Trafford Publishing: Future Net: The Essential Guide to Internet and Technology Megatrends

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Future Net: The Essential Guide to Internet and Technology Megatrends

by Jim Ensor

386 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0087; ISBN 1-55395-724-5; US$30.00, C$34.50, EUR24.50, £17.50

Revolutionary new work explores many diverse emerging Internet and technology trends to offer a stunning new view of the future.

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about the book about the author sample excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

The book highlights startling new ideas and developments in technology and software, then predicts the future of the Internet and technology usage in general.
Evolution and personalization describe changes to:

Human evolution - a rethinking of the role of technology in human evolution, outlining the role of the internet in changing communities
Personal evolution - multiple identities on the web, cyborgs, biotechnology, cloning
Infrastructure - the rise of the web, and future trends including .NET, peer-to-peer, portals
Interfaces - the rise of Windows, Browsers and the story of 3D
Internet Software - the rise of games, chat, web services, bots, and music downloads, and some more general types of evolution as relating to the Net
Bot evolution - the rise of bots, their role on the internet, and the internet as a life form
Virtual evolution - a stunning new theory about virtual existence and how we will end up as part of the web
A wide ranging series of ground breaking new ideas are raised in the book as part of a new perspective about the world, including the following:

Personalization is at the heart of recent developments of internet architecture and interfaces, a virtually unnoticed phenomenon as far as its range and over-arching influence.
The unmet need for 'interactivity' is determining software success on the web.
'Bots' or software agents are emerging as a major new piece in the jigsaw of new software and architecture. Companion bots will emerge as our typical interface to computers - which extend into becoming 'Virtual Existence.'
A restructure of the Net is proposed, via use of bots. New 'orange links' could link data in a new ways.
Our 'identity' is changing as we develop multiple persona on the web - becoming personalized
Our 'bodies' are changing by the combined impact of bionics, biotechnology, drugs, spare parts and are also being personalized.
Ideas can be alive as memes, but can the Internet become conscious too?
Darwin's theory of evolution - has the way it operates on human beings changed?
Technolution - technology's effect on evolution is the driving engine of change in our society today, rather than other theories of social change
It all comes together in a completely new perspective on technology, the Internet, and the future.

About the Author

Jim Ensor has been involved in leading roles in the computer software industry for 18 years in many activities - developer, manager, marketer, entrepreneur, consultant and technical advisor.
In 1994 he founded the Progenesis Group of Companies and currently remains proprietor and CEO. Progenesis is one of the world's leading software developers and suppliers of commercial property management software.
Progenesis products include Progen2, for commercial owners and managers of city buildings, shopping centres or factory complexes, and Progen3, for corporate lessees, or large Government bodies who have complex lease requirements.
Progenesis has built a reputation for innovation in the property software industry over the past 8 years. Progen2 was one of the earliest full Windows software solutions, while Progen3 was a very early 'internet enabled' product, featuring an operational extranet, and special robot-based security. Recently, a corporate portal for Progen3 was also released. The headquarters of Progenesis are in Australia, and the software is marketed internationally.
Jim Ensor is also involved in the development and tailoring of 3D software, for the new 'immersive' generation of software applications.
His expertise comes from work in large scale software projects, database applications, 3D-World technology, and various cutting edge Internet projects. He has a Bachelor of Economics, post graduate computer qualifications, and is the author of various Technical Papers on technology trends"
You can visit the Progenesis website at www.progensoft.com

