“Hello Siri and Google, I am going to bed”; Are we finally developing tech for good?

And no, I didn’t name my children Siri and Google.

I love technology, and thinking about how it can improve lives. Recently though I have had a crisis of conscience. I am an engineer, an atheist, and I believe in science and the scientific process. Unfortunately I had fallen into the trap of thinking that, in 2014, humanity is at another level with our science.

This view changed when I started to delve into nutrition and I lost over 100 pounds. Science wasn’t the problem, but the data and results were perverted, leaving many in ignorance yet believing that we knew truth.

Then I started to get into meditation and the like, and realized that I was actively at odds with my new views. Why am I always staring at my phone? How will it look in the future if there is an ecological catastrophe via climate change and our grandkids say:

“Wait, what? you guys were all playing Candy Crush and talking about WhatsApp? Are you freaking kidding me?????”

Entertainment often leads the way with technology, and with the mobile revolution gaming and consumption has jumped into a void to suck away at our time and our consciousness. I felt like I was part zombie going through the motions without being.

I am an optimist

The mobile evolution keeps growing. Having the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy with access to the Internet was amazing. Add to that a screen and experience that made this usable and even a delight, and getting beyond the speeds of edge, and bingo.

We keep adding sensors to the mobile device, and have a way to tie external sensors (BLE). As the base platform can sense so much more, developers can develop new amazing software experiences. Marry this data to the crowd and the cloud and you can go from big data to actual insights personalized for you.

This has me wondering if we are finally entering a time where the technology that we are building will accelerate our growth, health, and education.

There are great new platforms to be made (e.g. HealthKit) and marrying health data with analysis is going to be huge. It is going to mean that all technology is going to have to change to take us and health into account.

I want all devices to have a sleeping state

One silly example is sharing state and controlling devices. We keep learning that our sleep totally sucks, and there are many things that you should do to maximize the restoration that you can get over night. One of the many items is keeping your room pitch black.

To that end, I can’t wait to be able to tell my environment that I am going to bed, and have everything around me adapt to that. Window shutters down. Time on the cable box and the red light… off. It isn’t about laziness, it is about our health.

As a species we are constantly inventing new technology, and some percentage can be used for good and/or ill. I am really hopefully that many in the mobile world will get to put out technology that will truly help us all. Exciting times!