On The Brink: The New Technology that will Make Desktop Computing Seem So BC

If you've been watching the new technology market lately, then you know that we're in the midst of a major consumer product upsurge by way of e-reader technologies and plastic tablet computer capabilities. But, what may be less obvious is the vision behind these technologies and what they mean for the future of our world. I’ve been following the conversation, although from somewhat of a distance, over the course of the past few years and have several observations/predictions. 

First: the term "smart growth" is about to reinvent itself. Today when we think of smarter cities, communities and workplaces, we think of doing things better than before but the kind of thing that most of us consider “smart” is about to be old hat. Innovations in the technology realm are leading the way for a true re-envisioning of the physical and material landscape. 

Second: Faster, thinner computers is no longer where it’s at; instead I think that the internet bubble is about to burst in a way never imagined. I predict that the way that we compute and communicate via “online” technologies will change drastically and these technologies will become more readily and unobtrusively integrated into our day-to-day affairs. This whole concept of typing and pressing buttons is fading, the world itself is becoming more interactive. 

Third: Computers as we now conceive them will become obsolete in the next 15-20 years (maybe a bit longer, but not much). We will move away from online “chat capabilities” via a text screen and move towards interactive real-time capabilities that sense movements and can capture images in a format strikingly close to the real thing. Correspondingly, the global network will become increasingly flat in the advent of new technology, as smartboard-type interfaces will make long-distance interaction more realistic and move us more and more towards a paperless economy. 

Fourth: The notion of “privacy” will become a major concern and we will have to rethink the way we lock down personal data, “browsing” information, etc. 

Microsoft highlights some of the possibilities well in their 2019 Future Vision series:

A few reasons I think we’re moving here: 

• Advances in e-ink capabilities 
• Increased mobility of technology and demand for such mobility 
• Touch screen capabilities of new products on the market 
• The introduction of Apps (imagine Google Apps not for your phone, but for the physical world) 
• Vast improvements in search capabilities of internet browsers 
• The release of “reality mining” and “augmented reality” prototypes 
• The social media revolution of the past 5-6 years. We want a more connected world, but the current technologies don’t quite measure up to the “global village” concept envisioned by Marshall McLuhan. People want more, and the developers-candidly-want to make more money. 
• This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8), which I’ve posted before, was remarkably spot-on with only a few exceptions. 

Think this is crazy? Well, Neil Gershenfeld predicted it over ten years ago in his book When Things Start to Think: 

All along the coming interface paradigm has been apparent. The mistake was to assume that a computer interface happens between a person sitting at a desk and a computer sitting on the desk. We didn’t just miss the forest for the trees, we missed the earth and the sky and everything else. The world is the next interface. 

A more technologically-integrated mode of reality isn’t just in the movies anymore. Gershenfeld and others at MIT’s Media Lab are turning ideas into reality with some of their new creations. Their research has been featured at numerous TED conferences. Similarly, touch screens and prototypes for the kinds of technologies shown in Microsoft’s video are cropping up all over the place. The question today is not “will this happen” but rather, “how will we choose to live in light of these new advances?" 

Here are a couple more videos to get your mental juices flowing further: 

• CES 2009: Intel 3D Touch-screen Display
• Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour
• Microsoft Surface - The Possibilities

Making Sense of Electric Impulse

Hello passengers, welcome to the world of 3G networks. Here you can text your boyfriend/girlfriend from Paris a thousand times a day on an international unlimited plan, or probe blog subscriptions virtually anywhere from a machine you can fit into your pocket. Through that curtain you'll see Sammy staring at a screen late at night, surfing his latest matches and hoping he'll find "the one." Meanwhile, to your left is Patricia, who has tracked down her high school best friend, and is now writing her a very long "wall post." Finally, just ahead is interior decorator Alice, who has virtually sketched out the living room for her new client and is now custom-ordering linens, wallpaper, and seating to arrive in a few short weeks.

In less than a single lifetime, who would have thought we'd be here, connecting across the globe via keypad, screen, and some welded pieces of metal and microchips? Marshall McLuhan once predicted the rise of a "global village" where walls would come down and people across the world would live together. And yet, in moving towards such a village, society has created new walls of separation-profiles, avatars, and inboxes. We can connect in seconds to anyone around the world, but is instant and utterly convenient connectivity really what we need? Perhaps not, but regardless this is the world we live in.

Far too often I've been the writer criticizing technology for how it squelches and misshapes our true humanity, failing to note that technological outcomes are the results of human actions. I have some friends who continually challenge me to look for the shimmers of goodness in things, rather than dreg up the dirty rags. Admittedly, I often find myself in the camp of those who are readily willing to criticize problems, but perhaps not so willing to be a part of a working solution. In efforts to mitigate my own distaste for and disallusionment with modern technology and move in the direction of a "working solution," I have decided to embark upon a new project.

I envision this project looking something like a series of posts that detail my findings, and what follows is a loose outline. In this upcoming series, I'd like to take my readers on a bit of a journey-first into the annals of history to determine what norms and values have made our world what it is today, particularly in the realm of technology. Secondly, I would like to meditate briefly on the status quo-what sums the present role of technology and what we make of it. In this section, I will highlight both the bad and the good, helping readers see both sides of the coin rather than just the positive or just the negative. And finally, I will glance briefly into the future, but not into "what's coming up," but rather what could be. In this section, I will make recommendations, of sorts, on how we can thoughtfully utilize and harness technology, using it for good rather than evil, and in service of others rather than our selves.

This is quite a lofty project that I 1) feel completely unqualified to see to its completion, 2) am simultaneously dying to tease out, and 3) think could profoundly change the way I interact with and engage in modern culture. This is going to be a journey, so buckle your seatbelts.