Last night I stayed up until 5am to watch the Oscars. A big part of it was that Christina wanted to watch them live. Another part of it was wanting to see how many Oscars I predicted correctly (on Friday I posted a  slideshow of my prediction).
I updated the presentation today with the results so if you’d like to see how I got on you can have a look below. My predictions got off to a good start. Not that means I did well!
Earlier this week I posted my Oscar predictions. Since then I’ve created a slideshow of my predictions and put it on Slideshare. Here it is:
Boomboxes are obnoxious. As is any other way of playing music in public places that disturbs others. That’s why we have headphones – so that we can listen in public, privately, and without bothering anyone else.
Headphones are great if you want to listen alone but not so good if you want to include others in what you’re listening to. It’s a problem we haven’t really solved yet. You don’t want a solution that includes wires. Wires restrict movement. Two people walking down the street connected by their headphones. Wires make it awkward and weird.
It needs to be a wireless solution. The problem is easily solvable with today’s technology. You just need an app. As I’m not a programmer there are likely obstacles I’ve not thought of. Though I suggest that these problems are not with the possibilities in the programming language but with what is permissible by the gatekeepers. Things such as interoperability  between competing mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows and whatever else). Or restrictions put in place on developers by licences.Â
The app would simply need to allow you to broadcast the audio you’re playing (via bluetooth, wi-fi or other), to a localised area (twenty metres or so) so that people you approve would be able to listen in (once they are within that localised area). You should be able to play playlists from various music services by connecting your account. Same with podcasts and any audio you have on your device.
Another feature of the app would be the ability to speak to those listening to the broadcast without removing your headphones. This would be great for people running together who want to listen to music and talk at the same time. It could even be used by a coach to pass instructions to those in the group. Using this feature could be independent from the music so that everyone can choose their own music to listen to but still be able to hear and speak to the rest of the group.
No doubt there are issues that would come up in development but I have no doubt that they would be solvable.
I’ve said before that we are all cyborgs. Our evolution from Homo sapiens to Homo machina is already underway.
One way this evolution could develop is that people start to get brain chips. Brain chips would help make people better and smarter.
You’re in an interview and you get asked a question. Your brain chip instantly connects to the web and searches for the best way to answer the question. Initially, there might be some lag in getting the info but over time this would become less and less noticeable.
You could argue that this is already happening. We rely on our own memory less as we can Google it. We don’t need to know how to do things anymore. We just need to know how we can find out how to do something. Don’t know the appropriate HTML code to use in your project? There’s no need to work it out. Just look it up!
This is of course nothing new. People have always been outsourcing their brain function. We’ve used books and libraries to store information so we don’t have to forget it.
Outsourcing brain function is not confined to technology. We also outsource to other people. You see this most evidently with couples. Over time one in the partnership takes on certain roles. It might be that one always looks after the passports on holidays. It might be that the one always looks after the finances.
Society is simply an expansion of this. None of us need to know how to do everything. We can rely on others to know how to do things we don’t. They rely on us for other things. We humans outsource so many things so that we don’t have to take up brain space with them. It allows us as a species to do so many more things than any individual.
Outsourcing to Google is a natural extension.
Following on from yesterday’s post here are my predictions for this year’s Oscars…
The Revenant Emmanuel Lubezki
I’d prefer if Roger Deakins won for Sicario
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Jenny Beavan
Alejandro G. Iñárritu The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Margaret Sixel
Son of Saul Hungary
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Mark Mangini and David White
Mad Max: Fury RoadÂ
Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
The Hateful Eight
Ennio Morricone
Spotlight
Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Body Team 12
David Darg and Bryn Mooser
I have no idea about documentary shorts as there just isn’t enough buzz about them. So I’ve just gone with the betting odds.
Amy
Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Sanjay’s Super Team
Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
Shok
Jamie Donoughue
Again this is a category that I’ve no real idea about.
“Til It Happens To You†from The Hunting Ground; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
The Big Short
Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Alicia Vikander The Danish Girl
I’m going with Vikander as she could also have been nominated for Ex Machina.
Sylvester Stallone Creed
Leonardo DiCaprio The Revenant
Mostly I think he’ll win because he has missed out before and people think he’s ‘due’ the win. Also because The Revenant shoot was really tough according to all those involved. Not that that should impact who will win but it will.
If Leo gets overlooked I’d guess Eddie Redmayne to win his two in a row.
Brie Larson Room
Inside Out
The Revenant
Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, Producers
I don’t want it to win but think it will.
This Sunday is Oscar night. A night my wife wishes was a national holiday.
Every year during the show we try to guess who will win. We make our pick as the nominees are being called out and keep a running total of how many each of us got right. All that’s at stake is bragging rights.
Over the past few years we’ve found that we haven’t watched many of the nominees before Oscar night. Which means we don’t end up rooting for anyone in particular. This year we’re trying to watch as many of the best picture nominees as we can before Oscar night. So far we’ve watched five of the eight nominees and hope to bring it to at least seven before the awards.
Who do you think will win?