From: Bryan Moss (bryan.moss@btinternet.com)
Date: Tue Mar 13 2001 - 12:19:36 MST
> http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-6014-8-4962347-1.html
Some things that amused me,
"Society will come to a collective realization that
technology is a natural fit only for some tasks." (Star Lab's
prediction for 2001.)
"Plazas, town squares, and other public spaces will be
reinvented to include interactive digital-art installations."
(Xerox PARC's prediction for 2010.)
*Rich Gold*, manager of the *Research in Experimental
Documents* lab at Xerox PARC and inventor of *Little Computer
People* on the Commodore 64 has developed a reading assistant
for the *visually impaired* that *looks like a dog*!
According to Richard Wheeler of Star Lab on-line grocery
shopping and e-books make no "inherent sense" whereas
"clothing that incorporates electronics to alert wearers if
they forget their car keys" will be all the rage!
The article seems like it's going to end well, "Professor
Brooks sees more and more people accepting robotics into their
bodies. 'Just as there are cochlear implants for deaf people
now which are experimental, by 2010, procedures like these
will be clinical and not just used to fix parts of us that
don't work, but rather to enhance our bodies' performance,' he
says." But then, "Brooks say the issues these developments
will bring up will make the social quandaries surrounding
abortion seem simple." Personally, I don't think the question
of whether I should be able to run faster, jump higher, or
think smarter, is anything like the moral dilemma involved in
abortion. Better is better. The only thing that could
possibly go wrong is you ban enhancements and end up with
supercriminals but no supercops or supercitizens.
BM
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:06:20 MST