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SUMMARY:The Undiscovered Continents of Human Potential - Jaron Lanier\, Mi
 crosoft
DTSTART:20120124T140000Z
DTEND:20120124T150000Z
UID:TALK35054@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Microsoft Research Cambridge Talks Admins
DESCRIPTION:We can think of media technology as a grand exploration of uni
 magined human potential.  Another way to say this is that when we innovate
  in media technology\, we are also exploring parts of the human brain that
  haven’t been given a chance to demonstrate their full capabilities in t
 he past.  This might sound like too ambitious a way to think about people 
 and technology\, but it can be supported by examples.  For instance\, this
  past year we have for the first time seen consumer electronics products t
 hat can track the full body motion of people as they interact through netw
 orked video game consoles.   (This is Microsoft’s XBOX Kinect.)  The obv
 ious way to use this capability is for a person to turn into an avatar in 
 a game\, such as an athlete in a volleyball tournament.  But the possibili
 ties go much\, much further than that. In previous decades when special bo
 dy suits were required in order to achieve the same effect\, I was able to
  work with children who turned into avatars of the subjects they were stud
 ying in school.  For instance\, a child studying chemistry would turn into
  a molecule.  The child would then squirm and dance in order to learn to d
 ock with another molecule. The reason this is important is that it brings 
 a huge part of the brain devoted to somatic cognition into the process of 
 thinking about science.  Somatic intelligence is real but poorly understoo
 d.  For instance\, when you learn to improvise at the piano\, a time comes
  when your hands seem to solve complicated problems in harmony faster than
  your conscious mind can. While it is impossible to say which undiscovered
  continents of cognition will turn out to be important for the future of h
 uman experience\, it is almost certain that some will be\, and the tools f
 ind out which are finally appearing. 
LOCATION:Small lecture theatre\, Microsoft Research Ltd\, 7 J J Thomson Av
 enue (Off Madingley Road)\, Cambridge
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