On the early morning drive to work, turning east onto Grand View Parkway from M-72, I am surrounded by four or five cars each with a driver talking on a cell phone. At that moment, there is a siren sounding behind me as lights shimmer on West Bay. Everyone keeps talking as they slow up and move their cars a little to the side as the ambulance passes.
In my mind's eye, I see the thousands of people with cell phones soon to be miniaturized even further. Everyone wearing their small phones in oversized buttons; everyone calling people with a voice command, no longer worried about punching in numbers. Soon, you will only think the words and actions to begin the conversation and gather more voices in your head.
Now the thousands are free to think connections with others, two or three or more at once, talking non-stop, unimpeded as the days slip by. Not so very different from what we see now, as people drive by or walk by connected to their phones in every public place. Talking with someone not present, we are distracted and not fully in this place or that.
Of course, we will soon have a monitor in our glasses or a short boom to sweep in front of an eye, so we can talk and see another as our days proceed. Images and voices will be with us constantly to accompany us through the day. Through the lonely streets, into the crowded and impersonal mall, or work place, or onto the forest trail, we will see and talk to those most dear, constantly. And when the government agrees that our insecurity in solitude is too great to bear, they will look in on us.
Thousands of computer trackers will assist us through our days and keep us safe. The voice may interrupt and calmly say, "Turn left at the next light to avoid a traffic slow down." And in another part of the city, the hands of another person gone mad will be held by the police who have seen it all develop - responding to the call of a distant computer monitoring the thousands so well connected and un-alone.
Joe VanderMeulen is the Executive Director of the Land Information Access Association.
