I was just thinking last night about technology, the Internet, and related things.
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Oh, btw, AWESOME NEWS: I called Wanda yesterday from the dorm room phone to see if it was working properly with outside lines (via Connie’s calling card), and she informed me of my mother’s granting of consent to that most inevitable of happenings:
Ladies and gentlemen, I’M WITHDRAWING FROM OGLETHORPE BY THE END OF THE WEEK!!!!!
I’ll be switching to a local tech school, particularly either Middle Georgia Tech or Macon State, until the end of the spring semester. YA’LL, I CAN’T WAIT! *squee*
And now back to the program in progress…..
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I’ve told you all already that the next great revolution that could happen in P2P communication will happen on the Mobile/telephone platform, particularly taking into account how the PSTN (y’know, phone numbers and related shit) will be phased out of existence over the next few decades because of the slow but sure movement to a universal VoIP platform by companies such as Vonage (half-hearted) to Skype (dead-on) to Yahoo (has tremendous potential).
We’ve already had the first great revolution in terms of “Text over IP”, which, of course, you’ve already seen with the average PC. The computer as we know it has always been, naturally, a text-generating device. Everything that you see on a PC – every graphic, every audio, every text, every program, anything that appears on your screen, regardless of operating platform – is text-based (or, as a friend of mine always puts it, “0’s and 1’s”).
So we already have two great advents on our hands at this point: the PC (ToIP) and the Mobile/telephone device (VoIP). Already, the former has shown exactly how disruptive it can be in regards to the status quo (same can be said for its most honorable predecesors: the telegraph and facsimile), and it will continue to do so for years to come. I look forward to the Mobile device becoming the next greatly disruptive P2P platform (audio-wise), although I do have a question: is there a Mobile device equivalent of the GNU Project in the works?
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Now we’re about to look even further into the future, possibly to the near end of the 21st century, for one more great revolution in P2P technology.
The television – that medium which has brought the graphics of the world and all that has resided in it since the 1950’s (although it was invented in the 1920’s….the Depression and WWII prevented it from being developed) – will be the last great platform to experience an IP-based P2P revolution.
Why do I say that?
Well, a couple of reasons:
1. Sure, the PC may have audio and video capabilities, and the mobile/telephone may have text and video capabilities as well (although the latter platform has to be developed further in those areas), but what are those two devices MOST prized or used for? PC for text, Phone for audio. Thus, the same could be said about the TV: it may have text and audio capabilities (as it most certainly should), but it is most primarily used for the graphic/visual content which it is made to display and provide. Thus, “TV for video, PC for text, Phone for audio.” Simply put.
2. Back when the Internet was just beginning to evolve (70’s and early-80’s), they were making use of IP connections over lines which were originally and especially meant to transfer basic text files, mostly email (and boy, were they expensive!). By the late-80’s and entire 90’s, with the arrival of the WWW (thanks, Sir Tim from MIT) they were making use of telephone lines for IP connections, and the telephone telcos became the main carriers of Internet provision. Now, with the 2000’s, the cable/satellite companies are emerging as the new main carriers of Internet service. Coincedence?
3. Taking into account the first aforementioned tip, they’re already finding ways by which a richer graphic multimedia experience can be gained from the cable box:
“You can take your bar and shove it up your ass! I’m watching TIVO!” (sorry, had to throw that Robot Chicken quote in there, lol.
And a few other stuff. Stay tuned….
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Anyway, what can indeed be said is that, with the parallel developments in television and digital graphics, one cannot help but to notice an evolution. Some establishments are getting old and/or dying off, while some innovations are about to be born. Thus, I cannot wait for a greater liberalization of the cable box, the game console, the DVR, and other such devices (including the ones which have yet to be invented). Plus, I’m certain that someone like Richard Stallman will launch a GNU-like Project which will allow for the freer flow and creation of visual content on the TV somewhere down the line.
Let’s just wait and see, ladies and gentlemen.
‘Sup folks.
