet to become a venue for interaction with these sentient beings?
One
guest speaker acknowledged coming up with smart interfaces is crucial.
It
was disclosed how an interactive touch screen for dolphins is already under
development.
For
me, the evening’s highlight was a presentation given by Vinton Cerf, who
co-designed the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
communication language which made possible today’s Internet.
I
was very attentive to his comments and observations as he spoke to the
audience.
“When
Bob [Robert Khan] and I did this design [TCP/IP], we thought we were building a
system to connect computers together. What we very quickly discovered is this
was a system for connecting people together,” Cerf explained.
He
then showed the audience a picture of the Internet, as designed by a computer
program.
The
picture resembled one of those detailed deep-space photographs the Hubble
telescope might have taken of some far- away galaxy full of densely packed
stars and planets.
The
photograph depicts the connectivity of the Internet, and how the approximately
400,000 networks are linked together.
Cerf
said the only reason all of these networks are able to work, is because they
share the same standard TCP/IP protocols.
He
mentioned “The Internet of Things” whereby electronic devices are becoming a
common part of the Internet; or, another Internet informational resource, if
you will.
For
some time, we have had the technological capability to remotely retrieve
information, program, interact, and monitor home electronic devices connected
to the Internet.
Remote
access to our home devices can come in handy.
An
example would be when we are at work and are alerted to motion detection at our
home by means of a security app on our smart device. In my case, it might be on
my iPhone. Someone is at the front door. We would be able to see on our mobile
device’s screen that it is the repair technician via the front door security
camera. Using our mobile device, we could talk to them over the front door
speaker, and remotely unlock the door.
Practically
any electronic device or appliance can be interfaced to the Internet using an
IP address and be remotely accessed from an Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy,
Motorola Droid, iPad, Kindle, MacBook ... the list goes on.
One
home automation company called Belkin makes remotely-accessible electronic home
devices.
You
can reach its website at: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-belkin.
During
the evening’s TED discussion, Cerf brought up who else should be having access
to the Internet.
He
talked about having an interface to the Internet for the animals and marine
mammals with cognitive abilities – so they could interact with us.
“What
you’ve seen tonight tells you that we should not restrict this network to one
species,” Cerf paused, and then added; “these other intelligent sentient
species should be part of this system, too.”
He
stated we share a common sensory environment, and that we are beginning to
explore with something which isn’t another person.
“Well,
you see what is coming next,” Cerf added with a bit of dramatic flair.
He
feels, someday, all kinds of sentient beings may interact with us through the
Internet. “I can’t wait to see these experiments unfold,” Cerf said.
He
went on to say there are machines that need to talk to machines, and machines
we need to talk to.
As
time goes on, we will have to learn how to better communicate with computers,
and how we can adapt computers to communicate with us in ways we are familiar
with.
Cerf
implied this communication will not be by using a keyboard or a mouse. We will
someday easily communicate with a computer using common speech and hand
gestures – just as we would talk with any individual.
He
then took it one step further by bringing up the Interplanetary Internet.
The
Interplanetary Internet needs to use special networking protocols because of
the distances encountered between connected electronic devices in space.
Cerf
noted the Interplanetary Internet is currently operating between Earth and
Mars, and on the International Space Station.
Yours
truly wrote a column about the Interplanetary Internet 15 years ago. Here is a
link for it: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-080398.
Cerf
then surprised me by disclosing a project being funded by DARPA (Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency).
This
always-observant columnist learned from Cerf that DARPA is funding a project
designed for getting a spacecraft to the nearest star in 100 years’ time.
Cerf
no doubt realizes the work being done using the Internet as a two-way
communication venue between computers, humans, devices, and animal species,
will prepare us for how we may someday be interacting with an alien
intelligence from another world.
Vinton
Cerf concluded his presentation by saying, “I can hardly wait.”
You
can view TED talks covering numerous topics at: http://www.ted.com.
