Digital Me

Rarely are we afforded the luxury of watching history unfold before our eyes. The history and evolution of the telephone is one notable instance.

Your Grandmother’s phone number was probably four digits. Then, a phone was for talking. It was a large, heavy, black thing that was securely attached by a large wire to the wall. It was used to talk to family, your doctor, and the occasional police or fire department emergency. Long distance – outside your town – was expensive and people kept long distance calls to a minimum. People listened to Harry Truman on the radio and gas was 15 cents a gallon, ten cents a pack for cigarettes.

No one then would have foreseen that the basic instrument would evolve into a hand held, wireless mobile instrument and then become a PDA, iPod, Video Camera and TV capture and Play-back, Stills Camera, Internet Access, Electronic Wallet, and GPS capable of communications and entertainment on a world wide scale.

The two-generation leap forward in capabilities is astonishing but the next human generation will see changes that will make science fiction stories seem sedate. While you are trying to get comfortqable with that jump, consider the improvements that will likely happened to this mobile instrument.

The biggest change will be society’s move from written and stills images to full motion, color, and voice video communication. You will be on someone’s TV constantly, particularly when you are in public. A few more of the likely capabilities and applications are:

• Video everywhere, every time, every place, worldwide
• Financial services from credit card functions to securities trading
• Security clearance verification of every kind
• Government certifications for Social Security, Medicare, and Driver’s Licenses
• Purchases profiling and history
• Travel profiling and history
• Food purchase analysis
• Health history and continus health analysis
• Real-time health testing
• Medication dispensary and scheduling
• Personal safety – law enforcement assistance and EMF
• Real-time visual preview of areas of interest to be visited
• Reservations for food, travel and lodging
• Restaurant and Store locations
• Family and Friends location and proximity alerts
• Postage and shipping alerts

This list is woefully short and inadequate but it should start you thinking about how important this instrument will become.

Said another way, the palm-top form factor is the Super-computer of tomorrow and in combination with the Internet represents the largest leap forward in personal services in the history of the planet! This is not just another step but one that is millions of times more powerful than it’s printed, voice or video predecessors.

The reason is the Internet; the repository of much of the knowledge of the human race, available, accessible, 24/7.

Think about Internet another way. For all practical purposes Internet holds most of the answers to most traditional tests. Teachers are now face with teaching students how to ask intelligent questions.

Society will evolve toward a system with the smartest and most educated and aggressive people on top. Most people will have the financial capability of purchasing a mobile phone. The differences will come from those that know how to use it and understand its interrelationship with people, markets, and financial markets.

Two extremes will push the boundaries of today’s values … the wealthy will get much richer and the elderly will get much older. Why? The increased wireless communication will let the smartest gain wealth and grow it constantly while maintaining a healthy well-monitored lifestyle. It is your digital persona.

For most purposes, transactions and contacts, your digital representation will be the real you and the representation most people will ever know or encounter. So give the information you put on the Internet some real thought. Mistakes, lies, and misrepresentations have a good chance of coming back to haunt you.

Compose your digital persona with care and consideration for future situations and evaluation by many levels of society and security.

Lisa Wellman and Terry Wellman

Powered by CityMax.com