The famous second law of thermodynamics states that everything is falling apart slowly. How unstable even the intangible is. Keeping a website of program afloat is like keeping a yacht afloat. New computers ossify, apps weaken with use, code corrodes and fresh software just released will immediately begin to fray. It is evident then, at the centre of every significant change in our lives today is a technology of some sort. It is human kinds accelerant and in the three decades since the advent of the internet, this technological convergence between communication and computation has spread, sped up, blossomed and evolved. Every one of us is exposed to the intricacies of the world wide web. Once attributed as a phenomenon and only accessible to a select few though private connections now is omnipresent in every element of our connected lives. We search for meaning on it, network and socialise through the abundance of platforms, learn, transact and even for many – hold it at the nexus of our very existence. The internet as we know it now, however, is something that is going to be vastly different in a few years from now.
What is going to be different? Do we fear it or welcome it? Is this something that will lead to humanity’s doom or our collective rise as a civilization? Does this mean that we will be treading and crafting our own path of destruction? Or creating a nirvana where everything is integrated seamlessly and a transformational shift in what it is to be human occurs? This is something that needs much more thought on the extremes!
We can all acknowledge that today’s web is remarkable! It is an amalgamation of all things we can basically ‘google’ i.e. all files reachable via the hypertext mark-up language protocol and its associated facilitators! However, a lot of the web cannot be simply googled – they operate within confinements and in secular places. The digital world exists in a game, or on Facebook, or in a phone app, or a video that cannot be searched right now. We will be able to search within platforms, find the exact moment someone wearing those Gucci shows in Times Square walked by whom is 5 foot 11 or identify what a place looked like 10 years ago exactly. The web won’t just be an interconnected tapestry of mark-up languages but a sophisticated, cognified ecosystem capable of expanding its reach just like how energy powers the entire grid. A super mind will emerge that will bring with it a new kind of thinking that will augment human thinking. The notion of the collective will be truly harnessed to provide insights and propagation of nerdly narrow but super specialist services. It will drive a car (but not converse); recall every pixel of every video on YouTube (but not anticipate your work routine). We will be able to reach this force through a myriad of ways; just like we connect to wifi or tap our phones on payment devices through near field communication devices. The machines will think differently and work hand in hand with the humans. This new intelligence will adapt and learn to exist as a new found technological force, all supported by the network of machines in the greater collective of the internet. The advent of 5G and beyond will facilitate its uptake and the smart phones, smart watches, tablets and associated devices of today will evolve into singular connected architectures that absorb data and continually refine it contextually for human application. The manifestation of clothes that will tell washing machines how to wash them and allow the whitegoods to adjust the contents of each load accordingly by these smart clothes will be the norm. Project management software will be smart enough to factor what was previously exclusive to the human intellect such as a multiplier on weather forecasts, port traffic delays, foreign exchange rate fluctuations, accidents and design changes. These are just part of the cathartic changes taking place and the future is one where this intelligence will accelerate all the other disruptions taking shape and form across industries and economies.
In the end, the future of the internet will take a form and shape that magnifies connected states in civilisations. It will be something that will not only enable but tap into our evolutionary bias to become better tomorrow. It is important to note the distinction between those who herald it against those who will contest it here. On the outset, the dystopic and utopic commentators present an array of views that operate at polarising ends. A world without discomfort is utopia. But it is also stagnant. On the other hand, most dystopian concepts are not sustainable. Shutting down civilization is actually hard. The outlaws and underworlds that seem so exciting at first demise are soon taken over by organised crime and militants. So where does the future of the internet stand? The truth is that technology is taking us to protopia – a state of becoming rather than a destination; a process and incremental shift towards shaping a better tomorrow. Remember – problems of today were caused by yesterday’s technological successes and the technology solutions to today’s problems will cause the problems of tomorrow!
The Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Kevin Kelly