Sample Excerpts

Preface
The Internet is part of a digital storm that is sweeping the earth.
Technology is sweeping across our lives, changing them at home, at work, changing what and how we eat, how we travel, how we live, and even more interestingly, what we do, how we communicate, and even what we are. The Internet sits at the cutting edge of many of these changes. As the information revolution rolls onwards, it is increasingly hard to see where it is going, unless we stand back from our assumptions and day to day lives, to seek new perspectives.
Most conventional perspectives on the world are based on social, economic, environmental or political standpoints. Technological perspectives are always seen as a small subset of other theories. Yet other explanations often fail to offer a comprehensive explanation of many of the changes in the world, especially in relation to the Internet.
Now is a good time to step back from commonly held assumptions about technology, the Internet, and its effects; then rethink them. The surprising effect of a rethink is the conclusion that the impact of technological change has been seriously understated, especially in relation (in recent times) to the Internet. There is no blind faith in technology advancement involved here, just a rational assessment of the emerging future.
Paradoxically, as people adopt new technology - whether it is new PCs, microwave ovens, home security systems, or new mobile telephones; the technology then becomes part of their lives, and the medium and longer term impact of that technology drifts into the background.
Technology in its broadest sense -new developments that apply to industry, the office, the home, transport, food production, language and communications -naturally changes the types of jobs we have, the way we travel and communicate, the way we live, and what we eat. That technological changes should also, (in the context of those sorts of impacts), play a key role in shaping human life and society, should not be surprising.
The wide ranging changes are producing evolutions in all kinds of areas. This book tries to make sense of them all.
This book is not a boring in-depth technical description on the Internet and technology. It is, instead, a wide ranging overview, crossing over between history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology and science. It finds a place in between all these things. A place called the future, that no-one expects.
It starts by going back to the work of some leading thinkers of our times, and back to their source material -whether about the Net, about communities, about people, and history. It finishes by reshaping some fundamental concepts into a new conceptual framework, so overarching and wide ranging, that no field is left untouched. Internet and technology trends are drawn together into a totally different perspective on the future.
Out of the whirlwind come a string of new concepts , and even a new vocabulary, that challenges who we are, how we have changed, and predicts what we will become.
The digital storm is going to sweep away much of our old lives, in a totally unexpected way.
Jim Ensor
Introduction
World View
A world view is an overarching perspective on a 'period' of time.
Often a world view can only be determined in retrospect - like the 'Middle Ages', which could only be seen afterwards in the context of the fall of the Roman Empire in the west and east; or the Age called 'BC' (Before Christ), which naturally was determined by the birth of Christ; or the 'Age of Discovery' when for a few centuries Europeans explored what were (to them) uncharted regions of the world from around the 15th Century onwards.
Other world views are reasonably clear, even while people are in their thrall, like the 'Cold War', the 'Renaissance', or the 'Industrial Revolution'.
We seem to be at such a time; the 'Age of Information'; or the post-industrial world. Change is definitely happening, but what is it really about, how should we describe it, and is this 'Information Age' actually ending?
Like most things that are going on all around and surrounding us, it is quite hard to gain a meaningful perspective on it. Of course computers, the Internet and technology in general are going through a period of rapid innovation...impacting society, our jobs, our lives; but what does it mean, and what is really happening in an overall sense?
Evolution as the Theme
Evolution is usually defined as the gradual development of something from a simple to a more complex form by a natural process, or a process by which species develop from an earlier form, as an explanation of their origin.
But evolution in its more general and popular usage has also come to describe any process of change, which can produce outcomes both expected and unexpected. Evolution is a good way to describe a raft of technological developments and their impacts, especially those that are Internet related.
In this book, evolution - in both its traditional (relating to organic human change) and popular usage (more general processes of social change) - is used as the theme to link various new perspectives about human civilization, the information revolution, and the startling impact of the Internet happening and still to come. Evolution is the common thread that can define and link a series of 'mega' changes taking hold in our society, in the context of the role of technology in change.
Evolution does not have to lead anywhere, or produce a higher form. Evolution in the natural kingdom is now usually seen as living things, (or even genes operating at the level of a single individual), slowly acting out responses to environments and other general changes. Evolution acting like this in the natural kingdom has been called 'blind', working over time spans so great that they have been called 'deep time', geological periods so different from the timescale of our everyday lives.
But in the human world, we can see more of all different types, forms and levels of evolution. Evolution in its traditional (organic) sense, and more popular meaning (general changes), need to be seen differently. Evolution is still 'blind', but that does not stop us from observing and reflecting on what is going on.
The Internet is a fulcrum of change. Its infrastructure is growing, while undergoing radical change, as .NET, peer to peer, and portal technology builds onto the expanding Internet. Its interface is also changing, as the ubiquitous browser evolves, with 3D and portals new forces of change. A whole raft of new software is thriving on the Net, including some very unexpected success stories.
In addition to those seismic changes, there are more Internet and technology surprises in train. Personal evolution is becoming multi-dimensional, whether in terms of multiple Net identities; or when talking about biotechnological developments such as cloning, and cyborg links to the Net.
