The Digital Age
All prognostications regarding the future ages of computer connectivity agree
that it will involve vast networks of
interconnected computers able to store and share vast amounts of information
quickly and easily. For example, The
Information Age envisioned by Harlan
Cleveland and John Naisbitt sees
information as a commodity that can be shaped, stored, and sold. The Virtual/Shocked Age posited by Edith Weiner and Alvin Toffler looks to the reshaping of
society based on new and customized ways to use and distribute information. The Aquarian Age may promote computer
software-based opportunities for mind-enhancement according to Judith Hooper and Dick Teresi. The Telespheral Age posited by FM-2030 champions the opportunities for
ubiquitous telecommunications that allow us to maintain constant contact with
information. And The Transhuman Age suggests that
humans may, in the future, become information.
What we may see, finally, as well as experience, is what Nicholas Negroponte refers to as The
Digital Age. Negroponte predicts that the dominant parts of human interaction
and communication will be encoded into digital bits and bytes, computer coded
instructions that can be flashed around the globe allowing us to facilitate
interconnection and the personalization of information we send and receive.
This transition from atoms to bits will produce many worthwhile results. For
example, he says,
Your telephone won't ring indiscriminately; it will receive, sort,
and perhaps respond to your incoming calls like a well-trained English butler.
Mass media will be redefined by systems for transmitting and receiving
personalized information and entertainment. Schools will change to become more
like museums and playgrounds for children to assemble ideas and socialize with
other children all over the world. (8)
Building on this idea, Philip
Elmer-Dewitt says "technology watchers foresee a world filled with
multisensual media, smart roads and robots that are almost alive (39). . . .
Fantastic new opportunities are sure to come. The hard part will be deciding
which ones to pursue and which to bypass" (41).
"The Seven Ages of Computer Connectivity" (The Digital Age)
by John F. Barber