The Future of Technology, Beginning Tuesday - Alex Wyllie

Two days before the anniversary of the twin towers bombing, Apple will make an announcement. This announcement may change the way we think of technology. Aside from the expected announcement of the iPhone 6, the keynote may announce a new frontier for the large tech company. The rumored iWatch, which Apple trademarked earlier this year, would revolutionize the worldview of smart technology. Such a device would build on previous advances from around the world, with the miniaturization of computer technology stemming from the push for ultralight smartphones and Google Glass, maximizing battery efficiency, and others. The iWatch would bring wearable "smart" technology to the main stage, with a commercial release date earlier than that of Google Glass and more powerful than already announced smart watches. But the thing with wearable smart technology like glasses and watches is that they are only more advanced forms of the technologies we already have. Watches and glasses are not new things. Their smart versions would only be giving us more access to things we already have, in our phones, our tablets, and our computers.
There is a law in computer engineering and computer economics called Moore's Law. Moore's Law states that the approximate number of transistors in the average computer doubles every two years. Moore's law gives us a line of best fit for the historical trend for the number of transistors in the average computer. Many expect that we will still manage to uphold this trend over the next decade. Take the Mac Pro, which currently sells with 16 GB of RAM. In 10 years, the Mac Pro will have 256 GB of RAM, more powerful than many supercomputers today. This combined with our increased access to smart technologies will yield us a society with far greater dependence on technology and technology rights than we can truly predict. Sometime within the next decade, due to the influence of social media, governments will have completely reworked their privacy and copyright laws. The last several billion people will be connected to the internet, and with it, the growth of tolerance in many conflicted areas of the world. Also, it will become near impossible to separate people from technology in schools, hospitals, and many security-conscious places. Technology has already had a huge impact on society, and it's impact will only grow.