Drones, Phones & More: What Tech Will Last A Century? - InformationWeek

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1/26/2015
02:06 PM
David Wagner
David Wagner
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32 comments
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Drones, Phones & More: What Tech Will Last A Century?

The first transcontinental phone call was made 100 years ago this week. What technology including the phone will make it another 100 years?
2 of 11

The phone
I might as well start where the conversation started in the first place. In 100 years, will we still have phones? Assuming mankind doesn't evolve some sort of telepathy, we're going to need a way to communicate. It may look increasingly less like a phone. It might look more like a video phone. It might splinter into home communications that aren't phones and handheld communication that are. But the only way I see the phone disappearing is if we have computers implanted in our brains. As much as I'd like to think I'll live to see that, I probably won't. Verdict -- Another century. (Image: blickpixal)

I might as well start where the conversation started in the first place. In 100 years, will we still have phones? Assuming mankind doesn't evolve some sort of telepathy, we’re going to need a way to communicate. It may look increasingly less like a phone. It might look more like a video phone. It might splinter into home communications that aren't phones and handheld communication that are. But the only way I see the phone disappearing is if we have computers implanted in our brains. As much as I’d like to think I’ll live to see that, I probably won’t.

Verdict -- Another century.

(Image: blickpixal)

2 of 11
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Gigi3
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Gigi3,
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2/18/2015 | 6:43:37 AM
Re: Adios Voicemal
"True, and find what will be popular with the next generation certainly pays off. I'm sure businesses are applying big data analytics to just that end."

Ariella, true, another application of Big data Analysis. 
Ariella
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Ariella,
 User Rank: Author
2/16/2015 | 2:19:33 PM
Re: Adios Voicemal
@Gig3 True, and find what will be popular with the next generation certainly pays off. I'm sure businesses are applying big data analytics to just that end.
Gigi3
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Gigi3,
 User Rank: Ninja
2/16/2015 | 7:01:59 AM
Re: Adios Voicemal
"that raises another interesting use question: to figure out what is  ikely to be used in the future, should be focus on what younger people are using now. The assumptions could be that they will stick with what they like and carry it into use for longer than something used only by older people now."

Ariella, thanks for the clarification. Normally its like that, from generation to generation such likes and dislikes varies.
Ariella
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Ariella,
 User Rank: Author
2/12/2015 | 9:17:00 AM
Re: Adios Voicemal
@Gigi3 that raises another interesting use question: to figure out what is  ikely to be used in the future, should be focus on what younger people are using now. The assumptions could be that they will stick with what they like and carry it into use for longer than something used only by older people now.
Gigi3
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Gigi3,
 User Rank: Ninja
2/12/2015 | 6:46:12 AM
Re: Adios Voicemal
"Interesting development. Do teens use it, too? They are so averse to leaving voice mails that they hang up when the option comes on if they even deign to place a real call. Most of the tiem, they text even when a call would prove more efficient at getting the particular question answered."

Ariella, that's a good option. Let's see how teens are using it; hope they won't misuse. 
Ariella
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Ariella,
 User Rank: Author
2/9/2015 | 2:51:43 PM
Re: Adios Voicemal
@Gigi3 Interesting development. Do teens use it, too? They are so averse to leaving voice mails that they hang up when the option comes on if they even deign to place a real call. Most of the time, they text even when a call would prove more efficient at getting the particular question answered.
Gigi3
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Gigi3,
 User Rank: Ninja
2/9/2015 | 1:39:34 AM
Re: Adios Voicemal
"This one's interesting. Until a while ago, I thought voicemail was dead too. However, I recently started looking at how people are recording messages and sending them across Whatsapp. They've practically started sending each other voice messages again because it's so convenient now."

Tzubair, such mediums are offering off line communications. Recording the voice and sending across the medium; now a day' s some of the mobile service providers are also providing voice message facility.
Gigi3
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Gigi3,
 User Rank: Ninja
2/9/2015 | 1:36:20 AM
Re: Communication and Connections
"This is why video chatting will always be comical because it supplies too much information and so lacks intimacy, and text messages may be expedient, but not intimate."

Jastroff, I can't agree more with this. Video chat provides the opportunity to see atleast the face of near and dear ones. It can also create an impression that they are in front of us like a face to face discussion.
tzubair
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tzubair,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/31/2015 | 9:35:05 PM
Re: Adios Voicemal
"Dave I would also add voicemail to the list--who really wants to listen to all those messages! Some companies are already axeing VM more will follow."

@impactnow: This one's interesting. Until a while ago, I thought voicemail was dead too. However, I recently started looking at how people are recording messages and sending them across Whatsapp. They've practically started sending each other voice messages again because it's so convenient now.
tzubair
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tzubair,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/31/2015 | 9:26:44 PM
Re: VoIP
"Each step awat from the original seems a small step. then you take a look at all those little steps and it is hard to recognize the thing we keep calling a phone."

@David: I think that'd be the case with all inventions that have perhaps lost their value or do not exist anymore. On the surface, they may seem dead, but then their core purpose is still alive and is being served by something else. You may call video casette players to be dead but at the end of the day something else is serving the same purpose.
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