Berlin: Reflecting on The Topographies of Terror

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Germany this past May, which may account for why I haven't posted on here for a few weeks. Like Chicago, Paris or New York, Berlin is a city unto itself, so I thought my first post since my return should focus on one aspect of Berlin's past. 

One man refuses to salute Hitler

I haven't traveled overseas since I was a kid. I did spend a lovely three-day weekend in Mexico City (on Cinco de Mayo, no less!), and also visited Quebec (the part of Canada where they speak French!), so I have used my passport before. But this... was a big one. 

So, why Germany? And of all cities, Berlin? The sexy tourist spots are typically elsewhere... Italy, Paris, or the the Mediterranean coast. Within Germany itself, most would pick Munich or a charming Castle-clad village in Bavaria that looks like a Renaissance festival. And, I might want to visit a place like that in the future too! 

But, while castles, mountains and beaches seamed nice, the Spy in me said Berlin... 

When you board an international flight to London or Paris, everyone knows you're just a tourist. When you say your destination is Berlin, people might think you're a spy, an important businessman, or both. 

Due to it's history, and location, in the flat river plains on northern Europe, Berlin is kind-of considered a typical "big city." It's not super stylish, and a-bit dreary and boring. 

Its a political and business center that was bombed-to-hell during World War Two, then walled-in by the Soviet Union during the cold war. 

Anyways... Most photographs of Berlin before 1991 make it look like it sucked. 

But, Berlin's history is what made me want to visit! 

To be honest, I didn't want to go on vacation and be sad about all of the terrible things humans have done to one another in the past. But, at the same time, I didn't want pass up the opportunity to reflect on important pieces of history as well. 

Our teachers and schools in Kent, Ohio did a remarkably good job in educating us youngsters about the The Holocaust: the systematic murder of more than 6 millions Jews, and thousands more ethnic minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ people, and political dissidents. We read the Diary of Anne Frank and learned about the terrors and injustices. 

I myself studied aspects of these events in graduate school, and honestly cried myself to sleep some nights after learning what had happened at the hands of the Nazi regime. So, I didn't really want to spend my vacation re-visiting such terrors. 

But, I did want to respect the history of Berlin and what happened. I figured I'd go to the Topography of Terrors exhibit to get the "Sad Part" over-with on my first full day in Berlin.   

The Topography of Terrors museum is in a unique location that really enhances the experience. It's indoor gallery is built atop the remains of the Nazi regime's SS headquarters, and outside is one of the only remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. Of course,"The Wall" is simply there for posterity, and you can walk right around it now, if you wish. 

This museum focuses on the everyday people who were swept up into Nazism, and ultimately betrayed their fellow humans by helping to commit the largest mass murder in history. SS officers, prison guards, executioners, and functionaries of Hitler are pictured and documented here... lest anyone forget that people just like you and I are capable of horrible things. 

A model of Berlin during the war

My most memorable encounter was seeing the model of Berlin during World War Two. Hitler and the Nazi's were in charge of Germany for a decade before war broke out and used the opportunity to completely rebuild Berlin into the capital city of a "Thousand Year Reich". I was standing right in the middle of what, before the war, would've been a fantastically modern city capital. Naturally, being the center of the Nazi Regime, this entire city center (similar to Washington DC's National Mall) was, bombed into oblivion, and will never be seen again. In the photo of the model above, the clear sections are buildings that were completely destroyed during the war, giving you an idea of the price Berlin paid for the crimes of the Nazi Reich. 

Something about that had an impact on me. This was once a campus of beautifully designed and planned public structures. Now, I am standing in a Museum that showcases how and why they were all destroyed. 

I was not far from the the "Führerbunker," the last hideout for Hitler and many more of his loyal followers, who, rather than walk up to the surface and face surrender to the Allies, shot themselves or ingested poison. 

Did they do that because they regretted what they did, or because they feared the punishment? Either way, it was a hard thing to think about.  

