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Incompetent Software Hucksters |
In the future |
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PC of the future
Computing in the future will be driven by
consumer convenience and evasion of intellectual
property restrictions.
The "personal computer" will be as small as possible,
simply because that is both cool and convenient, and
will contain all the functions of a cell phone,
voice mail system, answering machine, music player and
recorder, video player and recorder, and personal
information appliance. Communications will be protected
by strong encryption, but ordinary life will be
(un)fair game for surreptitious recording.
I/O devices will be hidden in body modifications;
microphones could be concealed in a various body
piercings, and speakers can be hidden in earrings.
If people still wore glasses, they would contain
the screen, but laser surgery will have made
glasses obsolete by then.
Future hobbies and crimes
Advances in remote sensing and robotics will create new
possibilities for both hobbies and crime, which will
be indistinguishable.
Hobbiests and other techno-fanatics will create boats and planes that
are partially autonomous, and partially remote controlled.
Besides opening new vistas to armchair adventurers (who can
be the first to program a robo-boat to sail around the world,
and who can get the best pictures in the process?),
this will create yet more opportunities for invasion of privacy,
since these boats and planes will be well-equipped to
transmit the sights and sounds around them.
Oppressed small businessmen will also make use of this
new technology to facilitate freer trade in compact,
high-value products. That is, drug smugglers will
use these same small autonomous vehicles to deliver
their products.
