Are Small Cells the Future?

Internet mobility is almost a given with anyone who owns a phone today, but with increasing users the wireless system can become overburdened. The wireless system used by mobile service providers consists of a network of Macrocells. These cells are the primary source for much of the nation's 3G (and now growing LTE) coverage. If you've seen a tower or the top of a building equipped with radio antennas, you are viewing a cell site. These cells generally have a range of a mile or two so they must be strategically placed throughout a city to provide consistent coverage. Today, cities, mobile phone and internet providers are turning to small cells to fill in the gaps in coverage to act as a data off-loading element to help manage the spectrum of wireless connectivity more efficiently.

Small cells, compared to macrocells, are lower-powered radio access nodes that have a range of 30 to 650 feet. Network operators see this technology has a way to alleviate the massive data demands put on macrocells. Cities, like Chicago, view this technology as an opportunity to provide widespread wireless internet connectivity to its residents and the technology is being attached to a very familiar component to every city has - the street lamp.

Street lamps provide an existing structure that is located frequently throughout city streets but they require additional power to supply the necessary voltage to microcells. All the microcell needs are three things: somewhere to hang, power and fiber connection to backhaul data. Utilizing streetlamps seems to be the least unobtrusive option.

In Chicago, Mayor Daley had a vision of supplying the entire city with an alternative broadband service that would not only provide the city's residents a cost effective internet solution but also provide the city with much needed revenue. But due to rising costs and increased competition from other providers, the widespread plan was killed and the mayor instead implemented a less ambitious plan to infuse impoverished neighborhoods with internet connectivity to demonstrate the "transformative power" of the Internet.

Today, Chicago's new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is reviving the former mayor's plan by establishing high-speed internet access to under-served neighborhoods, industrial corridors and public spaces. Emanuel's goal is to bring "free or heavily discounted, multi-megabit Internet service over a wired or wireless network" to 15 zones and public plazas and parks.

Millennium Park already has free Wi-Fi provided by a Chicago-based communications provider and other providers are seeing a big opportunity. Since the city is replacing hundreds of miles of water pipe, sewer lines and hundreds of thousands of catch basins, city streets are being dug up to accomplish the task. It seems that the opportunity to lay broad-band and the dark fiber throughout the city while these other infrastructure upgrades are taking place is one that shouldn't be missed.

Train Acoustic Gravity Interference Solution - TAGIS

Well, sometimes the creative mind and creative geniuses allow themselves to engage in hyper creativity and imagination, at least I've been accused of this at our think tank. Therefore, the crazy idea I'm about to ask you to ponder will require that you suspend your belief system, and everything you think you know about physics in our physical world. Now then, let's begin because there may be a potential solution for a gravity interference scheme for high-speed rail and cargo trains. Let's talk.

When you see a train from a frontal view, you see the track and the wheels and a space underneath. No, I don't recommend that you get underneath the train lay on the track in the center to prove my point. Nevertheless, this creates a cavity with intense vibrational energy and sound. And therefore I ask; is it possible to use that energy to interfere with gravity waves. Whereas, it is true that we don't know much about gravity, at least we do believe it is a wave. If we disrupt that wave, we will limit the amount of gravity pulling down on the train.

Thus, it might be possible to do this underneath a train as it rolls down the track, we would be able to capture that vibrational energy, modify the frequency, and use it to disrupt gravity. By doing this the train would be lighter on the track, causing less friction. Less friction means less energy is needed to propel the train and therefore we can save fuel and economy, or use that power to generate more speed. Now then, what would keep the train from derailing? Perhaps a catch hook roller on the bottom of the track, which might mean we need to redesign the track ever so slightly, but it would be well worth the investment due to the amount of energy we would save.

One problem with this would be that by interfering with the gravity there would be less friction on the track, therefore less noise and vibration, thus, less energy to use to modify the frequency and power settings to counteract the gravity. Nevertheless we might be able to figure out on a graph exactly where the best and most efficient possible place might be between gravity and friction, coefficients of drag and weight of the train to dial in the best ratios.