Perhaps the best photo I saw at the Topography of Terror was of one man who refused to salute Hitler.               

The Joys of Ice Hockey

When I was a schoolboy, I had a particularly crabby English teacher. If she wasn't giving long-winded lectures on topics unrelated to the books she assigned, she would sit at her desk and observe us while we read the book ourselves.

During one of these "reading" periods, I happened to fall asleep at my desk. I woke to that teacher slamming a hardcover book on the desk... the desk on which my head was resting. 

"I'm sorry" I said,"I had a hockey game last night, and I'm kinda tired." 

She snapped, "What's more important to you, Stephen? School or Hockey!" 

"Do you really want to know the answer?" was my reply. 

It was, of course, hockey.

That day, I made an enemy of that teacher. But, I made a classroom of friends (most of them were at that game). 

It seems like ice hockey was in my blood from a young age. Even though my parents didn't play themselves, they took me to Kent State NCAA Division-I hockey games as a kid, because we happened to live very near an ice rink in Kent, Ohio. My father actually got to be an extra in the film Slapshot which was filmed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I played in a tournament in that same rink more than a decade later.

I could go on at length about my hockey stories... Meeting the legendary Czech, and hall-of-fame Pittsburgh Penguin, Jaromir Jagr; Billeting in Embro, Ontario for a US-Canada Hockey exchange; and playing on the ice of Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets. But, I digress.... 

Basically, in my younger years, I was a pretty good hockey player. Not great, but good. I believe my peak was going to the Mid-American USA Hockey Development Camp tryouts. It was a big deal. I even got to skip two days of school to travel to Toledo, Ohio to participate. I didn't really have any goals in-mind other than to do the best I could, and get some extra skating time in. Yet, I found myself skating, and competing with the best hockey players of my age-group. They towered over me and out-weighed me. I knew I was not going to be selected from the first minute I stepped on the ice. But, I participated, and I actually made some good plays -enough to get a nice pat on the shin pads from my bench-mates, and a slap on the helmet from a few coaches. 

I didn't get selected. Afterwards, I was more tired than I have been my entire life. I was glad I did my best, and I skated with future NHL and AHL players. I could share the same rink with them, and get their acknowledgements when I did make a (rare) nice play. And, when I went back to playing high school hockey, I played like I was on fast-forward, and the rest of the players were on slow-motion. It was one of the best learning experiences I've ever had in any subject, professional or otherwise.

When we valiantly bowed out of the OHSAA playoff to a far-superior team my Senior year, I was more relieved than sad. There was college and marching band to look forward too; but mostly, I was grateful that I never had to do another practice, sprint or conditioning drill ever again. With my evenings free, there lay ahead of me a multitude of possibilities: jobs, colleges, girls, partying, golf? They all seemed a lot better than watering the ice rink with my sweat. So, that was it, I gave-up hockey.

Wish me luck, boys.

Yet, I miss the salty smell of sweat on my fingers. It lingers after games and practices, even when you've showered and and scrubbed with soap. I miss the smell of the rink, and the flavor your car gets after hauling hockey pads around all week. I miss the calluses that build up on your palms from tightening your skate laces each night. And, I miss the boys. My teammates. 

Apparently, hockey is, in-fact, in my blood. Because, in-spite of all logic, at 38 years of age,  I have signed up for an upper-level men's league hockey team. According to my doctor, I'm overweight and have high blood pressure. I'm pretty sure I can't jog a mile without stopping, and I have aches and pains that happen randomly whether or not I workout. 

Could hockey really be the answer? Could it really be better than eating healthy, taking my doctor's prescriptions, and having a brisk walk every morning? 

Do you really want to know to the answer? 

I'll let you know after our first game.

Advice from the HAM Radio Community

If anyone says the HAM radio community is a bunch of old guys playing around with out-dated toys, stop them right there! 

There's nothing "OLD" about HAM technology; and, there were a few young women at the HAM fest put on by the Massillon (OH) Amateur Radio Club as well.

