Clancy: Envisioning the Nanosuit

Some may believe that nanoparticles - let along their weaponized applications - are the stuff of crude science fiction.  However, as recent sources and TED Talks suggest, nanotechnology is an emergent reality that will bring massive innovations across various sectors of modern society.  Clancy shares thoughts on how he is tapping into the promise of the field below:

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A nanosuit, as worn by a soldier from Crytek’s video game Crysis. 
Image located at crysis.wikia.com.

The idea of this particular [nano]suit is to fully enhance the user physically and mentally, making them 100% effective in a combat situation. The suit is specifically a type of hybrid nanosuit that weighs in at approximately one thousand pounds. The suit has four layers that all correspond with each other to keep the user functioning at physical capacity. The first layer actually acts as two; it is the contact layer. This means it is the layer that is responsible for reading the user's bio-electrical signals. The layer is crucial to the suit's design. It is comprised of, on the inside, a crystal compound that can speed up bio-electrical signals and ping them through the suit to a neural transmitter. The first layer on the outside acts as a foundation for the second layer. The first layer resembles a wetsuit. Once the user puts the first layer on, it is filled with a carbon-based gel. This serves as the sub-layer and a median for the active nanite life support system. The second layer is a titanium nano-composite material which is used to construct nano muscle packs. The muscle packs will act as a secondary choice to exo skeletons, having the same functions and properties as a traditional exo in a much more compact, natural-looking, and normal-feeling system. The second layer will have the capability to transfer power to the inner and outer layers. The third and outer most layer is titanium alloy plating, which is magnetically bolted to the second layer. The plates are between three and four inches thick. The third layer has a piezonucleic coating of gold and lithium-hydrate. This is woven into the third layer at 14 nano meters. This coating produces energy for the suit. My hypothesis is that it can also project energy, forming a shield around the suit.

Thoughts or questions for Clancy? Please post in the comments section below!

"Are You Leading Change or Building a Platform for Change?," by Bruce Dixon

Please enjoy another Educating Modern Learners (EML) article below.

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Co-founder of EML and edtech consultant, Bruce Dixon (@bruceadixon) published an article on EML entitled "Are You Leading Change or Building a Platform for Change" (March 26, 2015).  Within the piece, he reconceptualizes educational environments.  He assures us that school leaders and administrators are not responsible for - and should not take on the task of - implementing educational change unilaterally.  Instead, he argues, a leader must "build a change platform—one that allows anyone to initiate change, recruit confederates, suggest solutions, and launch experiments."

This approach is radically egalitarian.  As Dixon explains, "the essence is that you are letting the team work outside of the normal hierarchy with a direct reporting line to senior leadership for the change effort."  To nurture this fledgling framework, faculty and administrators must be willing to challenge more than just traditional communication networks.  They must also be willing to question the physical environment in which their students learn, the curricula guiding student learning, and the assumptions about learning that we have held dear for over a century and a half.

Is your school ready?

For Dixon's article, please click here.  Please post in the comments section to share your views.

Seth Godin: "Reckless abandon (is neither)"

Direct Marketing Hall of Fame inductee, author of 18 books, and creator of Yoyodyne and Squidoo (now known as HubPages), Seth Godin is a comprehensive thinker.  He speaks towards "post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything" in a blog (@ThisIsSethsBlog) that has become one of the most popular sites of its kind throughout the world (quoted content found on Godin's bio).

Godin published a post on Friday, April 24th in which he speaks towards reckless abandon.  You may find the full text below:

It's not reckless, because when we leap, when we dive in, when we begin, only begin, we bring our true nature to the project, we make it personal and urgent.

And it's not abandon, not in the sense that we've abandoned our senses or our responsibility. In fact, abandoning the fear of fear that is holding us back is the single best way not to abandon the work, the pure execution of the work.

Later, there's time to backpedal and water down. But right now, reckless please.

Want to share your thoughts on the piece? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of image:  Seth Godin's visual menu.  Photo taken from sethgodin.typepad.com.  Kildonan and the IP program claim no ownership over the picture above.

For a post discussing Godin's "STOP STEALING DREAMS," please click here.

Tim: Steve Jobs &​ the Ethics of Technology

Ever the savvy technology expert, Tim continues to research drones and game design.  He has begun to complement these explorations, too, by considering the ethics of technology.  This discipline concerns itself with the ethical (or moral) considerations of implementing technology in our modern age.

Tim possesses opinions that are threefold.  First, he sides with the late Steve Jobs, American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor as well as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.  Jobs differentiates between animals and humans in his Steve Jobs on Bicycle (see below), specifically by citing a study that measures the "efficiency of locomotion" of various animals traveling across a flat plane from Point A to Point B.  In this experiment, researchers concluded that the human cannot measure up as a rival to other animals such as the condor.  However, when the researchers then evaluated a human riding on a bicycle, they compiled data measurements that significantly dwarfed all other organisms previously measured.  After reading this research, Jobs concluded that human beings are essentially tool builders; they compensate for natural/​biological weaknesses with the materials that they create.

But Tim goes on to extend Jobs's thinking into a two-pronged critique our culture.  He argues, on one hand, that militaries may wish to curb innovation for innovation's sake due to the risk of reverse engineering.  If they launch drones without comprehensive research into drone defense, for instance, cultural enemies may seize the equipment and use them for counter-measures.  On the other hand, he argues that humans, although they utilize technology, occasionally do not experiment with this equipment to the best of their ability.  This implicit fear hinders humanity; it retards what otherwise could amount to exponential progress and growth, forcing us instead to repeatedly re-hash the same trying problems.  In this scenario, human risk a vicious circle and a technological gap:  a dissonance between our technological capabilities and the technology that we realize and produce.

What do you think of Tim's reasoning? Do you have feedback or a source that he should explore? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of 1st image:  A computer-generated representation of the ethnics of technology and transhumanism.  Photo located at abc.net.au.  Kildonan and its IP program claim now ownership over the above graphic.