It's an App World

One of the current trends in the app world is apps that help a person track their health by looking at foods eaten, exercises done in a day, food eaten, etc., but a new app, currently in development by Pathway Panorama, is actually using your DNA to give you health advice. The way this app works is by sequencing the user’s DNA then using IBM’s Watson’s ability to interpret human language, and then provide recommendations based on DNA and medical history. The core idea behind this is that by using someone’s DNA, the app would be able to provide very detailed recommendations for a person’s health. The example used in the article, and provided by a worker at Pathway, is if someone has just flown from their house on the coast to a city that's at higher elevation how long they would be able run for safely after getting off the plane. While this would do much more than any current app, but it also faces some problems that will have to be solved in order for the app to take off.

As pointed out in the article, some of these issues will be any legal issues about giving out health advice based on such personal information, and convincing people to hand over that much information. I personally do not think that these two issues will pose too much of a problem, as we already have apps and web pages that serve similar functions without too many problems. All this app does is take it one step further. For instance, websites such as webmd already provide a basic form of diagnosis, apps such as myfitnesspal provide recommendations on diet, all without legal ramification. Even though the app takes this a step farther with using DNA, it will still only provide a basic form of advice, and will most likely have the disclaimer “seek actual medical advice for concerns.” The other problem I also don’t think will be a serious issue because people already put out incredibly personal information on the internet (in particular social media) and I believe it will only be a matter of time before people catch on and are willing to give up their personal information to the app. This will only be easier if the app goes with HIPPA laws in regards to sharing of medical information.

All in all, I believe that apps like these are a way to the future because they further the trend of technology providing recommendations for us and simplifying life overall. Even though there are some clear issues that will have to be dealt with, there are issues with every new technology, and the ones faced by this app are no more than other technologies.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/ibms-watson-medical-expert-new-health-app-uses-your-dna-n247946

Most Motorists Think Self-Driving Cars Are 'Dangerous': Poll

In a recent poll conducted on behalf of Autotrader.com it was discovered that most car owners are not big fans of self driving cars. In the study 65% of respondents said that they felt autonomous vehicles are “a dangerous idea.” The same respondents also felt that safety was more important, and even though most of the respondents disliked the idea of a car driving themselves full time, they still indicated that they would buy a car with features that helped a driver avoid accidents. Many of these feature such as automatic collision avoidance, parking assistance, and active cruise control are very helpful to drivers, and despite them being similar to autonomous cars, still seem very popular. This is important because it implies that drivers want some of the helpful features provided by intelligent cars, but are still unwilling to give up control of their car.

My best guess for the response in this survey is that many people are unaware of how autonomous cars would work, and have imagined fears of them being unsafe. Despite the current safety statistics of the autonomous cars by Google right now, there still seems to be a majority of people that do not trust a car to drive itself. I think the issue is that many people think they are better drivers than they actually are, and think “I can drive better than a computer.” This is a problem because we aren't actually better than a computer in many aspects, and sometimes it is very important to admit that something is better than oneself. I personally feel that this idea will become the biggest thing that self-driving car manufacturers will have to overcome when bringing their cars to the market. If a majority of people think that self driving cars are dangerous it will be very hard for them to catch on and get laws developed allowing the use of them.

To me, the most interesting part of the article is that 65% of people actually think that self-driving cars are more dangerous. I personally think that this speaks to the unfamiliarity that most people have with developments in the tech world, which will be a serious problem for every future tech development that comes forward and has controversy. Without people being familiar with tech developments they will not be properly informed on what is happening, and thus would not be able to make informed decisions, which always leads to problems. I personally would love the idea of self driving cars as they would make life simpler when driving long distances, but would be against all sorts of cars being outlawed. This isn't because I feel that they are “more dangerous”, but rather because I feel that driving is a fundamental part of the American way of life, and I would not like to see that happen.

Overall, I feel that this poll brings up problems with the development of self-driving cars because the fact a majority of car owners believe them to be dangerous is definitely a significant issue that will have to be overcome.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/most-motorists-think-self-driving-cars-are-dangerous-poll-n250491

Tired of Doing Your Laundry? PR2 Robot Comes to the Rescue.

As a college student, a dream of mine has always been to not have to do laundry. It takes time out of my (fairly) busy day, and then I have to wait around the laundry room for close to two hours, preventing me from being my most productive. For decades having laundry done by robots has been a part of popular fiction, but now it appears that there might be a robot that could do my laundry for me, saving me time, and, most importantly, effort. In the article “Tired of Doing Your Laundry? PR2 Robot Comes to the Rescue” by Devin Coldewey, the author talks about how a new robot has been demonstrated that could potentially do most parts of laundry, even folding it! As the article points out it is currently unknown whether or not the robot could do things such as add fabric softener or pick up clothes of the floor, and it is very slow, it certainly seems that these feature could fairly easily be improved.. Hopefully the creators of this project, a group of roboticists from UC Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts, will be able to improve their design, and produce it in the mass market so I can finally accomplish my dream of not having to do laundry anymore.

While the laundry doing robot may seem fairly trivial at first glance, to me this article is very important because it shows that many mundane tasks such as doing laundry, folding clothes, cleaning, or doing the dishes will eventually be taken over by robots. This will mark a strong change in society as no longer will menial tasks be fulfilled by humans, which will greatly alter how certain jobs are perceived, how many jobs are available, and so on. One of the first things that comes to mind with this is that there will no longer be jobs such as maid, burger flipper, cashier, or shelf stocker. Instead, as robots become more and more advanced, these jobs will be taken over by robots which don’t have to be paid. It seems possible that there could be a possible future where there are close to zero “basic” jobs such as these as robots will be able to do them for a lower cost. This would definitely pose many problems, particularly for the lower class, and anyone who doesn’t have some sort of technical knowledge (trade school apprenticeship, college education, etc.). I personally know that many of my friends got their money through mowing lawns, working at grocery stores, or fast food restaurants, and without these jobs they would have had a very hard time finding any source of income as they only had a high school education. While I do think that robots that take over menial tasks is the way of the future, I feel that there will be a tremendous amount of problems associated with it, but I am very unsure of what the answer will be.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/tired-doing-your-laundry-pr2-robot-comes-rescue-n253086