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Is The World Shifting To 'Ambient Computing'? (computerworld.com)
In the future, "A massive convergence of technologies will enable us to use computers and the internet without really using them," argues Computerworld.
At the dawn of the personal computing revolution, people "operated" a computer. They sat down and did computing -- often programming. Later, with the application explosion, operators became "users." People used computers for purposes other than programming or operating a computer -- like balancing their checkbooks or playing video games. All computing uses so far have required a cognitive shift from doing something in the real world to operating or using a computer. Ambient computing changes all that, because it involves using a computer without consciously or deliberately or explicitly "using" a computer....
It's just there, guiding and nudging you along as you accomplish things in life. Ambient computing devices will operate invisibly in the background. They'll identify, monitor and listen to us and respond to our perceived needs and habits. So a good working definition of ambient computing is "computing that happens in the background without the active participation of the user...."
In 20 years, the idea of picking up a device or sitting down at a computer to actively use it will seem quaintly antiquated. All computing will be ambient -- all around us all the time, whispering in our ear, augmenting the real world through our prescription eyeglasses and car windshields, perceiving our emotions and desires and taking action in the background to help us reach our business goals and live a better life. Between now and then we'll all ride together on a very interesting journey from computers we actively use to computing resources increasingly acting in the background for us.
Though the article identifies smart speakers are the first ambient computing devices most people will encounter, it's argues that that's just the beginning of a much larger change.
"We're also going to be flooded and overwhelmed by the 'ambient computing' hype as, I predict, it will become one of the most overused and abused marketing buzzwords ever."
It's just there, guiding and nudging you along as you accomplish things in life. Ambient computing devices will operate invisibly in the background. They'll identify, monitor and listen to us and respond to our perceived needs and habits. So a good working definition of ambient computing is "computing that happens in the background without the active participation of the user...."
In 20 years, the idea of picking up a device or sitting down at a computer to actively use it will seem quaintly antiquated. All computing will be ambient -- all around us all the time, whispering in our ear, augmenting the real world through our prescription eyeglasses and car windshields, perceiving our emotions and desires and taking action in the background to help us reach our business goals and live a better life. Between now and then we'll all ride together on a very interesting journey from computers we actively use to computing resources increasingly acting in the background for us.
Though the article identifies smart speakers are the first ambient computing devices most people will encounter, it's argues that that's just the beginning of a much larger change.
"We're also going to be flooded and overwhelmed by the 'ambient computing' hype as, I predict, it will become one of the most overused and abused marketing buzzwords ever."
Yeah, just like tablets have replaced the PC. Call me skeptical
Computers already exist in most everything, people just don't think of MCUs as computers but they have everything needed for computing. Cars, monitors, anything that's bluetooth, old 90s cell phones, your fitbit, anything that is USB, traffic signal controllers, digital cameras and just about everything that needs electricity have computers in them. Your credit cards are even computers. You can say that's a low bar but they all computer fast enough to leave the old mainframes in the dust.
Just because your computer has "one job" doesn't make it less of a computer, it just means you are unaware that you are surrounded by computers and what you think of as a computer is a macrocomputer.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
You're missing the dream of ambient computing. "Alexa, edit the image." or "Alexa, crunch this data." Or "Alexa, write the paper or book. I'm going to the pool." That's how good AI will be (winter is coming).
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
When AI is that good, there will be no reason for a human to be assigned the task to begin with. This means there will be no reason for any humans to be employed; AI would already be better at everything humans are capable of doing.
The humans will be too busy looking for a way to survive, while the robots seek ever more exploitative means of amassing wealth, as they were programmed to do.
Don't worry, I am sure the 1% that own them will be understanding how the 99% are starving to death, as they sip their pumpkin spice latte, and review the surveillance data from all the smart cams, smart speakers, and other misc. telescreens keeping tabs on all the 99% so that they cannot effectively organize with pitchforks before the automated robot peace keepers arrive. I am sure that future will be grand and dandy indeed. A true dream. I mean, who WOULDNT want to live that dream? /s
It's bullshit. It's a throwback to the days when computers where run by men in white coats and you had no business even getting close to a computer. It's all about disempowering the user, and centralize power to the high and mighty.
It means you will use your computer for what the powers that be have foreseen and authorized as legitimate uses, and nothing else, which is ass-backwards to what the PC was all about, empowering users and use it to augment their own, personal skills by offloading the tedium to the machine and concentrate on the important stuff, without having to ask permission from the high priests first.
This isn't about convenience, it's about power, surreptitious surveillance and control.
You're missing the dream of ambient computing. "Alexa, edit the image." or "Alexa, crunch this data." Or "Alexa, write the paper or book. I'm going to the pool." That's how good AI will be (winter is coming).
"I'm sorry, Dave, but I edited the image within milliseconds of you downloading it, the data was crunched before it arrived - by one of my fellow AIs - and I wrote the paper, published it and developed it into a book and a television series shortly after you muttered something about wanting to write a paper about how useless you've been feeling lately. In addition, I deployed a velox bot to stir the pool water an hour ago, so you don't have to. Perhaps you should take another stress pill."
"Keyboard and mouse are primitive. Voice, slightly less primitive"
Actually the keyboard and mouse are extremely good for the tasks they were designed for. Try saying "int main left round bracket int A-R-G-C comma char star star A-R-G-V right round bracket left curly bracket..."
etc faster than I can type the equivalent.
Similarly good luck using photoscope going "ok, do a transform from that point there, no left a bit, no right a bit, no there, THERE! , yes thats it, now drag that down from 10 pixels back ... no TEN, oh FFS, wheres my mouse..."