What your life might be like in 2020 - Awesome and scary

Started by h0rizon, February 17, 2011, 04:47:49 PM

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h0rizon

February 17, 2011, 04:47:49 PM
Interesting article from CNN:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/17/technology/connected_everything_mwc/index.htm

"You wake up and check your smartphone. It tells you to wear your blue suit because it knows you have a meeting, and it correctly guesses that your gray suit is at the cleaners, because your home's RFID sensors aren't picking it up.

You make tea, like you do every morning, so your teapot sends a signal to your phone, which texts your children that you made tea, letting them know that you're doing fine.

Since your home knows you're brewing tea, it thinks that now is a good time to remind you to take your pills. It sends a message to your phone, you take your pills, and your pill bottle sends a message to a wireless hub that you took them. That's available now: On the Mobile World Congress expo floor, AT&T showed off the Vitality pill bottles that send data over its network. If you forget to take your pills, your pill bottle can e-mail you a reminder.

As you're preparing to leave, your smartphone tells you to wear a coat, because it's cold outside, and it tells you to get a move on, because the traffic is bad on the highway. Since your home knows your typical routine, when you close your door, your lights automatically turn off, your shades go down, your thermostat turns the temperature down and your car starts up.

Your car tells you to take the local streets because of bad traffic on the highway. And since it knows you were up late last night (your TV said you were watching Leno -- who's still on in 2020, by the way), your car orders your regular latte at a Starbucks along the way. As you approach your meeting location, your car reserves a parking spot for you at your local garage."


I love this bit the most:

"Privacy, of course, is a concern, and the data connections will need to be secure enough to convince people to share literally everything about themselves in the cloud."

The convenience and autonomy this could bring to your life is almost hard to comprehend.  In a way it's exciting.

But tracking your every move - right down to whether you are making tea, when you left the house, what pills you took - Now that is just downright scary.
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy

bayview

#1
February 17, 2011, 05:11:51 PM

  Just think of the convenience!  

   I would wish . . .    That my car would drive itself where ever I would want to go.   You would think by 2020 the auto should be able to drive itself.     

QuoteBut tracking your every move - right down to whether you are making tea, when you left the house, what pills you took - Now that is just downright scary.

  What!   You got something to hide?

  Instead of all of those RFIDs . . .    It would be more convenient if we all had a personal "chip" located within our bodies.   With personal identification numbers . . .    Maybe starting with 666-XXX-XXX-XXXX.

/.    ;D

PS:   Also like the teapot sending text messages to my children to let them know that I'm alright.   I guess they aren't living with me.   They are probably in some sort of government education program . . .    Their mother and I are excited that they will be furloughed visiting for the weekend!

PPS:   I'm guessing we will all be on pills by 2020!

/.
    . . . said the focus was safety, not filling town coffers with permit money . . .

muldoon

#2
February 17, 2011, 07:17:07 PM
I am still waiting on my flying car. 

peternap

#3
February 17, 2011, 09:23:50 PM
I won't make it so I don't care...but, technology doesn't travel in a straight line.

Considering how fast we are using up resources..
My best guess is that we are about to take three steps back and will be lucky to have a wind up alarm clock.
These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!

glenn kangiser

#4
February 17, 2011, 11:14:10 PM
Impossible speculation, I think, but nice to dream I guess.   

We all know that the world is ending in 2012.... [waiting]
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Grimjack

#5
February 18, 2011, 09:17:14 AM
I think the ultra rich might have those fancy gizmos, but the rest of us will be struggling with $15 a gallon gas, finding time to grow some veggies to try to offset $2k food bills, and wondering what happened to our retirement years....

gandalfthegrey

#6
February 18, 2011, 12:07:50 PM
Quote from: bayview on February 17, 2011, 05:11:51 PM

  Just think of the convenience!  

   I would wish . . .    That my car would drive itself where ever I would want to go.   You would think by 2020 the auto should be able to drive itself.     

Quote

Leave it to Google, they are already driving them ...Well not driving them... d*

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html
 
Bad Wolf

h0rizon

#7
February 18, 2011, 01:58:07 PM
QuoteImpossible speculation, I think, but nice to dream I guess.   

It's not speculation, most of it is already here.

They already have cars that detect the lines on the road.  They have rear backup sensors, and some newer cars now come equipped with auto-cruise that adjusts your cruise speed based on the speed of the car in front of you - no more hitting the brakes and manually driving when granny is in front (http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/17-08/pl_motor).  You can already start your car using your smartphone (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Car-Audio-GPS/Car-Security-Remote-Start/abcat0304000.c?id=abcat0304000).  All of which is available for the general public right now.

The pill bottles are being worked on.

You can already wire your home to your computer and program lighting, heating, blinds, etc. remotely: http://cybernetnews.com/control-lights-with-your-iphone/

QuoteI am still waiting on my flying car. 

Me too.  And my personal robot.  I hate doing laundry!

QuoteLeave it to Google, they are already driving them ...Well not driving them...

That does fall into the cool category.  I wonder where the search box is, though.

QuoteConsidering how fast we are using up resources..

Therein is the crux.  A mobile chip inside of a tea pot - i just don't see the value there.  Notifying your kids?  Why not pick up the phone and call them?

But you know someone will buy it, toss it out 6 months later, and it will end up in a landfill.  And then when the mineral mines dry up and all the technology we rely on just to survive costs exorbitant amounts of money....

QuoteI think the ultra rich might have those fancy gizmos, but the rest of us will be struggling with $15 a gallon gas, finding time to grow some veggies to try to offset $2k food bills, and wondering what happened to our retirement years....

That will be the scenario.

But hey, it all sounded good on paper  d*

QuoteWe all know that the world is ending in 2012....

Yup.  With everything getting networked together, I think skynet is about to be born....

We should see the terminator teleport in anytime now.
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy

considerations

#8
February 22, 2011, 09:04:33 AM
Human brain size has been slowly diminishing from a peak approx 20,000 years ago. Apparently, the moment humans learned to store knowledge externally (writing is an example), the need to carry all knowledge in the brain and therefore its storage capacity has been lessening. 

The average brain size reduction is established fact, the connection to modernity is my own conjecture.

As "modern conveniences" evolve, we may not need one.  Just be bred in test tubes, plugged into nutrient and waste systems and float through "life".  How easy is that?

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