Strange thing about Wired's NEXTFEST-- I keep wanting to type NeXT Fest. Ah, does anyone else remember the black magnesium cubes? Does anyone else miss those days? Whenever anyone criticizes me for going off to build a shareware toolbar, I think of Steve Jobs going off to reinvent the very idea of a computer and smile. The software industry is chock-full of people who do apparently irrational things.
Anyway, back to Wired's shindig. Thanks to Our Fearless Leader, I went last Sunday and partook of the cutting-edge. Drank deep of the Pierian Spring, as it were.
It was clearly a 1.0 event. All sorts of minor issues with displays being too close together and lines of sight not quite being linear and so on. But that was small beans-- this was a chance to glimpse the future and share.
I enjoyed it immensely.
Rather than give a simple summary, I decided to create and bestow the first annual NEXT FEST Awards.
Winner, Most Pragramatic and Still Quite Amazingly Cool Category
Henry Daniell was displaying his genetically modified tobacco plants. The idea is simple: insert genes that create vaccines into tobacco plants. Then, grow the plants and process the leaves. Boom. Cheaper vaccines with a highly scalable means of production. I asked the obvious question: Why Tobacco? Got back three reasons: (1) Tobacco has a high leaf to total biomass ratio, (2) Tobacco grows under a wide variety of conditions, and (3) There are 69,000 tobacco farms in Kentucky alone. As smoking declines, we need to find other things for tobacco farmers to do. Karmically, having them grow vaccines is appropriate (note that I'm inferrring this last sentiment. Dr. Daniell is far too polite to say something like that out loud).
Winner, Almost a Business Plan Category
The folks at XCOR Aerospace, who were handing out brochures saying "Whether you need an engine, a pump, an upper stage or a complete space vehicle, XCOR has the knowledge and the team to help you reach your goal." Ummm. I'm guessing that most people who calll to place an order are in the "engine or pump" crowd? Snarkiness aside, I'm not convinced that the space tourism market is really robust enough to support as many companies as seem to be pursuing it. XCOR's spokesperson did mention that there were already 150 people signed up to circle the Earth once XCOR has their suborbital passenger vehicle built (ETA: 5 years). But I kind of think that market's limited.
We also talked about recurring costs per mission (fuel cost, that sort of thing). I noticed that he hadn't mentioned insurance and brought it up. Turns out, they've already talked to some insurance companies and the cost of insurance is dwarfed by the other factors. Surprised me.
Winner, Can I Have One Now Please Category
Motorala was demoing their LoBe (Low-powered Beacon) technology. Basically, a very weak wi-fi transmitter built into a gadget and into your phone. When your phone gets more than 30 feet away from the gadget, it rings and tells you that you've left the gadget behind . If I had one of these, I'd never leave my briefcase behind. This isn't particularly new technology, but it's a very neat way to leverage the fact that we've all been trained not to leave our phones behind. Alas, as the man explained to me when I asked, they don't currently have any plans to market a product.
Winner, God It Reminded Me of Woody Allen in Sleeper Category
That would be Arcscience's Omniglobe, a giant ball that has an interior projector. Hook it up to your computer and you can project onto the inside of a spherical surface, and people standing around the globe can view the images (bad description: follow the link). Amazingly cool, especially around holiday time. I kept fantasizing about those holiday snow globes and thinking "Life Size, with First-Person Shooter Action"
Winner, It Reminded Me of My Trip to the Hoover Dam Category
A few years back, I went to the Hoover Dam. It's an amazing place. They have these enormous generators, which are quite impressive. And they give tours, in which the tour guide, apparently unable to communicate the enormity of the Hoover Dam in any other way, kept saying "These Generators? They're like the alternator in your car, only a million times bigger." GE's exhibits, which consisted mainly of drawings of power generation equipment and cross-sections of jet engines, could have used that guy to spice things up.
And, finally....
Winner, It Confused Me More Than a Little Category.
The Evolution. The world's most technologically advanced diesel locomotive. Massively fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. Why isn't it aerodynamic? Shouldn't the world's most technologically advanced diesel locomotive be aerodynamic? And, on a side note, why did the chairs look so uncomfortable (we couldn't go in and sit in them so I can only report that they looked uncomfortable)?
Note that I missed the robot. Otherwise, it probably would have made the list.
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