The Future of the Internet – Tamir Huberman 11/11/12

The Future of the Internet – Tamir Huberman 11/11/12

This is the first article out of several planned in the predictions of the Internet related technologies. While the movies constantly provide us with endless stream of ideas in many different aspects of the future of technology it is a bit more difficult to predict the actual future of a more specific realm like the Internet.

It is no secret that the internet has truly changed our lives. I can still remember the time I had to physically travel to the US embassy and search for manuscripts that are interesting in specific areas where at the time had no information available in Israel. I remember sending out land mail to the US and receiving physical copies from individuals. I have said on many occasions that the internet was invented for people like me that had an endless desire for information and so little to be found with a click of a button.

The internet revolution was and is truly amazing and it comes today as no surprise that the internet is the crucial technology of our time to distribute information.

So what is the next evolution of the internet? How will the internet look in the years to come?

This article is one of several which will make an attempt to predict the evolvement of the future internet technology and its impact on our lives in the future.

The internet is a textual system that allows indexing and later searches of text in almost any content type. This led to the formation of search companies such as Google which allow access to almost any type of material with a click of a button.

The amount of information is growing at an ever increasing speed and companies that are developing ways to cluster information have to constantly adapt to the huge amounts of information that is out there.

If we look at the current way we are used to view information it comes down to the keyboard and mouse, lately some new touch screens which allow us to type into the console and later the data is retrieved.

The aspect I would like to touch in this article is the communication aspect. The internet has generated Social Networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and many others that allow surfers to connect together.

Predictions:

1.      The future will change dramatically the way we communicate over the web. Each one of us will have his own Avatar (Avatar – is the word which describes your electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user as in a computer game).

2.      Having an Avatar will completely change the way we communicate and I would like to touch several aspects depicting the influence of having an Avatar in a virtual world environment:

a.      Having an Avatar at work – all the business meetings with non-local (and later local) representatives will be done via your Avatar. This will create an identity between the different business partners and allow generation of quick rapport.

b.      An avatar at work will also allow generation of completely new jobs and actual physical location will not be a must in many types of occupations. Since the physical location of an employee will not be of importance the employee market will change dramatically and an open global employees market will emerge.

c.      An avatar in Social Networks will allow generation of greater rapport between individuals and will also allow choosing different Avatar for different environments. For example: in the Business aspects one could choose an Avatar that is always dressed elegantly and in the Social domain the clothing, age, sex could be altered. Since the physical properties can be modified in the virtual world creation of new jobs in this domain which will assist people in maintaining various Avatars will be provided.

d.      Healthcare – Doctors could also have Avatars and since basic monitoring of the body could be done either at home and in central locations the actual meetings with physicians could be done in professional domains and people could choose physicians worldwide in light of the fact location will not be an issue.

e.      Schools and Universities – The first to be influenced by this new revolution will be the Universities. Students could choose learning in any place in the world and having an Avatar would be a must in order to join classes in the Virtual University space with Avatar teachers. This will increase the communications between students located worldwide and Universities as we know them will disappear.

f.       Searching for materials – Since having an Avatar in the virtual world creates a more realistic way to communicate the way we search the internet mainly via text will change to speech. In addition technologies which will help in passing of movement in more natural way to the virtual world will be developed and people will be able to work full time in the virtual world.

g.      Communication on the phone will not take place and all communication will be via Avatars.

h.      Transportation and Cities – Since most of the professional life will take place in the virtual domain the cost of travel will dramatically change and the whole concept of cities will soon change. Living in cities which brought people together mainly in order to find work will not be a must and people could live were they desire.

I have touch a lot of topics, each of which could be elaborated much more and my next article on the subject will shed light on different aspects of this global shift.