Earlier I tweeted “I don’t usually tweet games but… holy cow. http://bit.ly/XBOX-E3-2009 . Idoru, anyone?”

The object of my amazement is the Milo demonstration of Natal:

He’s quite wrong when he says “science fiction writers” haven’t written about similar things, but never mind that. That this tech is running now – at a consumer product level – gives us about 2 years before this all starts for real.

Welcome to your New Best Friend Forever, who lives in your smartphone. She knows where you are, and will ever so gently nag you about your appointments. If you’re at the supermarket, she’ll know all the specials. He’ll always be available to lend an ear (welcome back, Eliza). Add in a little arfid sauce and some biometric sensors, she can do prelim work for medical diagnosis. Add a few bluetooth attachments and the porn industry will go wild with teledildonics.

This may – very soon – give us a cheap and usable UI for bots. How long, do you suppose will it be until someone hacks the unit to run servos?

It will probably happen sooner than that.