Mash Ups

December 28, 2008

One of the most intriguing phenomena in the Digital Age is the mashup, a cut-and-paste mélange of two completely different digital entities. Web 3.0 developers, for example, create mashups of different software applications — say, a social networking app that lets users review restaurants or nightclubs, combined with Google Maps, so that they can see how to get to that trendy tapas joint or pan-Asian diner.

In the music world, DJs use mixing software  to dice and slice digital music files and reassemble them, creating sometimes startling syntheses. (Perhaps the most famous music mashup is DJ Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, a synthesis of Jay-Z’s 2003 hiphop CD The Black Album and The Beatles’ eponymous 1968 double LP, popularly known because of its blank cover as “The White Album.”) And video mashups are a staple on YouTube, including this mashup of the Three Stooges tossing cream pies with footage of the recent incident in which an angry Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush.

So anyway,I’ve been thinking: What would happen if we took the same concept and applied it in a different way? Instead of digital content, we would combine two of the cutting-edge, controversial and/or outlandish ideas that we’ve previously explored and debated in this blog? A Good Idea mashup, if you will.

Some of our Good Ideas might actually seem at least a tad less daunting — or preposterous — if they worked in synergy with one another. Building a space elevator, for example, might make the staging of a manned mission to Mars a lot cheaper and easier, and it might even facilitate terraforming the Red Planet for mass human colonization, another idea that we’ve pondered. Building a space elevator also might aid greatly in the construction of a doomsday ark on the moon, the backup copy of human knowledge and animal and plant species that, in the event of a nuclear war or an environmental disaster triggering a mass extinction, might give our species a do-over. Extending the human lifespan to several centuries definitely would be more pleasant if we also develop a drug that erases painful memories that we might accumulate along the way.

In contrast, combinations of other Good Ideas might just be redundant. It’d be really cool to have a flying car or a personal jetpack, for example, but it’s unlikely that you’d want or need to have both.

Beyond that, filling the skies with a combination of jetpacks and flying cars might result in some truly horrific midair collisions. Launching floating cities to house climate-change refugees might prove unnecessary if we successfully implement President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to fight global warming.  And spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build more nuclear power plants in the U.S. and reduce our use of fossil fuels would be a waste if we are simultaneously following Google’s plan for energy independence, which would replace coal and oil with sources such as wind, concentrating solar power (CSP) and enhanced geothermal systems. And the Nielsen ratings for an Olympics for genetically enhanced athletes  would likely plummet if we all start wearing powered exoskeletons that afford even couch potatoes with world-class physical prowess.

Some Good Idea mashups would be outright bizarre. What if we not only clone Neanderthals, but also supplied them with a smart drug that would dramatically increase their intelligence? We’d have the paradoxical phenomenon of primitive humans who were simultaneously more advanced intellectually than the typical Homo sapiens. That might lead to a total revamping of civilization, in which the cavemen would jettison the dumb and/or dangerous parts of the human historical legacy that we’ve never been able to bear parting with — wars, the internal combustion engine, beauty pageants — and start anew with the parts worth keeping, like diplomacy, altruism and having lots of HDTV channels.

On the other hand, if we give cloned Neanderthals the choice of their mashup, they may well prefer to be given giant vats of genetically engineered synthetic meat, or — God forbid — a few of those telepathic ray guns  that the Pentagon is rumored to be developing, so they could exact a little payback on the species that probably did their ancestors in.

So, what do you think? What’s your own Good Idea mashup? Offer your suggestions below.

Comments

[Caffeine Driven Stress Magnet]

How about implanting RFID tags in human-animal hybrids, so that we know when they're skulking around?

[Manny]

What's the matter, couldn't come up with a new idea this week? Just kidding! I would build more nuclear power plants, but I would put them on Mars and beam the energy to Earth.

[aStRoBoY!]

CREATE A RACE OF HUMAN ANIMAL HYBRIDS AND THEN TERRAFORM MARS AND SEND THEM THERE!!!!!!!!

[Michyle Glen]

Mash ups sounds interesting, was watching ecopolis last night and liked the Aerogel, and hybrid nanites. To bad he could only chose one for the city. Still I am a fan of taking old proven tech and adapting it with new tech to make a more powerful result. The main problem with any of these projects they either go to far out into the relm of Sci-FI, or they want to do it all in one big move. Alternative Energy is a good example. One side Wind Farms exclusivly, the other Nuclear Plants. With Security of the plants a consideration, I would try combining a Wind Farm on the grounds of a Nuclear plant, and I would use New Tech for the Plant. Seven Mile Island was built with 50's tech, they didn't know enough to build a safe plant. Lets look at the French for Ideas.

[Josie]

I would give powered exoskeletons to the Korean teenage Internet addicts at boot camp, and have them reenact Super Smash Bros Brawl for real!

[Tyler]

Happy New Year to everybody!

[Motorhead]

Hey, did you see the news story about how Toyota is now developing a solar powered car? I tried to link to it, but it kept getting caught in the spam filter.

[Patrick Kiger]

Thanks--I found it on Google. I wrote a blog on solar powered cars http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2008/07/solar-powered-c.html

[Chen]

What about using Chinese rainmaking technology to counteract the effects of global warming?

[Skeptic]

The Chinese and their coal burning power plants are one of the major causes of global warming. If they stopped pumping so much carbon into the atmosphere, they wouldn't need to fire artillery shells into the sky to make rain.