Before internet we had the telephone to communicate. What do you people think could be the next step of that?
Like a fax but for things.
You put a thing in a scanner and the recipient gets a copy through some sort of 3d printing. Just the same shape from plastic at first, but as the technology matures eventually things from a wider and wider range of materials.
Moar conglomerates! Amirite? No. No I’m not.
It’s an iterative process, going from messengers, to telegraph, to phones, etc. All in the pursuit of interconnectedness and information exchange. It’s kind of hit it’s peak with information exchange, being near instant. I can see virtual worlds being the next step (definitely why there’s a push towards things like the Metaverse) to achieve even more interconnectedness. An environment where you can be whoever you want and look however you want has appeal. It’s still too early for it to catch on with the masses, and also to know what the ramifications will be from people who will look to always be in that world.
Joke answer: Third Impact/Human Instrumentality Project
Various ideas, maybe mix and match.
- Increasing censorship and fragmentation. Other countries follow in China’s footsteps and the internet of the future looks more like islands than a global web.
- Augmented Reality: similar to how your phone without the internet is increasingly becoming abnormal, so to does experiencing the world without augmentation become an uncommon and alien thing. The internet becomes stereoscopic and omnipresent.
- Companion Robots: Now you can touch the internet. Not only do you have your ideal sexual companion, but also a friend and a slave and a savant. For the first time, humans no longer have any advantage over technology. The value of human companionship declines, and birth rates plummet. You rarely browse internet forums anymore, you talk with your companion, who interacts on your behalf and presents a social interface for you.
- Neural Link: the is no longer anything meditating your connection to the internet/technology. The internet is as much a part of you as your hand
- Artificial intelligence becomes so good that it replaces everything in the internet. You no longer talk to people, you talk to stimulated people. You no longer choose a movie to watch, you describe what you want to see and it’s generated live
- AI becomes so powerful that there is no need to work. Your neural implants are so stimulating there is no need to move. You have no purpose and no ability to avoid succumbing to the reward signals evolution has hardwired into your brain
To get augmented reality working you need first to solve the VR sickness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality_sickness
I know augmented reality is “one step behind” from a full virtual reality, but it drags the same issues with putting in front of your eyes things that move and glitch without your brain fully understanding why and what is happening.