In fact, an enterprising fellow named Daniel Estévez just recently landed the first amateur radio on the Moon, with the help of The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). You can check out his blog, here.

Unfortunately, I was not able to connect to his signal, even after running out of my Mother's house with my big antenna. The broadcast lasted only for a few days on 437.41 MHz, and I missed it. But, I think Daniel and JAXA, paved the way for more space exploration, specific to the radio field. 

Another thing I wanted to message was just how helpful the HAM community can be. 

A new set-up with the appropriate SWR meter

I needed an SWR meter for my new rig, I got an extremely in-expensive Astatic PDC1. I won't get into more details, but for those of you who don't know, SWR stands for Standing Wave Ratio. HAM operators need to know they have a low SWR ratio to make sure the output of their radio does not cause damage to their radios. 

Well, this inexperienced blogger used the Astatic PDC1. And, I did not know at-the-time that my particular model was designed ONLY for CB Radio, also known as Citizens Band Radio... And, my new SWR meter started to SMOKE. This is not to suggest that the Astatic is a bad product. It was just the wrong one for my set-up. 

Where did I go for better advice? Reddit of all places. (I know, the home of neck-bearded dorks who live in their moms' basements). However, it turns out this community is not-all bad. They were the ones who suggested the appropriate model for my set-up! 

What I ended up going with was the MFJ-862 UHF/VHF meter, which was a little more expensive and did not burn out. So, in the end, I got good advice from a Reddit user whose username was very NSFW ;)

The Next Generation: A Lesson in Leadership

The Cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation

I was originally going to title this article "Stark Trek," but given my fondness for The Next Generation crew, I decided to give "TNG" the nod... 

No offense to Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner), Inter Stellar Linguist, Lieutenant Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols) and, of course, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (Played by James Doohan). 

Like most Millennials, I remember, Lieutenant Commander Data, Lieutenant Commander Worf, and -of course- Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I actually checked out more than a few VHS video-taped episodes of that series from the Kent Free Library when I was a kid.

There is so much I've learned from this show. Everything from reading and literature to gambling. Never bet against Data, by the way.

 

 Also, don't bet against Dr. Pulaski either.

 

 

As you can see from the brilliant writing and casting, chiefly from Commander Data, a robot (but very-with human qualities), played by Brent Spiner, Commander Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes), and Dr. Pulaski (played by Diana Muldaur), the show is not simply space battles with aliens. It actually includes some funny and "educational" dialogue. 

 

In an era where we are all struggling to deal with others, unlike ourselves, it's good to see a diverse group of crewmen who are very different to one another. Data, as you can see, in the videos above, is very different (he's a robot). 

 

But, as you watch the show, you'll see the normal cast of differing characters match wits. In each episode the galaxy-class Starship Enterprise will encounter "weird" or "different" aliens from another planet, and sometimes they're hostile. 

 

It's up to Captain Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) to communicate and try to work with each species his ship encounters in a (hopefully) non-violent way. Naturally, the Starship Enterprise is equipped with weapons and torpedoes in-case things really go south. However, most episodes in the series end peacefully. 

 

But, most of all, I like the crew, and their relationships. Starting with Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge (played by LeVar Burton), who is a bit of a folk-hero among Millennials, for being both a Star Trek officer and reading expert, and ending with Lieutenant Commander Worf (played by Michael Dorn). 

 

Both actors portray differences and diversity on the ship's crew. Worf is a Klingon. Obviously, He looks noticeably different; but, his crew-mates treat him with respect and honor. Worf is a good officer to have on the bridge of a ship where decisions can be critical and life saving. Worf's captain and crew knows this. 

 

Geordi La Forge is an expert engineer, but he's blind. In our day-and-age, we might call his condition a "disability", but, in Geordi's case, he's able to use technology to see. In fact, he's really not blind at all! He can see electro-magnetic waves and sub-atomic particles that "normal" people can't.  

