In Lewis Carols’s sequel to “Alice in Wonderland”–“Through the Looking Glass“–the author positions Alice, again, on a chessboard, a metaphor for a world that is both understandable and different, “…clear and recognizable…” as one Yahoo Answers’ writer put it. The same could be said today when blogging about mobile’s future.
I’m constantly amazed when I try writing a blog post about the future of mobile and wireless how often what I thought was futuristic has already happened.
A couple of examples. With all the hullabaloo about poor cellular reception, dropped phone calls and slow data downloads, I startled searching the Internet for information about satellite phones. It seemed to me that wireless is heading in the same direction as wired communications, requiring increasing infrastructure (more cell towers, fiber-optic cable, wireless spectrum, etc.). So, as with GPS, I thought satellite phones, providing clear line-of-sight, make more sense.
Mobile’s Future Releases Writer Imagination
After reading articles about satellite phones, though, I discovered they’re already available. So I imagined that someday humans would live on the Moon and need communication devices. Why not satellite phones? That’s how “Lunar Satellite Smartphones Arrive on the Moon” was written. Placing the phones on the Moon gave me creative room to invent stories about how people might communicate. Mobile’s future in my brain allowed more creativity to write.
One another day when I was feeling creative again, I started reading about artificial intelligence and cloud computing when everyone would own “dumb terminals” and use Dick Tracy wrist watches as mobile phones. All computing would take place “in the cloud.” Well, after reading a bunch of Web articles, I eventually concluded that the world had already turned to cloud computing and artificial intelligence and “mobile augmented reality” were just around the corner. Why not write something more bizarre?
So I wrote a piece set in the not-too-distant future when neural nets and wireless body implants ended the need for smartphones and PC’s. After all, the most powerful computer is the human brain. Right? The result was “The Day Mobiles, Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Merged.” Mobile’s future again causing my brain’s neurons to fire in new directions.
On a warm, sunny day, I took a walk about Lake Elizabeth here in Fremont, California, my home town. Lots of people relaxed by walking around our rather large man-made lake. Some people were talking or texting on their mobile phones; many were walking their dogs. As I watched people and dogs having a good time, a vision came into my head of people and dogs as “mobiles,’ trying to play off the other definition of “mobile” meaning “moving.”
After racing back home, I came up with “Mobiles Walking Around Lake Elizabeth“–kind of a current, yet futuristic piece about how cell phones have extended human and canine mobility. I also changed my writing style to short, incomplete sentences to irritate any English teachers who might read the post.
That’s it. The story of a writer, like Lewis Carol, blogging “Through the Looking Glass” of mobile’s future. It’s fun, challenging and, at times, difficult.