Communications of the ACM
Our Devices Will Spin Denser Webs of Data in 2010
An Apple iPhone 3GS has far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, plus a camera and programs to manage every aspect of our lives.
Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
Ten years ago, we would have been blown away by a cellphone with far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, along with a built-in camera and programs to manage every aspect of our lives. Ten years from now, the iPhone and its ilk will be antiques.
Over the next decade, the evolution of computing and the Internet will produce faster, increasingly intelligent devices. More of our possessions will contain sensors and computers that log our activities, building digital dossiers that augment our memories, help us make decisions and tame information overload.
Such ideas may sound futuristic and excessive today. And technological predictions are notoriously off-base. Even so, this vision of interconnected devices is a logical progression of the Web, computers and gadgetry that emerged in the 2000s.
The explosion in computing power and connectivity only figures to accelerate.
In the next decade as conjured by Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, all that information will be available instantaneously, anywhere. He imagines spotting an acquaintance at a conference and having at his fingertips links to the person's most recent research, plus a reminder of her husband's name.
From The Seattle Times
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