To conclude, I'd like to mention Captain Picard's leadership. While he can be honest at times, he's a ship's captain and must be responsible for his crew, and I guess the protector of the entire Galaxy. Sometimes he needs to be harsh, and provide criticism to his subordinates. But, in doing so, he never breaches their trust and is always a friend when needed...  

Just like Worf is to "Spot", the cat...  

 

 

 

 

Gene Roddenberry, "Star Trek: The Next Generation",  Paramount Domestic Television, Inc. 2012. 

Street Music: Let them play!

Chicago is a city known for its music, Jazz, Blues, the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And, every now and then, if you're visiting Chicago or commuting to work you get a little taste of that musical tradition. I can recall a xylophone player on the corner Randolph and Michigan Avenues that you could hear on the 11th floor balcony of the Prudential Center building, a block away -the perfect serenade for the end of a hard week in a cubicle typing out numbers. There was also a great band of retirees who played nearby. These guys could play everything from Glenn Miller to Kenny Loggins! (Just name a song, and they'll play it!). And, of course there are the Bucket Boys who spice any Chicago evening up with their loud, but lively, drumming.

A talented string duet in Mexico City

I had long thought that Chicago was the home of street music, but after a short trip to Mexico City, I learned Chicago may be falling behind in that category. Mexico City has amazing musicians everywhere you could look! It wasn't simply one busy corner, or one busy subway stop, it was all up-and-down every street! 

When you think of Mexico, you might think of Mariachi or Mexican Folk Music, and there was a lot of that; but, the breadth of musical talent in Mexico was astounding. I heard American Jazz, ragtime Jazz, Baroque Classical and John Philip Sousa marches in one walk down Calle Fancisco Madero. Of course, I stopped to watch, and gave the performers some Pesos for their effort, but no one seemed to care about the money. They did it for the love of music, and the love of performing. It made my trip so much more wonderful! 

One of the coolest things Mexico City had was amateur marching bands; groups of young adults who came in to town on the weekends and made little parades. In the morning they were tuning their instruments, and marching. In the afternoon, they were hanging out by the food vendors, chilling and socializing with their band-mates. Sounds like a fun time to me!   

But that said, Chicago, even with it's beautiful musical tradition, kind of disappointed me after I got back from Mexico. We do have awesome music clubs, The Green Mill, Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy's and the whole House scene to name a few. However, it's rare on the normal workday to hear such good music on the street while you're walking to work. Of course, I've mentioned that we do have some great outdoor street musicians, but the cacophony of tunes in Chicago pales in comparison to those of Mexico, and other countries around the world. Chicagoans: We've got a lot of catching up to do!

 

Hinech Yafa, "Light in Babylon", Street Performance in Istanbul. Youtube Video, Five Minutes and Ten Seconds.

Slap Shot: Secretly Feminist, pro-LGBTQ & pro-Labor?

As a young hockey player that skated with guys from both North and South of the Canadian-United States border, Slap Shot was required viewing. The 1977 film about a failing minor-league ice hockey team, directed by George Roy Hill and written by Nancy Dowd, was essentially a cult classic among hockey dudes like myself -mostly, for the fighting, and the brutal hits. 

The Charlestown Chiefs

Now, Slap Shot may not be a film suitable for a young child; and, if you're particularly sensitive, it may not be suitable for you either. The film depicts, in my view, a very accurate representation of what a hockey locker room in 1977 might have looked and sounded like. To give you a hint, there is a lot of language that would be considered beyond-the-pale today: lots of "f***s," "d***s", "c***s" and other words we'd never want to utter to someone public in these days. But, before anyone gets too worried about the message of the film, it's very much the opposite of the hyper-violent, hyper-masculine and somewhat bigoted stories of its characters. Slap Shot is actually, secretly, about women, sexual identity and labor in a capitalist society. 

The first hint that the film might be deeper than a simple montage of fighting matches between washed-up pro hockey players, is in the first act when Ned Braden (played by Michael Ontkean) tells coach Reggie Dunlop (played brilliantly by Paul Newman), that the steel mill in Charlestown (the fictional home of the team), is shuttering, and leaving tens of thousands of workers without jobs or income. The writing is on the wall, when the factory goes, the town goes... and so go the Chiefs, Charlestown's hockey team. "These people aren't going to have money to spend on hockey games," Ned says. 

