Sunday, September 7, 2008

My perfect world.

We are in a unique place right now.  

Technology is incredible, and shows no signs of stopping in the near future. So Im just gonna go ahead and throw out some of my favorite ideas that I think are pretty sweet and semi inevitable. 

Lets start with the automation of all processes which are necesarry for people to live.  
Homes that are built entirely by machines, from blueprints that are designed in cooperation with machines for ideal aestetics while structural integrity is maximized with new green building materials and solar panels are incorporated as well as other green energy initiatives so energy is practically a non issue in some areas if not most areas.  Of course some energy will still be required for other things including but not limited to transportation, so nuclear energy should make a come back unless some new tech somes around.  
Fields that are planted by machines and farmed by machines. Maximizing output of the land while at the same time doing it in a sustainable manner that doesnt destroy the land. Raising, slaughtering, and shipping animals in a humane sanitary way, meat is delicious even though it wastes 90% of the energy you put into it, I dont want to live in a future without steak (although paying a premium for wasted products makes sense, assuming commerce makes sense with whatever systems are in place).  
Water purification remains to be seen where it will take place.  It depends what things are being filtered out of water and where those chemicals would best be used.  


Next... Computer integration with everything.  
Somebody once said that there would only ever be the need for six computers in the united states, and as my professor responded to that statement by saying he probably has six computers on his person or on his desk at any given moment.  
I started to include this above and then it got really long, so I separated it out into its own section.
So, your camera phone, is also going to be a video recorder, and your credit card, and practically everything you need. It will unlock your car, it will have all your personal records secured by your dna, a voice print, a finger print whatever makes the most sense with biometric security standards that havent been invented yet.  Some of this information will be available to authority figures at different levels depending on what is going on (my theory is that if there is perfect information there is no real reason for a court system as we think of them now[as far as I see it, it is inevitable that there will be moderately universal surveillence in public areas, cameras and data storage and processing power are getting so cheap that the government will have no choice but to implement a series of full motion cameras that store all the data forever and are admissible as evidence and have facial and gait reccognition{the new big thing apparently is gait reccognition because it is significantly harder to fake than facial features } software.  My favorite thing to say is that it makes perfect sense to put them on every piece of hardware that the government owns that has power running through it. namely light posts they already have this on traffic lights].  If we rewrite laws to be reasonable and set fair but have different standards for different people [in my mind somebody who has never been in an accident deserves to drive faster than somebody who is constantly in accidents {then again, cars will be able to drive themselves and there will be very little chance of accidents in the future, so who knows if that example is really valuable} ] then perfect information would make people commit less crime because they KNOW they are going to get caught) although this does require a massive overhaul in thinking and law and practice.  This phone will also track your location as long as you carry it with you and in the case that you suffer some form of injury there will be an automatic emergency alarm that alerts whatever authority is necesary. This phone will also be a gaming system/ controller. It will have a fairly large flexible touch screen using OLED screens that fold/roll into the phone. The phone will also be a study guide giving you flash cards and quizes whenever you want.  You will be able to download whatever content you want at a reasonable price, and if you are sharing this content between multiple people different pricing mechanisms will take care of lowering the price for joint showings while maximizing profits to encourage consumption of the product.  Along with the sharing of media, any media that you own will be on this device or linked to this device so when you are in a place alone only your favorite songs will be playing, but when you are in an area in a mall the collaborative collections of everybody will vote and trade to pick a song that will maximize appreciation in the crowd.  the same thing should be true of bars, and of course the device will situationally know that you have different preferences based on different environments.  The phone will keep track of all your preferences of everything. When you walk into a store it will take your data versus the anonomized data from everybody else who had shopped there and point you towards clothing that you will probably like. Along with this, it will have the preferences of those around you, so if you wanted the advice of your girlfriend, but didnt want to take her to the mall because shopping would take ten times as long you could just ask the phone to analyze her previous preferences for your choices and will pick something that both of you like (when I say pick of course I mean give you a number of options ranked from top to bottom, and you can search through everything if you really want).  These preferences will also extend to food and drink and practically every commercial choice you make.  When you are watching streaming content there will be minor commercials that are based on your preferences as well and are targeted directly towards you in a way that isnt really irritating.  Ie if the computer knows you want a shirt it will be an advertisement for a clothing store that features products, comedy, and imagery geared towards your age group and your preferences.  Along with knowing what you already like the phone will also be able to suggest things you havent tried yet but might like because it is similar to other things, or because people who had the same preferences you do also liked that thing. 

Im running out of steam, but computers are crazy and I dont know how ridiculous the future is going to be except that it might be entirely different.  

No comments: