by Charlie White

Are computers getting so smart that we may soon be their house pets? Will there be a place for digital video editors in such a world?

At a recent trade show, I had a chance to hear and meet a great scientist, inventor and visionary of our time, Ray Kurzweil. You may have read Ray's book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, or heard his public discussions with Sun cofounder Bill Joy concerning the possibility that computers are getting so smart that we may soon be their house pets. Kurzweil postulates that ten years from now, computers will have intellectual capacity that's equal to the human brain in every way (today, even the smartest computers are only about equal to a rat's brain). Kurzweil thinks this will all end up as a huge boon for mankind. Joy, on the other hand, thinks computers will start wondering what is the point of all these meat puppets (us) running around, and perhaps will even kill us all because we're just too much trouble and too damn dumb. This is fascinating stuff. So, when I saw a flyer touting Kurzweil's appearance, I wondered if this could possibly have anything to do with digital video editing. Surely not, I thought, but since I had read Ray's book with considerable fascination, I decided that his talk was not to be missed.

As Kurzweil began his speech, I suddenly realized that this stuff has a lot to do with digital video editing, but not exactly as we know it today. I was delighted to hear him talking about how all visual entertainment will be forever changed by the upcoming onslaught of weird, awesome and unbelievable technology. And he wasn't talking about some new video card or computer box, either. It's nano-technology, where swarms of tiny computerized robots (nanobots) the size of blood cells roam around your circulatory system, send and receive images and feelings by radio control, and help the inside of your body communicate and interact with the outside world. These microscopic machines will be able to replicate by the billions, and populate your body alongside all the other conventional cells. They'll be able to fix things that are broken, and do lots of other things that even the brilliant Ray Kurzweil hasn't thought of yet.

But wait. This is nuts. It'll take decades to come up with such highly sophisticated wizardry, right? Wrong. There are early versions of this technology already in existence and being secretly used by the US military, according to Kurzweil. Called nano-dust, swarms of thousands of millimeter-wide robots are already capable of sensing their environment and sending information back to their host, miles away. This technology has reportedly come in handy for James Bond types within the US intelligence community.

And this is only the beginning. The main idea is if there are billions of these little critters floating around in your body, at any given time there will be scads of them in the vicinity of the receptor centers of the brain, where information is processed about what you're currently seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. These little 'bots will have the ability to preclude sensory input that normally flows through these areas and substitute outside information. This information could be in the form of a story, created by someone who knows how to tell a tale, someone who knows how to put images together, has good timing, appreciates visual interest. Hey, wait a minute. That would be a video editor! Here's where we come in.

Kurzweil also added that there will be entirely new ways to tell stories using this technology. For example, someone's sensory experience could be recorded with remarkable fidelity, and then played back in your head, making another person's experiences indistinguishable from your own. Or, you would be able to see and feel what your partner is seeing and feeling, and vice versa. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Of course, like any new entertainment technology (like the VCR, computer bulletin boards and the Web), porno and sex will be the overpriced incubator financing the beginnings of this revolution, followed by mainstream, reasonably-priced offerings.

It's ironic that even when the technology is so advanced that it sounds preposterous to us, still there will be a need for clever storytellers. This reveals the fact that when it comes to digital media creation, the technology itself isn't what really matters. It's the content that matters most. It's the skill and imagination of the people who dreamed up the stories. It's the ability to hold the interest of our fellow human beings that pays the bills today, and will continue to do so well into the future.

Even a future with tiny robots crawling under our skin.

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Charlie White has been writing about digital video editing since it was the laughingstock of the postproduction industry. He's an Emmy award-winning producer and director for PBS, and producer of this Web site. Do you have comments or questions? Send Chazz a note at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.

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