My Big Thing

[Karl Anderson]

I can't believe nobody has made a dirty joke about Tom's subject line
yet!

"Russell Turpin" <deafbox@hotmail.com> writes:

> Tom Whore writes:
> >Rather than asking what the market will crown as its next darling and plop 
> >on the time mag cover memetrain of here today has been tomorrow.... What do 
> >you want the next big thing to be?
> 
> Truth to tell, I don't expect the advances in display size,
> wearable computing, etc., to make much of a difference
> in my life. I'm pretty much on the trailing edge when it
> comes to "gee whiz" toys. No cable. No cell phone. No
> game boy. No walkman.

That just means that you're one of the later people to be affected.
All of us 1st worlders, even late adopters, have been greatly affected
by networking and display advances - ATM machines, credit card
verifiers, cell phones, mobile terminals in police cars, etc..  It's
a safe prediction that networking and display advances will continue
to affect all of us greatly.  Consider the Rodney King beating trial
and the aftermath - that was an important cultural event for all
Americans, and a social, economic, and physical event for many people
in LA, and it was triggered by the affordability and portability of
video cameras.  Think about how things will change when the network is
the computer and the computer is intangible - a networked video camera
in every eyeball.  Or, in the nearer future, think about how things
will change when one out of 50 people you pass on the street may be
taping you from a lapel-cam.  That's just the obvious effect.

> What do I want? Well .. there are several big areas where
> I would love to see break-throughs. (1) Better city
> transportation....

Great to hear that brought up, thanks.

> (2) Advances in medicine that stave off the effects of
> aging. These don't have to be the next big thing. Nor even
> the one after that. But if these don't start to come three
> or four in line, they will come too late to help most of us.

A big thing, yes, an inevitable thing, probably, but I'm still not
convinced that it's a good thing.  Of course, I expect to be doing my
best to keep living as I get old, myself, and I expect most people to
do the same.

It's clear to me that I don't deeply grok the singularity meme and the
exponential pace of technology - I'm still incredulous when even the
less radical futurists predict that people older than I will be around
after the crossover, whatever that crossover is.

-- 
Karl Anderson      kra@monkey.org           http://www.monkey.org/~kra/