[I hope that you enjoyed reading about Jade! If you missed the reveal and are only joining us now, please take a look.] The same story has repeated itself throughout history. A new technology is developed, and we become dependent on it. Society's current tech trajectory demands infinite electronics because what we have “is never fast enough” or “is never big enough.” The result is e-waste. Shift Sight intends to bend the tech trajectory at its source. Our current dependence is not sustainable. Screen Time As digital technology expands to fill every facet of our daily life, there is an ongoing debate about how much screen time we should have every day. More importantly, this debate has expanded to children and their exposure. Jade sidesteps this entire debate. It has screens, but it is a humane piece of a technology. Roughly defined, this means that it imposes little burden on its owner. It is not addictive. A simple litmus test for technology is connectivity. If your gadget with a screen is connected to the Internet, it will exploit a human seeking behavior. The neuroscience behind the behavior is well-understood: people are subconsciously attracted to new information and fast access to that information. And when the information is never-ending, we tend to find ourselves mindlessly scrolling and tapping. I would like to share a little about Jade's network port. Full details will be given with the upcoming website overhaul. This is not an Internet connection. There is no wireless connection either. This is an industrial network connector known as CAN. It is designed to survive misconnections and short circuits. It is a durable network for a durable product. It also happens to be humane. It is distance-limited, speed-limited, and does not require any special equipment to connect more than one Jade together. Shift Sight will offer cables, but you can also build your own with standard banana connectors. There are no special connectors that lead to waste. If you want to learn with a friend, Jade's collaborative learning mode requires your friend to be present. (Although the Internet provides convenience of remote collaboration, society has not paused to consider what has been lost. More alarmingly, some companies use this connection to create artificial obsolescence and spy on users. The former problem is e-waste.) You are certainly not prevented from sharing your work on the Internet, but this air gap ensures that you are focused on learning and having fun. Parents need not concern themselves with time spent on Jade any more than they would worry that their children are playing the piano too much or drawing too much. SustainabilityThere is a lot to do for the upcoming website overhaul and only so many hours in the day. I am going to wrap-up this post here.
Jade is purpose built for learning, but there is something important that I have not explicitly said. It will be shown on the website overhaul, since I would rather show than tell: Jade is a tool for creating a sustainable future. Quite simply, if your code runs on Jade, it will run on durable microcontrollers and microprocessors. If your circuit can be built on durable components, there is no reason to use lesser quality. Jade employs proven self-directed learning methods to make sustainability a game rather than a chore. After all, fun is the path of least resistance. Every existing product, edtech or otherwise, does not provide a path to learning sustainability. Drag-and-drop programming disconnects the learner from the machine. Shift Sight is going to change the narrative. Stay with us for the upcoming website changes.
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Ty is a Founder of Shift Sight, LLC. Archives
June 2019
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