My soon-to-be-10-year-old son has been introduced to various ages of history thanks to a popular computer game. Out of curiosity, I asked him what ‘age’ we are currently in. According to him, we are currently in the “Touch age”. He is inspired by the iPhone and other touch screen phones he is exposed to. The next age according to him will be the “Talk age”. We will just need to talk to the machines and they will act on what we say. After that we will have the “Think age”. We will only need to think what we want, and machines will interpret our thoughts and act accordingly.
So there you are, that’s how children see the future. We have our work cut out for us.
The second post on Mark Oehlert’s blog that caught my eye today was this TED video of Kevin Kelly predicting the next 5000 days. This is a great video to watch. Kevin talks about the last 5000 days and how the next 5000 days will be the Internet of Things and “The One” machine. You must watch this video fully.
It made me think though. I see vast differences in the way the Web is used by different people. The variances are way too high to be comfortable. I could be talking to someone who lives Web and yet I come across people who don’t really use the Web other than to check their email. In this diverse experiences and ways to use the Web, it is easy to disbelieve Kevin about the next 5000 days that he talks about. However there is no denying the past 5000 days.
The question is, are we all really ready for the Future? And will the ones who aren’t really lose out on anything? Does it really matter that I am not on the Web talking about all the Web 2.0 mumbo-jumbo? Does it matter that mail is still the killer web application, and perhaps followed by search (Google!)? Even in the Internet of Things, how will my day to day life really be affected? The digital divide will continue and both sides will turn up their snooty noses at others, living happily and satisfied on their sides :-).
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