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I’m looking at the “system preferences” button on my mac toolbar. I believe there is irony in the icon: The two bottom gears may intersect below the icon’s picture. If so the mechanism in this icon for system preferences does not work; if the larger wheel turns the two smaller ones by way of gears: If the left bottom wheel turns clockwise, the larger wheel would go counter-clockwise, and the right bottom wheel would turn clockwise as well. Two intersecting gears cannot turn the same direction. Therefore, ironically, system preferences might not work lol. Curious.
So I found this article about what our computers might look like in 10 years:
http://daol.aol.com/articles/future-computers?icid=main%7Caim%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk3%7C174627
It also got me thinking, which always leads to trouble. If computers are getting so much smaller so fast, and technology wont stop evolving anytime soon at all, what might computers of the distant future look like?
We’re already investing in the predecessors of nanotechnology. Even the Nintendo Wii is motion sensitive and interactive. From what I understand the new version of the XBox will have a sensor that detects your movements to the point that you could actually dance in real life and have your actions mimicked by the game system on-screen. If this is all now what happens when computers are inside us?
Literally, inside us!! Having chips inside our bodies which interact with the web and with other electronic devices. These days we have blackberries, iPhones and whatever else with access to the internet and can upload and download files from a computer at home if it’s online already. Imagine though what it might be like if we didn’t need those hand held devices at all. Instead, all we’d need is a small implant in our brain that reacts to what we think (I’m hoping it isn’t used for mind control that can tap into our brains if our brains can tap into the web but that comes later).
Just imagine walking around in the middle of a forest and thinking “Crap I’m lost and I have no idea where that landmark I was going to visit is… Wait, problem solved ‘address application tourism: find Insert destination.’” Then without a second to waste you are delivered a mental picture (via chip implant via internet access) of your exact location and location of what you wanted to find and it’s distance to you. All you’d have to do is THINK “zoom in, zoom out” or “scroll left, scroll right” for more logistics. You could even think for the quickest route to get there or if there are any obstacles in your way. Shit, you could probably ask if there was a dangerous animal that you would have to avoid. Maybe you could download hunting lessons to learn to kill said animal if you were starving and in need of food.
With this apps, if you happen to be a good computer hacker (of the future’s standards), you could read other people’s minds. Worse, your “friend” could control your actions and influence your thoughts by breaking your mental firewall and literally hacking your brain.
To stretch it even further what happens when they discover how to combine human DNA and Artificial DNA. By the way, they recently were able to synthesize half-artificial DNA in a laboratory. See for yourself:
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news-IN-A-Step-to-Artificial-Life-Manmade-DNA-Powers-Cell-052410.aspx
This could theoretically be the first ancestor of cyborgs.
Obviously, I’ve completely gone off the deep end here and I’m fully aware of it. I can’t say though that anything I’ve said so far ISN’T theoretically possible. Mind hackers… or literally having ALL THE KNOWLEDGE of the world within the mind’s reach. I’m curious to say the least.