From that point forward Newman's character, Dunlop, hatched scheme after scheme to try to save the team from bankruptcy by using violent antics to bring in frothing crowds of frustrated, angry, blue-collar fans who just want to see their Chiefs kick butt! If the Chiefs can fill the seats, they may just have a chance to stay in business, and the boys on Dunlop's team can continue their careers in the sport they love. Dunlop goes pretty far too; he even goads an opposing player into a fight by suggesting that his wife may prefer women to men -though don't get too mad at him, because that player was very likely abusive to his wife in the first place. If you don't watch and listen carefully, this may all sound a bit crude. However, you must consider that this was a film depicting hockey goons in the 1970's -people weren't as sophisticated back then. And, very importantly, our hero Reggie Dunlop never suggests he has any issue with homosexuality or the LGBTQ community. He just used some language we wouldn't use today. 

Lily (Lindsay Crouse) attempting to cope

One of the most important plot lines of Slap Shot is the story of the women who, despite everything, stand by and tolerate their terrible hockey playing boyfriends and husbands -and, at least one woman who broke free of her marriage and went on to create a wonderful life for herself! If you get the chance to watch this beautiful film, pay close attention to the women. They are more than half of the story. They go through hell to support their partners, showing up in the middle of the night to greet their men when they return, win or lose. One in particular, Lily (played by Lindsay Crouse) has a particularly difficult time dealing with her hockey player partner. Who could blame her?

When I watched the movie as an adult, it made so much sense that the screenplay itself was written by a woman, Nancy Dowd. She had written the script, in part, to tell the story of her own brother's trials in the brutal world of pro hockey. But, she didn't simply succeed in creating a film about hockey. She captured a very broad working class North American experience involving the beauty of the sport, as well as the violence. But, more-than-that, she captured a slice of American and Canadian life that involves the challenges every low-life, good-for-nothing, steel town faces when the big-money company pulls-up anchor and moves out, leaving the workers holding the tab. 

Roy Hill, George. Slap Shot, Universal Pictures, Universal City, California. 1977.   

The Joys of Music Continued: One of the Orginal Coding Systems

As I continue to write and practice on my trumpet, I wanted to provide yet another "random thought." I had learned to read music as a teen in the wonderful Theodore Roosevelt marching band and symphony, but I didn't think about it much -I simply learned and played... and then all the band members got to hang-out and have a fun time together. 

Image of New York sheet music makers. 

But, as an adult, I now realize that music is a bit like computer code! And it was invented and produced centuries ago. Have you heard of Bach, Mozart?... Those guys put their music on paper, so we, in the Twenty-First century could still hear it, and it could still be played by expert musicians. 

As I wrote in a previous post, I recently went to a workshop at Google Cloud to play around with their codes and programing. Also, I took a linguistics course in grad school at DePaul. And, now, I'm re-learning to read sheet music. All of these forms of communication are meant to assist us humans in making something happen: maybe it's playing a fun song on your instrument, perhaps it's speaking to a lovely Italian woman you just met, maybe it's something as simple as programing your software system to know there is going be an outage today at 5 PM sharp, and you better log-out and save your work before then!

Glen Miller's, "In the Mood".

But, either way, music is like code. It's a language we read and understand to make cool, and fun, music! In fact, before most people even knew what a computer was, there was a big "coding" industry in New York City, and likely other cities across the United States. The most famous sellers of sheet music were in Manhattan, in a neighborhood called "Tin-Pan Alley." People waited in lines to get sheet music. With the middle-class growing, and the ability for normal (non-millionaires) to buy instruments, such as violins, trumpets, pianos, etc... Everyone needed sheet music to play from. Everyone wanted fun music!

