Hi,
An email showed up the other day with some predictions about TECHNOLOGY and the affects on our society so I thought in light of our previous blog, I'd share it with you.
Economically, technology will be changing a tremendous amount as we have already seen but the future holds many changes that will be very hard to imagine. Not only politically but personally and it may help to at least be aware of some of them.
Things that this email predicted will disappear from your life are: the POST OFFICE; the NEWSPAPER; the BOOK; the CHECK; the LAND LINE TELEPHONE; MUSIC; TELEVISION; OWNING "things"; AND PRIVACY.
I would add that Music should include all the arts and that much of our culture will disappear into the Tech box and become difficult to differentiate from that of the rest of the world unless Americans are willing to salvage it for future generations.
Okay, there are four groups that stand out as ECONOMICALLY CHALLENGING: THE POST OFFICE; CHECKING ACCOUNTS; OWNING THINGS; AND PRIVACY. These three offer the most problems and change.
Although many of us are used to communicating over the Internet rather than writing formal letters, that is not the real issue in losing the Post Office. Loss of the Post-Office means that all our financial information will be posted on the net. That will include banking, brokering, paying bills, receiving whatever information from those sources that are necessary and anything that you now do in the privacy of the mails.
STRIKE YOU AS UNSAFE?????????? IT CERTAINLY WILL BE!!!!!!!!! Many now pay their bills on the net for convenience and thus far it would appear safe. However, when a whole nation of people have their financial information UP FRONT AND PERSONAL, what true SCAM artist will be able to resist????? Including that greatest of all scam artists, the Government. Only in their case, they won't have to sneak into your accounts!!!!!!!!!They'll simply pass a law and make it LEGAL!!!!!!!!!! THIS FEATURE is certainly a bigger loss of privacy then we have felt so far and leaves citizens very vulnerable to unethical or immoral political groups.
Paralleling this is the CHECK. Your checking account!!!!!!!!! probably your savings account, your contracts for CD's, and other banking entities will be under scrutiny as well. Britain plans to do away with CHECKING ACCOUNTS BY 2018. It appears that it is costing banking billions of dollars to process checks so ONLINE TRANSACTIONS OR PLASTIC CARDS seem to be the plan for the future. OF COURSE, EXCEPT FOR ITS MAJOR CITIES, BRITAIN since WW2 has dreadful postal service in the 'burbs'. It simply never recovered its former glory.
Not OWNING THINGS is pretty general but what the e-mail author points out is that the Apple, Microsoft and Google are currently proceeding with something called "CLOUD SERVICES"
THAT WILL BE INSTALLED IN ALL FUTURE COMPUTERS. You pay a subscription fee to the Internet cloud provider. The INTERNET WILL ACTUALLY BE BUILT INTO THE OPERATING SYSTEM EVIDENTLY leaving no choice but to use the CLOUD SERVICES to save your files. the author was not CLEAR ABOUT CHOICE IN THIS SITUATION!!!!!!!!! IF IT IS NOT A CHOICE but A DEMAND THAT'S really tough. This VIRTUAL world will allow the user to retrieve music, books, files from anywhere which sounds great unless those files are LOST IN VIRTUAL SPACE!!!!!!!!!EITHER MECHANICALLY OR BY THIEVERY.
The user may lose necessary privacy files. For instance, an artist who keeps files of sketches and paintings on a computer will have to retain non Internet equipment in order to maintain the integrity of the work and protect it from thieves and forgers. As will authors, composers etc. because once it is PUBLIC PROPERTY, LEGAL RIGHTS BECOME HAZY. There is bound to be tremendous legal opposition to this feature if it cannot be refused. Think of the businesses now using the Internet and the liability to them and their privacy issues!!!!!!!!!!!
AS TECHNOLOGY SEEMINGLY MAKES OUR LIFE EASIER, OUR RIGHTS BECOME MORE COMPLICATED!!!!!!!!!! It is going to mean that RESPONSIBILITY IS GREATER AND UNDERSTANDING LEGALITY WILL BECOME MORE NECESSARY!!!!!!!!!!
We have already experienced a great loss of PRIVACY CALLED PROTECTIVENESS or as it should be called OVER-PROTECTIVENESS. The email author points out cameras in phones, buildings, traffic lights and your computer; GPS coordinates, Google street views; and buyer profiling. Sure, these have proved very useful, sometimes fun, sometimes helpful to the users but WHAT IS THE PRICE OF LOSS OF PRIVACY when local, state, or national government DECIDES TO USE THE CAPABILITY FOR ITS OWN DESIGNS. Again there are many LEGAL ISSUES HERE. SOME ARE CURRENTLY BEING ADDRESSED BUT many have not yet become problems. JUST BE SURE to VOTE in A GOVERNMENT THAT IS NOT A 'SNOOPER' AND IS WILLING TO LET YOU BE!!!!!!!!! There's not much of that lately.
