Lecture 11 : Computer of the 21st Century

Are we already living in a world of ubiquitous computing ?

If we follow Mark Wesiser’s point of view that I’ll describe below, we are not yet in a world of ubiquitous computing but I do believe that we are getting pretty close to it. The IoT and the always expanding capabilities of our devices has brought us closer to such a world. I believe that we have all the pieces (nearly) to build such a world but this is not our priority right now and I guess our generation is not ready for it. The problem about ubiquitous computing is its intrusiveness, and cultural and mental changes will be required for it to be accepted.

What already happened that we need for this vision and what needs to happen so that we get more towards ubiquitous computing ?

To actually have a ubiquitous technology means a lot of things for Mark Weiser. But for a computer to be ubiquitous, he needs to disappear in the background, to vanish like a stop sign does when we look at it.

“Ubiquitous computers must know where they are […] and adpat its behaviour in significant ways without AI”

On modern laptops we can choose different modes to suit our usage but the choose of this role is manual and has nothing to do with the localisation of the computer. For that, we are not yet at ubiquitous computing.

“Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes each suited to a particular task”

Today we have smarthpones, tablet, laptops, PCs that all are designed to specific tasks. But Mark Weiser proceeds to say that we may need 100 computers of different sizes per room. They would replace wall notes, boards and papers and even though we are able to do so with our current laptops for example we have not the possibility to posess that much computers for ourselves.

“Tabs can beep to help locate mislaid papers, books or other items. File drawers can open and show the desired folder”

Although possible, once again we haven’t fully connected an office and mixed its physical side to its electronical side. Since most of our data is stored on computers and not on papers anymore we might not need it, but a fully connected office is not yet ubiquitous for us.

“Technological requirements”

Mark Weiser was worried about the lack of technological possibilities but what he envisionned is mostly possible now. But the main problem is that sole of the conditions he emitted are not yet respected :

• Computers are not yet accessible to everyone because of their prices
• Theuy are not low consuming and it’s actually the growing issue of Green IT

“Interoperability”

Mark Weiser wanted all of the computers to interact and be modified to whatever use you might have at a given moment. We are not yet to a point where we can fully exchange between phone and laptop at least it’s not yet smooth or even thought to be like it. Moreover, we cannot fastly and easily rebuild our computer kernel to a specified usage. At least all of it is not yet accessible to everyone.

Conclusion

In the end, Mark Weiser gives us a futuristic vision of what ubiquitous computing may look like. He ends up describing technologies like VR AR and MR. Even though we are able to build and use these technologies we are not nearly ready to fully distribute them and make them accessible to everyone. The main problems that we will face are the following :

• Are we truly ressources capable of providing Ubiquitous Computing
• Are we culturally ready to live in an Ubiquitous Computing World
• Is Ubiquitous Computing responsible ?