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A day in the life - 2010 ADToronto Star Fast Forward section front for May 29/97 Copyright © By Myles White, 1997 Back to Computer Wares directory Back to main article directory
"Good morning, Myles." "Good morning, Frank. Rustle me up some coffee, please." "Coming right up, boss. Are you ready for the morning's mail and news?" "In a minute, Frank. Let me get settled and find my glasses, first." "Oh, I think you'll find them on the hall table, Myles." "Thanks, Frank. It's a typical morning in the White house as my work day starts. Christmas and New Year's celebrations are over and the world is getting back in harness. Wow, 2010! When I was a kid, I never expected to live this long -- into the second decade of the 21st Century -- and the world just keeps getting stranger. Frank? No, he's not my assistant, although he fills many of the roles an assistant would for me. In fact, strictly speaking, he's not a "he," either. He's an "it." Actually, he's my office -- which can be any room in the house that I happen to be occupying at the time. Or through his little wallet-sized brother, he can also be with me when I go out. He could have any name I decide to give him, or no name at all (I know some people who treat their offices like machines -- imagine that!), but I've chosen "Frank" in memory of the first computer I ever built myself. It was tall, had bolts in its neck and an attitude, and I built it late in the lab one night...oh, well, you get the picture. My office today would have astounded me back in the 90's, but it fulfills a dream I used to have. There are no visible wires, not a single keyboard, no mouse, no monitors. Based on technology developed by MIT as early as 1995, data is transmitted from Frank's external receptors to data fibres in the carpets and walls. I can receive text messages and pictures through similar receivers in my shoes, slippers and other clothing. They're transmitted to my glasses if I'm mobile, or if at home, to various "smart" paintings on the walls, to any window pane or directly to a "smart" book with reconfigurable toner (I only have one physical book in the house now, but it's all or any of them I choose). I can give Frank instructions by making the appropriate hand gestures through induction fields in various chairs and tables throughout the house (useful if there's a crowd or you just want some quiet time), but most operations that aren't automatic are voice-controlled. For example, when my coffee cup is empty, Frank will sense it and order the coffee maker in the kitchen to brew another cup -- unless of course, I've just finished my second one, in which case it won't without instructions. It knows my habits and preferences. Using neural net technology that people were fiddling with as early as the late 80's, Frank and his kind haven't achieved full conciousness, yet -- computers still mostly just add real fast, not creatively -- but in his own way, he's about as smart as a bright dog. "Okay, Frank. Let's hear the morning's headlines." "Sure. Do you want general news or industry-specific topics, first, Myles?" "Why don't we start with general news, Frank?" "Okay. There's a report out of Montreal about the arrest of some cigarette traffickers. Three people in custody and a hundred cartons of cigarettes smuggled up from Brazil." "I'll pass on that one, but put in a call to Eddy to make sure he's got some for me, will you?" "You know what the diagnostic program told you, boss. Besides, now that smoking has been made illegal, you could get arrested yourself. Then who'd pay for my electricity?" It's a conspiracy. The medical scanner in my chair and my office are in cahoots. Some days, Frank won't even let me have caffeinated coffee after that medical snitch tells him my blood-caffein level is too high. "Sigh. Never mind, Frank. I'll still pass on that one. What's next?" "Well, that band of Yogic flyers from Halifax who were trying to make it non-stop to Vancouver didn't make it." "Oh? What happened?" "They ran into a headwind over Calgary and crashed into a Reform billboard." "Next?" "Bill Gates got mugged last night." "Really?" "Yeah. Apparently he was wandering around downtown Seattle without his bodyguards and got jumped by three ex-Apple owners who wanted their platform back." "Was he hurt?" "No, just mussed a bit. He triggered the panic button on his wallet PC and the local cops got to him before any damage was done. He says one of them strongly resembled Steve Jobs, but it was too dark to be certain." "How about some industry news, Frank?" "Sure thing. Are you interested in the latest world chess match between IBM's Bigger Blue and Intel/Motorola's Big Momma?" "Not particularly." Paying attention to chess isn't as much fun now that humans have abandoned the game. Since Gary Casparoff (sp?) lost all seven matches to Big Blue in 1999, the challenge sort of went out of it. Fortunately, there's still <italic>Go<italic>. It's