Difference between revisions of "Virtual Society: 2015"

From ScenarioThinking
Jump to navigation Jump to search
 
(8 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
The acceptence of biometrics had grown substantially up to 2015. Almost everyone now had a biometric scanner of some sort and used it to identify themselves on the internet. Some e-commerce sites would now not even do business with anyone who did not use such a system.  The same was true when it came to most employers.
WiMAX became predominant thanks to Mobile IP, which seamlessly linked all the various standards of recent years. Now, a device made for a home 802.11 network could also roam onto a WiMAX network or a 3G network. This effectively filled the gaps in WiMAX coverage. More mergers took place as Internet providers tried to create complete coverage worldwide through various technologies, with a heavy concentration on WiMAX.


Fully automated factories were taking over.  Increased education levels in Asia and Latin America had corresponding rising wages had made the supply of cheap labour scarce.  Most companies were automating in some way.  Many were automating entirely.  Those industries that still relied on human labour were increasingly moving to sub-Saharan Africa, the last bastion of plentiful cheap labour.  However, most assumed rising educational levels there would bring this region on par with the rest of the world in another 15-20 years. 


People today worked, learned, communicated and corresponded primarily over the internet. Ubiquitous computing was the reality.
Smart appliances and wired homes became commercially viable and were widely adopted. Air conditioners could be turned on and off remotely. Coffee makers and alarms clocks worked together to make sure the coffee was ready right after the owner awoke. Nanotechnology was also popular and commercially viable. Jewellery joined watches as connected devices. Tiny computers were woven into clothing to monitor the vital signs of older people. In case of an emergency, paramedics and doctors would be instantly alerted. Everyone now had a small, portable biometric scanner of some sort (e.g. iris, face, voice, fingerprint, DNA) and used it for online identification. New uses for nanites emerged daily, repairing injuries inside the human body and even cleaning the home. Researchers were constantly finding new applications for nanotechnology. Ubiquitous computing was now a reality in 2015.


New uses for nanites were emerging every day.  Already nanites were going deep inside the human body to repair injuries.  New scrubbing nanites had just been introduced to help clean the home.  People were constantly finding new uses for nanotechnology.


However, the transition had not gone without problems. As factories automated and white collar labour dominated, a growing underclass of those not able to get the proper education was proving a strain in many countries. The loss of privacy was lamented by some. However, in the end, most agreed that the transition to a virtual society had on the whole been a positive development.
MIT announced it would become the first major university to shut its doors and go entirely online. That year, the university admitted its final class for its bricks-and-mortar programme, numbering only 300 students compared to the over 60,000 enrolled in its online programs. Other universities were expected to follow suit.
 
 
As a consequence of the virtual office effect, jobs no longer needed to be concentrated in large cities. People started to move to the countryside for a better quality of life and technology was directly responsible for making this possible. The real estate bubble worldwide burst as demand for hot urban real estate evaporated almost overnight. Many financial institutions suffered to the point of endangering the entire world economy due to loan defaults against urban real estate that were now valued at only a fraction of their original cost.  
 
[[Call me Carlos]]

Latest revision as of 11:15, 23 December 2004

WiMAX became predominant thanks to Mobile IP, which seamlessly linked all the various standards of recent years. Now, a device made for a home 802.11 network could also roam onto a WiMAX network or a 3G network. This effectively filled the gaps in WiMAX coverage. More mergers took place as Internet providers tried to create complete coverage worldwide through various technologies, with a heavy concentration on WiMAX.


Smart appliances and wired homes became commercially viable and were widely adopted. Air conditioners could be turned on and off remotely. Coffee makers and alarms clocks worked together to make sure the coffee was ready right after the owner awoke. Nanotechnology was also popular and commercially viable. Jewellery joined watches as connected devices. Tiny computers were woven into clothing to monitor the vital signs of older people. In case of an emergency, paramedics and doctors would be instantly alerted. Everyone now had a small, portable biometric scanner of some sort (e.g. iris, face, voice, fingerprint, DNA) and used it for online identification. New uses for nanites emerged daily, repairing injuries inside the human body and even cleaning the home. Researchers were constantly finding new applications for nanotechnology. Ubiquitous computing was now a reality in 2015.


MIT announced it would become the first major university to shut its doors and go entirely online. That year, the university admitted its final class for its bricks-and-mortar programme, numbering only 300 students compared to the over 60,000 enrolled in its online programs. Other universities were expected to follow suit.


As a consequence of the virtual office effect, jobs no longer needed to be concentrated in large cities. People started to move to the countryside for a better quality of life and technology was directly responsible for making this possible. The real estate bubble worldwide burst as demand for hot urban real estate evaporated almost overnight. Many financial institutions suffered to the point of endangering the entire world economy due to loan defaults against urban real estate that were now valued at only a fraction of their original cost.

Call me Carlos

Retrieved from "https://www.scenariothinking.org/index.php?title=Virtual_Society:_2015&oldid=12636"