One in every 4 people online are on Facebook and 1 out of every 13 people on the planet are on Facebook. In other words, Facebook changed and connected the world with its 500 million plus users.
But no matter how big something is- the telephone, the fax, the cell phone, there's always a next, and that next is even better--the smartphone, the e-reader, etc..
So what's next after Facebook?
I pursued the
And was surprised by how boring most of the speculation was. My conversation with the interwebs was something like this:
Me: What's next after Facebook?
The Interwebs: "..location-based networking"
Me: boring--that's already here.
The Interwebs: Something Big.
Me: duh.
The Interwebs: We have no idea?
Me: Sigh.
But then I remembered some interesting things that chip maker Intel and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku had promised in a "coming to an internet near you" way. One is brain implanted computer chips and the other is retinal overlay digital interfaces. Technology like this could certainly shape the next big thing that makes Facebook so "last-G" with the kids.
The brain implant Intel is developing allows for operating computers, cell phones, and TVs without a keyboard or mouse, using thoughts alone, through FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). In this case a social graph could be connected by thoughts--like Mindbook, I suppose--which sounds absolutely terrifying considering what seems to lurk in the recesses of many minds, going by the statuses people take the time to type on Facbook as it is.
On the other hand, Michio Kaku promises us a more festive and Star Trek Holodeck meets the Matrix like experience “..In the future, the internet will be in your contact lens. You will blink and you will go online. You will see individuals and their biography will appear and subtitles will appear if they speak in Chinese. So you will always know who you’re talking to and what they are saying even if they speak in a different language..if you have internet contact lenses, then you can imagine and conjure up different kinds of bizarre universes…You can have all sorts of wondrous things take place inside your contact lens” The technology is 3-D and omnidirectional so when you move, the virtual reality stays consistent in surround-visual and sound. The virtual is made complete by haptic technology that creates the feel of the virtual reality that you see.
This technology could make a social graph more like a party where you beam yourself in, and I think I like this better than the Bruce Willis B-movie plot the Intel "chip-me" social graph conjures. Although it's still kind of cray. The possibilities are unlimited with this Holodeck scenario-- not only can you chat up your social graph, you could interact in chosen virtual realities and game or actually..farm, if Farmville was more your speed back when Facebook was in.
What do you think is the future of the digital social graph?
1 comment:
Hi Nathalie,
What you say may actually be true.
We can now turn on our AC or laptop, etc through internet from our cell phones even we are not at home. Putting a chip in the body has been done before.
But, I personally think that even if there such technology it will be still unsafe to use it because what will happen somebody hacked in your brain chip and steals all the passwords?! Or a malfunction of a message with will repeat again and again in you? Imagine a thought that control a device. Psychology you keep thinking about calling your ex-girlfriend because you guys just break up may not be a very good thought at all. You might even get arrested and court order to stay away from her. Thoughts and emotions hardest to control and to “shut off”.
Such technology for the time being will is visible in very near future but commercializing maybe harder. Human rights to privacy and tracking let alone such technology will be passing through congress and senate. Maybe it is wise to be implant into a patient or handicapped person defiantly such “Jedi powers” should not be for everybody especially for crooks and hackers even somebody who has a hard time controlling emotions or psychological problems.
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