Eyes are pretty valuable

I had a chance yesterday to benefit from new modern technology. Jenny had eye surgery at five years old to correct a problem -- back then, it was a very invasive process. I had 162 "shots" at 380 milliwatts for 30 milliseconds each, delivered by a 3x3 matrix argon laser "gun" to spotweld a retinal tear. Love the precision!

The release form you sign says "there may be a slight amount of pain". That was certainly true, in fact, they overdelivered on that one! I was quite relieved when the final shot had been fired, and I certainly am not eager to repeat the experiment soon.

On the other hand, I was quite lucky compared to some other friends. One good friend recently endured a fully detached retinal event, while enbound for a trek in Africa. It happened on a street, inexplicably, in London. Needless to say, their trip was interrupted, but so was his life, for the next six months, as he struggles to regain full eyesight. And he is lucky as well. He is regaining his sight.

Along the way, via the too lengthy diagnostic process -- four visits to four different docs at four facilities, escalating the specialties as we went -- I was entranced by the OCT machines that could build a "depth profile" of the layers of cells underneath the retina. This fabulous technology is an outgrowth of recent work at the MIT Media Lab, plus early work by Marvin Minsky at Harvard nearly fifty years ago. It is part sonar, part time-domain reflectometry, and way cool for its diagnostic ability for macular degenrative disease and macular "pucker", both of which I am currently experiencing as well.

Fearsome words to some, including me, but tell you what -- they're just aging issues, and as the doc said, "you are balding too, and you don't call that an illness"...

So, recuperating today -- slept an amazing twelve or thirteen hours, but certainly privileged.

Multiple Generations for Twitter and Facebook

Michael Wesch is currently on a Skype connection into our MediaX Social Media Collaboratory workshop being taught by Howard Rheingold

(see http://mediax.stsnford.edu/WSI/collaboratory.html )

Wesch has some YouTube clips -- the one I think everyone should watch (and many have, with some 10 million downloads to date) is called "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

Compelling stuff, re why MediaX exists, and what we might profitably study. The OLPC project is a good example, but there are many, many things -- the use of checkout counter automatic cameras which might have an infinite focal plane, the use of in-home monitors for medical aid that might get the oldster committed to an institution earlier than might be desired/apropos, etc.

Where does this go? Is there a predictable endpoint? How many generations of Media Users will we have (our grandkids are adept at things we scarcely imagine, let alone adopt and use. Today the fourteen year olds know MUCH more than the nineteen year olds seemingly; the eleven year olds are excellent at stuff the fourteen years old have not yet learned. And if you're (gasp) over thirty, Jerry Rubin called it at Berkeley (tho he borrowed the phrase from Jack Weinberger apparently) -- never trust anyone over thirty!