How will the Growing Web impact your future, your childrens future?

The web is growing at an exponential rate as the result of Moore’s Law (Moore)[i], this creates an inverse proportion to the given “Cost” of information. Ie; as processing power doubles so too does storage, bandwidth, and all other related technology. A result of this is the reduction in cost of all technology; thus what once could host only 1000 web pages may now host 10,000, and thus the ability to host increases exponentially every 18 months.

Information and Knowledge wants to be free as a result of its very nature as stated by Stwart Brand (Clarke)[ii] This results in instantaneous availability of mass amounts of information. This is the reason we now refer to the present as the “Information Age”. (Ulmer)[iii]

We may easily fill volumes in regards to what is now available and how this impacts everyday life however for a look to the future and a prediction I foresee is the advent of wearable computing and communications as seen here with MIT’s Media Lab’s sixth sense.(Maes)[iv] Or by the advent of wearable computing.

The current issue of ready access to this information has brought about some other industries as a result; these include the online search engine, source verification engines, semi automated human resource modules and fully automated text based search function for every industry from electrical engineering to auto manufacturing.

As the volume of information grows simply being able to navigate this volume effectively becomes a life skill. We will require intelligent systems that fully leverage mammalian models to ensure that we can understand the segments of information we choose to digest. (Rodriguez et al.)[v]

The impacts this volume of information and it’s access to communications has already changed the way we wage war; (USAF)[vi], how we shop, how we research medicine and how we make life choices conserving everything from our education to daily consumption. Thus the volume of information enriches everyone’s life by allowing each individual to delve into their respective interests and communicate instantaneously around the globe.

The impact this will have on my children’s life will be far greater than mine; as a first generation information age person myself; I am duly biased. I have had access to the web for most of my adult life; I cannot imagine the impact this information would have on my children.

I plan on ensuring that they know how to use the web, and that they become selective consumers of “Good” media; ideally I’d like to teach my children how to avoid the various propaganda, pornography and other wasteful entertainment online; however by arming them with the tools to recognize the good from the bad I hope that the World Wide Web becomes an even more valuable resource for the future generations than it is today.

Pandora's Box was never so big or so cluttered.

References

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[i] Moore, Gordon (Intel, 1965) Moore’s Law [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/ (Accessed on June 9^th 2009)

[ii] Clarke, Roger (Xamax Consultancy, 2001) Information Wants to be Free [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/IWtbF.html (Accessed on June 9th 2009)

[iii] Ulmer, Dave (Ulmer, December 23^rd 2006) Beyond the Information Age [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://www.vias.org/beyinfoage/index.html (Accessed on June 9th 2009)

[iv] Maes, Pattie (MIT, TED, February 2009) A sixth sense Lecutre [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html (Accessed on June 9th 2009)

[v] Rodriguez, Marko A.; (Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, Belguim, June 2006) The Hyper-Cortex of Human Collective-Intelligence Systems [Online] PDF Document, Available from: http://arxiv.org/ftp/cs/papers/0506/0506024.pdf (Accessed on June 9th 2009)

[vi] N.a. (USAF, April 18^th 2008) AFCYBER works to define scope of new 450th Electronic Warfare Wing [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://thesop.org/index.php?article=10755 (Accessed on June 9^th 2009)