It makes you wonder what's coming next doesn't it? In the
last 15 years we've seen the arrival of the fax machine,
mobile phone, satellite TV, home computer, the internet and
video phone, to mention but a few. It's all happening at a
frightening speed, every day there's yet another computer
with a faster proccessor, a bigger memory, a cheaper video,
a wider screen TV. Where's it going to end? Not content
with sending things and stuff whizzing through cyberspace in
a matter of seconds, IÆm sure it won't be long before the
time comes when people cane transport themselves through
space and time using their personal transponder, a machine
that no decent home should be without. We're so close now
to the end of the century that I've started to wonder what
lies beyond the year 2000. A cure for cancer? Let's hope
so. World peace? Unlikely. Noel Edmonds still on TV?
Probably. We'll be able to choose our virtual environment,
point and click at the wallpaper we want, the furniture, the
people. We'll screen ourselves behind our computer and talk
e-talk with e-mail, say hiya with hypertext. In our
personal transponders we'll move between continents in the
blink of an eye, but we won't get out and explore our new
destination, because the locals there will all be indoors,
video conferencing and internetting, fresh air being pumped
into their houses through the same ducts as the wires and
the cables, linking their homes, linking their lives. All
their needs are being catered for emotional, physical,
sensual, medicinal - why go outdoors again?
How depressing
eh? I hope it never comes to this. I want to be able to get
out in the sun shine and go to the pub when I want. I want
to go out for a pizza and walk the dog along the beach on a
sunny crispy autumn morning and breathe in the sea weed
smell. We need to stop retreating into ourselves, stop
being active in virtual reality and become more reactive in
the real world. But is this now the real world? I'm only
real to you because you're reading this page on the
internet, and how do you know that the picture up there is
of me and that I'm not the one on the left with the black
and white patches with a penchant for Pedigree Chum? So,
what is next I wonder. If it isn't teletransponders what
will it be? Robots in the house - the kind that brings you
breakfast in bed, makes your tea for you and does the
ironing (nah... you can get a boyfriend for that!), will it
be cars that talk or interactive huge screen TV, an all
knowing eye that acts as a personal trainer, a personal
organiser and then lets you watch the Oprah Winfrey show on
an afternoon. Who knows what will happen next. Another
15 years from now and things will have moved on again. Oh
well, I'm off to the pub and out for a pizza while I still
can.
Glenda Young is also the authoress of the
weekly Coronation
Street Update on the net, and can be contacted at:
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