On the way back from a week of vacation in Europe after Teched Barcelona I finished Rainbows End. In this book Vernor Vinge has influenced my view of what the technology should\can do in the future. A few trends from today that Vernor picks up on and extends:
- Wearable computing – Will IPod and Zune grow up to full wearable computing power? I love how Vernor solved the user interface problem!
- Ubiquitous hi-rate connectivity – My $20/month EvDo is just the starts
- Search and Analysis of Information – With so much information in electronic format, finding information and correlating trends is more important than ever
- Social Networking – What would sites like YouTube and Soapbox turn into with a good mix of 1?
- Large truly local storage – We just released the first baby step there 😉
Have other folks read Rainbows End? What trends did you pick up on?
My wife asked me if this was a positive or negative view of the future –It is a strangely hard question to answer. While there is something compelling about all the above, there is something scary as well, I guess that is what makes the book compelling.
BTW, has anyone cataloged all the literary references in the text? I’d love to check them out, if they are already published 😉
I’ve ordered Rainbow’s End and am looking forward to reading it.
If you liked it, I also strongly recommend Vinge’s ‘Fire Upon the Deep’, ‘Deepness in the Sky’, and the brilliant ‘Across Realtime’ (containing both ‘The Peace War’ and ‘Marooned in Realtime’).
Vinge writes highly-technical "hard" SF, loved by every one of my geek friends to whom I introduce his works. Enjoy!
$20/mo EvDO? Who, what, where?
Have you read, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage by Nicholas G. Carr? Interesting point of view regarding technology.
Aloha,
Kevin Davis