10 Future Trends
On the 10th anniversary of its founding Google has recently been asking 10 of its “experts” to give their predictions of what’s going to happen in the next 10 years as the internet evolves. I’m no expert but as a curious partaker in this brave new world I thought I’d give a shot at coming up with my own list of future predictions -
- Computation moves into the cloud – obvious but important. This is the key to the future which will provoke massive social change. No longer will we be tied to our desks or fortified corporate networks. Work anywhere on any device with the same access to all the same resources.
- Technology is humanised – forget “plug and pray”, it just works. Long promised, rarely delivered. This is when technology is liberated from the geeks into the hands of the masses. Compatibility will be a thing of the past once computers all speak a common set of standard languages.
- Interfaces are revolutionised – keyboards and mice will seem quaint. Touch, eye, voice and possibly even brain controllers will be commonplace. If you think the iPhone is cool you haven’t seen anything yet. Understanding semantic context will make manipulating complex data childs play.
- Connectivity is ubiquitous – the internet is everywhere. Not just on your computer or mobile ~ it will be woven into the very fabric of everyday life as an essential additional layer connecting everything to everyone and visa versa. Blanket high-speed wireless connections will exist across all major cities.
- Personalisation gets personal – whether you are in the real world or the virtual world your social connections, interests and history (etc) will follow you everywhere you go. The flow of information will be automatically targeted and fine tuned around this. You control who sees what/where/when.
- Language barriers are broken – English is only the 4th most spoken language in the world. Through real-time machine translation you now speak and understand the rest. The volume of information you have at available will drastically increase through this. Small businesses can now operate globally.
- Information overload & dependency – faced with more information that you could possibly imagine people will face new challenges of how to cope. Some will thrive in this new sea of unlimited potential while other will face serious mental collapse. There will be those who choose to disconnect entirely.
- Viruses are no more – with the majority of software provided as a service (SaaS) viruses which plagued Windows users will be a thing of the past. However, new even more dangerous and sophisticated threats will emerge with personal data stored in the cloud a prime target.
- Social homogenisation – spurred on by technology, globalisation take an every stronger hold on social norms. It becomes a cognitive and social culture, not a geographic one, which relies heavily on the notion of information and knowledge exchange in a complex web of relationships.
- Man-machine distinction blurs – the line between humans and machines begins to lessen. Old concepts of pre-net existence will seem foreign to our children who will liken the change to the Age of Enlightenment when mankind made a seismic shift in the way we live and ultimately exist.
This wont all happen in the next 10 years but we are already seeing a steady progression towards it and, unless climate change or a natural disaster wipes us all out, I strongly believe this will be a reality well within our lifetime. What would be on your list?
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I see this new age as exciting but not an enlightenment but a New age of Slavery. Don’t get me wrong I am a techie to the end but with all of this man and computer, and so called merging, I beleive we as a human race will loose our humanity in this new brave world.
-Just my 2cents
Think for yourself and you can be free.
I agree with you to an extent but how do we define humanity? Is it something static or something that can change? Could this just be the next step in our evolution?
There are no clear answers here but the future is in our hands…
I don’t mean to put you down or anything, but none of that will happen unless a miricle will happen. The economy is racing down and the world is getting destroyed. In ten years we may not even exist and life as we know it will be no more. If we don’t stop to try and realize the problem that humans are destroying the world. We won’t be existing for much longer. I’m just putting in my 2 cents about this because i don’t know much because I am only 13. But I’m not blind (no offense to blind people) but i know that the world is plumitting to nothing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientest to figure that out! Well thats jus my opinion of the future. =] One person cant effect the world.
Perhaps if you offer up some constructive suggestions for the improvement of the future of the human race people might listen. No sense getting frustrated. What kind of miracle were you after?
Wow, that’s a pretty pessimistic view for someone who’s only 13!
The world has a lot of issues right now yes, but I don’t think it’s quite the end yet. Previous times of recession or difficulty have always yielded new innovations and advances.
Don’t write humanity off just yet, if American can get rid of Bush and elect a black president anything is possible!
“The Cloud” is going to turn in to a cloud burst.
There is far too much room for espionage. With so much data conveniently stored in one place this is far too convenient for government sanctioned hackers and regular hackers. It is also easier for corporate espionage, and if miscreants decide to take down “the cloud” they can send an army of botnets to perform DOS attacks against an entire cloud network. How will corporations react when thousands or millions of workers can’t do their job? How will this effect our economy and what government actions will have to be taken to prevent a disaster?
How will media corporations take advantage of the Digital Millennium Act to gain access to peoples login credentials to look for copyright infringements? How will the media corporations threaten legal action against “the cloud” corporations and attempt to control what goes on in peoples private cloud? Right now the media corporations can threaten jail time for the bosses of businesses that can’t control what their anonymous users do, they force them to filter out content whether or not the content is proven legal or illegal, and a host of many other ill-conceived actions. How is this going to affect how “the cloud” operates?
Even if you have nothing to hide, do you really feel comfortable with having governments, corporations or staff of “cloud” corporations peering in at all of your private online activities? Would you feel comfortable knowing that some pervert employee from a “cloud” corporation has the ability to look at your child’s personal pictures? Would it bother you if your insurance company was able to get full access to your medical files without your knowledge or permission? Would you feel comfortable if someone made an false accusation against you and your information was handed over without your knowledge? What if a corporation also makes false allegations against you and all of your corporate and trade secrets were handed over to them?
In my opinion, I think “the cloud” is a very bad idea. There is too much room for exploitation and abuse. The term “big brother” also comes to mind.
I don’t have a simple answer to this. It needs serious thought.