IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2016 - 121

algorithm for finding the right
representation or architecture because
we aren't solving a single problem.
This is why it's useful to think about
an available facility as a resource or
opportunity without being confined to
a provider's view of how it's supposed
to be used. A strand of copper may be
used as a networking medium, or it
can carry power or we can use it to
hang a poster. Or it can be all of these
at once depending on factors entirely
outside the wire itself. With hardware,
we build the one function into the
device, but with software, we can constantly reinvent what something is and
what it does. Even better, we can share
the same physical resource for entirely
different purposes as when we share a
single Internet. This also applies to
understanding how systems work. I
don't like the term complex adaptive
systems. That's backwards because the
function, and thus the complexity,
depend on the point of view. Instead,
we need to find the many simple systems or perspectives. With software,
we're not substituting bits for electrons, but instead we have a completely
different conceptual framework.

Future Directions

Traditional programming gives us
some of the tools we need to start to
explore this new landscape of abstractions. But we're still in the early stage
of substituting software for mechanical systems. The next stage will seem
like magic as we effect solutions
merely by taking a fresh perspective.
Okay, not merely, but it seems magical
in the same way that when connecting
to a website you don't think about all
that has to go right for you to simply
type in a URL and connect. The secret
is that a lot has to go right, but it's
okay for a lot to go wrong as long as
you're not particular about exactly
what goes right. It may be annoying if
Skype isn't working for a while, but in
return for accepting some risk, we get
the ability to do video much of the
time. And, unlike hardware systems,
software can evolve in place. But it
will take time for people to accept
some risk in return for the ability to
create, and share, their own solutions.
Welcome to our new reality. We solve
problems by finding ways to tell
stories that our computing devices
can understand using a vocabulary
appropriate to the task.

referenCes
[1] Fortran, Wikipedia. [Online]. Available:
h t t p s: / / en . w i k i p ed i a. o rg / w iki / For t r an#
Fortran_2015
[2] B. Frankston, "#APIFirst: How things
speak to each other," IEEE Consumer Electron.
Mag., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 86-89, 2015.
[3] Index of jmc/history/timesharing. (1996,
Sept. 15). [Online]. Available: http://www-formal.
stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing/time
sharing.html and http://ethw.org/Archives:
The_Computer_Pioneers:_Switched_Output:_
Time-sharing_at_MIT
[4] B. Frankston, "Refactoring consumer electronics," IEEE Consumer Electron. Mag., vol.
2, no. 1, pp. 26-31, 2013.
[5] B. Frankston, "Beyond limits," in Beyond
Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing, P. J. Denning and R. M. Metcalfe, Eds.
New York: Springer Science & Business
Media, 1997, pp. 43-58.

CorreCTion
In the "Bits Versus Electrons" column in the April 2016 issue of
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, the link to view the blinking
lights application was omitted. The
application can be viewed at http://
rmf.vc/BlinkyZip.

(continued from page 46)

will be to leverage the collective expertise of the IEEE and synergize activities
across industry, government, and academia to advance brain research and
neurotechnology development.
The workshop ended with a lively
brainstorming session, where the
attendees identified topic areas that
should be addressed, communities and
constituencies that should be engaged,
and ways to collaborate within and outside of the IEEE. There is a strong
desire to engage the cognitive neuroscience community as well as the clinical
community. Ethics and privacy are

areas that should not be overlooked,
and the involvement of the IEEE Society of Social Implications of Technology is timely. Big data challenges for
neuroscience and BCIs in the magnitude, measurement, curation, and storage of data need to be addressed. There
was also great interest in planning
a BCI hackathon to get younger
researchers involved in understanding
the complexity of obtaining a reliable
recording of the brain's activity, perhaps through an electroencephalogram,
and building an interface to perform a
particular task.

The IEEE Brain Initiative is looking
forward to engaging with stakeholders
in the brain community and forming a
team to further its mission to advance
efforts in brain research and neurotechnology development. Periodical teleconferences are being planned, and if
you are interested in joining the IEEE
Brain Initiative, please send an e-mail to
brain@ieee.org. The presentation slides
from the December workshop can be
found at http://brain.ieee.org/news/firstieee-brain-workshop-held-at-columbiain-december/.

JULY 2016

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

121

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran# http://www-formal http://www.stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing/time http://www.ethw.org/Archives http://http:// http://www.rmf.vc/BlinkyZip http://brain.ieee.org/news/first

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