The rise of bots, and something beyond bots, is also reviewed. It is part of a glimpse into the startling future of virtual existence (VX). VX is a new concept, a process, an interface and a presence; beyond virtual reality, and coming soon.
On another plane, evolution in its organic sense, in terms of 'natural selection', is also rethought. Natural selection is the struggle against the environment, predators, and changes around us, to survive, sometimes popularly called the battle for 'survival of the fittest'. How is it operating in the human world today?
In the natural kingdom natural selection is certainly the driver of evolution, (including human impact, which today even exceeds the impact of nature). If a range of insects always eats a type of plant, it may reduce in numbers or even vanish, unless it can evolve some kind of protection. If lions cannot find sufficient suitable habitat and prey, their numbers will reduce, unless they can adapt to different terrain and find sources of food.
Yet we also understand natural selection today to be more subtle, allowing for more complex interactions between different life forms in the way they evolve, while still subject to the fundamental goal of reproducing or perishing. The relationship between the plant and the insect, as well as the lion and its prey; will be subject to 'co-evolutionary' relationships with many other plants, insects and animals in the same ecosystem.
It is the growing intervention of technology in human lives and society has significantly altered the way 'natural selection' works as an important driver of human change. This is not a rejection of neo-Darwinism, as this analysis still fully acknowledges the power of genes and Mendel's work on the power of heredity.
What is put forward instead is an important role for a process I call technolution, which describes the role and impact of technology on human evolution, and human society. The term technolution combines the word 'technology' and 'evolution', to highlight the role of technology in human social and organic change. Technolution is a new frame of reference to understand technology's impact and effect on social change, as well as the process of societal feedback.
This is a new and unorthodox analysis, but it is not starry-eyed idealism about potential technological advancements or the Internet future. On the contrary, there is a clear focus on the limitations of various new technologies, and the practical realities involved in next steps. But truth is always stranger than fiction, and what follows is both startling and iconoclastic.
Personalization as the Key
As with opening a door, a key turning in the lock can reveal the essence of a world view.
Personalization is the key to understanding what is going on now in the 'Information Age' and what lies beyond that, especially when personalization is seen in the context of evolution. Personalization is simply the process of making something personal, tailoring something to your personal needs, making something your own, to suit you as an individual.
Personalization is a step beyond customization. Customization is also modifying something to fit individual requirements, but is a lesser degree of fit than something completely personalized. Something personalized is for you alone, it is made personal.
You might have a pair of shoes customized to your feet shape, but the personalization of those shoes would add a color, design, and fashion or functionality extras, to suit your private wishes only. So instead of something that suits a sub-group, a range of individuals, or would suit other individuals equally as well; you end up with something that just suits you alone.
Computing is moving in that direction. Your individual PC, your connections to the Net, your interfaces, your software, are becoming personalized. It is past basic customization, and into the realm of having tools, software, hardware, and interfaces to suit you, personally.
But beyond that; what you do on the Internet, who you are, your role in the community, and ultimately what you spend your time doing, are all part of the process of personalization.
Personalization is a process of mega change that is sweeping across our world, which now needs to be seen in a separate and new frame of reference; as part of the second information revolution.
New World View
The next stages in computer and human evolution have begun. It is an evolution in the way we interface with computers, how we define ourselves in relation to them, how we are evolving as a life form, and as communities and individuals.
From the generic term and process called the 'Information Age', we come to the new term and process called 'the 'Age of Personalization', or the 'Personalization Revolution'.
Personalization is going to change our lives, our identities, our communities, our bodies, and the way we communicate to the world and each other. It is a seismic transition, only now being understood in the context of its whole new vocabulary, new processes, and new dimensions. Enclosed is a new lexicon of the next age, a new way of speaking, of thinking, and of being.
It is part of a new world view. We are watching the intersection of the forces of technolution and personalization; that will change our lives forever. To understand it, we begin by rethinking the role of technology in the world, in history, in your life. How important was and is technology in human organic evolution, and in the development of human society?
We need to imagine a world in which you will be surrounded by the Internet all day and night, and have new ways of communicating to computers. A world in which our children live differently, act differently and ultimately, are different, from the way you are now.
We even have to imagine being part of a living Internet. We may be amongst the last generations of 'unreconstructed' humans to live. We may be the last ones to have no life-long electronic companion. We may be the last ones to die the way people die today. We may be among the last generations of human beings as we know them.
We are likely to become part of a generation which has life time associations with bots on the Internet, a new kind of relationship - virtual existence.
The world view presented here updates the contemporary perspective on the role of technology and especially the Internet, in society and social change.
There emerges a story of evolution across the places and things that range through our lives, with technology taking on a new face as a central driver of change, as central to human existence, and as a force molding our day to day lives, and our futures.
Embrace it, or reject it, evolution in the world of technology and humans is something that may be blind, but it is traveling on a course that will eventually change us all forever.

Catalogue Information