The Fifth Computing Revolution: Ballmer`s Vision - Vision of the Future: 2015
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The fifth revolution is expected to manifest throughout the following three spheres: personal empowerment, social interactions, and global issues. All of the aforementioned are going to be dominated by revolutionary software characteristics such as being able to understand your habits, your preferences, and predict your needs.
"It'll know what time of day you prefer to fly and what hotels you usually stay in. It'll know who you're going to meet and what topics you'll discuss. When you sit down at your computer to start the day, the information you need will be waiting. Your computer will also know what kind of entertainment you enjoy, and it will scan the Internet to find movies, sporting events, music, lectures, books, and games that interest you. If you think about it, your computer already has a lot of this information. During the fifth revolution, we'll teach the computer how to use it." ~ Steve Ballmer
(Steve Ballmer at the CeBIT 2008 opening-Image Courtesy of ViewImages)
Currently the way we access our data is really disorganized and a bit complicated. During the fifth revolution this is ought to change. We should be able to easily access all of our data from anywhere in the world at any time - calendars, address books, documents, movies, music, photos, newspapers, government records, games, etc. By the end of this revolution "virtually all data, all content, and all media will be digitized."
Outstanding ideas are set as goals for the social interaction revolution too. First, all kinds of communications should seemingly transition and interact smoothly between each other - text, voice, video. Consequently, we're going to have only one digital identity through which we could be reached by the best ways, set by us. Hence we'll have the option to configure the best way for others to contact us (like Kate could contact me by phone any time, while Joe would be limited to text/email or by phone only on Fridays).
"The truth is that right now, everybody hates videoconferencing. It's hard to set up. It's stilted and unnatural. But new ways of facilitating interaction between people in different locations are emerging. In the years ahead, amazing innovations like 3-D holographs will make it feel like someone on the other side of the globe is in the same room with you. In fact, this technology already exists. During the fifth revolution, it'll become more affordable and more accessible." ~ Steve Ballmer
As the above quote mentions, some of the most crucial factors in revolutionizing social interactions lie in 3D holographs because virtually projecting somebody to share the same room with us would finally turn online interactions into real-life alternatives. We have always been complaining about not being able to sense body language movements, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Thus, a lot of potential lies in holographing.
This digital form of social interactions wouldn't affect just our day-to-day keeping in touch with friends. On an advanced level, just think about online communities where hundreds if not thousands of people share the same interest. Wouldn't it be amazing to be "real-world"-like friends with them? Sure, they are already shaping our societies.
The aforementioned also transitions into the third sphere - global issues. Three of the most critical issues that we are facing right now are the following: education, health care, and climate change. To each of these Steve Ballmer brings examples of how the fifth revolution would transform our lives by contributing to each big time.
Thanks to massive amounts of storage, natural UIs, ubiquitous broadband and screens, children and students from all over the world could "virtually" attend seminars and conferences of the best teachers. Hundreds of millions of students would be able to watch and learn from these instead of just a handful of students. Providing high quality resources to millions of youngsters all over the world is an incredible contribution.
The same applies for health care; the best professional doctors in their fields could be contacted and asked for help in tough operations or to assist in outlining a diagnosis. Transmitting data such as blood pressure, temperature, and other characteristics would be just child's play once everything is ubiquitous and available.
And finally, it requires no further explanation that lately the "going green" trend dominates in most industries. Reducing the negative sources and possible causes of global warming as well as predicting with exact accuracy the climate changes would help us alter our future strategies and techniques to make our world a better place.
"Software will make our homes and buildings more intelligent, so we use only the energy we need for lighting, heating, and cooling. It'll enable businesses to redesign products and processes to use less energy and fewer natural resources. High-performance computing will help researchers understand the effects of climate change and mitigate its impacts." ~ Steve Ballmer
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