Connected Fantasies
Technology has become so addictive that it has taken over our lives. This could sound worrying but this addiction maybe for the good.
We live in a time where access to the internet has been added to the list of basic rights by the United Nations. This level of association with technology makes it look as though it’s a part of me. A part that can function independently without troubling my tired, lazy legs.
Are our brains lazy
All this started out when I was watching a show called “Are our brains lazy”, on a long lazy weekend. The show got me so hooked that I didn’t want to get up from my seat. I had forgotten to turn off the air-conditioning in my room on the first floor. That’s when I wished, we had a connected home. Well connected homes are quite common now and my dreams did not stop there. I was dreaming of a home, of the world, where everything I would do is connected. At first it sounded scary, the level of privacy I could lose if any one system fails. However, I stopped worrying and made a small sketch that could give me a clear perspective of what I wanted.
The foundation of everything was a ‘display’. So we do not categorize anything into a computer or a smartphone, or even television. For me everything was a display which is connected through the internet. Basically there are three sets in the display which are the central console (televisions) the handhelds ( tabs / phones) and external display systems that are different (car-entertainment system or any web based system).
The idea was to use the handheld as a medium to connect the central console with the external system and vice versa. In this amazing world of fantasies, I pictured advertisements on the smart device to be completely targeted towards my interests. Let me remind you, ads don’t necessarily have to be products that you can only buy at the mall or at the supermarket. It could also be the tickets that are available at half the price or the entry passes to the concert you might love.
Let me give you a hypothetical example: I saw an ad on the television, which intrigued me to go and check about it at the local mall. Since my handheld is connected to my television (central console), I chose to check the map and got a quick route to it. As I leave home, my console detects my absence with the handheld being moved away. My clever console asks, if it should lock my house and turn off the other appliances? I simply press ‘yes’ and voila, my house is locked and it’s safe through my system. It notifies me of any suspicious activities as they occur.
Here comes the best part, the map selects the best route to my destination in my car automatically. After I am done with shopping, as I approach my car, my phone detects the distance through the monitor. And before I reach my car, my handheld asks, if I want to go home and it routes me automatically again. The time I would take to reach home is notified by my car’s entertainment system (which is now the central console ) to the television (which is now the external display system). Since my television is programmed with information about my dinner time, the food is cooked in advance by the connected oven that keeps it warm. As I reach, home-sweet-home welcomes me by automatically unlocking the doors and notifying me about the food in the kitchen.
Fantasies can turn into a nightmare
The connected home sometimes gets into my nerves while it reads my exercise cycle and reminds my handset that I haven’t been working out. It takes my health so seriously that at times I feel that I’ve two mothers. If it takes health seriously, it would want me to be active over playing games into the night. Wow, this is when my fantasies turn into a nightmare!
It is amazing to know that these systems learn about me, know about my time and to make it better they stalk me all the time. It could be weird to know that everything is being monitored by your computer. We should actually embrace the fact that these systems could make our lives a lot easier by letting us know on what we are missing out or by simply doing something that will give us joy.
Well, this will be one crazy life. But our minds are so stuck that we keep looking for patterns and, eventually, we get bored with the existing and start looking for newer and exciting ones. There are a lot of challenges in building dynamic handhelds connected with every system which works differently via a tiny cloud-based application.
Even though this hypothesis is highly overwhelming, it wouldn’t be surprising if in some part of the world people are already doing something much more overwhelming. In a world of fantasy, the Internet of things will provide and have multiple opportunities targeted towards each individual.This will give birth to an all new experience — A connected fantasy.
