Digital Media in the future.... Utopia/Dystopia Split

Adam Luhaitis

Currently, there are many different types of digital technology such as digital phones, personal and embedded computers and the Internet. These will all undergo substantial change in the next 50 years, especially the design and capabilities of theses devices. Personal computers will be the first to change, because they are reaching a technical peak as far as performance goes. A slow down in PC sales is also occurring, so there will be changes in processor architecture in order to create a more friendly and intelligent design that will once again spur PC sales. This next generation architecture will more than likely be either AMD's (Advanced Micro Devices) x86-64 or IBM's PowerPC or an even newer design. It will have to do away with old designs such as SDRAM, ISA, PCI and even AGP, new data buses will be created using AMD's Lightning Data Transfer technology which enables approximately 2.0Ghz (2000Mhz) of bandwidth between system components, which is astonishing compared to the Pentium III's 133Mhz speed. These new PCs that will use this new architecture will utilize a brand new operating system which will take full advantage of the advances in both hardware and software technology. The user interface will be amazingly simple to use and understand and most PCs will be compatible with each other, unlike today with the many dozens of common architectures. Most of this advancement will benefit consumers greatly because they will have access to a greatly improved product. From a business standpoint, it's going to be hell because consumers will no longer have to keep upgrading their hardware to get more speed, because they will have all the processing power they will need for a very long time. Chipmakers will have to make disposable chips that only last so long before dying in order to turn a profit.

The Internet will be replaced slowly with a new network that will not use TCP/IP but rather a more intelligent protocol to take advantage of the incredible bandwidth that will be available. Universal portable communications devices that will feature voice/email/proper will place current generation digital phones. Digital phones will not only be portable phones such as PCS phones but also in homes, inside the regular phones that are connected to physical phone lines. This will reduce costs for phone companies because they will no longer need equipment that converts in between digital and analogue, which reduces audio quality. This will result in mass incompatibility between new and old phones, however the conversion will be made in approximately 10 to 15 years. Home appliances will also be networked over an embedded version of this new network, which will allow for programmable behavior between devices. For example if you wanted to set the oven to clean itself every other night at 3AM you could do this from yours or anyone else's PC. The result of all this integration should benefit everyone because of the better sound quality and lower overall costs.

Video games will be change completely from the way they are now. They will benefit the most from the many technological advances that are yet to come. Game developers will be able to create incredibly realistic environments far beyond those in the new games Red Faction and Rune. Artificial intelligence will be created will be far more complex and intelligent than any human that has ever and will ever exist. Objects in environments will act like they would in real life, for example if you spilled a cup of coffee on your shirt, it would splash and create different spots where the coffee would stain and soak into the shirt. That kind of detail is just a taste of what's in store. Eventually suits that cover the entire body will allow for a complete sense of touch in these virtual worlds. It has yet to be figured out how a sense of smell could be incorporated into video however I'm positive that a method of doing that will be invented. Whole new experiences could be had like flying an F-22 Raptor at 15,000 feet above the ground in a dogfight with enemy aircraft or maybe being an army general leading your troops to victory in World War II. Games would attract whole new audiences that would never even touch a video game nowadays. It would be a great experience for those who played them, allowing experiences that could never be had for most people without these games. Game developers will also benefit greatly from all of this innovation, because they will be able to create anything they can imagine.

Technology will allow many opportunities in other areas as well, such as education. Say a student is sick or just doesn't feel like going to school, they could get any homework they missed over the Internet and then email it back to their teacher. Some schools and colleges are using this method; it's even being used in this course as I write this. The is will create a world where it's easier to get an education.

Digital media should wind up creating somewhat of a utopia for consumers and a dystopia for technology companies.

© Copyright 2001 Adam Lukaitis