Author: Duane Johnson
5
Nov
What a night! It was electrifying to see the crowds in Chicago and watch Obama give his acceptance speech. I’ve been watching for reactions around the world, and I thought this comment was a very interesting cause for additional celebration:
Saudi journalist Samir Saadi said that Obama’s election means “the U.S. has won the war on terror.”
“Given Obama’s name, his background, the doubts about his religion, Americans still voted for him and this proved that America is a democracy,” he said. “People here are starting to believe in the U.S. again.”
I think that what people widely understand to be true is the connection Obama has to everyone (like I mentioned in my last post). Russian anthropologist Ilya Utekhin said it better than I did, however:
“An African American president appears to have more sensitivity to the cross-cultural diversity of the world, and this is a promise of a more creative and flexible foreign policy,” he said.
David Lammy, in Britain, noted the remarkable symbolism of change when he commented:
“Now black and white can raise their shoulders high and can turn a page on issues of inequality,” he said, marveling at the “amazing image” of a black family living in the White House.
Many people are inspired by this clear change visible in the highest office of the country.
Author: Duane Johnson
4
Nov
I haven’t been entirely happy with Obama’s various compromises and changes of heart.
But today, I realized just how connected to America he is, and I felt a little bit better. As everyone notes first, he is black. But he is white, too, and raised by a single mom. His grandma
died of cancer today. His
aunt is an illegal immigrant. He’s an active Christian. His father is Muslim. His mother was a humanist. He’s married, and has two young, beautiful girls. He’s smart and well-educated.
When we have so many divisive issues to talk about, who better to lead our country than someone with an understanding heart, someone who is connected in some way to almost every kind of person in America? If I could vote, I’d give Barack a chance.
Good luck to all you voters out there today. Let the counting begin!
Posted by email from Duane’s Quick Posts (posterous)
Author: Duane Johnson
1
Nov
It’s been a week since the Singularity Summit in San Jose, so isn’t it about time I wrote about it? Ok, let’s put the homework aside for a moment. What an awesome conference!
My two favorite presentations were from Cynthia Breazeal and Neil Gershenfeld. Cynthia presented her research on “mind reading robots”, specifically, the work she has done to understand how human beings model the emotions of
other human beings. In the picture below, the robot Kismet is trying to understand through visual observation the intent of a researcher (the researcher “wants the bag of chips in the box” and is using a key to try to get in). I think this line of research (trying to understand how human beings model the internal processes of other human beings) is a very useful one. I’ll be watching
Cynthia’s work.
Also on my list of favorites was MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld. For the first time, I was able to see how computers are only a small piece of the great “computational puzzle” of the universe. Neil put it concisely: physics is the most powerful computer. What his work is centered on is finding ways to combine “bits with atoms” so that we can bring the world of ethereal information and the world of real atoms (fabricated things) together. For example, he has been working to bring what he calls “
fab labs” to various parts of the world so that under served communities (both here in the USA as well as afar in, say, India and Africa) can build exactly what they need to improve their lives. As he points out in his book “Fab”, there is little use in sending computers to schools in Africa if they don’t have electricity. But they do have the power of the sun, as well as their ingenuity, and if they can learn to master the art of fabrication then they can solve the immediate needs in their region.
I was too busy listening to Neil’s talk to get a picture, so I’ve included a photo above from
TED.
There were a few more pictures taken and if you’d like to browse, feel free to do so on my
flickr account.
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