Sep Kamvar – Jonathan Frei https://jonathanfrei.com Based on a true story Mon, 24 Aug 2015 02:43:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://i0.wp.com/jonathanfrei.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/favicon-160x1601.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Sep Kamvar – Jonathan Frei https://jonathanfrei.com 32 32 76405128 Cyborg Enhancements: Wheels and Pedals https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals#respond Mon, 24 Aug 2015 02:43:03 +0000 https://jonathanfrei.com/?p=6477 The best technologies are the ones that enhance your natural abilities rather than replace them. These are the innovations that have historically had the biggest impact on what humanity can accomplish, and this is the factor to watch for when deciding what emerging technologies to get excited about. Sep Kamvar, writing about the power efficiencies of a human brain and body vs. that of a super computer, points out how energy efficient a car is compared to a person on a bike.

A midsized car gets a little over half a mile per kilocalorie of energy. A human walking gets 10 miles per kilocalorie. Even if we exclude the cost of the car, the cost of the road, and the cost of the infrastructure we build for fueling, walking is still 20 times as efficient as driving.

There does exist a vehicle that is more efficient than a human walking: a human on a bicycle. A human on a bicycle gets 25 miles per kilocalorie, the equivalent of 750 miles per gallon. Like my fictitious Jeopardy software, the bicycle is a light-touch technology, that extends the human’s natural ability for mobility rather than replacing it.

I knew there was a reason biking feels so good. It is an efficient tool that greatly enhances my natural ability to get around.

]]> https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals/feed 0 6477 Cyclicality: Missions and Metrics https://jonathanfrei.com/2012/05/cyclicality-missions-and-metrics https://jonathanfrei.com/2012/05/cyclicality-missions-and-metrics#respond Thu, 24 May 2012 22:01:04 +0000 http://104.131.64.180/2012/05/cyclicality-missions-and-metrics/ Cyclicality: Missions and Metrics

Sep Kamvar:

A bike strengthens the person who pedals it. Open-source software educates its potential contributors. A hallmark of cyclical tools is that they create open loops: the bike strengthens its rider to do things other than just pedal the bike. Cyclical tools are like trees, whose falling leaves fertilize the soil in which they grow.

via Fred Wilson

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