Twitter Edit Button vs. Cyborg Cockroaches
The big news from Twitter is (finally) out!
No, not the sale of Twitter to Mr. Musk. Something even more important. After years of speculations and promises, the most anticipated Twitter feature is here. The EDIT button has arrived.
Don't get your hopes up yet, though, because it is available only to '... Subscribers who pay $4.99 per month for Twitter Blue ...'. Unlike all the other platforms, Twitter will also be unique, since users will '... be able to edit their tweets "a few times" within 30 minutes of publication ...'.
Who would have imagined that in 2022, a paid edit feature within a browser would become news. Twitter, which has been struggling to turn any profit in its existence, comes up with an irrelevant feature to provide a backdrop for its selling/buying (or not selling/not buying) soap opera.
What was the main topic of conversation in the boardroom during their annual strategic planning meeting?
- How do we make our platform relevant again?
- How do we get new users to sign up in droves?
- How do we provide marketers with a unique opportunity to tell our users about their relevant products & services?
- I know, let's do something which will answer all the questions, something truly amazing and revolutionary. Let's give them the E-D-I-T button!!
Twitter, be glad that somebody is going to buy you.
Now for the interesting part, the Cyborg Cockroach.
Scientists from the Japanese research firm Riken, attached a computer powered by a solar cell to a cockroach. The solar cells can generate enough power that researchers could send signals to the attached computer and that in turn provides directional commands for the cockroach to turn left or right. Researchers decided to use Madagascar hissing cockroaches because they are strong and have no wings to fly away with the equipment.
The project is still in early stages. The test cockroach turned left when commanded but the command to turn right sent the cockroach running in circles. Why do all this? Rather than building a little robot which can get into tiny and dangerous spaces, better to augment something which can perform far better than a machine. In future, sensors or cameras can be mounted on the back of the cockroach. Suddenly you can easily inspect hard-to-access, dangerous spaces or find people under rubble during an earthquake.
I would suggest that the innovation coming out from a Cyborg Cockroach project far exceeds the new Twitter's Edit button. Perhaps Twitter's new recurrent pattern is running like a cockroach without any sense of direction.