This is something fun, and helpful, that all Americans took part in. Whites, Blacks, Native Americans, and everyone else took part in making the US a very musical place! And, they basically memorized code, because sheet music is basically code for a song. And other countries, outside of the US, were making music themselves! 

I'll end by saying on quick anecdote... I signed-up a talented young woman for medical school at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. This is one of the best-of-the-best institutions in the world for science and medicine. Her undergraduate degree was in music... and, I know she went on to the best doctor and scientist! And knowing music helped ;)   

Flight Tracking: I Guess I'm a Plane-Guy now...

Do you remember when older guys used to be really, really into trains? Like, buying little trains to put in their house and standing by the tracks waiting for a train to go by? There was even a movie called Trainspotting (unfortunately, that movie wasn't about trains at all!). Anyway, I think I'm becoming a plane guy, a guy who likes planes. 

Did you know you can see pretty much every airplane, or helicopter, above you and identify where it's going and where it came from for FREE? I recently saw a private jet take off from Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) and fly to Switzerland (ZRH), and it made me think... Unless Taylor Swift is on that plane, someone is either up to no good, or they're paying WAY too much for the ride. Hopefully they just have a good friend that's a pilot, I really don't know.

My obsession began when I bought a little radio that can pick up a lot of things: planes, towers, police calls, everything that could ever go wrong with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) -those men and women are the real MVP's, btw. Anyway, you can hear A LOT with a radio like mine, and I'm pretty sure listening to it is not (always) legal, so I'm in the process of getting my HAM radio operator's license, just to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's toes, or tuning into something I shouldn't be hearing. 

So, either way, I like tracking planes and seeing where they're going. What are they doing up there? What are they transporting? Is Southwest ripping me off? And if you're not already aware, there are SO many planes up there. 

The Tydbit! Showing a Dubai flight coming into Chicago.

Before I end this post I'd like to make a shout out to flightradar24.com. They're the wonderful proprietors of  the app that makes this all possible. In fact I used their API Key to get the nearest flight on my little screen at home, it's called the Tydbit. But, be careful when using API Keys, because if you use them too much, the company may want to charge you a little bit of money for their service. Otherwise you get SHUT DOWN.

Anyway, have fun flight tracking! And, check out our new "What's Up There?" widget to the right. Just pull, pinch, or click to get the map right in the best spot, and you will know exactly what's up there.    

Subnautica: Have You Ever Been Afraid of Going into the Deep-end of the Pool?

I wouldn't call my self much of a "gamer." I'm actually pretty terrible at video games. Everyone else is just too good. It took me roughly two hours of playing for five straight nights before I actually got one single kill online in Call of Duty II: Modern Warfare. Most of the time I was just being blown away, and/or stabbed... 

Lake Michigan

But I recently got a small reasonably-priced Nintendo Switch. And, I was SO happy to find that Subnautica, the classic PC game is now available on this little device. The only reason I tried it out was because it got such great reviews in the gaming community, and was said to be terrifying, like, nightmarish and frightening. (Who's up for a good thriller or horror movie, am I right?) 

Anyway, the game starts with you crash-landing, alone, on an alien world -but, get this, it's a world that is almost all oceans. Therefore, survival depends not on walking around land and picking up vegetables and bugs to eat, you have to SWIM into the DEEP. As you may imagine, there are lots of scary things down there, not the least of which is running out of air and drowning before you have time to get to the the surface. 

Believe me, there are tons of huge, horrible, creatures down there that can swallow you whole -but there's nothing more terrifying than swimming down into a reef or a cave from which you may not have enough oxygen to emerge from safely. 

The key aspect of this game that I enjoyed was that it forces you to go down rather than up. We talk so much about space and air travel, but no one mentions the secrets of the depths of the oceans. As a kid, I learned how to swim but I was desperately afraid of the deep-end of the pool. For some reason, when I went down there I panicked. Thankfully, my dad was there to fish me out! But, there are secrets down there if you look.

