by Charles H. Crawford
Remember that pseudo-psychological game where a person says a word and a second player is supposed to say aloud the first thing that comes to mind? Let’s go.
“Microsoft!” Quick. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? All those 1950s and ‘60s science fiction movies, right? Yeah, the ones where the computers take over the world? Me too! While mere mention of the company’s name can cause such a flight of fancy, it can also astound and inspire. I was reminded of that recently. The thought of Microsoft gave rise to the following musing, or more accurately, prediction of reality.
Did you know that we are just a few short years away from computers that are smarter than their creators? It’s true. The processing and memory capacity of computing will exceed that of the human brain as early as 2007! Outside all the science fiction scenarios we might conjure up for the future, there are some very interesting and practical applications of technology that, I believe, will be commonplace well before 2010. Would you be interested in taking a tour of a typical day in, say, 2008? Ready? Let’s go.
There’s just nothing like sleeping in a temperature-controlled environment that suits our needs perfectly, I always say. Well, after experiencing the luxury of a really good rest, we are likely to wake up to a pre-set Internet radio station that we will have pre-selected from about 20,000 selections. If that is not quite enough to get us out of bed, then our coffee makers will have brewed the pot 15 minutes in advance of our awakening and our home computer will have transferred all the overnight news, filtered according to our individual tastes and preferences, to our electronic pocket reader, to accompany our first cup of java — like the print newspapers of days gone by.
A warm shower and then on to the closet to choose today’s apparel. Hmmm, what selections would our electronic personal assistance device suggest today? Of course, nothing that we would not have already instructed the device to keep within our own preferences. Perhaps a second cup of the nectar of the gods and off to the bus...
Right there at the ready is our personal assistance device scanning the environment for information of interest to us. Ah! There it is. The bus stop and after letting us know that little tidbit of information, our device continues to scan for any approaching buses and can even tell us how far away the next one is and when it might arrive. Here it comes and we are told far enough in advance to wave it down.
Once on the bus, we flash our debit or declining balance card to deduct the fare as our device checks traffic information and lets us know how much time we can anticipate waiting until we arrive at our destination. About one or two stops before ours, we hear the device telling us to get ready so we sleepyheads don’t end up in New York City and we have enough time to get our stuff all together. Depending upon the level of information we have selected from our device, we could have chosen to end the trip to investigate something our personal assistant was describing to us en route, or, if we had asked the assistant to refrain from describing the environment we were riding through, we will have had the chance to catch a few more Z’s.
Again our walk to work or shopping is informed as we pass stores, office buildings, parking garages and the like. Arriving at our destination, we enter the building where our device reads locations of elevators and other points of interest. We follow the signs and arrive at our first engagement.
As we leave for a break or another appointment, we check our device for cellular calls, electronic mail, looking in on the kids, or simply tuning in our favorite music or news. If our plans include any complicated travel for the day, our device communicates with our computer and makes arrangements for airlines or trains or whatever we may need. All this in accordance with our pre-selected preferences.
Well, the journey home is just as easy as going out in the morning was. Perhaps a stop at the grocery if we did not already arrange delivery or maybe a quick pick-up at a store where we made an earlier purchase through an interactive communication with the store’s computer.
Getting across streets, equipped with accessible pedestrian signaling, is a breeze. Even if the crossing between us and the store is particularly difficult, we will be aided by the in-board computers in all the vehicles traveling on the street. These computers, which are monitoring other traffic and checking for the presence of pedestrians, can even slow or stop vehicles, overriding the drivers’ wants, when safety flags are raised in response to information received by a kind of radar.
So looks like a great day has been spent and we won’t even get into the evening entertainment or educational or social activities that will of course be appropriately described or assisted by our friendly little personal assistance device!
No, this scenario is not far-fetched. All these technologies exist today and are rapidly approaching convergence and integration. The only thing left on the horizon is the automated car that will receive GPS instructions from satellites and take us wherever we choose. That technology is evolving and may take a couple of decades to deploy, but it really is coming!
Where’s the hitch? Well, all of these technologies will have multiple uses in our society. So making sure that we get accessibility built into them as they are developed and come into use is our challenge. ACB will certainly be at the table as these things move forward!
Oh, one last thing. Sorry, but there are no little green men — or women — with this package!