Eric Schmidt: Our Perception of the Internet Will Fade

Esra Erimez writes: Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday predicted a change in how we perceive the internet. Schmidt says, "There will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won't even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room."

Comments

Re:If all goes well. . .

[JMJimmy]

Or, without your permission, they are interacting with you.

This. Something major like this will happen long before it gets to the point Eric suggests and governments worldwide will come down hard. Chinese "code security audits" will be just the start.

Lip service, Eric Schmidt can go fuck himself

[BitZtream]

And with your permission and all of that

Could you be more of an asshole?

First off, when did Google start asking permission BEFORE it just did privacy invading shit?

Second, how many times have you (Schmidt) basically said you didn't give a fuck about peoples privacy or their wishes and that you were going to get your way eventually anyway?

Lets be realistic here Schmidt, you don't mean a word of what you just said. What you mean is that you want devices in every room analyzing everything everyone does in an attempt to figure out how to sell them to advertisers for a higher rate. THAT IS WHAT YOU MEAN.

Re:Switch off; turn on!

[rogoshen1]

what he's really envisioning is the panopticon, and Google gets to be the warden.

Invisible Technology and things to keep in mind

[gnujoshua]

Benjamin Mako Hill has discussed invisible technology and ubiquitous computing. Hill observes that "The reason most people don't understand the power of technology is that they don't realize technology exists." Put another way, it is easy to not notice (or even forget about) matters of power, control, and autonomy that come along with any technology that is, "quite explicitly, mitigating and mediating our lives", when we aren't even noticing the technology we are interacting with and relying upon in the first place. In this talk he quotes, Marc Wiesner, who was a director of Computer Science at Xerox PARC and wrote a paper seen as the birth of "Ubiquitous Computing" that made a call for invisible computing, stating:

"A good tool is an invisible tool. By invisible, I mean that the tool does not intrude on your consciousness; you focus on the task, not the tool. Eyeglasses are a good tool -- you look at the world, not the eyeglasses. The blind man tapping the cane feels the street, not the cane. Of course, tools are not invisible in themselves, but as part of a context of use. With enough practice we can make many apparently difficult things disappear: my fingers know vi editing commands that my conscious mind has long forgotten. But good tools enhance invisibility."

Hill points out that one of the times we actually do notice technology is when it breaks. He also has a rather clever blog, Revealing Errors , in which he and other contributors "reveal errors that reveal technologies" so as to learn how they affect our lives.

Re:Switch off; turn on!

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Yeah this is the dream of a sociopath who imagines himself a god, and I'm not even using hyperbole.

Does it scare you that such a person has so much power already? Because it scares me.

Re:with permission, you are interacting with the r

[Orgasmatron]

It will display the temperature preferred by the woman, but control the air handler based on the man's preference. Because the man wrote the software for the thermostat.

At least that's how mine works.