(It Couldn't Happen Here? - Digitally enhanced Lino-Print by the Reverend)Predicting the future can be fun. The simplest way to do this is to take a selection of current socio-technological trends, hybridise them and then extrapolate to the 'nth degree.
Lets take a few cool, fun techno trends, mix 'em up, project the result and see what we get!
Lets go shopping for some ingredients; Mobile phone, Google Earth, Interpretive GPS, Nano-Technology and cosmetic surgery, that should do it!
Firstly take a mobile phone, its already a camera and a walkman with intelligent audio-recognition, add a GPS system, you would never get lost and you would be able to order takeaways at the drop of a hat anywhere in the world, brilliant. Lets add Google Earth, a marvellous toy, currently based on existing aerial mapping. The logical next step is it going live 'by satellite', which when linked to the GPS in your phone means you can be found anywhere in the world visually. This is great as your phone will be the main device for accessing your bank accounts, court records etc. So now you can be instantly found, monitored and your life scrutinised remotely from anywhere, by anyone with another phone. If you see someone you want to identify you can use the audio (song) recognition facility to identify other people by accessing the international voice sample bank or failing that use the camera to do a face-match, amazing.
Time to add another strand of technology. Holding a phone is a bit inconvenient, we need to go hands-free. We already have headsets but they are not very flash and you still got to use your hands. Lets make them voice activated and combine them with the sunglasses required to stop retina burn from the ever-increasing UV light. With a screen on the inside of the lens, you can drive, surf the net and keep your neighbours under surveillance all at the same time, fantastic.
The recipe isn't quite there we need another ingredient...
Your headset keeps falling off, getting lost etc. This just isn't modern and convenient enough. The world of surgical implants, internal hearing and visual enhancement devices has come a long way. Lets implant the screen, the speakers and the voice activation mic, maybe get a nose job at the same time, hell why not, its a drive-through, one-stop shop now! Suddenly we're bionic with enhanced senses and virtual telepathy, able to talk at a sub-vocal level to anyone on the other side of the world or right next door!
The future perfect.
The 'magpie' appeal of modern technology, the human instinct for extremism and the propensity to turn all that is good to bad are a volatile mix.
It couldn't happen here, or could it?
Its good to talk!
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