By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
I just spent an hour viewing a YouTube video, “Plenary III – Future Net: What’s Next?” It’s part of the e-G8 Forum, “The Internet: Accelerating Growth,” which was held in Paris May 24-25, 2011.
The video was uploaded by e-G8 on May 24, 2011. The moderator is David Rowan, editor of Wired UK. Panelists are Peter Chou, CEO, HTC; Paul Hermelin, CEO, Capgemini; Danny Hillis, Co-Chairman and CTO, Applied Minds; Paul Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Qualcomm; Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft; and Michel de Rosen, CEO, Eutelsat.
The session is divided into two parts. In the first, each member is asked to briefly talk about a technology trend that will impact our lives in the next five years. The second is devoted to questions and answers between the host and the panelists. Following is a brief summary of each person’s focus in the first part.
Craig Mundie says that the greatest change will be in the interface between humans and computers. Computers will become more like humans, and using a computer will be more like interacting with another person. He also mentions the trend toward cell phones replacing traditional computers.
Paul Jacobs’ focus is on wireless monitoring and its implications for healthcare. Much of the expense of current healthcare is on monitoring patients in expensive hospital environments. What happens when a tiny device is placed under a patient’s skin to monitor his/her condition 24-7 from anywhere?
Peter Chou focuses on the increasingly mobile nature of the internet. What began as a smart phone is gradually evolving into mobile video devices. The implications for this change are enormous.
Danny Hillis predicts that the infrastructure in the next five to ten years will radically change to the point where the primary interactions will be between machines. When this happens, the internet will be so complex that few will understand exactly how it all works. The concern then becomes, What is the internet going to do to me? What happens if the infrastructure breaks?
Paul Hermelin predicts greater personalization as a result of the new technologies. For example, young people will ask for my education — opposed to an education. He also touches on the growing personalized economy and the fact that privacy may be a thing of the past.
Michel de Rosen envisions the rise of 3D in TV and movies as well as PCs. When this happens, we’ll be able, for example, to do much of our traveling and sightseeing from our homes. He also talks about connected TV, which allows the consumer to decide what to watch. He also addresses the issue of bandwidth and the digital divide.
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Of neededly provocative interest (and interestingly NOT uploaded to the eg8 youtube channel): Lessig’s keynote introducing the Innovation Panel of the eg8. With English, Czech, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian user-made subtitles and transcripts: universalsubtitles.org/videos/C6wmjKWrZwlP. Maybe a video’s capacity to attract volunteer subtitlers could be used as an indicator of the social relevance of the recorded talk: people will only spend time and energy subtitling something without pay if they feel it is important.
Thanks to Roberta Ranzani for having drawn my attention to this keynote. She did the Italian subtitles too, btw ;-)