A future for humanity
(as it relates to technology primarily)
The input devices of the future are a big aspect for sure. What MIT is showing now is “really early stage” and would have many real world barriers. The flip side to Maes is Ben Schneiderman and their information design debate rages on around agents vs. direct manipulation. Pattie is still on the agents side (as was my Masters thesis) but she has moved towards direct manipulation interfaces.
I keep coming back to Carly Forina from HP’s comments about the future being: digital, virtual, personal and mobile.
That is also what I believe. So, thinking about it, the sixth sense that they talk about at TED is really just another implementation of the “WKID” meme in a very practical tangible sense.
My take on “what’s next” is a blend of:
- More immediate input devices relying only on basic human gestures and interactions
- Limitless storage and connection of data in the Cloud
- Semantic Web (3.0) where human connections have deeper personal meaning – as web2.0 dies off we are already seeing super simple but super meaningful interfaces (like twitter for example) start to construct new meaning
- Web 4.0 where we send out ideas and tasks come back (I actually have done some work on this if you’d like the full hypothesis ;)
Basically, to build the future, there no longer exists an idea of catching up or of getting ahead of the curve or indeed modernizing any more. There is just too much going on (Data and Information). What is HUGELY lacking (and therefore lucrative) is Knowledge and Wisdom. There are many times fewer pieces of W & K than there are I & D. The business will be found in filtering the correct signals from the hyper-inflated noise. BUT, Social Media is about the social not the media AND the difference between the focus of the WK aspects and the ID aspects is the transfer of core ownership from the system to the human.
We need to BE ahead, not get ahead. A quantum leap….or at least a few of us could go there and scout it out.
What do YOU think? Please comment/share/tweet etc ;) Thanks, I'm listening....
