[Extra Credit] Event 4: Midterm Presentations

I was invited to present my midterm project at the event and I took this opportunity to see what others have worked on for their projects. Although I would not be able to cover all of them in this post, all of the projects were extremely fascinating and have also inspired me in one way or another. I was able to classify the projects into two categories. For the first category, I viewed them as a reflection of what we deemed as issues in society that needed fixing, and the projects were our humble attempts to propose solutions to them. For the second category of projects, they proposed products that could satisfy our innermost desires. From these, I was able to glean what matters most to humankind. 

For the first category of projects, some that come to mind would be Mary Gallo's SolArt, Michelle Chen's Scent of the Past, Masooma Hasnain’s Mediation in Nature exhibition, as well as my project, the Fact Checker Glasses. 

Fact Checker Glasses

The common theme across these projects was the desire to improve society by providing solutions to problems we saw in daily life. Mary Gallo’s SolArt encourages people to choose solar panels and sustainable technology by making them aesthetically appealing. Michelle Chen's Scent of the Past proposes creating custom scents that help to slow or reduce memory loss, especially for elderly who suffer from Alzheimer’s. My Fact Checker Glasses will allow users to instantly fact-check any piece of information they come into contact with, preventing the spread of disinformation and misinformation. 

For the second category of projects, Kevin Wang's Immortality Pill, Taylor Kim's Dream Imaging and Katharina Stahl's Emotional Archive come to mind. The common theme across these projects were that they would allow us to satisfy our innermost desires as human beings. Kevin Wang's Immortality Pill explores the possibility of immortality. Taylor Kim's Dream Imaging uses Neuralink technology to capture dream data and Katharina Stahl's Emotional Archive would allow us to store and revisit our experiences and emotions. 

Exploring immortality through Kevin Wang’s Immortality Pill.

It was an eye-opening experience listening to the presenters talk about products they were passionate about creating. What surprised me was that many of these fantasy-sounding products were not simply a figment of imagination, but had a valid scientific framework describing how they could be created and brought to life. For instance, Kevin talks about how the ingredients needed for the creation of his Immortality Pill are cheap and easy to manufacture and Taylor's Dream Imaging uses Neuralink technology that already exists. I left the event feeling a little strange; with the combination of scientific advancement and human imagination, it felt like the future has arrived but I just didn’t know it yet.

Is the future already here?

References 

“What is fake news and how to stop the spread of misinformation?” Settlement.org, settlement.org/ontario/dailylife/communication/ethnic-and-cultural-media/what-is-fake-news-and-how-to-stop-spreading-misinformation/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021. 

Herd, Chris. “Why Immortality is Already Within our Grasp and How we Could Achieve it.” Medium, 9 Feb. 2018, chrisherd.medium.com/why-immortality-is-already-within-our-grasp-and-how-we-could-achieve-it-853984fce530. 

Golembiewski, Lauren. “Are You Ready for Tech That Connects to Your Brain?” Harvard Business Review, 28 Sep. 2020, hbr.org/2020/09/are-you-ready-for-tech-that-connects-to-your-brain. 

Puiu, Tibi. “Science and art join hands to transition the world toward a sustainable future.” ZME Science, 12 Oct. 2020, www.zmescience.com/science/can-science-and-art-accelerate-the-planets-sustainability-transition. 

Biennale of Sydney. “The Future Has Arrived.” Medium, 24 May 2016, medium.com/not-evenly-distributed/the-future-has-arrived-fed56cec3266.

<Images and Videos> 

HQuality. “A man watches with a futuristic look with glasses augmented reality in holography. Concept: immersive technology, future, eyes, and futuristic vision.” Shutterstock, www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-watches-futuristic-look-glasses-augmented-595106888. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021. 

Human body and Earth in DNA structure. Medium, chrisherd.medium.com/why-immortality-is-already-within-our-grasp-and-how-we-could-achieve-it-853984fce530. Accessed 19 May 2021. 

UK Research and Innovation. Image of futuristic world. Retrieved from www.internationalairportreview.com/article/154632/investing-new-aviation-systems-future-industry. Accessed 19 May 2021.