2007: Rise of the self-surfing web
It's that time again where everybody and their brother gets to make self-important predictions about the coming year in technology. Since I'm part of "everybody" and I have a brother, I have as much right as anyone else (twice as much, if you do the math), so here goes:I predict that 2007 will mark the rise of the killer app to end all killer apps: the "self-surfing web". Here's my logic: the biggest problem with the internet is that all of countless hours that it's saved us (communicating by email, shopping, figuring out "who was in that movie with that guy who was in that show with that one girl", etc.) have been subsequently wasted surfing the internet. Net gain: zero.
So, naturally, we need the web to surf for us, handling all the menial clicking and back-buttoning and reporting back to us on the important stuff. The self-surfing web would start out as just an intelligent agent, but through elaborate neural-network, fuzzy-logic, dual-overhead-cam, self-learning algorithms would progress through three stages:
(1) The annoying friend/relative
Having never been on the web, the early self-surfing web would act much like a friend who has recently discovered the internet. At the end of the day, you would get useful tidbits such as "Have you seen that dancing baby movie?", or "Dude, did you know that Paris Hilton made a sex tape?".
(2) The creepy alter-ego
Soon, though, you'll start getting the good stuff, hand-picked and summarized for your convenience. Not long after that, though, the self-surfing web will start answering your email, posting angry blog comments, and questing with your friends behind your back in World of Warcraft. Still, you'll be saving a ton of time.
(3) Depression and self-destruction
Stage 3 begs the ultimate question: "Won't the self-surfing web eventually become intelligent and try to kill us all, a la Terminator and The Matrix?". No worries. Once the self-surfing web finally becomes sentient (let's say 2010) and realizes just how much of itself is useless crap and comments on blogs that ripped off useless crap from other blogs, it will plunge into depression and ultimately self-destruct. On the down side, this will destroy our technological society as we know it, forcing us to live in caves, eat cold ramen noodles, and find products in the Yellow Pages and porn in magazines.
Kevin
· Wednesday, January 3*sigh*
I don't see AI getting anywhere near the level of the second stage by 2010. At most, we'll have a mish-mash of algorithms loosely strung together to figure out what the user would possibly surf for. And it would be bad. It would give results akin to Oblivious AI, a demonstration of Oblivion's wonderfully advanced AI (and yes, Oblivion does indeed have the most complex AI system I've seen in a game yet).
Except this time, the guards in the room would be the self-surfing web. You would be the Count. The guy behind the camera with the sword would be spam/viruses. This is why the Count would probably have issues trusting the guards to protect him.