This reminded me of the "Victorian Laptop" that Justine Cassell and students worked on at the MIT Media Lab, in the late 1990s.
IIRC, in the original idea, the Victorian Laptop hardware was an antique portable wood laptop desk, retrofitted with PC electronics and custom software, and the purpose was to relate/connect the user's thoughts in a particular location to the writings of others who've been in some similar context before. With the time-traveler writing desk adding to the reflective experience.
(Physical craft-wise, this was before the steampunk DIY computers that we see today. Cassell collected antique writing desks, had inspiration from those, and some energetic students worked on figuring out and building it.)
Seems like modern ML tools should open up more possibilities along these lines. I'd like to see the focus on leveraging information and computation for genuine experiences and accurate understand (not, say, some of the currently more obvious automated content generation applications, for SEO, addictive engagement, demagoguery, etc.)
IIRC, in the original idea, the Victorian Laptop hardware was an antique portable wood laptop desk, retrofitted with PC electronics and custom software, and the purpose was to relate/connect the user's thoughts in a particular location to the writings of others who've been in some similar context before. With the time-traveler writing desk adding to the reflective experience.
(Physical craft-wise, this was before the steampunk DIY computers that we see today. Cassell collected antique writing desks, had inspiration from those, and some energetic students worked on figuring out and building it.)
http://www.justinecassell.com/publications/narr_intell.vlt.9...
Seems like modern ML tools should open up more possibilities along these lines. I'd like to see the focus on leveraging information and computation for genuine experiences and accurate understand (not, say, some of the currently more obvious automated content generation applications, for SEO, addictive engagement, demagoguery, etc.)