Elon University

A vision for the future

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Name: Andrew

From: Arizona

Bio: Heavy Internet User and owner of Internet company

Area of Expertise: Entrepreneur/Business Leader

Topic: Information Infrastructure

Headline: Pervasive Computing

Nutshell: Everything AND everyone is online and interconnected.

Vision:

As my great-grand-child enters its third trimester, its first online device is implanted in its body. Constant measurements are being fed directly into the hospital’s computers, 24×7. Deficiencies and limitations are catalogued, with possible, pre-birth solutions. Insurance companies, paying for the pregnancy already, are drafting cost predictions on this person’s maintenance costs. They are immediately factored into my grandson’s paycheck – my social security is so meager, it doesn’t matter. After birth additional devices are attached – physical interfaces, wireless access points, maybe a memory chip if we can afford it. By age 7, children have been educated on the mining of data from the ubiquotous net. Knowledge is pervasive. Everything is neatly catlogued and indexed. Life is easy if you join the network, but it is boring and predictable. Risk-aversion is pervasive, and only those off the network truly offer new innovations.

Date Submitted: November 10, 2004

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