What technologies are so ubiquitous, so familiar, that we barely recognize them as technologies any more?
I went to the Libraries of the Future workshop today. This is an initiative set up to explore what academic libraries might look like in, well, the future. Today we examined various global drivers, and thought about the effect they might have on the Higher Education sector more generally (specifically in the UK).
One of the comments made was that in a few years time, the current technologies that we’re using are going to become more or less invisible. Not that they go away, but that they will be so commonplace that nobody will think them worth mentioning.
This reminded me of an exchange I had while I worked for (that’s much better than “”, which is how I tweeted it from the work account last night. Oops). I had rescued a Mac from Accounts: the company mostly ran Windows but the CSO was a Mac-head (which I think might be why he hired me) and this particular machine was said to be ‘crap’. I worked some magic on it and ran it perfectly happily for two years, much to the amazement of all, not least the muppet of an IT manager that was there.
So, this IT manager came up to me one day in 1998, and asked, “Do Macs do TCP/IP?”
I looked up from my email and my web browser, and said “—”.
Then I tried again, and managed a “Um, yes?”
(Yes Virginia, there is such a thing as a dumb question.)
When I related the tale to my friend Nigel the email came back almost immediately, “My sandwiches do TCP/IP.”
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the iPad and other devices, and EPub and E-Ink and whatnot, and we all, not just geeks, want to know about USB and 802b.11g and 3G and all that balls. The technology is still new and mostly not generally accepted. Not like, say, cars (it’s only the über-geeks who get excited about engine technology) or tennis racquets or even DNA sequencing. Heck, we’ve been talking here about MT4 or WordPress or whatever. It’s certainly not a transparent layer.
We’ll only be able to say that the digital world has truly arrived, that we are completely digitized, when we use all this iStuff to get things done, without paying a second thought to the technology itself. Rather like we do with books, in fact.
I wonder how long it will take.
“Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet.”
and
“Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
— Douglas Adams
Ha ha!
What is a global driver? Sounds bad; are they contributing to global warming?
only if they’re not stuck in carbon-neutral.
When the sea levels rise, the University of Edinburgh will be sitting pretty.
I’m stocking up on fresh water and ammunition as we speak.
oh, while we’re on the subject of bad jokes
I’m stocking up on fresh water and ammunition as we speak.
Reckon you’ve got about another 12 minutes before the police break down your door…
Love the second quote, Cath!
iBrain™: The Next Big Thing.
I need one.
iPad is the new Google Wave.
Alyssa, I’m worried ‘cos I’ll be 33 in a couple of weeks and clearly only have a couple of years left before I turn into an old fogey complaining about new fangled gizmos that I didn’t need when I were a lass.
I’m still waiting to see if iPad is the new Newton.
P.S. @Cath – grumble mumble young whippersnappers and their ePhones and Podquacks and Twittledees…
/toddles off, cleans shotgun, whistles ancient tune from the 80’s
Damn, Cath! By your definition, I am already four odd years into the exalted state of old fogeyness… And guess what, I am loving it!!
Question to Brother Richard: When are you writing your new Futures piece? 😀
Stephen, I fought them off. It’s in all the papers this morning (except pinko commie ones).
Kausik, you remind me that Henry ‘encouraged’ me to write something.
I’m looking forward to the day we won’t have Science ‘Online’ conferences. Like we don’t have Gordon ‘slideshow’ conferences.
Peter da Silva:
and hopefully, soon, the ability to track conversations no matter where they are.
This probably comes out of left field, but I really wish they’d thought a little more and came up with a different name from “iPad”. When it came out, me and most of my female friends thought was some sort of..an electronic tampon.
All the new tech’ll take off soon probably, like iPhones and iPods now. CDs are going to be obsolete, like tapes, pretty soon..
I suspect, Linda, that people will get over the name. Just like ‘Uranus’.
I remember my supervisor complaining that optical disks weren’t time-proven. Heh.