unlikely that game will be taken over by gadgets -- particularly in that they're still cleaning up Tokyo after the riots Japanese Go masters caused when NEC tried to develop a Go-playing computer. "I think that's about all the news I can stand for now, Frank. Keep a watching brief on the regular suspects and we can check again later." "Sure, boss." "Any mail?" "There are twenty messages from diehards still trying to upgrade their old 486 and Pentium systems, boss. By the way, what is this 486 people keep writing to you about?" "Before your time, Frank. File them and let your "lost-cause upgrades" subroutine handle them. It can flag me if it hits a question it's never heard before." "Sure thing. There are also ten requests for speaking engagements." "Check my calendar, confirm any to non-profit computer groups and let me know if any of the others actually require me to be there or whether I can do them over the Net with a video conference link, Frank." "No problem." The phone rings and Frank answers. He's programmed to handle most routine calls from telephone sales types, political candidates and public relations agencies. He can discuss my schedule, request products for review and schedule delivery times, as well as logging press conferences and other events I may want to attend. He also has a list of people that I'll always talk to when I'm available. And he does all this in the background without a pause. "Are you ready for your day's schedule, Myles?" "Sure Frank." "You've got a video conference with your editor at the Star in a half-hour, the dentist at 1:00 pm and a 3:00 pm press conference for the release of CorelDRAW 21 during the ComputerArts show at the new Metro Convention Dome." The rest of the morning goes by smoothly. I dictate next week's column on Microsoft's latest hardware specifications for the year 2011 to Frank who automatically checks the facts, spelling, grammar and length, then sends it in. As I leave the house, Frank starts watering the lawn. Using my wallet PC, I unlock my electric car with its infrared key, tell it to head for the dentist's office, then sit back to admire the scenery. With the embedded, computer guide tracks in the streets, manual piloting of cars hasn't been necessary in Toronto for two years. After a short, painless, visit to Dr. Fang (this is, after all, science <italic>fiction<italic>), I'm off to the new Dome. Leaving the car to park itself, I head into the hall. As I pass each booth on the exhibit floor, data from each area travels through my shoes and into my wallet PC for later retrieval. Patterned on IBM's Personal Area Network, first released in early 1997, it files contact information from everyone I meet and with whom I shake hands (the PAN effect uses my body's natural electrical current to power the PC as well as transmitting information to and from me whenever I reach out and touch someone). The press conference turns out as usual. They hype, I puncture, we all end up smiling at the end. I use the wallet PC to take a few pictures and dictate a short story covering the announcement -- all of which go directly to Frank for instant posting at my web site. Thank goodness I don't have to lug huge boxes of software home any more. The new product will be installed in Frank by the time I get back. As I ride home, I muse on this brave new world of ours. People are pretty much doing the same old things. No one has time to read and absorb everything, so there's still work for people like me whose living depends on learning things, then telling other people about them. One difference of course, is that it no longer matters where you live -- at least in the developed nations of the world -- because what began as the bare-bones system we called the Internet nearly 40 years ago has become an integral part of our lives. We communicate through it with each other and with millions of others, both on and off-planet (I gave a video conference speech to the NOCC -- the Near Orbit Computer Club established at the US space station -- last week and I'm due to give one to the new O'Neil L5 colony next month). With a connection to my bank and the smart cards that have replaced cash, I never have to visit a real bank building any more, which is good for me. It's not so good for the thousands of tellers replaced by the new system, but things change. Mass printing and universal education put a lot of scribes out of work, too. All in all, it's a world that works and it's not as far away as you might think. This document is protected by international copyright. You can download and read it for your own amusement and if you want to include a link to this site at your own website, that would be nice and I'll be grateful. However, before you can post the article at your site, make copies for your class or your friends, or publish all or any part of it in any other medium for any reason, you must ask me first. Okay? |
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