H+ Chapter 3: Connections (Episodes 13-18)

EPISODE 13: "QUESTIONS"
Porland, Oregon, USA - 5 years before it happened
Breanna, after pitching her new software venture to a corporate boardroom, later privately meets with a younger, clean-shaven Kenneth to offer an opportunity.

What if you were a software genius, and someone said you could change the world by writing the operating system for H+?

EPISODE 14: "THE GATES"
San Vito, Italy - 2 years after it happened
Someone with an interface observes Matteo outside the gates of a base. Later, Matteo returns home and has a flash of insight.

I imagine after a while, we can get used to augmented reality, which affords us with more information right in front of our eyes (rf. Terminator).

EPISODE 15: "THEIR CONNECTION"
Mumbai, India - 3 months before it happened
In a conference with Dr. Gurveer, Leena is asked to adjust her sleep schedule to match Breanna's work demands. Strangely, Gurveer's attention seems divided.

Breanna muscles Leena into adjusting her schedule, while Gurveer is preoccupied with a secret conversation about Leena and the baby.

EPISODE 16: "FROM ABOVE"
San Francisco, USA - 2 days after it happened
Brian, a young boy, finds his mother in the parking structure and describes the chaotic world above, and Kenneth gives him a special assignment.

Scores of people just dropped dead at the airport, and young Brian thinks it's H+.  Many kids are still alive; they are too young to have H+ inside them. 

EPISODE 17: "SALMIAKKI"
Helsinki, Finland - 7 years before it happened
Drunk, Topi stumbles onto a fragment of a conversation online and is suddenly messaged by Manta, who he meets at their bar for a surprising exchange.

Old world manipulation and secrecy, romance and jealousy collide, even in a digitized world.

EPISODE 18: "ADVENT"
Oria, Italy - 2 years after it happened
Matteo experiences a vision and is awoken from his trance by someone he has been close to but never met, standing in the rain.

"My name is Manta, I need your help, and I'm afraid I'm responsible for your [burned] hands."

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

H+ Chapter 2: Foreign Bodies (Episodes 7-12)

EPISODE 7: "IMPLANTED"
Mumbai, India - 5 months before it happened
Gurveer prepares to implant H+ in Leena so the Sheehans can track her pregnancy from abroad; she's anxious and asks many questions about the process. Gurveer, who tells her his own body is not compatible with H+, tells her she is lucky...though something else is commanding his attention.

Leena asks a good question: Besides tracking your biochemical process, can H+ also read your thoughts?

EPISODE 8: "MAKESHIFT ENGINEERING"
San Francisco, USA - 45 minutes after it happened
Kenneth races to save Lee's life with spare wiring and circuit boards. Francesca, a soon to be a board-certified neurologist, objects to Kenneth's methods and can't believe what she's seeing.

Kenneth is creating a makeshift electroshock device, in an effort to revive the unconscious Lee.  

EPISODE 9: "THE SNOW VIPER"
Helsinki, Finland - 7 years before it happened
Topi, now in a physical relationship with Manta, goes to a crime scene which is technically out of his office's jurisdiction. His boss holds him back, but a look at the victim offers a tantalizing clue.

Was the victim clawing at his wrist, before he died, and trying to remove or disable the implant?

EPISODE 10: "OUT"
San Francisco, USA - 50 minutes after it happened
Kenneth tells the small group to plan for a week below, and tries to stop an angry survivor from leaving, only to be accused of being a terrorist. Just as he needs good news, he's pulled away to examine Lee whose condition has changed.

Lee was trying to reboot, then his hard drive crashed.  Completely.  

EPISODE 11: "MANTA"
Helsinki, Finland - 7 years before it happened
Topi and Manta hike, sharing a growing intimacy - but Manta won't reveal anything about a particular subject.

"Whoo, let's hear it for the sun!  Once again, sir, you didn't let us down!"  But what about that bracelet, Manta?

EPISODE 12: "SEARCHING OVER"
San Francisco, USA - 20 hours after it happened
In a quiet moment, Francesca asks to get the truth out of Kenneth. How does he know so much about H+? Meanwhile, a group of survivors searches for Kenneth.

"If we're going to figure a way out of here, we have to work together, make smart choices. We can't rely on miracles to save us, OK?"

