ELEARNSPACE

The Future of the Internet IV
Google won’t make us stupid. It will, however, be like a drug. We are dependent and would surely suffer if deprived of it whenever we need a fix.

Reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge will be improved.
As a teacher this subject has made me schizophrenic. Any reading and writing is better than no reading and writing. But sustained thought and the ability to reflect and advance a line of reasoning? I don’t see that happening.

Innovation will continue to catch us by surprise.
It appears that even with something as widespread and commonplace as the iPhone, the experts never saw it coming. A decade in technology is an eternity . They would probably be lucky to predict in three year intervals. Bill Woodcock seems to disagree with me but then he uses all the examples the other guys sited in their statements that agree with mine. Clearly majority is in favor of the idea that the truly great innovations “come out of the blue.”

Anonymous online activity will be challenged, though a modest majority still think it will be possible in 2020.
I wonder if this is largely the viewpoint of people who would open the door to a caller with his thumb over the viewer. We’ve all seen “To Catch a Predator” where decoys have to spend a only a few minutes online, posing as a 13 year old girl, before they are greeted by an older guy in another state, lying about his age and hoping to have sex with a minor. On TV all he gets is some iced tea and handcuffs. In the real world he appears to be successful with frightening regularity. There are no shortages of examples on why anonymity online is a colossally bad idea. Remember the woman who claimed she couldn’t hurt a fly until they found a couple months of Google searches for ways to kill a husband on her computer? How about the guys who went on a killing spree after viewing Columbine reruns online? The experts are split on the possibility that anonymity online may not change in the coming decade. I’m sure they’re right. It’s so easy to create a false identity there is little chance they could change that. Perhaps the advances will be in those internet searched alerting local authorities to a possible crime in the works. Overall, it appears that people wearing masks behave more badly than those without a mask.