Now then, I ask; what else might we use such a system for, and where else might we harness that level of energy to serve our needs in disrupting gravity? Such a system once perfected would seemingly have unlimited applications, not to mention it would help alleviate vibrational noise which is often an annoyance. Please consider all this and think on it.

What If We Put a Jet Pack On a Dolphin?

Have you seen the extreme daredevil sporting pilot who straps a jet pack on his back, one with a delta wing, and flies around? I'd say that's pretty cool isn't it? He jumps out of a perfectly good airplane, lights the rockets, and flies away. He steers the jet pack by moving his body side to side, and goes up and down by putting his head up and down. When he puts his head up the relative wind gets underneath his body and changes his angle of attack. Apparently, the human body seems to work good for this. Still, I have a better idea, and I'd like to explain it to you, if you have a few minutes.

What if we put a jet pack on a dolphin? You might think that my comment would be suggesting cruelty to animals. However, can you imagine the adrenaline rush, and excitement that a dolphin could experience if they could fly - especially if they could go 300 miles an hour. Dolphins already live in a 3-D environment in the ocean, and they can already go up and down and sideways by moving their body. In fact, they are much more suited to flying a jet pack than a human. They already have fins and a tail, and as you know, they are quite streamlined.

Indeed, one could argue that it is a better body style for flying because dolphins are already more aerodynamic. They are also much better at maneuvering their bodies to manipulate their environment. Therefore, I bet they'd be much better pilots. Oh, so now I have pique your curiosity and got your attention. In fact, if you put humans in jet packs and dolphins in jet packs and you wanted to have aerial dogfights, the dolphins would have the advantage. Their minds are already set up for spatial 3-D thinking, they are more maneuverable, and they are smart enough to beat us at aerial dogfighting.

Would it be very hard to design a jet pack for a dolphin? Not any harder than designing one for a human and we've already done that. In fact, it might actually be easier. Would a dolphin have trouble learning to fly it? Doubtful, they are already flying around underwater in many regards. So, it would probably come very natural for them. You might think this is a waste of time even considering. I completely disagree.

Sometimes it seems to me that humans are quite species centric, and they think they're better than everyone else. I wonder? The dolphins seem to be masters of their own environment through the evolutionary process. Humans seem to need to modify their environment, and we are hardly masters yet.

Dolphin Eye Tracking Experiment Via Robotic VTOL UAV

Not long ago, I wrote an interesting article about putting a dolphin inside of a tubular dirigible UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). The system would be set up where the dolphin could swim inside of the tubular dirigible, dock- up with a harness, and once in place, as soon as the dolphin tilted its body upward that would control the UAV to take off out of the water. Now then, in thinking through this concept a little more, it might be interesting to put a dolphin eye tracking system with in this innovative aircraft. Okay so let's talk shall we?

If the dolphin could fly and once it took off could control a tubular UAV, and if once it took off it could not land back on the water only fly very slow slightly above the water just out of range of the ability of other dolphins to jump on to the craft, then in that case the dolphin pilot would probably communicate with the other dolphins and it would tell them through their own clicking communication language, that it would fly up higher to look to see if they could find any fish schools. Once it got up to a few hundred feet, we could determine how the dolphin used it eyesight to look around and hunt for these fish schools.

There would have to be a misting system on the craft so the dolphin's eyes did not dry out. If the dolphin is fully capable of hunting and operating in this new 3-D environment, which it makes sense they would be because they already live in a 3-D environment, then we might learn quite a bit about how they go about their hunting, and how we might design advanced algorithms to do more business with the dolphins or have more interaction. It has been said and researched that artificially intelligent computer systems become even smarter when they work with the intuitive mind of a human.

The great IBM AI chess champion computer can beat a human no problem, even if they are the best player in the world, but a human + the AI computer can beat the AI computer alone by far and away.

Since the computer scientists have proven these studies work with humans interfacing with artificial intelligence, then certainly we can learn a lot by watching how the intuitive mind of the dolphin finds anomalies in the patterns of the waves, and what it looks for, and when it decides it wishes to focus on a certain area, and when it determines to go after it.

