The Future! (in cool galactic voice)

  Ahhh the future! The possibilities are limitless! If you have been following my blogs then you may have noticed that their all about technology, a key theme is how fast it has grown. The question that can be asked is, 'Who knows?' because the future is indefinite - that's the beauty of it, anyone can get speculating! So, with that in mind this blog is me rambling on about what my idea of the future is for Digital Culture.

  One major idea that will become an everyday use is holograms. This bit of tech will allow us to access various places without leaving our homes. It will also enable the military to train its troops in realistic environments without being killed or hurt. Technology like this has already been used to demonstrate its capabilities:

   On CNN a holographic image of a correspondent was projected into the studio

The Holodeck: The user
can re-create anything

This obviously is in the very very early stages and is not really true to the holographic name. This is because the only way she can be seen is by watching it through a TV, the man can't actually see her too, only through a TV. A hologram should be seen without any aid, now I can only refer to films here, in Star Wars the famous 'You are my only hope' scene is how a hologram should work. If it is perfected in the future the Holodeck should become a reality, every home may have one. The Holodeck is a room from Star Trek (I know, another film, but these original ideas are what fuels technology today) where the user can create a bespoke 'program' and enter, interact and become part of it. This however increases the chance of society become lost in what is not real, I will talk about this later.

  Televisions will improve just as they have already, from the boxed CRT screens to the HD and now 3D ready flat plasma or LCD screens the future of this technology will only get better. One currently in development is OLED screens, these TV's are to replace LCD and Plasma screens as an industry standard. At the moment they are only of small size and cost high amounts but as the tech evolves the price will drop massively as seen recently with HD TV's. This OLED technology can turn flexible and transparent reaching for that familiar sight in many Sci-Fi films. Who knows, could this lead to the Harry Potter style newspapers where the images actually move??

So TV's will constantly improve, here is a video to show what the far future holds (of course, only conceptual sadly):

   So what the future holds, we don't know but from inspiration from films and other bits of tech we can create conceptual ideas. Ubiquity will be the key in my opinion, as we live our lives everything will be streamed to us instantly in real-time. But if things like the Holodeck becoming a reality it could make us lazy, make us more reliant on technology than we already are. If the Internet turns into a Virtual Reality where the user can actually walk into the Net then we could loose what is real and eventually become to like what is real and stay in what is not. If we can create anything in the Holodeck then why would we want to leave? The internet idea, similar to the concept in a Futurama episode allows the social aspect to become magnified, but if this all happens will we be able to trust everything that we see? 

  

How Much Do We Rely On Technology?

...the simple answer - ALLOT!

  If you woke up tomorrow and there was no modern technology what would you do? There was no Internet, no mobile phones, television, games consoles or computers, how would you live? The answer - you would find it extremely hard. Most global companies would not function and would fail, their video conferencing, emailing, word processing, stock marketing would be gone. I'd assume you as a person would be bored with no Facebook, Youtube or gaming to keep you entertained. In our situation, we rely heavily on technology. 

   When this situation is applied to LEDC's (Less Economically Developed Country) their lives would be almost unchanged. They don't have the tech to alter their culture and so do not rely on it to live. To get crops for example, they would have to grow, manage and harvest by hand. They do not use heavy machinery to aid them, tractors, combine harvesters or smart watering systems to grow them like we do in MEDC's (More Economically Developed Country).

  A good example of how dependent we are on technology is a story to do with Apple's alarm clock feature on its iPhone's. People failed to get to work because their phone failed to tell them to...what does that say for us a civilisation? You can imagine the excuses that the boss would have gotten for these guys:

"...people angrily blogging or Tweeting about being late for work or for travel arrangements."

The natural routine of going to sleep has become dependent on technology, unless our iPhone's say 'hey, its time for work buddy' then you miss that crucial train or get stuck in that endless stream of traffic and end up late for work.

  Let's move on to mobile phones. This bit of tech has evolved from just making calls, to texting, to surfing the internet and now mobile gaming. Without a mobile phone we wouldn't as a nation be able to contact anyone. I couldn't imagine what our world would become, perhaps sending letters? Or even sending owls to deliver parchment Harry Potter style. Anyone mentioning that today would probably think of using a quill, ink and wax sealing it with their family crest. They would think this because technology has altered our culture massively. Most of the generations now are not used to using these archaic pieces of technology - yes, yes, they are technology!

  It may seem odd now with iPhones and 3D TV's but writing is a technology. According to TheFreeDictionary, Technology is defined as:

"the methods and tools that a society has developed in order to facilitate the solution of its practical problems" 

In a way, technology has changed how we think of technology itself mainly because of the uses it has. So, yes, writing is a technology. Farming is too, LEDC's rely on this technology but no to the extent that we do. The same is for fishing. Some countries use heavy machinery while others use traditional nets and perseverance. 

Fishing in Vietnam

Fishing with Modern Tech = OVERFISHING!

This large separation between MEDC's and LEDC's has a professional educated name, 'The Digital Divide'. This basically means that some people can't afford to or can't get the technology seen in richer countries ... but is this a good thing?    

  If countries that are not used to the more recent technology like phones, TV's and games consoles is that ok? I would say yes, mainly because they don't need it. We don't either (well, maybe mobile phones - just for calling though),  our culture has become so engrossed in technology that it is just for luxuary i.e. iPad. LEDC's don't need these surely, they have managed to survive this far without them. The only bit of tech that is vitally needed is healthcare. This is one benefit to having a more developed country, money can be used to research and implement drugs to cure killer diseases. Organisational events such as Red Nose Day or Comic Relief allow this 'proper technology' to be distributed within a poor society. So although the Digital Divide is apparent and some claim that it is not fair that other countries do not get access to the quality of technology, they don't need it because they don't rely on it. In a more closer situation like the USA for example,their Digital Divide affects them more heavily because they do rely on modern technologies.
See the video below on the Digital Divide in the US:

In the video from 2009, "about half of all Americans aren't connected". This can have large effects on that generation as they grow up. Growing up in a technology centred country and not being able to gain the technicity required for most jobs, it can seriously deprive certain communities. In poorer countries the younger generations do not have access to the technology but do not need it to get a job.