The Future of the Internet
Google video has an insightful interview with three big industry players, Lawrence Lessig (Creative Commons founder), Joichi Ito (Creative Commons CEO), and Philip Rosedale (Second Life Creator), on what they think is the future of the internet. They’re predictions are (mostly) based on the year 2018. Here they are, summarised, with my thoughts italicised.
- Payment facilities will be further integrated into our online experience. Absolutely. We can expect to see a single account (Google, maybe Paypal?) and there will be a single click buying option for every single online store. Stores will become much more streamlined.
- We’re only two years (this one’s 2010) before the government wakes up to the internet era - they’re still living in the industrial era. Yes, they are still in the industrial era, but I think they want to stay there. I believe the government won’t get involved till AFTER the knowledge era - they will start to get involved in the age of Wisdom.
- There will be an i911. That is, a massive event where the insecurity of the internet is manifested, forcing the government to respond with policy similar to the Patriot act. The iPatriot act will shut down the openness of the internet, and attempt to control it. They have the iPatriot act ready to go already, they’re just waiting for the event to occur. Yes, this is definitely a possibility which we need to be careful of. If it does occur, then we can expect George Orwell’s 1984 to happen somewhere around 2024. I don’t think it will though.
- Mobile internet gives the money to the mobile companies who don’t reinvest in startups. If we want to continue to make money on the internet we need to think about the ecology. Makes sense. We either see the popularity of Mobile Internet technology slow down, or innovation slow down.
- The future of internet is 3D. I disagree - it might happen, but not in 10 years. We won’t have the infrastructure to support this concept properly. Also, the internet is still being learnt by a lot of people. There won’t be any massive changes (like 3D) until society is mostly Digital Native - at least 30 years.
What do you think about the video and the predictions? Do you have anything to add to the list? I’m surprised nobody mentioned multi-touch, which I really think will revolutionise what we see the internet as - more than just a hyper text transfer protocol.
This is really interesting. In general, I agree with your insights. I totally agree with you about the multi-touch thing as well.