I really don't have a good reason as to why I had never been to the Museum of Contemporary Art before this trip, save for I didn't know where it was. Today was my first visit to the museum itself, where they have a large multi-leveled exhibit about the future of global design. Sustainable design and recyclable materials were the main focus, showing how to ease our energy needs and how to make earth-friendly materials cost-effective. In most cases, this all looks possible. Combinations of wheat, corn, and other organic materials are being formed into plastic-like material that can serve a purpose and then compost easily. This is all well and good, but some of the items on display probably won't fly. Case in point:


There is probably another great leap forward in single-person transportation since the bicycle, but we haven't hit it yet. So far, we have a three-wheeled squash with room for one person under five foot six and a small suitcase. I saw one of these parked in Rome a few years ago, the only one I'm aware of in the wild. The driver presumably isn't too hopeful on finding a breeding partner either.


In the plus column, though, is the $100 laptop. The little yellow bit on the right side is a hand crank to power the battery. It can serve as a wifi relay to other models in the area, and I believe it runs a light-footprint version of Linux. The developers are considering selling a $200 commercial model to people in developed nations, and I'd love to try one out. The idea behind the project is to provide computers, and thus the resources of the internet, to developing countries for a price that can be covered through charity.


Some of the items had this transparent voting box system, like this one next to the genetically modified food example. Five reasons are offered for and against, and each person casts a yellow vote paper in the box they agree with. Given the current trend in organic food, this one isn't really a surprise, but other issues were more evenly split, such as breeding a featherless chicken, or more robust fish stock.

The big question at the end was "Now that we can do anything, what do we want to do?" More accurately; assume we can do anything, and tackle problems from that vantage point. This is the sort of techno-progressive attitude that I reserve all my optimism for, that given proper guidance, our rapidly advancing technology can be used to better the world. Failing that, maybe we'll just use Myspace to spark the first online political coup in North Korea.

Later on, after a cherry smoothie with some sort of performance-enhancing protein add-in, I wandered to the four-story Borders on Michigan. Large bookstores draw me like like a Catholic to mass, and this store is like Saint Mark's. The overhead speakers announced a book signing with R.A. Salvatore, a sci-fi/fantasy author I've read in the past. I knew he sounded familiar, and not just for the two Star Wars books he's written. It only dawned on me after he mentioned the company, that he's one third of the top of Green Monster Games, a MMORPG start-up in Boston with Todd McFarlane and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Salvatore is the creative director for their forthcoming product, which is currently in the early stages of development. He described his job as writing a template instead of a story for the game, as it is up to the player to assemble the story. This seems to be in line with his writing process, as he explained later that he writes a continuous story through his books, with no idea where the story will lead to next save for his desire to explore different ideas, characters, and locations. All he does is give enough bits of information so the reader can piece together the story based on their notions of the character. He also had an anecdote about having to incorporate a character from another author's book series, a character with several gadgets that had been added over the course of a dozen or so books. Instead of slogging through all the backstory when he needed to be writing, he anonymously posted on a message board asking for an inventory of the gadgets he'd have to know about. In two days time, he had a complete descriptive list with book and page citations compiled from internet fans.

Off topic, but funny- I was walking home last night after a quick trip to get something to drink at the drugstore on the corner, and there was a young woman walking in front of me. Nothing out of the ordinary in this neighborhood, until a guy came around a corner, recognized her, and approached her to initiate conversation. She kept walking, giving him the finger for ten seconds solid without saying anything. He seemed to know full well why he deserved this, and walked sheepishly beside her for at least another block before I turned and crossed the street. I don't know what he did, but it didn't warrant a mention in this morning's Tribune, so it can't have been that bad.