Disclaimer: There's no way to blog about my visit to the Media Lab at MIT without sounding stupid and self-deprecating. These people are so out-there and brilliant it's almost scary.

So what can I possibly tell you that doesn't sound shallow? I certainly cannot begin to draw conclusions about what it all means, in many respects because researchers themselves don't yet know.

What I can do is use my powers of observation and explanation to give you a sense of what I saw today.

Before I arrived I assumed that researchers would 'think' in offices and 'experiment in labs somewhere else, but this is an integrated environment. The entire space is a lab organized by areas of study: Artificial Intelligence in one area, Speech Interface and Object-based Media in another. There are wall displays on "Smart City Cars in the 21st Century" and "Independent Wheel Robots," and labs with names such as "Mastercard Future of Transactions."

Music and technology intersect in the "Opera of the Future Lab," in which composer Tod Machover is studying how "musical composition, performance, learning and expression can be facilitated for professionals and amateurs through the design of new interfaces."

This is not your father's iPod.

As Machover was walking past me, I heard him ask, "Have the bows come back from the Royal Academy yet?" Inside his lab, and many others, there is a weird juxtaposition between everyday objects and futuristic gizmos.

For instance, there was an ordinary bass drum sitting next to a tower of computer monitors in the Opera Lab. And next to that was a contraption that looked like a loom, but was actually an instrument of tubing, metal and string. Attached at one end was something I actually recognized: a keyboard.

In the robot pod, worn and rumpled teddy bears were propped nearby metal, multi-colored whirligigs. Outside in the hallway was a very old-school Karate Champ video arcade machine. A sign outside the Robot Lab says researchers are "building cooperative machines that work and learn in partnership with people."

(I don't know about you, but I could use a computer that actually works in cooperation with me!)

So what does it all mean?

For a little history and context (Old Media skills that are surely still in vogue), I turned to Jack Driscoll, and old newspaper guy (former editor of The Boston Globe) who is now the Media Lab's Editor-in-Residence.

And thankfully, every time a researcher said something I didn't understand (which was often), Driscoll would translate. And the entire time he's translating, I'm thinking: there's nothing better than a journalist to spell things out in black and white!

He introduced me to two brilliant, brilliant people: Barbara Barry, a postdoctoral associate at the Media Lab working on camera and video technology, and Hugo Liu, another postdoctoral associate researching common sense computing.

This is the point in the blog where I'm tempted to link you to their Web sites and call it a day, but I'll attempt to be Jack Driscoll and give it my best shot.

Barry's work is very applicable to the newspaper industry. She's developing what she calls "an intelligent computational partner," a camera with artificial intelligence that provides suggestions on what to photograph or record next based on what you've shot before and what's going on in the present moment.

This is all algorithm-based technology. Eventually, you might be able to program a machine with certain profiles or traits (like the work and writing style of a particular reporter) into a device and that device would spit out cues as to what you should do next in a form of guidance or emulation. This technology could cause a camera to ask a photographer, 'have you thought about shooting a panoramic in this particular instance?' or it might suggest certain follow-up questions for a reporter to ask based on comments a source made previously but didn't really elaborate on.

Critics call the research "deterministic," but Barry doesn't see it as a replacement for creativity. She sees it as a tool.

"It's not automation. It's support. When you're blasted with so much data, how do you find your way? It's meant to help," she says. The operator always has control of the number of questions the 'intelligent parnter' will provide and control of the various 'thinking systems' its using.

(This is the point where I looked at Driscoll and said, "Huh?")

Put it this way, Barry responded: Google's search algorithms are also deterministic. People take the top Google choices in a search and "never make it to page 3."

Aren't front pages of newspapers somewhat deterministic?

Her work is part of a field considered the Holy Grail of research right now: content management.

And then there's the work of Hugo Liu. His stuff is really, really out there.

"Common-sense computing" (something I seem to lack every day) is part of another large research initiative at the Media Lab.

You might not know this but computers are autistic.

"Artificial intelligence is fundamentally bounded by a computer's lack of knowledge about social context and about linguistic context," explains Liu.

"Computers are autistic to what kinds of things would lead to what kinds of interactions. Common sense is trying to gather knowledge to explicity instruct a computer the basics like don't do this, or if you forget someone's birthday you could hurt their feelings. To open a door you have to turn a doorknob and pull it out."

So how do you teach a computer common sense? By binary programming. He gathers a collection of common-sense sentences that people speak all the time about the world and programs those into relationships so the computer can recognize words like happy or sad. To see this demonstrated is surreal.

On one side of his screen is essentially an e-mail program with an image of a face in the corner (think crudely-drawn yellow Happy Face). On the other side of the screen is binary code that searches for relationships.

As Liu pretends to write an email to his mother, the expression of the happy face changes depending on the sentiment of the message: Hi mom, how are you? I'm doing well (Happy Face). I bought a car today. (Worried Face) It was expensive (Scowling Face), but it has a great safety rating (Happy Face).

Newspaper editor trying to understand this stuff (Horrified Face).

Another aspect of his research is the "approximate sentiment analyzer." No, I'm not making this stuff up. He can program an academic's body of writing in such a way that a computer can read and organize attitudes. He put the text of "Little Red Riding Hood" up on his screen and a bar of color appeared at the top, varying in shade depending on sentiment. Dark purple for violent thoughts, for example, or orange for maybe liberal sentiments. The colors act as a kind of endorsement, a way to see in total the ideas expressed.

What's the practical application of this? I asked supidly. Well, for starters, he said, wouldn't you like to be able to look at something as simple as a color bar and decide whether the sentiments expressed are something your're interested in?

('Red for humiliation' above newspaper editor!).

More later about Jack Driscoll and his thoughts on citizen journalism (He's a blogger). And more on the future of newspapers from the perspective of these futurists.

Some trivia to end: The Media Lab has about 300 students, a combination of undergrads, graduates and doctoral students.

The lab looks at 'media' in the broadest sense of communication. Researchers work with physics, chemistry, fashion, music, social networking, cinema, etc.

There are currently 300 projects in some stage of research (from wearable medical sensors to a wearable data collection system that allows users to collect their experiences in a continuous multimedia diary called inSense.)

The lab is about 90 percent-supported with private money (as opposed to government funding). Sponsors such as IBM or Mastercard are supporting research that one day could lead to product development. In return for their support, they're guaranteed a two-year jump on licenses and patents.

But the larger focus of the Media Lab is its people-oriented sensibility. Driscoll calls it a "socially-conscious" lab. One of its hallmarks is the One Laptop Project, which is developing a full-featured, low-cost laptop for children in developing and developed countries that uses power-saving technology and mesh wireless networking.

I decided it was time to go when someone came down a hallway pushing a huge plastic garbage bin overflowing with computer cables and a lone monitor perched on top.

Things seemed like they were about to get very complicated.