After all a dolphin flying around and controlling a dirigible UAV through its own body movements would spot a fish school, determine the size, and then turn the craft towards the fish school if they thought it were a viable size, worthy of going back and telling the other dolphins about. Do you see my point? Indeed I hope you will please consider this new innovative concept, and think on it.

Can We Grow An Entire Human Brain On a Carbon Lattice?

Many folks who are working with the Singularity Institute at Stanford University are busy considering future concepts, schemes, innovations, inventions to see that technological advancement and forward progression of the species. It is wise that we do this to protect us from future calamity or population collapse. It also makes sense to consider ways to save yourself against the worst predictions of the doom and gloomers just in case, even if you don't believe in conspiracy theories. Okay so let's talk shall we?

Recently I've been reading about many technologies coming to fruition, as mankind learns more and more through research. In the nano-tech field it was discovered that carbon nanotubes are quite suited for emitting holographic light. They are also very good at capturing light and manipulating photons. This got me thinking that it is perhaps possible to build a human brain using stem cells and growing them on a carbon nanotube lattice, where the carbon nanotubes also have another inert element attached so that the enzymes in the blood do not dissolve the carbon nanotubes.

Since the human body is made up of carbon, the carbon nanotube structures will not cause any problems in the human bio system. The brain structure, neurons, will weave in and out of this lattice, and the structure will also be able to collect the frequency and light transmissions from the brain. This puts all the activity within the brain on a 3-D grid. Therefore it would be perfect for computer human brain interface. Now then, before you call me crazy think about what I just said, how it might work, and ask yourself if this could be a concept worthy for the future.

If we have stem cells, and we provide nutrients, the brain will form around the lattice in the shape of our choosing, and at first we will wish to use the same basic shape as a current human brain. By either intercepting the signals or reading them as they flow by, we could be reading the brain's thoughts and transferring them into ones and zeros. Meanwhile, we can also interface with the brain and get information stimulating neurons with electronic pulses in specific areas once an individual's brain once mapped - this means we would have two way communication.

You might think this sounds too far-fetched, but maybe if you do a little extra reading, and cross pollinate all the ideas I've been discussing, you will see that we are well on our way to make something like this happen. Please consider all this and think on it.

Will Humans Ever Live 500+ Years?

Not long ago, I was speaking with a gentleman who was 70-plus years old, worried that he had but a mere 10-15 years left. His brother had passed on already and most of the men in his family hadn't outlived his present age, although the women in his family had done exceptionally well. Although my acquaintance did not wish to live forever, he did wish to live long enough to watch his grandchildren grow up and have kids of their own, who could blame him?

When I suggested that modern science might one day figure out a way to live forever, he wasn't interested, and thought that would be too long. But why I asked? You see, shouldn't someone be able to live for as long as they wished? He said we couldn't do that because it was economically unfeasible, because everyone would be retired and no one would be working. I disagree because in the future the robots will be producing everything and doing most of the service jobs.

Further, if you lived forever and you were in good health with the body of a young person you'd be able to have multiple careers, and pursue all of your interest one after another, perhaps changing every couple of decades or so. Further, you probably wouldn't reproduce till much later in life after you had the money saved, and the experience to be a proper parent. That would mean the kids would grow up with more knowledge, better parenting, and we'd have a more civil society. What if people could live for 500 years?

Perhaps, 500-years might be a real stretch, but it doesn't have to be, it's a solvable problem now with current science, we can do this, well if we don't piss away this medical research opportunity. Rather than solving all the disease issues, let's solve old age, after all "everyone dies" and only some people get some diseases. If everyone were perpetually young you wouldn't need social security, you would be hyper productive all the time, maybe take of five years for vacation every 20 or so. It's doable.

For those that think it is against God's will, or would debate me on a religious reasoning, I would say to them that surely their God gave them the intellect to figure out how to extend the life experience, plus in the early days of the Bible it appears that people lived for as long as 600 years if you take it literally, as folks who might make that argument would - then what's wrong with 500 years in that case?

