Year 2048

In just less than 38 years from now, year 2048. I’ll be 65 years old. The world will be filled with slogans like “The real Y2K” spread by techies.

This wasn’t possible on Y1K. Actually, it only became possible in the last several decades. A century, if considering some really old inventions.

I said “the world will be filled with slogans”, because I’m not sure that saying “the internet will be filled with slogans” will be correct. The internet had evolved a lot in the last decade. From slow dial-up (yes, it was like that in late 90’s and early 2000) to 100mib constant connection, from home PCs to our cellular phones and PDAs. From simple websites with slowly loading GIFs, line by line, to advanced, interactive sites, filled with animation and streaming video.

This all made me think what it would all look like in 38 years. I sometimes feel that when looking ahead in the short term, to the next year or two, it is very hard to think that great revolutions might occur. Thinking of bureaucracy of different authorities, things always seem to get delayed. But in the long term, things does happen very fast indeed. Dazzling fast.

I know there are people working on shaping the next generation of the internet. I just wonder how far we can really imagine in such an exponential world.