IBM Next 5 in 5 2011
I was checking out some LinkedIn news today when I came across this article by Daniel Terdiman, about IBM’s annual five-year technology prediction, where five “game-changing” innovations are presented for their anticipated impact on modern-day life. According to IBM, “[w]e access not just the availability of a new technology but also the likelihood of its large-scale adoption.” The five are listed below:
- People will create their own energy. For example, they will be able to charge their phone when going for a bike ride or any sort of activity that produces heat. The aim here is to one day be able to power your homes, offices and cities.
- Biometric Passwords will revolutionize accessing information. Trying to remember all our passwords because silly systems require constant updating will be a thing of the past. IBM predicts our biological make-up will be the key to safeguarding our information. Think biometrics such as retinal scans and voice files.
- The digital divide will cease to exist. In five years 80 per cent of this Earth’s 7 billion inhabitants will own a mobile phone. IBM believes this will help to serve small villages and communities with commerce, health care and serving their community.
- Junk mail will become priority mail. According to IBM’s prediction, data that is important and relevent to you will be brought to you without you having to ask. Examples include your phone informing you that your favorite band is in town and that tickets are reserved, or that a looming storm is approaching and to get your cloths inside.
- Finally, IBM’s mad scientists are working towards linking our brain to our devices. In five years IBM predicts early adaptations of this technology that will allow doctors, for example, to better understand brain functions and treat disorders such as autism. IBM’s goal in this space is to be able to control software with one’s thoughts.
This stuff sounds awesome, but…
Man Power: How awesome would it be to power our own homes? Ok, maybe not initially, but the way power companies charge (pardon the pun) I’d be more than happy to get on my bike and do a few laps of the old block to power my blackberry – finally, technology that gets us off our arses.
Biometric Passwords: Every semester my University requires me to change my password. Currently I have no access to my University account because I haven’t got a freak’n clue what my password is… can’t be similar to my last one, have to use a number and a symbol… blaaah. I really see some good uptake with this technology, but I think they’d really need to work to get the early adaptations right, because if there is a quick uptake and bugs aren’t found before hand, it could wreak some major havoc!!
Cellphones for all…hmmm: Sounds awesome, but let’s put this in perspective a little. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in 2009 there were 6.8 billion inhabitants on Planet Earth and 4.8 billion mobile devices, which is 68 per cent of the world population. ITU similarly predicted an 80 per cent uptake, although they envisaged this to be achieved by 2010. One must ask themselves where IBM, and similar projections, get their numbers from? Yes, it is quite easy to hand a villager a handset, but it is quite the other to provide the technological infrastructure and the personnel and government support to make the handset of any use.
“Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, don’t look around my eyes, look into my eyes.” Cheapskate Clairvoyants everywhere should feel a little nervous. IBM’s new thought-reading technology will mean that traditional clairvoyant tools such as tea leaves, the palm and the faithful crystal ball will have to be upgraded to redbull, the iPad and a powerful processor. The mysterious look they can keep. I think the early adaptations suggested by IBM have some currency here, especially with medical scientists who can use it to learn more about the brain and ailments such as autism. Thereafter it all gets a bit grey methinks. How will one regulate such technology in advanced manifestations? “I didn’t mean to send out all those Nigerian Scam emails, I was only thinking about it, I didn’t even know the computer was reading my mind…”.
Will Big Blue really dominate the information age? A tad dramatic maybe, but being that we’re talking about creativity, it is within the code of probability that technology may well begin to start controlling what we think, what we do. Think about this, the junk mail prediction suggests that technology will match our values, needs, motivators and influences with stuff we find interesting; and whether we want it or not we will have to decide whether to endorse it or not. By endorsing it, this technology has tapped into our circuitry and influenced our hardware. And we see on social media sites, such as Facebook, that it’s happening to a degree already. So add a little bit of suggestive reasoning, with a dash of mind reading, and you have yourself the ultimate hack program. Ever watched Little Britain, where that miserable bank clerk refuses every customer request with a doleful, “the computer says nooooo….”.
