This is one of nearly a thousand foresight statements shared by people from around the world. To return to the Voices of the People home page or to refine your search, click here.
Name: Kevin Foo
Bio: Creative visionary
Area of Expertise: Futurist/Consultant
Topic: Controversial Issues
Headline: A World Divided
Nutshell: The networked world will be a futuristic embodiment of everything that divides us now: economic, social, cultural, technological, etc.
Vision:The embrace of the Internet and the sophistication with which we use it is different depending on the region and country which we live in. Developing nations with low Internet and PC penetration rates will evolve at slower paces than the developed countries, similar to the economic divide that exists now.
We will see the world fragmenting into different regions. North America and Europe, for example, will be bastions of advanced Internet usage, where citizens use the Internet for everything from business, to leisure and entertainment (ala "Total Recall"). The African Continent and parts of Central Asia will be dead zones where little or no Internet usage will be found.
PC usage will be rudimentary and at least decades behind the West, resulting in wide segregation between these "In the Net" and "Out" zones. The differences in these zones will multiply with advancements in connection speed, security and horizon technologies, such as the use of personal RFID tags that link wirelessly to the Internet.
Think "Total Recall," "Minority Report" and other future movies combined. Then imagine that result applied to only a quarter of the known world.
Date Submitted: November 12, 2004
Back to search