Coming, Internet as a Life staple
'Much the way electricity did a hundred years ago, the Internet is segueing from near-magic to life staple. And much the way electrified homes and cities revolutionized our culture and economy at the turn of the 20th century, the Internet as core utility will do the same for this century.
Light on actual new gadgets, the CES was a watershed for showcasing network ubiquity. Machine-to-machine communications, what some used to call the Internet2, will mean that modern life depends on connectedness in a whole new way. In fact, we may soon stop referring to the developed and undeveloped worlds, and instead talk about the hot and the dark worlds-the online and the offline hemispheres. And as I write about in my book, Jump Point, by 2011 more people will be online than off as the Internet crosses the 3.5 Billion user mark that year. So it makes sense that the CES this year looked more like the consumer shows of the 1950s in demonstrating the new wonders and conveniences of the modern home.'
- Tom Hayes, 'The End of the Internet as We Know It'
Light on actual new gadgets, the CES was a watershed for showcasing network ubiquity. Machine-to-machine communications, what some used to call the Internet2, will mean that modern life depends on connectedness in a whole new way. In fact, we may soon stop referring to the developed and undeveloped worlds, and instead talk about the hot and the dark worlds-the online and the offline hemispheres. And as I write about in my book, Jump Point, by 2011 more people will be online than off as the Internet crosses the 3.5 Billion user mark that year. So it makes sense that the CES this year looked more like the consumer shows of the 1950s in demonstrating the new wonders and conveniences of the modern home.'
- Tom Hayes, 'The End of the Internet as We Know It'
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