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

H+ Chapter 1: The Beginnings (Episodes 1-6)

Transhumanism is better known as H+

A new series [H+ The Digital Series] by Bryan Singer (producer of the X-Men films, House M.D. and Usual Suspects), H+ The Digital Series takes viewers on a journey into an apocalyptic future where technology has spiraled out of control.

I just discovered this, even though it premiered in August 2012. I don't remember when I subscribed to its channel, but apparently my time to learn about it and watch it is now.  Here are the six episodes of H+ Chapter 1: The Beginnings.

EPISODE 1: "DRIVING UNDER"
San Francisco, USA - 5 minutes before it happened
Prologue: Fragments of news reports show a future world as it adopts H+: a radical new way to be connected to information and each other through only your thoughts, via a high-tech implant. While the breakthrough is hotly anticipated by the masses, it is a change not easily adopted by its discontents. We segue to a couple parking their car in an underground airport garage. The husband, Lee, surreptitiously watches a football game on his H+, upsetting his wife Julie who wants him to drive safely. Their domestic squabble is interrupted by a bizarre spectacle throwing their world into chaos.

Driving under... the influence of football: "Come on, baby, it's double OT. There's not going to be any reception down there."

Boom, from the get-go, we see that the more things change, the more things stay the same.  Husbands will be wrapped up in sports, and will try to hide from their wives, who will eventually bust them anyway.  This is how it was with my fiancee, now my wife, and me in the weeks heading into our wedding.

EPISODE 2: ""ON THEIR LEVEL""
San Francisco, USA - 15 seconds after it happened
Julie and Lee stand shocked at the sudden chaos surrounding them in the lot and then risk a similar fate as Lee goes to aid the fallen people. A mysterious bearded man in glasses, Kenneth, appears and leads a small group down to Level 6, where he insists they're safe. But some in the group are skeptical of their hero and his theory for what has just happened.

From 5 minutes before it happened, to 15 seconds after it happened. Exactly what "it" is, we don't know yet.

EPISODE 3: ""PROPHETESS""
Helsinki, Finland - 7 years before it happened
A young man, Topi, enters a bar to meet a woman named Manta, who he has chatted with online. Manta plays mysterious, giving Topi a hard time, but Topi may have secrets of his own.

You and someone you meet online decide to meet. That is, in person. So what happens?

EPISODE 4: ""AIRPORT SECURITY""
San Francisco, USA - 1 minute after it happened
With a small group from Level 6 of the parking structure, Kenneth takes Lee's body to a van to get out of the water from the sprinkler system with the hope he may be able to save him.

"What makes you such an expert?" He used to work for the people who made H+ implants.

EPISODE 5: ""A LARGE FAMILY""
Mumbai, India - 5 months before it happened
Breanna, a hard-charging technology executive, and her husband Conall (both Irish) meet with a doctor, Gurveer, and a young woman, Leena (both Indian), to arrange a surrogate pregnancy. When the introductory meeting turns into something more like an interrogation and Breanna leaves to continue a work call on her H+, Conall tries to make a more human connection.

Surrogacy is no dispassionate transaction. There is a human undercurrent of attraction and also jealousy.

EPISODE 6: ""VOCI DAL SUD""
Oria, Italy - 2 years after it happened
In a desolate village, Matteo tries to help a man injured in an accident, but realizes getting the medicine he needs will not be easy.

From San Francisco and Helsinki, to Mumbai and Oria, H+ is ever present. But can it connect cultures?

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

High School Girl vs Kansas Governor

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (December 4th 2011)

Emma Sullivan

This story is as much a sign of our changing landscape for communications, as it is a testament to the human willingness to forgive-and-forget.

On a visit to the Kansas state capitol, high school senior Emma Sullivan tweeted the following, as the Los Angeles Times reported in High school tweeter gives Sam Brownback a political headache:

Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.

Ever alert online, the staff of Governor Sam Brownback saw the tweet, and called her school quickly and basically had her ‘called to the carpet’ by her principal. The principal apparently ordered her to write a letter of apology to the governor. Which she flatly refused, on the grounds of freedom of speech.

All this, when she actually never made such a comment to Gov. Brownback. At least not in person. But, you know, Twitter is very much a reality for us when it comes to communications.

Interestingly, in a follow up Teen tweeter 1, Kansas governor 0, the Los Angeles Times said, the governor himself apologized for his staff’s overreaction. Which he posted on Facebook. He added that no apology from Sullivan was necessary, even upholding one of most sacred rights for Americans. Freedom of speech.

