The Ghost of Futures Past
Predicting the future is always hard simply because no one knows whatâs coming. By the time the âfutureâ actually rolls around, reality is drastically different from what artists and movie studios imagined in their works. It is this difference, this gap between where we wish we were and where we actually are that makes it so fun to look back at where we thought weâd be and where we are.
In the 1964 worldâs fair, GM sponsored an exhibit called âFuturamaâ where visitors would ride in a car through a series of miniature dioramas showing what the world would look like once humans had conquered the natural environment and lived everywhere. âFuturamaâ gave visitors glimpses into life under the sea or in a research station in the Arctic.
As we all know, not many people live underwater for very long periods of time and itâs still hazardous to study in the Arctic as evidenced by this article.
Present Future Predictions
Also just as fun, if not more so is to look to the future ourselves and imagine what could be.
Both Microsoft and Corning have put out videos showing their visions for the near future.
Though Microsoft develops software and Corning develops and produces glass (for mobile devices and other applications), their videos turned out relatively similar. Both videos feature long expanses of glass that can be used as screens for everything from video calling your clients using the wall of your office to drawing on your desk like itâs a giant iPad. Itâs a future we all want to live in!
These videos focus a lot on the design of the products and how âeasyâ it will be for us to live our lives when we donât have to worry about âwhere can I plug my phone inâ because the wall IS YOUR PHONE! Or, more acurately, the computer embeded in the wall pulls my information from my phone and can customize the information it presents to me. In one scene,
All sarcasm aside, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have my phone be a personal information hub similar to those seen in the videos by Microsoft and Corning. Their vision for the future is slick and everything in it works like itâs supposed to.
The reality is, there are tons of problems with the visions people (not just Microsoft and Corning) have for the future.
Many of the gestures used to interact with the wall-computers in the videos are used multiple times to achieve different results. For example, tapping your phone to a kiosk could either pull info from the kiosk to your phone or push info from your phone to the kisosk. There was no clear way to diferentiate between the actions and no way to tell what was going to happen once you touched your phone to the wall.
Before we can move from our walled gardens into a world where my phone can interact with your desk, several things need to happen
1) Apple, Google, and Microsoft need to get over themselves and allow their devices to communicate with each other. As it stands right now, if my phone is from Apple and your desk is from Microsoft weâre both SOL. Especially if I have a file you need to finish a job and I canât transfer it to you.
2) User interfaces need to at least be more similar than they are today. Touch gestures need to have the same result across the board. If I swipe left and the content on screen moves left, it ALWAYS NEEDS TO MOVE LEFT.
To often, the device is created and the good interface comes later.
First, a basic set of gestures and interactions needs to be established for such large scale, cross-platform situations as shown in Microsoft and Corningâs videos. Then, a future of continuous connectivity can become reality.
