When Things Start to Think is a book that discusses the future of technology. The author splits up the book into three categories: what the future of technology will be, why we will have this technology, and how this technology will be developed. When Gershenfeld says "thinking things" he is not necessarily referring to artificial intelligence, he is just implying that this technology will not need human interference to operate. All of the research talked about in this book is done at MIT's Media Lab. The Media Lab is quite unlike any other lab setting I’ve ever heard of. All of the experiments are completely original and new ideas that are formulated by the students, and the impression brought on by the book is that everybody researches whatever their brain can think up.

     Gershenfeld starts his book with what he sees as the future of technology. He goes through many experiments that he has worked on in the last few years, ranging from a 3-dimensional printer to an electronic cello to computers in your shoes. There are tons of bizarre experiments done at the Media Labs (bizarre because of the acceptance of new ideas), but they all root back to a fundamental research topic. One interesting experiment dealt with a wearable computer. The author plays with the possibility of having the main part of the computer in your shoe, because it can take the energy from you walking and convert it in to the power source for the computer chip. The other parts of the computer are weaved into your clothing. He goes on to talk about some of the examples where “wearable computers” in today’s society are already in progress. There is a student at MIT that is covered from head to toe with all kinds of gadgets. He has sensors all over his body to read his heartbeat, pulse, temperature, etc. He has glasses that are hooked up to cameras, so he can look anywhere he wants at any time, and he can also modify it however he pleases (for example, he can brighten the view at night, so he has night vision). Another example he gave is a very expensive jewelry shop that sells a diamond that can read your heartbeat, and at every beat it glows red for a quick second. It costs $500,000.

     Gershenfeld also talks about why things should think. He creates a list of what our rights should be with information in the world. He says that the users should possess the right to

1. Have information available to you when you want it
2. Be protected from information that you don’t want
3. Use technology without attending to its needs.

     He then goes on to say that the technology we use has some rights as well. According to him, they possess the right to have an identity, access other objects, and detect the nature of their environment. He gives an example to show how these rights could come into play: “A coffee maker that has access to my bed, my calendar, and my coffee cup, and my last few years of coffee consumption, can do a pretty good job of recognizing when I’m likely to come downstairs looking for a cup of coffee, without forcing me to program one more appliance...” The fact that we would normally have to press a button on the coffee machine to get our coffee is a terrible inconvenience, and we should not have to do this. Our appliances should have the ability to communicate with one another, and sense what their human owners need. He continues his argument with an analogy between technology and a window in a house. “It is a barrier between what is inside and what is outside…it’s confining to stay behind it.” He says that the next interface will be the world, where everything will interact with everything. He says, "A business card should contain an address, but also summon a web page if placed near a web browser. A pen should write in normal ink, but also remember what it writes so that the information can be recalled later in a computer, and it should serve as a stylus to control that computer." He goes on with more ideas of what our research with technology should be aiming towards. His basic point is that we are dividing the physical and digital world, and this is an unnecessary hindrance. All of our technology as of now is a nuisance because we have to tell it all what to do constantly.

     The final section of the book deals with how this technology will be developed. Gershenfeld starts off by telling the reader all of the prices of today’s chips. He said that we can make mini chips for about 10 cents, and this needs to change to a few cents per chip. With the cost this cheap, we can put these chips in anything. He gives an example of our groceries having chips in them, and we can just walk out of the store and it automatically gets deducted from our accounts. Even better, our cabinets can have chips in them, and when certain goods are getting low it automatically contacts the food store and orders more. Basically we need the cost of the computer chips to go down. He says that the current chip cannot really get too much smaller and cheaper, and eventually we will need to move to a different type of chip. He goes on to talk about the molecular quantum computer, and how this could be just the breakthrough we need.

     Mr. Gershenfeld also says that we need to change our research methods. He says that all too often research is a matter of constraints, where people are trying to decide who should do what. The alternative is to have people on the invention/research side build what they want, and then display it to the outside world (instead of being told what they need to create). In the media lab, the way research and development is run is described as follows: “It lets us pursue ideas without trying to distinguish between hardware or software, content and representation, research and application. Surprisingly often, working this way lets all sides get exactly what they want while doing just what they wish.” Research shouldn’t just be a company yelling at researchers about deadlines, instead it should be a quest for knowledge or improvement that one is interested in, and this eventually leads to an invention of some kind that does please a company.

     Mr. Gershenfeld has many qualifications that suggest his knowledge in this area of technology. He leads the Physics and Media group and co-directs the Things That Think research consortium at the MIT Media Laboratory. Before he worked for MIT, he was a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. He received his Ph.D. at Cornell University, and was a staff member at Bell Labs for some time.

     Gershenfeld is passionate about the idea of getting our technology to the level described throughout this paper. He does not spend too much time talking about the social implications of such technology. Instead he spends most of his time in a dream world, talking about what things could be like, and how he would like them to be. This book is aimed toward anyone who is not satisfied with the state of our current technology. The author has a tendency to slide away from his original topics, and often loses focus in the middle of the chapter. The overall ideas presented in the book did, however, provoke a great deal of thought about the future. I don’t think our current state of technology is as frustrating to live with as he makes it out to be in this book, but, as history has proven, there always seems to be room for improvement in this field.