A common exercise in the study
of communication and technology is the creation of scenarios for the
future. Much like the science fiction novel you read, these scenarios
extrapolate from the past and present to think about how things will
evolve in the future. Such scenarios serve as more than predictions.
They often influence thinking about new technologies and become self
fulfilling. As Dodge and Kitchen note, the work of William Gibson and
Neal Stephenson has inspired some of the very innovations in cyberspace
that we have discussed in this class.
Today you will work with a group
and apply what you have learned in this class to create a scenario about
geography, technology, and telecommunication in the year 2056. Your
scenario should be in the form of a “day in the life” of an average
person. It should not be overly utopian or dystopian. Consider the
most likely outcomes of present day trends that you have learned about
in this class. Things to think about include:
- Where will an average person in the future live? What will the
structure of their family be like?
- How will people use communication
technology in their homes? What will it look like? How will it
connect them with people in the neighborhood, in the city, in their
region, and across the world?
- What new entertainment technologies
will emerge and how will they change the nature of entertainment?
Will technology become more interactive like “ractives”? What kinds
of media will teenagers produce on their home technological devices?
(And what will be the nature of these devices?)
- How will the nature of work
change as computing technology gets more powerful and more sophisticated?
What kinds of jobs will people have in the future that they did
not have today? Where will jobs be located? Where will the people
doing their jobs be located?
- How will telecommunications
technologies change the architecture of buildings?
- How will cities change in
the future? Will they be more compact? Will they be more spread
out? What new forms of settlement might emerge in response to changing
technologies and communications technologies? What will be the
role of surveillance in the city?
- Will digital divides still
be with us in 50 years? If so, what will the nature of such divides
be?
- What will the state of the
environment be in 50 years? How will technology mediate our experience
of the environment? How will it help us manage the natural environment?
- What will the geopolitical
situation be like in 50 years? Will technological exchange among
countries (if there are indeed countries) be mediated by “feed”
or “seed” technologies? Will there still be a global “war on terror”?
If so what role will technology play in this “war.” If not, what
role did technology play in resolving it?
