Days of Miracle and Wonder
Technology just continues to amaze me. This is probably why I went into IT to begin with.
For instance this new satellite software package that NASA is talking about. They had a satellite that was equipped with cameras and lots of heat detection hardware. They installed software that would make it interested in hot things- interested and chatty. So this satellite is cruising in orbit and sees something hot, it starts snapping pictures. No one on the ground knows what's going on until the satellite phones home to chat about what it has seen. The scientists were surprised and pleased to discover that the satellite found an active volcano in Antarctica. Scientist on their own would take months or more to find such a thing on their own.
Now I am sure the tin foil hat crowds are going to pop in their copies to Terminator and start preaching about the evils of Skynet. Sure, ok. Yes, sometimes we design smart systems that seem a little crack headed. The patriot system would probably be fine if someone would just play the occasional game of Tic Tac Toe with it. Some things even claim to be smart but are simply evil.
Most even if a little weird are still amazingly cool. But I am the sort of geek who keeps up with places like space.com excited to see what new cool thing has been discovered on mars all the while looking just as interested in what is going on around Saturn. I wouldn't be surprised if one of its moons had some form of life. Perhaps not little grey men, but maybe microbial life forms as strange as what is currently being found around the volcanic vents around the world. I live for this kind of thing. I can sit and read about it for hours.
In medicine we are replacing parts with stuff grown in vats, or stuff created in machine shops or radio shack.
How can you NOT be impressed by that?
