Anthony Townsend via Howard Rheingold via Thefeature.com via Gizmodo via Textually.org:

“As every person completes more tasks, communicates with more people, coordinates activities among more social networks in the same amount of time, the aggregate effect is an acceleration of the urban metabolism.”

Watched “Run Lola Run” on tv on Sunday. I’ve always thought RLR was loads of fun, and one of the great bits of city-cinema. Lots of the maguffinalia of RLR wouldn’t stand now: the boyfriend in the phonebox, running to plead with Dad, the incommunicado gangster. Made in 1998, how would it be restructured now? Around smartmobs, camphones, and information-infused cities?

My first thought is Lola broadcast-texting all her low-life mates to shake down every tramp in a two mile radius of her boyfriend’s GPS location… Maybe coaxing a few mobs into life in the city to slow down the hoodlums… Would it be nearly as much fun to watch?

RLR is a pretty short and sweet film as it is. The “accelerated urban metabolism” might mean it was all over in 15 minutes!

[What is this about?]

“I come here to think.

I love this part of the city. I always have.

When I come here, this time of night, it’s perfectly quiet apart from the sweepers. Their little robot bug-eyes just see me as a warm blob and steer clear.

I’m glad. I come here to think, and relax – not quiet ready to go home yet, not quite ready to sleep.

It’s the busiest, brassiest square in the North is Big Market. But it’s quiet now.

Idly, I flip my phone open. Warm blinks researched for the right combination of friendly frequency and companionable colour tell me my friends were here earlier. I gesture my phone in the air like a wizard in a children book, and the blurred drunk pictures they took of themselves just a few hours ago appear.

I remember as a kid watching David Attenborough tell me about Africa – and how the rhinos could smell better than they saw, and so their friends and lovers appeared in their mind’s eye as week-long scent trails, reassuringly ‘there’ even when physically long past.

Here I am, with my phone, seeing the city like Rhinos see. I come here to think.”

GPS, digital cameras and phones will combine to let people annotate the places around them – fixing pictures and information in space and time, and sharing that specific instance of experience with their friends.

[What is this about?]

“I suppose the most useful thing the cat does is bring me my pills when I need them. There’s so many of them it’s a wonder I don’t rattle. She remembers them all though and jumps up onto the arm of the chair and gives me a poke with it’s little metal nose to tell me it’s time. Doesn’t spill anything off it’s little tray – it’s a wonder!

That’s the most useful thing, dear – but my favourite thing is when it reads me the email from my grandchildren, and shows me the pictures on the telly. That’s marvellous that is.

I can reply too, and I felt a bit daft doing that at first – Henry laughed at me. But I said, you used to talk to our old cat – the real one, all the blooming time, so don’t you give me that Henry Jacobs!

We’re getting a dog next. Dogs are a little more expensive apparently, but a lot stronger and can do more around the house. Mrs Eldred around the corner is infirm and has a monkey, which can lift her in and out of bed in the morning, but that’s just daft – who’d want a robot monkey in the house?”

Technology leaders in the far-east are investing heavily into domestic robotics, both for ‘companions’, and human-augmentation, expecting them to become mainstream markets in 10 – 15 years. Sony has adopted the AIBO dog as its corporate mascot, and see robotics as an ‘entertainment and information delivery platform”

As well as companionship for the greater numbers of people living along, there are applications in catering for an aging population in the western world. From Wired:

Also from Wired:

“Nursebot , a robot that provides both cognitive and motor support to seniors. Nursing-home residents can lean on Nursebot as the machine walks them down long corridors, responds to their questions and reminds them about appointments.”

“when a robotic kitten named Max arrived, he seemed to melt the hearts of a few robot skeptics. Max, which was built by Omron out of Tokyo, is quite lifelike, with sensors that trigger catlike responses — including 48 different cat sounds — with a touch or voice cue. Omron only built 500 Maxes last year, according to Elena Libin, project director at the Institute of Robotic Psychology and Robotherapy in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

The institute studies “robotherapy,” which its website defines as the use of person-to-person interactions “to create new positive experiences.” Libin is studying the mood-altering effects Max has on seniors with dementia.”

[What is this about?]

“In our more whimsical moments, we thought about giving our new arrival a name that would rhyme with her phone number. Magda pointed out quite sensibly (Magda is quite sensible) that this was a bad idea, and the Government leaflets about the phone number pointed out it was a bad idea.

So little Marta came into the world named and numbered. They gave us the SIM card had the hospital and explained that we could keep it slotted in the TV box until she was old enough to get a mobile.

Our box is a little old and doesn’t have the right slots I think but a groggy Magda prompted the nurse who deals with the SIMs to tell me about how we can get money back from the government if we get a new one.

It’s worth doing – as it gives details of Marta’s progress to the hospital and they can tell us when to come in for checks and injections etc., to the TV, and our phones. Magda says I’m one of those phone hypochondriacs she read about, always checking my NHS stats and rushing to the health food shop based on the recommendations. She reckons that Marta’s stats will have me running around in circles! I don’t care. The SIM lets me see my baby grow up everyday, and that’s worth it.”

Government branding us with a unique identity from birth has long been the stuff of dystopian nightmare. However, most of us volunteer for a unique identity when we sign up for a personal, mobile telephone number. It is not far-fetched then perhaps to see the government trying to get the benefits to them of introducing compulsory ID through the convenience to us of the single mobile phone number from birth.