IBM Thinks Minds Will Control Machines Within 5 Years
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
Controlling a device with your mind. Powering your home with the energy of your own activities. These are two of the developments that experts at IBM think will become reality within the next five years.
The technology company has released its latest “5 in 5″ report. The experts think people will soon be able to control many electronic devices simply by using their minds. Scientists at IBM and other companies are researching ways to do this in a field of science known as bioinformatics.
They say people will soon have a way to just think about calling or e-mailing someone in order to make it happen. Bernie Meyerson is IBM’s vice president of innovation.
BERNIE MEYERSON: “[It's a] simple ability to command a system to do something for you without actually doing or saying anything, literally thinking and having something happen as a result that’s accurate. Something with really deep capability so that a person, for instance, a quadriplegic, a paraplegic can actually utilize brainwaves to make things happen and basically run their own lives independently.”
Another prediction is a way for people to power their homes and offices using energy from activities like walking or running. Bernie Meyerson says this is known as micro-electronic generation.
BERNIE MEYERSON: “For instance, you can have somebody in the third world who has access to a phone or a smartphone but doesn’t have access to the power grid, which is a very common thing, and literally in a shoe has something that recovers energy from walking and can charge the battery to enable that person to actually become connected with the rest of the world.”
Another prediction: passwords could soon become a thing of the past. IBM says developments in biometric technology could soon make passwords unnecessary. Some of the most common biometrics used to identify people are fingerprints, face and voice recognition, and iris scans. The iris is the colored part of the eye.
Bernie Meyerson says this technology will soon be more widely used by money machines and other devices.
BERNIE MEYERSON: “Imagine that things recognize you. You walk up to an ATM [automated teller machine]. [It] takes one look, says, Yep, you’re you.”
Another prediction from the experts at International Business Machines: better technology to prevent unwanted e-mail.
BERNIE MEYERSON: “The device, as you act upon it, as you eliminate mail, you don’t read it, you just look at it and kill it, after a while it learns your habits and works for you as as your assistant by eliminating stuff you never wanted anyway.”
The fifth prediction on IBM’s 5 in 5 list is an end to the “digital divide” between those who have technology and those who do not.
BERNIE MEYERSON: “Think about the digital divide today: the haves and the have-nots, people who are and are not connected. We anticipate within five years, better than eighty percent coverage of the world’s populations by cellular to smartphones. At that point, imagine having, for instance, the ability to speak openly with anybody anywhere, anytime and any language — real time translation. Literally, the old ‘Star Trek’ idea of the universal translator coming to be, and how the world would change if there were that kind of communication and openness.”
And that’s the VOA Special English Technology Report. What are your predictions for the next five years? Share them at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.
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Contributing: Faisa Elmasry
Websites Cut Service to Protest US Antipiracy Bills
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Some popular websites have protested two proposed United States laws aimed at fighting illegal copying of writing, movies and other intellectual property on the Internet. Wednesday, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, blacked out its English language website for twenty-four hours.
Jay Walsh is head of communications for the Wikimedia Foundation which operates Wikipedia.
JAY WALSH: “It is detrimental to the free and open web. It is detrimental to Wikipedia. And we want to make sure that we send a message.”
The blogging site Boing Boing and Social news website Reddit also went black.
Erik Martin is General Manager of Reddit.
ERIK MARTIN: “This is a really big deal and this is something we’re going to fight, and this is something we think threatens the entire tech sector.”
Both Wikipedia and Reddit urged users to contact their Congressional representative to oppose the law. Even Internet search leader Google protested, although it continued to provide service.
The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are known as SOPA and PIPA for short. Supporters say they are a way to fight foreign websites that sell pirated copies of American movies and music.
Steven Tepp is a lawyer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He says piracy of books, music, movies and other forms of intellectual property hurt the economy and threaten jobs.
STEVEN TEPP: “These rogue sites are hurting American jobs, stealing American jobs, they’re harming American consumers and they have no business being on the Internet.”
But many online businesses like blogs, news sites and search engines say the laws force them to become censors.
David Smith is with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He says the proposed laws would hurt Wikipedia and other sites that depend on material provided by people who use the sites. He says websites would be required to police all the material they carry.
DAVID SMITH: “It creates a legal situation in which a complainant can go before a judge and get an order, and it then makes the various Internet companies, the Internet service providers, responsible for what they’re carrying. And, this is where the rub (problem) comes, because it basically turns the Internet service provider into a monitor.”
The House and Senate are expected to work on the bills in the coming weeks. But after the online protests, some lawmakers have already said they have doubts about the bill. Republican Senator Marco Rubio urged lawmakers to take more time to consider the concerns of both supporters and opponents of the bills.
Obama administration spokesman John Carney said the president opposes any law that hurts freedom of expression or security.
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner admitted there is now a lack of agreement among lawmakers on the bills.
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. Get transcripts and mp3s of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter.
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Contributing: Alex Villarreal
Words and Their Stories: The Cold, Hard Truth
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
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Cold weather has a great effect on how our minds and our bodies work. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions that use the word cold.
For centuries, the body’s blood has been linked closely with the emotions. People who show no human emotions or feelings, for example, are said to be cold-blooded. Cold-blooded people act in cruel ways. They may do brutal things to others, and not by accident.
For example, a newspaper says the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. The killer murdered someone, not in self-defense, or because he was reacting to anger or fear. He seemed to kill for no reason, and with no emotion, as if taking someone’s life meant nothing.
Cold can affect other parts of the body. The feet, for example. Heavy socks can warm your feet, if your feet are really cold. But there is an expression — to get cold feet — that has nothing to do with cold or your feet.
The expression means being afraid to do something you had decided to do. For example, you agree to be president of an organization. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned. All the work of the organization will be your responsibility. You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation.
Cold can also affect your shoulder.
You give someone the cold shoulder when you refuse to speak to them. You treat them in a distant, cold way. The expression probably comes from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face-to-face. You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you. Or, to someone who has lied about you to others.
A cold fish is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and shows no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone.
Someone who is a cold fish could be cold-hearted. Now a cold-hearted person is someone who has no sympathy. Several popular songs in recent years were about cold-hearted men or cold-hearted women who, without feeling, broke the hearts of their lovers.
Out in the cold is an expression often heard. It means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise, that he was left out in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be.
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This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I’m Shirley Griffith.
