Web 3.0

This blog entry got me thinking: just what do I want the computerverse to do for me?

Some thoughts:

• GUIs - a 2.5D visual + speech alternative: no monitor required, ideally
  
• crashes - failure should be graceful, biologic-like
• cost - a fixed price subscription, UK TV licence style
• malleable - a user-centric meta-config that "just works"
• not just my (sometimes perverse) slave, but my (usually trustworthy) servant: a cyber PA.
  

At some point there is going to be a melding of the web and robotics. That will be a true revolution (unlike web 2.0) - not because of the robo-dog fetching the newspaper sort of thing, but because of the processing paradigm shift it will force upon us programmers.

Currently, every bit is vital. A single error in the reading or processing of anything usually results in a program crash. This makes the current computerverse incredibly fragile (only barely 'fit', in an evolutionary sense). It's also one of the major problems robotics seeks to overcome.

Data from physical sensors is inaccurate. Precision comes from the statistical
processing of the output of one or more sensors over a period of time. Us programmers are going to have to learn to manage vast datasets, every single member of which has to be treated as erroneous.

But the payoff will be huge. The web and the computer will become "just another social contact". Instead of thinking "what application can I use to...?" I can concentrate on the task at hand, expecting the software to adapt-and-learn as we go.

An OOTOMH example:

When visiting a strange town, Web 2.0 enables me to view a map of the place, overlay it with the locations of any local Balti restaurants, and check for any comments thereon by previous patrons. Web 3.0 would avoid the GUI-gumph. "Book me a Balti by taxi for 8:30-ish, budget £50" would suffice. Your personal cyber-PA would automatically "ring round" the best reviewed spots concentrically, having first checked the menu for options you like or haven't tried yet etc. When you've done, it will ask for your opinion of the meal, the decor, etc.

Attractive thought... and a dangerous dependency!

The A.E.H. Cometh!

There are more products in more categories, and more variations thereof, than ever before. Which means more adverts competing for our attention.

Once upon a time (like, a decade ago) it was relatively easy to "get the message out". TV was a captive audience of many millions. Ongoing sagas, such as the Bisto family and the Gold Blend couple, became part of mainstream culture. Today, TV audiences are falling, and technology helps us filter out the adverts. Doom. The 'Net is awash with adverts - but technology helps us filter them out. More doom. People are busier than ever, spending more time and energy working and playing, interacting and chilling. Extra doom. Advertisers have infiltrated blogs, Second Life, etc and so on; but technology helps us filter them out. Only the least intrusive and most relevant 'verts seem to work (e.g. Google Adwords). But time and technology wait for no one: even the mighty Google is vulnerable.

The cost of sale is rising. So is the value of my time. These trends are related. Each day, despite flashblock and noscript and not watching TV and only listening to BBC radio and working from home, hundreds of 'verts pass before my eyes. Discovering what my choice of shaving foam says about my personality is not high on my agenda. Nor, being a bloke, am I worried about period pains. Adverting is coming dangerously close to spamming, as far as I'm concerned.

I use flashblock, as unwanted animations distract me from pursuing the purpose for which I visited the page. I use noscript for security. I don't watch TV because a) I don't have time! and b) I object to paying a subscription for a service where a quarter of every hour is adverts. I only listen to BBC radio because a) the programs are less tacky, and b) there are no adverts. (Working from home is simply a bonus.)

Are we approaching an Advertising Event Horizon? Will the cost of sale become so high that only products that don't advertise are affordable? Will producers start to pay us to be exposed to their wares? Might I one day be able to go along to a, for example, "Electric Shaver Trial" event where, for an entrance fee, I can try out different shavers and choose one ("half your money back if you don't find what you want").

The world changeth, and the people too ...

A Fax of Life

We are all uncultured. Examples

• more classic fiction was written in the 19C than there is time to read in a single lifetime
• more classic movies were produced in the 20C than ditto
• more classic blogs are written daily than ditto

Ergo the "common" culture is shrinking. And our personal cultures are fragmenting as the broadcast media (print, radio, TV) lose relevance.

There is a new provincialism abroad, based not on geography but domain: e.g. World of Warcraft has it's own dialect, as does Second Life, as does etc. etc.. (Need a new word: domainialism?)