A woman standing behind me attracts my interest. She has her head similarly positioned in a downward orientation. Her eyes are fixed on a familiar, rectangular object. She uses her delicate fingers to poke, prod, and swipe at the device she cradles in her hand.
She smiles while interacting with the object and, at other times, she furrows her brow as if wrapped in thought. She casually interacts with device and seems heedless to the goings-on around her. Amazingly, as the line shuffles forward, the individuals standing in line hardly notice their own zombie-like movement.
Its like they are not even here...
I perceive a sense of recognition in the woman's eyes as she glances up for a moment, suddenly aware of the line's movement and her surroundings.
“Oh shit, I’m here, at the coffee shop, getting coffee!” her quizzical, dazed look suggests and then she retreats, back into the world of her mobile electronic device. I watch as her eyes glaze, fascinated by the light of her phone's tiny, three inch screen and I watch as the reality of our collective human experience recedes into a soft, white glow...
I just wanted to make an observation about technology and make a few bold predictions about our future. I think “tech” has fundamentally changed human interaction, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I think people, myself included, interact with technology in ways that we don’t really comprehend on a conscious level and I think that it's easy to lose track of the role that technology plays in our lives.
You might be thinking: “Pat, are you saying this is a bad thing?”
No, I am not saying it is a bad thing, nor am I saying that it’s a good thing. What I am saying is that our current interaction with technology foreshadows a more profound future. I’m saying that the future is now, has always been now and will always be now! Put that in your hard drive my friends!
Remember the show “Buck Rogers”? Remember Buck’s robot “friend” Twiggy (or Twikkie)?
That’s what our portable electronic devices have become to us; they are our buddies. Imagine a future where we will be able to interact with a sentient electronic device. Will you be lonely? Will you be bored? Will you ever need the companionship of others in that not-so-distant future?
It is my firm belief, as an amateur “futurist” and “techie”, that the digital frontier isn’t “technology” or “devices”. The digital frontier, the digital future, is human intelligence in the kinds of devices that we will, that we currently, carry around on a daily basis.
The future is an iPhone that can and will talk back to its user: a mobile device that can carry on a sparkling conversation or plumb the depths of your thoughts/Facebook status for “problems” in your personal life. Imagine this device being part friend, part confidant, part personal assistant, part doctor and part your very own HAL 9000 inspired Sigmund Freud!
I predict a future in which personal computers will commiserate and laugh with their users. Systems that will monitor, in real-time, your home’s security, structural integrity, environment, you and your families vital statistics, etc. etc. A device that will be able to intelligently interface with human beings in cases of emergency or crisis...
I predict a “smart” phone that will listen, empathize, console, aid, assist and ultimately save. Our phones will one day be our guardian angels; no longer confined to the realms of the spiritual and invisible. Angels that will no longer be the subjects of conjecture. No, our "angels" will be devices that are with us in a very literal sense, on stand-by mode, in our pockets…
One day, perhaps in a future that my little buddy Evan Luce inhabits (he's twwwwoooooooooooo), people will blithely carry around the sum total of all human knowledge in their pockets. These devices will have instantaneous access to this data and most importantly, the intelligence (or processing power) to make the kinds of experiential connections and decisions that only a truly conscious, truly alive, human being can currently make.
These devices will have access to massive, planet-wide networks filled with the knowledge and the accumulated experience of many billions of human beings (imagine "life-blogging" on steroids). These experiences and our collective wisdom will not be locked inside the cold, mindless dynamic of a "dumb" system. No, I predict these future devices, will profoundly influence our daily interactions. They will be our quiet, fully sentient, conscious, kinetically powered, electronic guardian angels ready to protect, guide and serve us when we most need them... or until their batteries run out!
So today, while you are out and about, think about the little gadget you hold in your hands when you are bored. Think about how readily that device fulfills its purpose and how it is always waiting to serve, entertain and (one day, in the not-so-distant future literally) save you from your doldrums.
Most of all, dream, yes my friends, dream. Dream of our glorious digital future! Dream of our soon-to-be created digital overlords and reboot your brain!
That’s what our portable electronic devices have become to us; they are our buddies. Imagine a future where we will be able to interact with a sentient electronic device. Will you be lonely? Will you be bored? Will you ever need the companionship of others in that not-so-distant future?
It is my firm belief, as an amateur “futurist” and “techie”, that the digital frontier isn’t “technology” or “devices”. The digital frontier, the digital future, is human intelligence in the kinds of devices that we will, that we currently, carry around on a daily basis.
The future is an iPhone that can and will talk back to its user: a mobile device that can carry on a sparkling conversation or plumb the depths of your thoughts/Facebook status for “problems” in your personal life. Imagine this device being part friend, part confidant, part personal assistant, part doctor and part your very own HAL 9000 inspired Sigmund Freud!
I predict a future in which personal computers will commiserate and laugh with their users. Systems that will monitor, in real-time, your home’s security, structural integrity, environment, you and your families vital statistics, etc. etc. A device that will be able to intelligently interface with human beings in cases of emergency or crisis...
I predict a “smart” phone that will listen, empathize, console, aid, assist and ultimately save. Our phones will one day be our guardian angels; no longer confined to the realms of the spiritual and invisible. Angels that will no longer be the subjects of conjecture. No, our "angels" will be devices that are with us in a very literal sense, on stand-by mode, in our pockets…
One day, perhaps in a future that my little buddy Evan Luce inhabits (he's twwwwoooooooooooo), people will blithely carry around the sum total of all human knowledge in their pockets. These devices will have instantaneous access to this data and most importantly, the intelligence (or processing power) to make the kinds of experiential connections and decisions that only a truly conscious, truly alive, human being can currently make.
These devices will have access to massive, planet-wide networks filled with the knowledge and the accumulated experience of many billions of human beings (imagine "life-blogging" on steroids). These experiences and our collective wisdom will not be locked inside the cold, mindless dynamic of a "dumb" system. No, I predict these future devices, will profoundly influence our daily interactions. They will be our quiet, fully sentient, conscious, kinetically powered, electronic guardian angels ready to protect, guide and serve us when we most need them... or until their batteries run out!
So today, while you are out and about, think about the little gadget you hold in your hands when you are bored. Think about how readily that device fulfills its purpose and how it is always waiting to serve, entertain and (one day, in the not-so-distant future literally) save you from your doldrums.
Most of all, dream, yes my friends, dream. Dream of our glorious digital future! Dream of our soon-to-be created digital overlords and reboot your brain!
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