Back, when I was in my early teens, I used to wonder why we have to carry money in our pocket. Money always belongs to an individual. What if each person had some way to identify the (amount of) money that belonged to him (like his fingerprint)? All that was needed was a way of transferring money from one person (A) to another (B). A would "say" I give $5 to B and voila... A's balance would decrease by $5 and B's would increase by the same amount. This was my thought in those days when I had not heard of ATM (debit) card / credit cards etc. Money nowadays has become fungible and transfers can be made in a variety of ways other than giving a currency note (or bill).
So much has changed in the last 40 years. What else do I feel has made a drastic change in our lives? I am amazed by two things. Search (as in Google search) and mobile (telephony).
If we take Google (search), the idea of searching based on words/phrases and not having to know where the information is is fantastic. It has created a paradigm shift in the way we do things. We don't need to remember things. We don't need to remember where things are to be found. We have moved from facing difficulties in searching to making good use of the information that is now readily available.
Mobiles, in the same way, have made a big change in the way we interact and communicate. Gone are the days when we had to wait 10 years (in India) to get a landline telephone installed. And so also the days of waiting for the postman to deliver letters from friends and relatives. We communicate instantly. Information about friends/relatives is immediately available. Now the question is: what do we with the information?
But there are a few things I find irritating about Google search. I find that searches at the same time:
1. Give different number and ranking of results with the same keywords by two different people.
2. Give different number and ranking of results in the same computer in two different browsers (for example Internet Explorer and Chrome).
3. Give more results when more words are given in the search (I intuitively expect fewer results when I give more words in the search).
Another issue is that the number of results mentioned by Google is usually higher than the actual number of results (if we browse through each of the pages of the results we can observe this). All these make me feel that a more appropriate name for Google would be Googlantika OR Googlee OR Googlea.
Each of this is an irritant and causes me to wonder whether the search results are accurate. Of course I don't mean to say that bing or yahoo search are any better. I don't use them so I can't say how they behave. Google search is amazing but for these irritants.
Notwithstanding these irritants, Google search and mobile telephony have made a big impact in our lives. This makes me wonder how life will be 40 years hence, say in 2050. Will our travel be cut down drastically? Will we do most things through video telephony? (This is what my brother says will happen in the next few years).
Will we have an enhanced "google earth" which can show streaming video if we were to give the latitude/longitude and altitude of any location? How would life be then?
Want to know how your grandmom is? Sure, specify her location and see for yourself (provided you are given security sufficient access by her). Maybe the tool that exists then won't even need her location. She (like any mobile today) may inform her whereabouts and the tool can find out where she is.
Will the world become like European Union where there is free movement of people? And maybe we will have fewer currencies and languages spoken?
Will information search become hierarchical instead of flat meaning an automatic ability to search deeper in a restricted area and make information available from sites that require further levels of authentication?
Maybe our daily diet will be available as a concentrate/tablet (so many calories of proteins, so many of carbohydrate etc). Maybe there will be another tablet which will extract so many calories from our body obviating the need for exercising.
Maybe we can charge our mobiles through wireless. No need to be connected to an electrical outlet. Computers will become the size and shape of an ebook reader (with no separate mouse or keyboard). And may perhaps look a normal telephone when earphone is hooked to it. Videocalls can then make sense. Imagine having a videocall when you have the mobile right next to your ear? What does the other person see?
And maybe our homes will be standardized so we won't always come back or stay in the same home. Maybe we will decide which "home" to get back to. Nor which office to go to.
Maybe we could tailor make our babies. Just provide the specification. An enhanced IVF will do the rest.
And perhaps we will find a way to transmit smell. And color of our dress, furniture can be changed at will ("personalized any time").
How does all this sound!!
So much has changed in the last 40 years. What else do I feel has made a drastic change in our lives? I am amazed by two things. Search (as in Google search) and mobile (telephony).
If we take Google (search), the idea of searching based on words/phrases and not having to know where the information is is fantastic. It has created a paradigm shift in the way we do things. We don't need to remember things. We don't need to remember where things are to be found. We have moved from facing difficulties in searching to making good use of the information that is now readily available.
Mobiles, in the same way, have made a big change in the way we interact and communicate. Gone are the days when we had to wait 10 years (in India) to get a landline telephone installed. And so also the days of waiting for the postman to deliver letters from friends and relatives. We communicate instantly. Information about friends/relatives is immediately available. Now the question is: what do we with the information?
But there are a few things I find irritating about Google search. I find that searches at the same time:
1. Give different number and ranking of results with the same keywords by two different people.
2. Give different number and ranking of results in the same computer in two different browsers (for example Internet Explorer and Chrome).
3. Give more results when more words are given in the search (I intuitively expect fewer results when I give more words in the search).
Another issue is that the number of results mentioned by Google is usually higher than the actual number of results (if we browse through each of the pages of the results we can observe this). All these make me feel that a more appropriate name for Google would be Googlantika OR Googlee OR Googlea.
Each of this is an irritant and causes me to wonder whether the search results are accurate. Of course I don't mean to say that bing or yahoo search are any better. I don't use them so I can't say how they behave. Google search is amazing but for these irritants.
Notwithstanding these irritants, Google search and mobile telephony have made a big impact in our lives. This makes me wonder how life will be 40 years hence, say in 2050. Will our travel be cut down drastically? Will we do most things through video telephony? (This is what my brother says will happen in the next few years).
Will we have an enhanced "google earth" which can show streaming video if we were to give the latitude/longitude and altitude of any location? How would life be then?
Want to know how your grandmom is? Sure, specify her location and see for yourself (provided you are given security sufficient access by her). Maybe the tool that exists then won't even need her location. She (like any mobile today) may inform her whereabouts and the tool can find out where she is.
Will the world become like European Union where there is free movement of people? And maybe we will have fewer currencies and languages spoken?
Will information search become hierarchical instead of flat meaning an automatic ability to search deeper in a restricted area and make information available from sites that require further levels of authentication?
Maybe our daily diet will be available as a concentrate/tablet (so many calories of proteins, so many of carbohydrate etc). Maybe there will be another tablet which will extract so many calories from our body obviating the need for exercising.
Maybe we can charge our mobiles through wireless. No need to be connected to an electrical outlet. Computers will become the size and shape of an ebook reader (with no separate mouse or keyboard). And may perhaps look a normal telephone when earphone is hooked to it. Videocalls can then make sense. Imagine having a videocall when you have the mobile right next to your ear? What does the other person see?
And maybe our homes will be standardized so we won't always come back or stay in the same home. Maybe we will decide which "home" to get back to. Nor which office to go to.
Maybe we could tailor make our babies. Just provide the specification. An enhanced IVF will do the rest.
And perhaps we will find a way to transmit smell. And color of our dress, furniture can be changed at will ("personalized any time").
How does all this sound!!
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