Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
soon after 2061, living matter will have computing power placed directly into its DNA, rather
than it having to be implanted surgically or worn.
19.5.4 f
uture
g
eo
w
eB
The Internet and the World Wide Web of today are still shaped by the information vehicles that gave
them birth, including the file transfer protocol, the hypertext transfer protocol, e-mail and search
engines. The so-called Web 2.0 has extended the set to include social networking, Twitter and others
(see Crooks et al., 2014 for their view of the evolving GeoWeb). To these have been added GeoWeb
applications that exploit position, such as Foursquare and EchoEcho. Ubiquitous GPS-enabled wire-
less devices have created virtual organisations of users who share everything from restaurant tips
to photos. Some central sites exploiting user-supplied data have created maps and databases, while
others have used the web as a new distribution medium for everything from government reports to
topics. After a generation of the web as an archive, clearing houses irst assisted inding, and then
portals became the means to browse and locate. With Wikipedia and Google, the web is fast taking
the place of the collective human memory.
This latter trend will continue. By 2061, the web will have become both human memory and
history and the means by which to access them. The virtualisation of the digital earth will mean
that reality and virtual reality will overlap. Such a
mirror world
will offer virtual travel to all such
that one's memory of, say, Prague will be a
real
memory of a virtual experience as often as a real
memory of an actual experience that is every bit or even more real than the actual. Such a vision
system may require
reality sliders
that allow us to control how much of our reality is actual and
how much is computed. This would require a reinvention of education; just as today's students check
lecture facts in real time on their iPhones with Google, students in 2061 will be able to experience
rather than take for granted the world around them. Fields like information visualisation and visual
analytics in the future may play the roles that philosophy or mathematics does today. This paragraph
may be better presented to its audience in 2061 as Figure 19.10.
19.5.5 i
nteractiVe
M
ultiMedia
in
2061
We live in an age of interactivity. A child placed in front of a computer with a mouse clicks on
everything, expecting some action or event to happen as a result. From simple computational begin-
nings in Wikis and HyperCard stacks, computer interaction now includes words, sounds, video,
speech recognition, audio and music. Media which developed separately, telephones and e-mail, for
example, have merged into new devices and systems. The smartphone and interactive tablet have
recently redefined how we interact with our computers. I recently found myself dragging my hands
outward in front of a projection screen, expecting the image on it to enlarge!
Trends in interactive multimedia can be extended into the future. Context-sensitive comput-
ers can adapt to the conditions under which they are being used, at night or in direct sunlight,
for example, or alone in an office versus in a theatre audience. Environmental sensing will include
not only heat, light, location and moisture but also the user's emotional state, fear, strain or fatigue.
Interacting with a computer is already extending beyond typing, pointing and speaking to include
gesture, eye direction and body language. In the future, computers will be able to recognise more
complex human interactions, group dynamics, collective activity and degree of familiarity. An
important role may be to detect when a meeting is getting out of hand, when humans intend to fight
or when the computer should protect its owner's privacy.
A higher level of interaction when coupled with augmented reality would allow
rich
documentation.
Rather than serving up a manual page, a computer could easily find the most approved video tuto-
rial and select the part most suitable. Intelligent devices could summon specialised help depending
on what accident has happened. Using haptics, the computer could both be controlled and provide
user feedback; for example, a robotic frame could both support weakened legs and provide force