Lastly, I think it's unfortunate that we don't spend the research and money for life extension, and we spend so much money for combating diseases, which don't affect everyone. You see, everyone who has ever lived has died. I believe people don't have to die. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

What Is the Future of Work?

Some 30 years ago, it was believed that technology would change the way we work: more automation, more part-time jobs, the paperless office, etc.

Of course, these changes are nearly always more evolution than revolution and often don't turn out quite in the way originally envisaged.

However, a few large companies have pioneered new ways of working and many more appear to be following suit.

What has changed?

Social and technological developments have contrived to create a situation where workers both want to change the way they are expected to work and have the tools available to achieve this.

With the family model of only one parent (mainly the father) at work being thrown into disarray by the Second World War, women have increasingly taken their place in the workforce. Our economy has grown with this development to reach a stage where many families could not survive without two salaries.

For some time many parents have put up with this, but younger generations coming into the workforce are rightly saying there has to be a better way. They want to work more around their partner's and children's lives and create a balance that is good for them and the family as a whole.

Employment law has also evolved to protect women at work and provide far greater flexibility in relation to childcare. The final missing link was the technology to enable and empower a more mobile, flexible, autonomous workforce.

The technology at work

First, came the internet. It took a while to develop, having been around since the 60's. Then we had mobile phones - although the first devices stretched the term 'mobile' to the limit. Networks and electronic engineering developed rapidly, however, and we now have near ubiquitous coverage and pocket sized phones.

Similarly wireless networks and the cloud (again, not new, but newly modified) have given us more choice about where we can work and how we can access our work.

The workforce can now work from home, from cafés, hotels, client premises, trains, planes and automobiles.

Is this the end of the office?

Humans are social animals. For the most part, we need physical contact and work better as part of a group. The office is not going to go away, because it is a convenient base for administrative functions, planning and meeting superiors, colleagues, clients, etc.

However, there is no need to be there at set times, in set places, to perform set tasks in set ways.

The technology now enables us to work from smaller interfaces: laptops, net-books, tablets, mobile phones and from many more locations: anywhere there is wireless and/or mobile network.

Now, a typical flexible worker might work for a couple of hours in the morning, before taking the children to school, after which they put in a few more hours before meeting friends for lunch and doing a bit of shopping, Skype with the team, enjoy late afternoon and early evening with the family before checking emails and getting a couple of jobs off their 'to-do' list after supper.

They might have meetings in the office once a week or month, chat with colleagues about projects via telephone, video conferencing, Skype, social media, etc and perhaps hot-desk in the office now and then.

Benefits to the business

It is not just about saving money. Early pioneers in this practice include BT, Microsoft, Orange, Vodafone and Hewlett Packard.

Their experiences, along with a great deal of supporting research, show that while money is saved on real estate, utilities and infrastructure (this is despite money needing to be spent ensuring staff have training and all the right hardware, software and equipment), there are also increases in staff engagement, morale and productivity.

This has a direct impact on staff attraction, motivation and retention; employing the best staff and lowering the churn rate improves business performance and saves time and money on recruitment. It can also change staff engagement; some employees may be happier to work on a self-employed basis, with contracts based on specific projects or terms.

In turn, these improvements make companies more agile: they can adapt to changes in their environment and client needs; service existing markets over an extended area and move faster into new markets; grow when business demands and contract when it doesn't; and minimise interruption through improved disaster recovery ability.

For organisations seeking to improve their environmental credentials, there are also benefits in reducing their real estate footprint, utilities bills and staff commuting levels. Fewer cars on the road reduce emissions and fuel requirements as well as reducing congestion.

Is this your business?

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the future of work. As a provider of office space, it means I am going to have to ensure I keep abreast of these changes and offer what businesses will, increasingly, need.

However, with a sea change in how people view their working lives and technology as enabler, we are all going to have to look at the best ways to work.

If we are prepared to measure staff by performance rather than time present and trust people to not abuse the autonomy they are given, then the truly flexible worker can become the norm and we will all benefit.

Centre Manager at Colston Office Centre, providing fully serviced offices suites and virtual office facilities.

Marketing professional with experience in the hospitality and catering sector as well as commercial property.