An internet pundit wrote a much linked to piece of punditry about how complexity overwhelmed the administrative powers of a few past civilizations, thereby leading to their eventual demise. Last night at a NY Tech Meetup I was feeling incredibly optimistic about the prospects of our own society.
What’s one of the most vexing problem faced by many Manhattanites? Finding a cab would probably come in pretty close to the top—finding a cab in the rain, a little higher.
So I was starry eyed at a demo of a new iPhone app (which has received media attention recently) called CabSense.
Using GPS data collected by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, AI-machine learning researchers were able to discern patterns in what I always thought was a random walk. The result was a mobile app that taps into this dataset and reports back a nearby street corner where you are likeliest to get a cab.
CabsSense (brought to you by start-up Sense Networks) was one of several demos I witnessed last night that in my mind were all connected by a deeper theme.Continue reading