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Gadgets: Pushing Closer to "SkyNet" Integration?
Arnold Schwarzenegger just may be more of an visionary than you think. Well, maybe it's really James Cameron's view of the future world. When you look around, it's starting to happen. It's all "wired". Products that never had high-tech now does. It's all getting more and more interfaced, plugged-in, and inter-connected. That's good on some levels...but who's minding the real "control" store?
I was just reading through this weekend's USA Today and I saw this article on gadgets and everyday things getting fully connected, adding to consumer-level needs for convenience. Fully connected. The question is: to what?
Gas pumps letting customers order coffee, download MP3s or check traffic without ever leaving the pump.
Backyard telescopes loaded with global position satellite (GPS) technology so it can point out which stars you're viewing. Parking meters with a chip and antenna to call your cellphone so you can buy more time.
Touch-screen sewing machines that can download images to embroider. Shipping crates that call their owners for help if they're lost.
A lot of technology companies focus on making computers more powerful and Internet connections faster. But a major trend is pushing in another direction — toward getting cheap computer chips and limited networking capabilities into products that never used to have such technology. It lets companies turn commodity products into premium products that cost more and stand out in the marketplace.
The trend is analogous to the electrification of products 100 years ago, when inventors found ways to use that technology to change everyday items. Hand-turned drills became power drills. Ice boxes became refrigerators. The same thing is happening now, but with computer chips and tiny radio transmitters.
And there's a fascinating twist this time: When you add information and communications to a product, it doesn't just improve that product — it allows that product to become part of a network. Which means those products can talk to other products, or to websites, or to you through your cellphone or PC — creating layer upon layer of new possibilities.
"It opens up innovation to all new things no one ever thought of," says Irving Wladawsky-Berger, in charge of IBM's technical strategy.
It's getting cheaper and cheaper and networks are getting faster and faster, capable of handling more and more of our plugged-in tasks. We ARE moving toward a SkyNet future or Matrix, where the machines are interfaced into everything. Who's minding the store for future homo sapiens?
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posted by Unknown @ Sunday, February 12, 2006,
