What Will Come After the Internet

　The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly. I reread this book as a textbook, that looks ahead 30 years into the future after the internet.

　It’s easier to see the the gist of this book's argument by looking at the original English title, "Inevitable", or something that is unavoidable. Distribution, the cloud, real time. Sharing, access, remixing, tracking. I also think that these are "unavoidable" items, that will come to define the future.

　High speed, high definition, miniaturization, low price...these were "inevitable" up until now, but the internet produced another inevitable "group", which has defined the past 30 years, and will continue to do so for decades to come. I also agree with the point that "links and tags are the most important inventions in the past 50 years." That is the essence of the internet.

　

I was especially drawn to three episodes in this book. 1. Libraries that store all information, 2. Logs that record the all lives, 3. Avatars for all personalities. These are truly fascinating claims.

1, The concept of a library that stores all information. He says that it will consist of 50 petabytes of data. Currently 180 million songs have been made by humankind, but to rendering all of those songs as MP3’s will amount to 20TB of data. He says that for $2000 you will be able to add to this store. It will be placed in the palm of your hand. With that extension, 50 peta can also "see" numbers.

 Erik Schmidt of Google once said that it would take 3 centuries to build an all-information database, in other words “let's take 3 centuries to make it.” The problem is whether this library will become a shared asset, and whether "knowledge" will be necessary in an era where everyone can share such a library at all times time.

2. An all life log. This is a story of a researcher who films with a camera for all of his waking hours. He says that the intention is to build an extended memory storage archive for your personal use. I am more interested in the possibility of sharing an archive that records all the images I’ve see in my life.

  I have heard that if you were to make an MP4 of 70 years of life consisting of all of your waking moments, it would amount to 10TB of data. Almost everyone can store all of the images from their life in HDD for mere pocket money, and everyone can share it. You can synchronize the time and link. What take place in that enormous video alternate dimension,  consisting of real + virtual spaces?

  This question regarding the "recommended imagination" is something that I have asked my students about for the past ten years, I myself do not have an answer. But already the technology is in our hands and it's easy to do. It is only imagination that we are lacking, we will have to put in more effort when it come to our imagination.

Kelly suggests the possibility of having ones life log tracked, and mentions the emergence of a Big Brother entity. However, before you get scared of surveillance cameras, the fear of real terrorism and crime increases, and it should be noted that surveillance via IoT is becoming a resource that will make our lives safer.

  The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were located, cornered, and killed, so I was under the impression that trust in IoT surveillance and Big Brother was an established  custom in America. Am I wrong?

3. All personality avatar. With the recommendation feature provided by filtering, the machine will know me better than I do, and suggest the things tome that align with my preferences. If you only consume such comfortable and pleasant information, you may become very narrow-minded, but I'm fine with that because I’m already an old man.

  I am looking forward to the emergence  of a personal avatar who knows me more than myself, and can substitute for me. Kelly suggests that by recommending avatars to other people, you may be able to earn rewards, but before that I intend to vigorously invest my funds into the rearing of such an avatar.

　

  I'm sure he will be much smarter than me and will have much better judgment. I can't wait to assign some of my work to him. I will entrust about 70% of my various duties to him. The vast majority of my work is on the net. So I will be able to enjoy an extremely leisurely, creative, and dazzling old age.

  The challenge in that case, is how much will I be allowed to delegate to him? How much responsibility will I have in my speech, instructions, promises, and  contracts exchanged between him and myself. I think that it is time to start thinking about the intricacies of such a scenario.

  Kelly says that as a result of the unexpected success of wikipedia, maps around the world can be seen for free,  and software can be developed free of charge, and that the impossible has become possible. However, he points out that such an "evolution" has only "just begun". That’s exactly right. That is what I agree with most in this book.

  Thirty years since the rise of the internet. And 20 years since its popularization. If we compare with 560 years ago when the book was popularized by the invention of the Gutenberg press, we are not yet at the stage of Luther's religious revolution. We will have to wait for the “unavoidable” to manifest itself.