Why Clouds Are Not Innocent

Silvery colored and puffy, white clouds floating effortlessly in the blue sky have inspired many beautiful literature and poems East and West, and phrases such as “freely drifting clouds and flowing water” or “floating clouds and wild crane” have been used approvingly to describe lucid writing or unrestrained life style. But do we really know what clouds are?

We will begin by examining what casual bare eye observations reveal about the many characteristics of clouds and how people study them. Then we will delve into the interior of these clouds to see what clouds are really made of and try to find secret recipes mother nature uses to produce clouds.

The above investigation will not be sufficient to pass a verdict on clouds. We will need to look into what clouds have conducted in influencing the affair of global climate. Here we will see that clouds are not some innocent bystanders that are just hanging leisurely in the sky watching the show– they are one of the most active actors in shaping the energy balance that is what climate is all about.

A New Level of Presence: Spatial Digital Humanities and Volumetric & Holographic Video Capture and Broadcast

I believe it’s safe to say that something is afoot on the AR and VR scene. When my own mother asks me about virtual reality or begins to ask about how to scan a QR code so she can see something that her friend told her that she saw, I know that things are changing. I believe it’s obvious that with all the rumblings of Apple announcing a new headset, the new AR headset by Magic Leap coming out any day, if not already by the time this talk is made, or even the very competitively priced Meta VR headset, beckoning gamers, educators, business leaders, and of course entertainment to take advantage of Meta’s vision of the Metaverse.

With gaming and entertainment leading the way, virtual and augmented reality stand to earn billions of dollars for creators. These technologies are of course also affecting the education sector with more and more educators becoming not just aware of the potential of augmented in virtual reality, but in some cases becoming creators themselves. As universities invest heavily in Digital Humanities initiatives, many Centers for Digital Humanities on those campuses are supporting projects by professors or connected organizations, that deal with augmented or virtual experiences. There are many examples to choose from, from my earliest work with virtual reality back in the late 90s to the works of others who are delving into virtual or augmented experiences for their classes or research. Many like Kim Gallon at Brown University are incorporating mapping and GIS information to supplement these virtual or augmented experiences, bringing a critical awareness of social inequalities through these visual technologies. These tools are perfect for creating higher degrees of empathy, for engaging students in interactive and creative ways, to teach students skills and expose them to methods of digital storytelling. These tools prepare them for different levels of expression that we hope will stay with them beyond their experience in our classes.

At the Center for Digital Humanities, we are, of course, interested in all those things. We work with faculty, groups, and organizations both on and off campus, to include a host of cultural centers. Our aim like many centers, is to expose and empower our students and faculty as well as community partners surrounding our campus. I can speak for the Center for Digital Humanities in that one of our direct missions is to work with underserved communities, where often these technologies are rarely incorporated into many levels of their programming, if at all. Two of the more interesting technologies that I believe are part of the future of where these immersive experiences are heading are Holographic and volumetric video capture and streaming. Both have the potential to revolutionize the ways we communicate, interact with one another, and engage content. Our work with the use of volumetric and holographic video is adding to the conversation on ways we can engage complex topics that are systemic within our society. Our journey into volumetrics is exciting, and through this talk I’d like to share with you some of our findings.

Cognitive Wellbeing in the Digital World: The Future is Now!

In 1850, average life expectancy at birth for London Victorians was 41. Now, in 2022, average Londoners’ life expectancy is 81.65. In Taiwan, it is 80.87, comparable to other industrialized countries. Over 172 years, people doubled their life expectancy as the world became increasingly complicated with respect to both social and physical living conditions.

Are we happier than those whose earth living experience is 40 years less than ours? How to define cognitive wellbeing in the modern world in which everyday living is built upon fast-changing and increasingly more complicated 10-Os (Astro, Bio/Ecolo, Geno, Neuro, Cogno, Techno, Info/Digito, Econo, Medico, and Culturo/Socio) Knowledge? Medicare for all people today is undoubtedly much advanced with respect to disease diagnosis and treatments. However, health-care for the elderly nowadays is not about guaranteeing immortality, rather, it is concerned with how to stave off the diseases of old age that we must face at the end. Thus, cognitive wellbeing should be defined in terms of conditions that ensure old age is enjoyed and not endured. Otherwise, who wants to extend lifespan if all that means is another 40 years of ill health?

Strictly speaking, the goal of emphasizing cognitive wellbeing is about increasing healthspan, not lifespan. For sure, we are living longer and longer already. But many old people are suffering from disability and lost of quality of life due to aging. As powerful computation is brought to bear on biology, psychology, cognitive neurosciences, and cyber engineering, we should be able to detect human ailment before it happens by arranging human intervention. Examples of experimental studies and their results along this line of thinking will be provided in the presentation.