About 24 hours ago, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata unveiled something truly amazing about Nintendo’s upcoming game console. It wasn’t the name (they’re calling it the “Nintendo Revolution” for now). It wasn’t the look of the console (it’ll be about the size of three DVD movie cases stacked on top of each other). What he showed, and the thing that is causing all sorts of buzz in the gaming industry right now, was the Revolution’s controller. Leave it to Nintendo to not only innovate, but to be innovative in where they innovate. Most companies are pushing the boundaries of realism in graphics and sound. That’s fine. Personally, I don’t think that will be lastingly satisfying. We’ve been improving graphics since we had graphics, and the changes never really please you beyond the first 30 minutes you see them. But how the player interacts with the game… that hasn’t changed much lately, and when it changes, it changes the very roots of the player’s connection to the characters on the screen.

I won’t go into exactly why I think the controller is so cool. If you want to see a two-minute video about it (I know you do), just download it from IGN. You’ll get the idea pretty quickly. The central idea is that the Revolution knows exactly where the wireless controller is, how it’s moving, at what angle it is being held, how it’s being tilted, exactly how far it is from the TV. Everything.

If you want to understand the idea a bit more thoroughly, check out IGN’s 19-minute video, including the most important part of Iwata’s keynote. It begins with the same 2 minutes of the video above, so you don’t have to download both.

I’m extremely excited. Swashbuckling, gunplay, fishing, conducting… flashlight-wielding? I love it! I have no doubt this is going to be amazingly fun and refreshing. The only concern I have is that developers aren’t creative enough and won’t come up with games that truly utilize all the possibilities. But Nintendo is usually the only developer that fully utilizes their own console, so that’s nothing new.

Some coworkers and I were talking about Steven Hawking, famous physicist from Cambridge University (seen at right, photo not mine). Apparently he made some comments a few years back that he was concerned computers could some day take over and overpower mankind, like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Matrix.

Since making those comments, it’s my understanding that he has lost some control of his hands due to the progression of his illness (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a.k.a Lou Gehrig’s disease). He previously used his hands to control the computer which allows him to speak, and possibly his wheelchair too. My understanding is that he’s currently controlling his systems through a series of eye blinks. Part of me is worried about what will happen when he loses control over even that ability, and essentially becomes silent and still, in spite of his brilliance.

But then another part of me sees an ironic opportunity. As we were talking, the idea came up that if he were unable to control his chair or speech computer, why not hook it up to some wifi and a web interface, and allow others to take a turn? Go to the website, drive Dr. Hawking around, say things to strangers passing by… what fun! And no one would be the wiser.

I’m not so worried anymore. I’m sure it’ll work out.

It’s actually slightly embarrassing that instead of blogging about all the significant or interesting or deeply-personal things that have happened to me in the last few weeks, I’m going to post a link to the iPod nano, but I just wanted to hear your comments.

It has a color screen. It has 14 hours of battery life per charge. It’s thinner than a standard “No. 2” pencil. Now you know what that secondary, tiny pocket nestled inside your front-right jeans pocket is really for.

I’m not personally planning on buying one since I just got a 60 GB iPod last week (my previous one was suffering from old age and abuse), but man, if I didn’t have an iPod, and if my music would fit in a 4 GB space, I’d be all over it.

Watch the keynote in QuickTime

I’d like to take a little informal survey. You can even leave comments anonymously if you’re freaked out by giving this information publicly. I’m fine with that. I have two questions, both of which I’ll also answer myself. Oh, and no stupid loopholes. That avoids the point of the questions.

1) If someone walked up to you and said, “I’ll give you any amount of money you want if you let me destroy all your data permanently and immediately,” what’s the lowest amount of money you would demand? $100? $1000? $1,000,000? Seriously, think about this. All your data. Digital photos. Music. Everything you’ve got on your computers. Including all your backups of that data. It’s all gone. What’s it worth to you?

2) If you suddenly lost all your data in a horrible hard drive crash (the same data from question #1), but you knew there was one person in the world who could get it back for you (hard drive surgeon of some kind… works miracles, etc) how much would you be willing to pay to get it back?

Don’t let my answers affect yours. Think yours through first. I’ll put mine in the comments.