i don't know.

but i've been thinking about it. though. really all that physical computing is, is an attempt to extend the limits of the computer interface. obvious no? but what happens when we really examine how we can extend ourselves to meet computers... and how much we have already. consider people's posture when they use laptops... although they are pretty ergonomic. a term that didn't exist before people started frying their hands working on poorly designed keyboards. things used to be not so ergonomic. at times we strain to eet the design of the machine and dehumanize ourselves in the process. something people have been aware of and have commented on for a while... stellarc for example. but what happens when we make it more positive? or what happens when we try to maintain our humanity but meet this technology in a new way that stretches ourselves? jeffrey shaw sort of paws at this in things like legible city, but i'm thinking more personal and more experimental in the way we connect to the computer.

list time: how do we connect input to a computer?

-mouse (real time 2 dimensional analog input with a single or multiple contextual triggers.)
-keyboard (array of digital triggers that only have one discrete meaning. the off state is communal and has no discrete meaning for each key)
-microphone (real time 3 dimesional analog input (pitch/freq/amplitude))
-fader/knob/lever (real time 1 dimesional analog input)
-button (digital trigger)
-toggle (digital on/off state.)

so is there anything that is fundamentally different than that in terms of the way we can actuallly get data into a computer?

realtime / non-realtime processing (time is the only mandatory dimension?)
analog 0.0 continuum to 1.0 / digital 0 only 1 only (continuum vs extremes)
single input / array of inputs that are correlate and input simultaneously. (the one and the all)

that's pretty much it? no?

maybe... what about william gibson? there is a short story called "the winter market" in a collection called burning chrome that's about (more or less) a machinima editor. the neat thing about the story is that what he edits is data fed straight from people's minds. so what is that? 6 dimensional analog input? (time / space x 3 / color / sound). in the story the content that people generate is just that, content. it's discussed as if it's something you could record on a vcr. but what if you use that data for control? could someone be aware enough of a dream that they were consciously spinning to understand how it would translate into another medium? can you control a mouse with color and time? with location in 3d space in your mind? i don't knnow. i';m not sure if i care either. we shall see.