Professional athletes are reprimanded for certain tweets. Sports team owners have been fined severely for certain tweets as well.

But, thankfully, wiser minds and calmer hands quickly resolved this Girl vs. Governor standoff. Hooray to Brownback for his kind handling of this.

Hooray, too, to Sullivan not only for taking a stand, which may seem quite easy for a lot of teenagers, but also for admitting that she ought to be careful about what she says.

So, like I said, wiser minds and calmer hands prevailed. In these very sensitive political times, we can all appreciate that!

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

The Twitter Summer We Did

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 10th 2011)

To hear Twitter speak for itself is to think that the quirky social media has woven itself into the very fabric of culture.

But I wondered how true this really was. That Twitter seemed to be at the tip of our tongue now, along with being literally at our fingertips. Well, the numbers are staggering. 5 billion tweets a month. 400 million unique visitors a month. 100 million active users, more than half of whom log in everyday. Including yours truly, I admit.

As Shane Richmond writes in Twitter announces 100 million global users:

These days, Twitter seems to crop up in almost every news story. In recent weeks Louise Mensch MP has complained of threats from hackers because she suggested closing down Twitter in times of unrest, and cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew has spoken of the abuse he received from Indian fans during this summer’s Test series.

We also hear it directly from the Tweety Birds themselves! I followed the trending topic ‘Things I did over the summer,’ and for some it comprised of only one activity.

“FIRST: WAKE UP … TWITTER, EAT, SHOWER TWITTER, DRESS MYSELF WHILE TWEETING, THEN TWITTER TWITTER TWITTER.” and “Tweet tweet and tweet”

The all-caps lettering and the loss of punctuation are a loud proclamation of how fluidly Twitter moves in our bloodstream, it seems.

“1/2 the things I planned to”

Ain’t that the truth! Whether it’s for work or for fun, is there ever enough time to do anything?

“… work on my beer drinking skills”

Speaking as a professional in learning and development, I fully appreciate this guy’s obvious keenness and commitment to building up his competencies. Seriously.

“applied for 300 jobs and got …………………………………………….. no replies!”

A sad, unfortunate reality for many of us. I wish this gentleman well. Hopefully someone offered him a job, after his tweet!

“Well I partnered with a Columbian ‘coffee’ cartel to make deliveries across the border. We all gotta eat.”

Some of us clearly have had to resort to bold efforts to do business in these difficult economic times. Coffee addicts around the world are thankful, I’m sure.

“live that good ol’ single life” and “broke hearts”

Do our intimate lives take on a different ‘face’ and a greater urgency in the summer? Do our love relationships begin and end with those dates on the calendar that mark the hottest time of the year?

“Successfully avoid people who I didn’t want to meet up with.”

On the other hand, no contact is a perfectly good thing for some.

“kicked a few people out of my life. If I can’t I stand you in the summertime, I definitely can’t deal in the winter.”

Yes, friendships should be something we want all the time, and should be something that can withstand the vicissitudes of the seasons.

“wait for winter”

Which brings me to my own contribution to this cultural phenomenon that is Twitter:

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Twitter Stories We Tell, Things We'd Relive

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 1st 2011)

(image credit)

As part of recently launching the first two of my business projects, Smart Media Technologies [exited] and this Media&Tech blog [closed], I have finally gotten myself active on Twitter.

For the longest time, I thought Twitter was odd. The 140-character limit amounted to mere snippets of thought, information, and triviality. I tried to use it in some similar vein as I did Facebook, but that effort obviously didn’t go anywhere. The two sites are radically different phenomena. As smarty pants as I was, I just couldn’t figure out Twitter and why it was so darn popular.

Well, I’m happy to say that I’m slowly figuring it out. I’m approaching 500 followers, following over 1000, and my tweets nearly doubling at 200 since three weeks ago.

One thing I learned about recently is Trends and how to participate in it. I needed to put the Trend label, #10thingsidrelive, somewhere in my tweet. I spent some time reading what others had tweeted, and reflected on them. And I finally understood what it meant for others to say that Twitter was micro-blogging.

Blogging is a kind of personal diary. But my traditional notion of such was having no restraint on what I wrote and how short or long I wrote it. Twitter was a different animal altogether. What I realized was this. Taken together these tweets were a collective personal diary. More about crowd-blogging, really.

