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The Shape of the Future

Posted by Zonk on from the just-a-little-bit-connected dept.

Last week, Sci-Fi writer Charlie Stross was invited to speak at a technology open day at engineering consultancy TNG Technology Consulting in Munich. He's posted a transcript of his discussion on his website, which features a fascinating analysis of where technology is going in the next 10-25 years. Instead of envisioning outlandish future developments, he looks at what the impact might be on society from very reasonable iterations of today's SOTA. "10Tb is an interesting number. That's a megabit for every second in a year -- there are roughly 10 million seconds per year. That's enough to store a live DivX video stream -- compressed a lot relative to a DVD, but the same overall resolution -- of everything I look at for a year, including time I spend sleeping, or in the bathroom. Realistically, with multiplexing, it puts three or four video channels and a sound channel and other telemetry -- a heart monitor, say, a running GPS/Galileo location signal, everything I type and every mouse event I send -- onto that chip, while I'm awake ... Add optical character recognition on the fly for any text you look at, speech-to-text for anything you say, and it's all indexed and searchable. 'What was the title of the book I looked at and wanted to remember last Thursday at 3pm?' Think of it as google for real life. "

11 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Layman's terms please.... by packetmon · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    On an early Monday morning, all I want to know is 10Tb is an interesting number. That's a megabit for every second in a year -- there are roughly 10 million seconds per year. That's enough to store a live DivX video stream Does that translate to faster porn downloads or not *sheesh*

    --
    Infiltrated dot Net
    1. Re:Layman's terms please.... by HalifaxRage · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Imagine watching 10 porn movies at once... whilst looking at that cute receptionist. "Uh... have a tissue?"

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      bomb the us up set someone
  2. Goatse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Goatse!

    In case it's not already set as your homepage.

  3. Re:Uh oh by MichaelSmith · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Google searech

    Better look out. Your typing is pretty bad as well.

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    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  4. In Soviet Russia ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ... there is no future, so no shape!

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia ... by HalifaxRage · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I believe you were going for, the shapes future you!

      --
      bomb the us up set someone
  5. Re:Uh oh by clickclickdrone · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Oh well played sir!
    (Double checks before pressing Submit)

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
  6. Rectangle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The shape of the future will be rectangle, or perhaps triangle

  7. Re:Very roughly! by Analogy+Man · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    And as the talking Barbie said, "Math is Hard!"

    --
    When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
  8. Re:Other Crazy Ideas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I predict that your prediction is bollocks.

  9. Re:Very roughly! by montyzooooma · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Talking Malibu Stacey...