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The convergence of information and communication technology is a permanent topic in tech foresight. Now there seems to be a next step in the combination of emergent technologies, that might change our culture in the foundations, actually could change our “cultural DNA”. The material basis for the transformation probably will be a mixed reality of the already emerging Internet of Things, Ambient and Ubiquitous Intelligence – and the maturing new interfaces of wearable Augmented Reality.
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Internet of Things – Internet of Everything – Power of Anticipatory Intelligence
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Since IPv6 means the unimaginable explosion of the addressable space mankind is prepared for tagging and tracking of everything – goods, vehicles, animals, human beings. Not only managing the data of their trajectories in space and time, but in combination with Big Data and Ubiquitous Intelligence allowing predictive intelligence. The most evolved and complex systems in natural and cultural evolution have created subsystems of anticipatory intelligence – the predator “sees” where the running prey will be in the next tenth of a second. Individuals are making plans over years and decades – as a CEO, a politician or a citizen thinking about the pension. Civilisations have created professions concerned with the future – in modern times based on science, math and computer simulations. The vast “smartization” of the lifeworld will result in much more anticipatory processes, just for the advantage of prediction, but also because of the grown complexity, which in turn might demand more “simulation runs” to find the best decision.
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Augmented Reality and Perception Technologies – Cyborg Reloaded?
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Since the announcments of Google’s project Glass and the amazing prototypes and concept videos there is much noise about it. Actually the view count is near 20 million now and shows the vast interest.
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Following the ideas of media theorists like McLuhan this interface / media constructs a new perception reality and changes reality perception then. If someone in the “augmented future” resists to wear these little helpers he might be seen to be in a “defective mode” in the same way as an analphabet is “blind” for the signs around him. This could result in a new digital divide.
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Artificial Intelligence anyone?
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Watson and Siri power will invade into the ICT surroundings and all kind of ordinary devices. Will people feel “Promethean shame” (as
Günther Anders put it in the last century), confronted with devices not even accessing knowledge, but “creating” it?
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Some funny questions arise from the scenarios
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Can machines and robots be consumers? The business guy says: “If they can pay the bills then they are welcome, I do not mind race or ontology!” Actually consciousness, feelings and qualia might be no requirement to be part of an economy – autonomous physical and virtual bots might earn money if they are productive in a reasonable context. I am not sure and I have not googled for the answer, but these questions actually will arise.
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Will things have a facebook or twitter on their own? Sounds funny too, but makes sense in the perspective of a library of skills, demands, offers and … coalitons. Yes, they collaborate, so they will exchange tricks and cheatsheets (mindlessly like bacteria), will follow each other and .. friend to increase their team power. Here again the bloody head of robot invasion and biocide, wellknown from many Hollywood blockbusters, rises again – there will be so much m2m chatter, that we humans cannot do the surveillance, but again machines will be the delegates. How can we trust, that the cooperation of these autonomous systems will not draw conclusions against good old mankind? Not as attackers (maybe later), but just in hybrid decision making, where humans vouche for some algorithmic intelligence deciding on a health plan, a patients life etc. In a SciFi setting we actually would use then our super glasses to detect the evil machines …
PS: Just found:
Update 2013-02-22: The graphics on top has been added, though in beta version. Some resemblance with the text and graphics in the newsletter (German text) of the appreciated foresight company Z_punkt is not an accident, since I am quite involved in the process.
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