[Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.]
For my feature article “Special Report 2069: Predicting the Internet’s Next 50 Years,” I asked my Twitter followers to share their own predictions. Here are a few of the responses:
As the Internet turns 50 (the first message was sent over the ARPAnet in Oct. 1969), I’m working on a piece looking to the Net’s next 50 years, and I need YOUR ideas & thoughts. What will the Internet look like in 2069? What changes would you *like* to see? Reply here or DM! Thx.
— Wade Roush (@wroush) June 7, 2019
Hi Wade, I’m interested in what ‘the Internet’ means if (or when) our connection to it becomes implanted in us. Will there be such a thing as offline life?
— Nathaniel Bullard (@NatBullard) June 7, 2019
Great question, thanks. It’s hard enough to say what “the Internet” is today; the boundaries will get even blurrier in the future; and the brain/machine boundary is most scary and intriguing of all.
— Wade Roush (@wroush) June 7, 2019
Agreed. I keep thinking of technology today in bimodal distributions: those who have a manual transmission car, for instance, are either not well enough off to afford an automatic, or so wealthy they can afford a manual toy.
— Nathaniel Bullard (@NatBullard) June 7, 2019
and I can see the same happening with the machine/brain interface. Those who don’t have one either cannot afford to opt in, or are so wealthy and powerful that they can opt out.
— Nathaniel Bullard (@NatBullard) June 7, 2019
I’m interested in what the gatekeepers will look like for the next few billion people to have access to the internet – and also whether free-flowing ideas, information, and access will continue to be throttled by surveillance capitalists, big tech companies, and advertisers…
— Physical Attraction, Physics Podcast (@physicspod) June 7, 2019
Less hate, way better security, expulsion of bad actors, curation of important documents and texts, along with respect for printed word as well. And could you make it easier to find movies on @Netflix and Xfinity?
— Chris Rauber (@crauber) June 7, 2019
Thanks to climate change, the internet will be dead in 2069 along with all of humankind, so your question seems a little moot.
— Melinda Hajdin
