Networks & CommunicationsNetworks & Communications

Social, Moral, Economic Effects

Part 5

Trends

What you Need to Investigate:

• New or existing technologies that look like potential winners in

the future

• Perhaps the technology may seem far-fetched now, but with advancements in science and

technology will be more practical in the future

How will networks & communications affect our

lives in the future?

Will networked systems affect the way we work?

Will networked systems affect the way we live?

Will we have more or less privacy?

Will our lives be easier or harder?

What about the planet and it’s diminishing resources –

the pollution of our environment?

>>> Future Trends

• Here is a list of some technologies that look promising at the moment

Some Promising Technologies

Expert Systems Virtual Reality Nanotechnology

Genetic EngineeringSmart Fibres/ClothesSmart Houses

Can you add Can you add to this list? to this list?

Expert Systems

An expert system is “an intelligent computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to solve problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solutions.” – Edward Feigenbaum

An expert system is “a system that users human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems that ordinarily require human expertise.” – Efraim Turban and Jay Aronson 

Can you add Can you add to this list? to this list? • What is an expert system?

Medical DiagnosisMedical Diagnosis Imagine a computer that has been programmed to

diagnose you if you are ill. The computer would have to ask you a series of questions about your symptoms and use it’s programming to diagnose your illness

Whale Identification Whale Identification Go here if you have spotted a whale on your travels

and need it identified. (Actually what we have here is a demo expert system that asks

you a series of questions and gives you a possible identification.)

Expert Systems

• What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality

A computer generated,multi-sensory information program which fools the user into…

believing they are somewhere else

seeing something which is not really there

Isn’t this where you Isn’t this where you have to wear sensors have to wear sensors and a helmet thing? and a helmet thing?

How about…How about…

Virtual Reality

• Learning to drive a car• Learning to hang glide• Practicing doctors & nurses

using a virtual patient• Creating virtual houses –

architects would like to do that

Virtual reality is being used in education too.

Here it is being used as a tool to introduce students to the bonding and structure of molecules.

The students can feel the molecular bonds

Virtual Reality

Nanotechnology

NanotechnologyNanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at the atomic level. The manipulation is…

carried out in a precise waycarried out for a purpose

Is this something Is this something to do with tiny to do with tiny little robots?little robots?

• What is nanotechnology?

Imagine that we …Imagine that we …

• had tiny nanorobots that patrolled our body looking for diseased cells and killing them

• could get tiny nanorobots to build a car or a spaceship for us, using raw materials that we give them. The car or spaceship would be built atom by atom and would have no joints. Think how strong such a vehicle would be.

Nanotechnology

By controlling matter at an atomic level, it is becoming practical to create tiny structures that carry out a specific function.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is concerned with building structures that are tiny - in nanometers, or billionths of a meter.

In some cases you can imagine miniature In some cases you can imagine miniature robots or computersrobots or computers

We now have synthetic ‘viral like entities’ – used to deliver certain proteins to cells

NanotechnologyNanotechnology is being used in medicine and pharmaceuticals

Synthetic neural cells are being made

Nanobiology

NanotechnologyNanotechnology is being researched by the manufacturing industry, in physics, by the military and many other fields.

To help soldiers survive, the U.S. Army is developing a new generation of combat uniforms using tiny, doctored fibres that let air through while blocking toxins from chemical and biological weapons.

The Polymer Science Group is investigating a laser driven Nano-Motor

Nanotechnology

• What is Genetic Engineering?

Genetic Engineerin

g

The manipulation of genes, DNA, proteins and other organic molecules.

Remember Dolly the Remember Dolly the sheep? sheep? What about all that fuss What about all that fuss over genetically modified over genetically modified food.food.

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genetic Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genetic information encoded by DNAinformation encoded by DNA

This technology is used for…

• Basic research on gene structure and function• Production of useful proteins • Genetic manipulation of plants and animals• Medical diagnosis and treatment• Genetic Engineering of Food• Biowarfare

Used in forensic analysis of scene-of-crime samples, paternity disputes, medical diagnosis, genome mapping and sequencing, and the biotechnology industry.

From the very first milk you suckle, your food is genetically engineered. The natural world is completely made over, invaded and distorted beyond recognition by genetically engineered trees, plants, animals, insects, bacteria, and viruses, both planned and run amok.

Illnesses are very different too. Most of the old ones are gone or

mutated into new forms, yet most people are suffering from genetically engineered pathogens, either used in biowarfare, or mistakenly released into the environment, or recombined in toxic form from originally harmless but rapidly mutating engineered organisms.

