Tag: artificial-intelligence

Can Meta’s Glasses make AR popular?

AR (Augmented Reality) can provide the diffusion of computing power that this age really needs. Instead of staring at TV screens, smartphones or computers. Right now, the only company really paying attention to this is Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Meta. The company that began as Facebook is only just pouring money into hardware as well as AI. While many people are criticizing him, Meta is one of the few companies capable of being able to compete with China in these areas. Many Americans still think of China in the 1970s which it isn’t anymore. Even under Mao, they managed to launch satellites into space and build their own spaceport. America needs companies competitive in many high-tech areas and Meta can be one of those companies which help our nation here.

The Meta Glasses are in continuity with another one of Zuckerberg’s projects, the Occulus Rift, a VR headset which has sold hundreds of thousands across the globe. However, the device is still niche in spite of its success. The main issue is one of style and how it can integrate with people and how they already interact with computers. The issue is to make it fashionable more than just another black slab on the table but something that can wear as jewelry amongst their colleagues.

The secret that we need here is to have technology return to the zeitgeist of the Y2K.

That is an era of style and beauty here.

While some may see it as tacky, Y2K had something unique which our current age is missing, a holistic integration of form and function. In our age now, form has become less important, and it is function which is often more important here.

What we need is style in tech again. Ray-Ban, a popular glasses brand has teamed up with Meta to make a new kind of glasses. These Ray-Ban Meta Glasses are a sign that computing is becoming more than just about keyboards and mice. Mark Zuckerberg has already stated that the glasses have sold some 2 million and this is very impressive for a new device here. Even Amazon is going to be introducing smart glasses for its drivers on the roads. Such devices are going to be integrated into everyday life which is important for the sales to increase. Consumers have to see that this product is practicable not just a hobbyist tool or a niche corporate tool which only affects small sections of an industry.

AI glasses can make the digital age spring out of the screen and onto the streets. That is the great promise of this technology. No longer will we be looking at blue light alone. It will integrate with meat space and revolutionize our lives and state.

Civilization III: China shoots down ICBMs in the 2nd Nuclear War.

Civilization III is proving to be a truly amazing game. Persia attempted to attack me once again, this time with ICBMs. My previous war with them had put so much pollution onto the planet that the sun image was red and my environmental efforts were going nowhere. Recently planted forests were becoming grassland as the planet became filled with nuclear radiation. However, peace was far away and the war had to continue.

I had a peace treaty with the Persians while the Koreans barely managed to hang on with their own treaty. The Persians simply had too many tanks and I lacked oil and aluminum to have an armored army to counter the Persians. As a result, I relied heavily on TOW infantry and huge amounts of artillery located across the mountain passes to slow them. I then used tactical nukes onto the capital of Persepolis and other major cities multiple times to cut the empire from resources and luxuries. However, they kept sending tanks and mechanized infantry into the area around Tokyo and Osaka; I had to make peace as I was basically in a stalemate and move to peacetime economy so that my cities could get new infrastructure in order to compete with the Persians.

However, I didn’t have all the time I needed to prepare for war with Persia. I was building ICBMs to counter their military. I also ordered my city governors to build a huge air force, a part of our military which wasn’t a factor in the previous war. The main issue was always the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Persia had tons of such machines. I had only recently built a city on top of an oil deposit in order to start building huge amounts of bombers and jet airplanes to counter this huge, mechanized army. However, no matter how well bulit ones plans are, only experience manages to tell us the truth or show the durability of our ideas.

The attack began without warning on China.

In Civilization III, the AI is very aggressive in comparison to the later versions. Some of this is what it has to work with. The game is simpler in a sense than the games that came out later. It is not a game that the AI has a hard time understanding the rules. Under the hood, however, the game is similar to Civ 7 except in the Hexes and some of the rules. The hexes in my opinion messed up the Civilization series. Squares were just easier for the AI to handle.

The result is that the AI is competent in a war and is an actual threat. In strategic thinking, the AI in this 2001 game is still behind the human but it is clear that they were planning to attack me with nukes for some time. I was in their way for domination of the globe and I was ready for their attacks.

Beijing, once again, was hit but my SDI system was able to defend the nation from attacks. As a result, my workers would not have as many duties at repairing the radiation and damage that was caused by the ICBMs.

This is actually the only time I have seen the SDI small wonder in action.

This is why I love Civilization III. You get to run a nation in the late game, and it is truly wonderous. This why Civilization VII was able to reach its heights.

Empire Earth: The Nano Age and the Architecture of an Epoch

Starting in the Digital Age in Empire Earth, the architecture suddenly shifts to a futuristic style. The Capitol for instance, isn’t trying to replicate the St. Basil’s Cathedral in London now, but some theoretical capital in the future. Its architecture is rounded, like it belongs on some distant planet and not on Earth. The culture that it represents is one that worships efficiency over the idea of human culture. Compare that to the Colosseum wonder being built next to it.

The Colosseum was an expression of Roman culture using the technology they had in order to construct it. It also represented their many abstract ideas of how to organize their society. The Digital Age capital in Empire Earth is a representation of the technology overtaking the expression of human culture. What we see in the buildings in the future epochs is really a continuation of what saw beginning with the Modern Epochs; architecture is now functional. Now architecture is basically just housing technology within those structures.

Here is the great idea behind Cyber Labatory which is right behind the Colosseum; it isn’t about the structure which is mattering in here, its the technology which matters here. Gameplay wise, the Cyber Labatory is representing something new in military affairs in the game. These Cybers are made specifically to counter other Cybers not the remaining human units. This is Cyber on Cyber conflict not human.

This is the essence of the Nano Age.

Tech is more important than when we use it to make culture.

It is not surprising that the houses in the Nano Age do not have any distinctive cultural aspects to it. Art and Culture is subordinate to the interests of efficiency, or more specifically, how we use technology to interact with our epoch.

That is the essence of the Digital and more importantly, the Nano Ages in Empire Earth.