Photo of the Subnautica Game

Subnautica is a wonderful and beautifully crafted game. The game, published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment and created by Charlie Cleveland and countless others, is a masterpiece. Playing it is like reading a sci-fi novel on-par with Dune or The The Expanse, by "James S.A Corey". Believe me, if your kid is playing Subnautica, they're probably smarter than you are ;)

Subnautica: A video game by Charlie Cleveland, Hugh Jeremy et al. was published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment in 2018.

Integrations

Last week I reviewed the 1987 film "Robocop" about a futuristic policeman augmented with super-human abilities. When we think of human augmentation we often think of someone like the Robocop, a normal person with physical attachments and implants that allow them to do and see things others can't. In media and gaming the idea is ubiquitous: think The Borg, Iron Man and Master Chief as examples. However, the truth about human augmentation is actually a lot simpler, so simple that we rarely think about just how connected we are at all times, even without eye implants and rocket boots. 

It's mentioned (far to often) that people are addicted to their devices. Sure there's truth to that, but it was a cliche to say so more than a decade ago, now it's just getting annoying. It's like saying we're addicted to food, money or water. This is why I prefer to think of technological augmentation not as a physical attachment, but as a series of integrations.

Some kind of bubble cafe

In technical terms, an integration is any way two or more systems interact with each other. You add a bit of HTML and JavaScript code to your webpage to pull anything from the weather, stock market quotes or sports scores onto your site; now your application is integrated with Accuweather, Bloomberg and ESPN. Your work's payroll system is integrated with its customer relationship management system and it's qualitative reporting systems, so all the information each wing of the organization is seeing is synchronized and updated in real time. This allows everyone access to all the information they need immediately, and drastically reduces the need for clerks, couriers, typists etc. An old colleague of mine said it best: "integration is when the computers talk to each other, so we don't have to."   

We don't have physical brain-plugs, like in the Matrix, or infrared vision, like in Robocop, but our eyes, ears, voice and fingers are the perfect ports from which to send and receive an ever-increasing amount of information. Some readers may remember a time when you had to literally write a check then balance your checkbook by hand after each purchase to know how much money you had at a given point in time. If the calculation was off, or you skipped a few calculations and couldn't find the receipts, the only way to know was to go to your physical bank branch and ask them for the available balance in your account, or wait until a statement was mailed to you. If you had stocks, equities, high-yield savings bonds, etc. you could forget about calculating the value yourself. You could either wait for your monthly or quarterly statements to arrive, or hire a professional to keep an eye on your finances for you. Now, all of our financial information is available to us where ever we go. With the click of an app, you can look across multiple accounts, see interest accrue and stock values go up and down in real time. You can transfer money from one bank to another, sell stocks, and re-pay a friend for dinner from your phone in less than the time it used to take to wait in line at the bank to deposit a check. You are now integrated with your entire financial universe at all times. What used to take one or more days of errands, and interactions with multiple tellers, associates and clerks, is now fully accessible to you at a moment's notice.

It doesn't end there either. My credit card is integrated with my ride share app. My airline app is integrated with my federal known traveler identification, and it's all integrated into my brain via my eyes, ears and finger-tips. I can now wake up, get dressed, make a car come pick me up, book a flight to nearly anywhere in the world, walk through TSA Pre-Check and takeoff -all without ever reaching for my wallet or carrying a single dollar of cash. The only thing I'd need to remember to take is my passport, and the only time I'd truly need to speak with another person is if I make the alarm go off at airport security. Not even Robocop, with his sophisticated mechanical implants could manage that, and it would be significantly harder for him to get through that metal detector. 

Human augmentation is happening, and it's happening faster than ever. We adopt it without a thought, let alone hesitation, because it makes sense, and it makes our lives easier. Best of all, unlike a robo-suit, eye implants or a neural brain-plug, we can turn our devices off and put them down whenever we'd like. Plus, a phone and a set of wireless headphones probably don't hurt as much as a brain-plug. But, put me on the wait list for a set of Iron Man rocket boots.