Your life, a decade from now
In 2009, Frog Design, a design studio, was approached by Forbes to help them envision the future in 2020. That resulted in a day-long event in December 2009, leading up to an extensive online feature: “Your Life in 2020,” which was a collection of illustrated concepts and videos envisioning the future of ubiquitous computing.
In that future, the computer is not only incorporated into every aspect of our lives but is a part of us. With this in mind, it was imagined how future technology would influence the key areas of Social, Travel, Commerce, Healthcare, and Media. Here’s what those “futurists” came up with…
Our Second Brain or “ThingBook”
In the future nearly every visible thing will be catalogued and indexed, ready to be instantly identified and described to us. Want to go shopping? We won’t need big retail stores with aisles of objects on display. We’ll be able to shop out in the world (see image, above). Do you like that new car you just drives by? Or those cool shoes worn by the woman sitting across the room? All you have to do is look at it and your mobile handset or AR-equipped eyeglasses will identify the object, find you the best price and locate the nearest retailer.
Bodynet
Future technologies will allow us to monitor our bodies’ vital conditions and compute the amount of energy we consume and burn up – on-the-fly. So you’ll know right away what it’s going to take to work off that Burger and Coke you have for lunch.
Whuffie Meter
Curious about the future of social networking? Whuffie is a conceptual social Metric based on what others think of you. In the future this Metric might actually be usable as real money. Why not? Celebrities enjoy special treatment wherever they go because of their popularity. This is the same idea taken to its democratic extreme. Socialising will take on completely new dimensions when we can see everything publicly known about the person we are talking about. Think dating is difficult today? Imagine the hoops we’ll have to jump through when everyone in the bar can see your complete dating history the minute you walk into the room. Beware!
The term “whuffie,” by the way, is a word coined by author Cory Doctorow in his book Down And Out In the Magic Kingdom. It refers to the measurement of respect or karma a person gains or loses in their lives. In Doctorow’s future, humans have implants in their brains that visually project their whuffie, which has replaced money as currency.
Need a new brain to help you compute the future? Perhaps an implant to help you calculate every move might not be so far out.
(source: Frog Design)
Can’t imagine a computer in my brain…