LET THE BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!BECOMES MORE AND MORE RELEVANT.
When we support these products with our hard earned funds because we want the latest, the newest,or the best for ourselves and our kids, we are not thinking about the DOWNSIDE. All TECHNOLOGY IN THE PRESENT AND FUTURE has to be viewed REALISTICALLY and the DARK SIDE STUDIED!!!!!!!!! Unless BUYERS BECOME AWARE and use their POWER OF REJECTION (NOT BUYING AN INTRUSIVE PRODUCT!!!!!!!!), there will simply no control of how INVASIVE TECHNOLOGY CAN GET!!!!!!!!! PROFIT SPEAKS LOUDLY!!!!!!! NO PROFIT--NO INTRUSION!!!!!!!!!! YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE DECIDING VOTE even when it is made to seem that you don't. REMEMBER THE EDSEL!!!!!!!!!
For those too young to remember Ford's faux pas, it was called the EDSEL after one of the sons. It was produced and was considered a disaster by Ford, who produced in the late fifties and BUYERS DID NOT BUY IT. Ford Motor Company lost MILLIONS OF DOLLARS on EDSEL's design, manufacturing and marketing because BUYERS REFUSED IT. It was considered a GREAT FAILURE and an embarrassment and production was halted after 1960.
SO YOU SEE, YOU DO HAVE THE LAST ECONOMIC WORD ON THESE KINDS OF THINGS!!!!!!!!!! USE IT!!!!!!!!!
When the NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES DISAPPEAR into the Web completely, there will be subscription fees. No savings to the buyer. Since technology took over the youth, there is little interest in paper reading which leads to BOOKS. The advent of EBOOKs is simply the tip of the iceberg and although this Blogger hates to see the demise of the BOOK, my own EBOOk, "Absolute Power!" is listed in Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. The reason is REALITY. It is cheaper for the buyer, more convenient, and a wave of a future in which home libraries will be a collector's item, public libraries will host TECHNOLOGY on a full scale, and authors will find their home on the web. SAD BUT TRUE.
THE LAND LINE PHONE has already started disappearing across the nation and as profit diminishes, we may all be forced to relinquish its service which in large part have been taken over by CELL PHONES. The primary problem here is that if you are not assiduous in CHARGING YOUR PHONES, you will be at a loss in the event of an EMERGENCY. THIS IS TECHNOLOGY THAT REQUIRES RETHINKING!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are the "PERMANENT" BATTERES THAT WILL NOT REQUIRE "CONSTANT" CHARGING. I think it's about time for that advance.
The email cited a video "Before the Music Dies" and a book by Steve Knopper, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" about the self-destruction of the music industry. BUYERS ARE SHOWING THEIR DISTASTE with the industry by buying 40% of the "catalog items", in other words THE OLDER BUT GOODIES. The live concert tours are also being affected by the GREED AND CORRUPTION affecting the whole industry. IN POST 63, there is an evaluation of what happened to the art world in America because of the greed and political corruption of many major artists. IT IS VERY POSSIBLE that because artists of all persuasions have a kind of second sight, that they are more aware that AN END IS IN SIGHT AND THIS encourages a lot THE SELF-DESTRUCTION. It's an interesting point but one that RESEARCH will have to take on.
Sitting in front of the TV used to be one of the few kind of family events at home in America. Well, FORGET IT!!!!!!!! The viewer now uses Netflix to choose the TV movies and can watch alone. The rest of the folks are into their computers playing games and doing other things. The computer has dramatically reduced TV revenues . MUST BE WHY IF YOU DO WATCH TV THERE ARE 20 COMMERCIALS AT THE BREAK!!!!!!!!!!AND they run every few minutes.
Cable companies are trying desperately to re-ignite the medium but with hundreds of stations, of which only a few offer TV worth watching!!!!! MAYBE THEY SHOULD GO THE OTHER DIRECTION????????!!!!!REDUCE THE NUMBER OF STATIONS AND MAKE THE GOOD SHOWS FIGHT FOR TIME!!!!!!!!! That would reduce cost, increase quality and thereby, raise revenues! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!
These, of course, are only a few of the changes that may be expected. Only the creative imagination and the imagination of the computer entrepreneurs can really indicate what can be expected but be assured the changes so far are a drop in the bucket. Remember how industry changed society and lives evolved in so many ways. Technology promises that much change and more.
Cheers, Connie
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