----- Original Message ----- From: "Kelley" <kwalker2 at gte.net>
>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1621000/1621936.stm>
>
> <snip>
> [ From the end djf]
>
> Future of computing
>
> Q: Not all countries survive now and not all companies survive. What
does
> MIT's Media Lab need to do in the future?
>
> A: We have a very large, relatively unknown biotech programme going
on. We
> have the world's authority on quantum computing, we have lots of
people who
> walk around with little white lab jackets on ordering chemicals.
Maybe some
> TV programmes will be sent in vitamin pills. Just as you now swallow
> Vitamin E you might also get the news. I don't know.
======= Has he been channelling Timothy Leary for a long time or is this new?
>
> Q: One of things you do is to predict the future. You say that
eventually
> there will be more Barbie dolls connected to the internet than
Americans.
> Why would they want to be, and beyond that are there any other
visions of
> the future?
>
> A: First of all, put that in context that the largest amount of
> semi-conductor material to flow into the home will undoubtedly be
through
> toys. It's not TV sets; it's not refrigerators; it's not PCs; it's
not
> handsets - it's going to be toys. The reason I use that Barbie doll
example
> is that the Barbie doll has to be connected in order to get stories,
in
> order to get your content.
========= That's it, get the kiddies ready for their Borgization via the next iteration of cyber-capital.
>
> If you are not making content for Barbie dolls today, you should
start real
> soon.
>
> So, when we talk about Barbie dolls being online, it's part of a
very
> general and I think a very important change. The next 10 years isn't
the
> difference between bits and atoms. The next 10 years is about how
bits and
> atoms come together; how do more bits get embedded in more atoms
right down
> to grains of sugar?
>
> I'm not talking about refrigerators with microprocessors in them, I
am
> talking about right down to the molecular level where you start to
put more
> computation into things and that merger - bits and atoms - as they
come
> together is the caricature we see in the Barbie doll. This is a very
> serious and important trend.
========== K's sex joke aside, aren't molecules, atoms, space-time etc. computations already?
Ian