Genetic engineering is so commonplace, you start your own simple experiments with it in elementary school.

Quoted from by Ron Epstein, Institute for World Religions & San Francisco State University

http://www.greens.org/s-r/20/20-01.html.

Genetic Engineering

Is this the future?

What will it be like in a future world where your life started with your parents designing your genes? In addition to screening for unwanted genetic diseases, they select for sex, height, eye-, hair-, and skin-color.

Pressured by the current social fads, they may also choose genes whose overall functions are not clearly understood but are rumored to be connected with temperament, intelligence, mindfulness, and perhaps sexual orientation. You may be genetically engineered to be an enhanced clone of one of your parents, or of a celebrity whose genetic heritage your parents have purchased at great price.

If your parents are poor, they may be paid to design you with genes tailored for a particular occupation, together with a pre-birth contract for future employment.

Quoted from by Ron Epstein, Institute for World Religions & San Francisco State University

http://www.greens.org/s-r/20/20-01.html.

Genetic Engineering

Likely or not?

• What are smart houses?

Smart Houses

Read on….

House with huge House with huge IQ’s?IQ’s?What do you think? What do you think?

Smart Houses

An Example Cyber Dream House An Example Cyber Dream House

The entire space is wired so everything is virtually at your fingertips.

"If you have a party, and want to control your music sound, you would basically be able to press [a few central] switches instead of walking around the whole flat. In this high-tech home, even the taps take commands, with different controls for different amounts of water, so water consumption is cut by 40 percent.

The Internet fridge stores recipes and makes up a shopping list as you run out of food. A central control panel gives the homeowner access to lighting, appliances and even water temperature.   Need extra room? No need to look for a new place. The walls of this cyber home are able to be dismantled and installed in different areas of the residence. A partition can be moved to make a living room smaller or perhaps making a separate dining room or a separate study for the children as they're growing up.

Quote from here.

• What are smart clothes?

‘Smart’ Clothes

Read on…

Clothes that are Clothes that are smarter than us?smarter than us?What do you What do you think?think?

Intelligent Intelligent textiles' and smart fibressmart fibres will be used in a myriad of ways, from medical applications to fashion and sporting clothing.

For instance, new anti-microbial textiles may reduce infection rates in hospitals, whilst temperature-monitoring and adjusting textiles may help women experiencing hormone-related body temperature fluctuations.

Other innovations on the horizon are touch-sensitive fabrics and even carpets that change colour

Customised clothing will be increasingly common in the future, using body-scanning computers to create 'virtual wardrobes' from which garments will then be manufactured to an exact fit for individual customers.

Quoted from here

Smart Clothes

Some examples of smart clothessmart clothes…

• Music t-shirts: they allow to the wearer listen his/her favourite music stored on a chip, or to tune into the favourite radio station. They can also have moving images on the back.

• Businessman garments: which have a microphone incorporated in the collar and a display and a personal digital assistant in the sleeve.

• Solar energy recharge jacket: it includes some tools for creative playing and communication, such as a camera, a display and a microphone.

Massage kimono: it gives a soothing massage to the wearer that can be regulated depending on the level of relaxation desired by the user.

Quoted from here

Smart Clothes

Pioneers of the " smart clothessmart clothes " concept defines intelligent clothing as the combination of mobile multimedia technology with wireless communication and portable computers integrated into clothing.

• How about cyber technology?

What Else?

That’s one for you to find out about…

I’ve no idea I’ve no idea what this is.what this is.

• How about Robotics and AI?

What Else?

Another one for you to find out about…

AI means AI means artificial artificial intelligence.intelligence.

• How do I go about investigating the How do I go about investigating the future trends question? future trends question?

Future Future TrendsTrends There are a lot of There are a lot of

interesting new interesting new technologies technologies emerging.emerging.

The InternetThe InternetUse a good search engine such as Google with appropriate search terms Use a good search engine such as Google with appropriate search terms such as such as new technology futurenew technology future

Try searching using the specific terms, e.g. Try searching using the specific terms, e.g. nanotechnologynanotechnology Save any web pages of interest for reading at your leisure.Save any web pages of interest for reading at your leisure.Don’t forget to keep a record of web addresses for pages you save.Don’t forget to keep a record of web addresses for pages you save.

Networks - Social, Moral, Economic Networks - Social, Moral, Economic EffectsEffects

The EndThe End

Networks - Social, Moral, Economic Networks - Social, Moral, Economic EffectsEffects

Future Trends