What do you call it when you live in an age in which biological evolution and cybernetic evolution are virtually indistinguishable?
The Cybocene?
In 2017 the microelectronics technology firm Duo made waves when it came out with Albert, a virtual-reality smart home assistant serving the roles of a butler. You can read the Mashable piece at mashable.com/2017/04/04/duo-home-mirror-computer. It’s really a computer encased within a mirror, with a two-way display that reflects when not back-lit by the high-definition display of customized news, weather, sports, social media and the like.
Around the same time, the innovation-crazy retailer of upscale cosmetics Bluemercury unveiled a WiFi-enabled artificial intelligence mirror in its biggest stores, letting customers chat real-time with friends and family about potential makeup purchases through their own social media accounts, while also getting reviews and product info delivered right to the mirror-screen. Cool stuff. See the quotes from Barry Beck in this Fortune article - fortune.com/2017/10/04/macys-bluemercury/ and the Regency Centers Connect piece at connect.regencycenters.com/blog/bluemercury-launches-ny-flagship.
Art imitates life, which imitates art, and so on. One interactive artistic exhibit called Untrained Eyes (engadget.com/2017/11/14/untrained-eyes-ai-engadget-experience) uses mirrors to give the user a completely different look - more than a Snapchat filter, an entirely new face, sometimes a famous one.
Artificial intelligence isn’t coming, it’s here. Now it’s evolving, growing into those ecosystems where it can best thrive. Like the domestication of dogs some 30,000 years ago, AI will find it gets the best resources when in service to humans.
