I spent the day playing host to some very interesting people visiting Microsoft Research.
This morning, David Kotz, Denise Anthony, Thomas Luxon, Martin Redman, and Peter Glenshaw from Dartmouth College (my alma mater) were here to talk about the Digital Dorm project which aims to look at new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into student living space to enhance the experience.
This afternoon, noted science fiction author David Brin came through. As David is fond of saying, he isn't paid to be right, he's paid to be interesting -- and he certainly delivers on that. We had a very lively lunchtime discussion with some Microsoft employees and then he gave a talk on some of the thinking that led him to write the Transparent Society (and some of his thinkin since then).
He also talked a bit about a new effort he's trying to spin up called the Eye of the Needle Foundation. the basic notion behind this is that there's about 12-13 trillion dollars of money that stands to be inherited by baby boomers in the coming years, and with some upfront investment in putting together a solidly-vetted portfolio of philanthropic opportunities we can make it much more likely that a good chunk of that inheritance can be directed towards worthy causes that improve the world. It sounds like a fantastic idea.
By the way, Dr. Brin also has an interesting diatribe on the upcoming election.
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