Here are what some people tweeted on 10 things they’d relive:

“watching and reading all the Harry Potter’s for the first time”

I can only imagine this young lady’s thrill at participating in this JK Rowling masterpiece, which captured the imagination of people the world over.

“my childhood”

Sometimes it seems we hear only stories of dread about childhood. Well, this young man apparently had quite an opposite experience.

“My teenage years. I’d probably do things a lil’ different”

Judging from her profile photo, this lady doesn’t look too far removed from her teenage years. But there’s concession, humor, and perhaps wisdom in her pithy message.

“the first years of my relationship” and “losing my virginity” and “the kiss”

Oh, bittersweet, no. I have no idea, of course, what their relationships were like beyond those points that they wanted to relive. But reminiscence for a time past can bring just the right touch of color to the canvas, when we paint our lives.

“a family vacation when my parents were still together”

I found myself hoping that perhaps her parents got back together, for her sake. I don’t know. Bittersweet.

“the MANY trips i’ve taken away from this galaxy”

Well, as a kid, that would’ve been a super-awesome family vacation!

“the future”

I love it! Physicists talk about ‘wormholes’ through which space can be compressed and time not just altered but also fluid. You can go forward and backward in time, apparently, so you can live, and therefore relive, the future. I want to know where that train station is!

Me, what did I tweet? Well, I wanted to be clever, but honestly I couldn’t think of any such thing after reading several tweets on this Trend. So I just wrote what was on my mind:

So this is our story.  The story of our lives.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

First World Problems, by Scooter McGruder

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (February 14th 2012)

(1) You can't find the remote.  I can’t find my glasses, either.  I also can’t find my slippers, so my tootsies get cold in these Chicago winter days.

(2) Twitter is over capacity.  Don’t you just hate it, when Twitter doesn’t open or downloads slowly?

(8) You don't have an automatic toothbrush.  I had an electric toothbrush so long that its battery was virtually kaput.  I had to charge it constantly, and it occasionally died on me, while I was brushing my teeth.  Really annoying.  Well, I was a happy camper, when I finally bought a new one.

(18) You were forced to get Facebook Timeline.  Apparently the majority of us Facebookers don’t like the new Timeline, and soon there won’t be an opt-out, as M. Zuck is playing hard ball and making it mandatory.  Personally I like the look of it, but it doesn’t function properly.  You scroll down, and the navigation halts, skips, and sometimes jumps back to the top.  Moreover I vehemently dislike Facebook algorithms determining what ought to be kept of my posts.

(26) Bad cell phone reception.  In an industrialized, high-tech country like the US, this shouldn’t be a problem too much anymore and thankfully it isn’t for me.  But try Skyping with someone in Uzbekistan.  Try Yahoo! Messenging with someone in the Philippines.

(32) Lawnmowers wake you up.  Cute snuggly bear, dude.  Really cute.

(33) You can't hear the TV over the vacuum cleaner.  We can’t hear the TV over the dishwasher.  Life’s tough, you know.

(50) You want to text, but you keep getting greenlights.  I admit to texting while driving, but this was when I had my Samsung.  With my BlackBerry, I use two hands.  So I’d wait to be at a stoplight to text.  You know how you hate running into red lights, when you’re in a hurry.  Here it’s the opposite annoyance.  When you’re texting, the green lights come on too quickly.

(52) No parking.  Man, I think the planners and developers of the parking facilities in Abu Dhabi had brain freeze.  For a city that has grown so much and aspires to be world-class, you don’t expect to be driving around forever, just looking for a place to park.  In fact, drivers often double-park on the street median strips and in the driving lanes of parking lots.

(54) You paid $5 for coffee, and it tastes bad.  In the Middle East, a small cup of green tea is $3 – $5.  It tastes fine, but I take umbrage at the excessive charge for a low-cost item, especially when the cafe employees get a pittance of a salary.  That’s why I don’t frequent those cafes.

(70) Football season is over.  I love basketball and hockey, but sometimes these aren’t enough of a sports fix in the off season of football.

(84) Your TV can't rewind.  And don’t you hate it, when you can’t fast-forward past commercials on some news and sports videos?

(91) Low cell phone battery.  Ah, BlackBerry, iPhone, Samsung, it doesn’t matter.  We all learn to charge our cell phones on daily, even continuous basis.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD