A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
Into the Future — At Warp Speed!
From the Desk of CIO Craig Luigart
In the last 40 years, we've been inundated with one technological "miracle" after another. While our parents and grandparents may have marveled at black-and-white television and vinyl records, today we enjoy microwave ovens, cell phones, CDs, DVD players and video cameras. The years ahead look even more exciting! Imagine this scene from the future:
As soon as you walk through the front door to your home, the refrigerator tells you that it's running low on milk. The dryer asks you what to do with the damp clothes still inside it, and the answering machine alerts you that it has an urgent message from the cleaners. Upstairs, the bathtub wants to know what temperature you prefer for your bath water and, in the living room, the VCR notifies you that you forgot to load a videotape to record your favorite TV show that is about to begin. There is, however, no need to worry. The VCR, for example, reminds you that you have plenty of room on your virtual storage account at your video store. All you need to do is shift the video stream to the setting "storage of the show." Technology will take care of the rest.
By the way, as you were driving home, your house lights turned on and the heat cut in, per your established preferences. These things happened because your cell phone's location device notified your "digital home manager" that you were about 15 minutes away. The home manager knew how far you were from home, even though there was a traffic accident on your route, because a network of agents sent data to your home manager.
Are you overwhelmed? You don't need to be — your personal preferences are stored in your home manager, which means that most of the devices clamoring for a response can get one from your digital surrogate.
Notice that so far I haven't even mentioned the computer! The computer is really pretty insignificant compared with the innovations we live with day-to-day. Consider the next five years. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) (e.g., Palm Pilots) will be fully integrated Internet devices that should be able to handle basic voice commands. In 10 years, PDAs should be able to handle complex continuous speech. The PDAs can be linked to your home, office and car, as well as to friends, merchants and others whom you contact regularly. A feature of this next-generation wireless device is "tracking," which identifies the location of the user. This feature, which will be required by law for all cell phone systems within the next year, allows emergency calls to be instantly targeted for rescue, so those who need help receive a much quicker response. What's more, PDAs provide real-time reminders to mail a letter at the mailbox around the corner, to pick up the dry cleaning at the store you are approaching, and much more. They also can suggest a better way to get home given the accident that is a mile ahead of you. Add the obvious benefits of such reminders to intelligent network agents that can assimilate a constellation of data that can act on your behalf or make suggestions, and imagine how your life would change.
These ideas are not the stuff of science fiction writer Jules Verne anymore. The "smart technology" I've described is on the verge of fruition, and it will revolutionize the way we interact with our friends and the environment.
If you think we have seen a lot in the last 40 years. stand by. We're on an accelerating ride, following a proven technology growth curve. And we are just getting ready to achieve critical mass and accelerate to warp speed!
