[Squandered Halfpints]

Anybody who has seen the "Did You Know" video on you tube may remember it stating this statistic. "3rd generation fiber optics have recently been tested to push 10 trillion bits per second down a fiber" It says this is the equivalent to about 1900 CD's or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second. It goes on is saying that this is currently tripling every 6 months (originally stated in June 2007). They say that the fibers are already there, and they are just improving the switches on the ends, with a cost of zero.

I'm curious to see if anybody knows how factual this information really is.

-If it is true, when they get to the point where the "switches on the ends" are sufficient enough to handle this, what type of changes do you think we'll see?
-What type of industries will we see the most drastic change?
-Will new industries/companies emerge, or will the existing just change their current ways?

[modernfranchises.com]

I know that verizon is doing some cool things with fiber - might be a good place to look for info and get ideas.

[malumu200]

I'm currently reading a book called "What will be" which was published in the late 90's talks about the new world of information and how it will change our lives. I definetly think new companies will emerge from this world of information. You can see examples of Google,Yahoo, Youtube, myspace, facebook just to name a few of companies that have emerged within this decade that are already making tens of millions of dollars. This are YE who started with nothing but a vision and putting into action to make it happen. This big companies who are usually ran by "old skeletons" rather not want change, but they fully know in order to survive you have to change with the time so they have to welcome change. Who knows maybe some of you YE on this forums will create the next "big thing" that will change the way we live our life's everyday. We are just in the beginning stage of this new age of technology.

[karry2008]

site link is good

[HarveyJ]

For a start, I think we're going to see a lot more immersive content, as this sort of data rate allows for some good haptic feedback. Worlds like WoW will start coming with gear you wear for the really hardcore users.

Consumers aren't going to notice much of a change, other than faster speeds, and higher quality media content. At a consumer level, there really isn't a need for much beyond 25mbs.

Business wise, it's not going to change things so much. Video calling will definitely become the norm, but I can't see too much changing.

The real winners out of this will be researches. It'll make aggregate and cloud computing projects like BOINC work a hell of a lot better. Their biggest problem is not having enough computing on site to do the maths on their research, followed secondly by not being able to pipe it fast enough to all the end users who are helping with it on their spare cycles.

[Fadzuli]

Definitely changes are inevitable...even the internet is changing...What is known to be Internet today will evolve into the "Grid"..

I'm not surprise that cars can fly someday.. We'll see!!

Read here..
The Grid: The Next-Gen Internet?

[jesterx]

I like this grid theory of yours.

I think the next revolution is with our minds...and people will crave how we can use our minds in sync with the internet. I do have a product that I am working on and there seems to be a massive intrest in this.

[byzantium]

Originally Posted by jesterx

I like this grid theory of yours.

I think the next revolution is with our minds...and people will crave how we can use our minds in sync with the internet. I do have a product that I am working on and there seems to be a massive intrest in this.

Anybody remember a really, really old Star Trek The Next Generation episode about a species called the Binars who were totally dependent on their computers? The Enterprise arrives at their planet and immediately gets commandeered, since a galactic electrical storm is heading for the Binars' planet which threatens to wipe out their computers, and the Enterprise is the closest source of the massive computing power needed to save their species. Maybe humans will become something similar, or maybe we'll be like the Borg-you will be assimilated!-although most of us won't be as hot as Seven of Nine. Another possibility is the old ST:TNG episode where this guy gets hit with cosmic rays of some kind and becomes so smart that he builds an interface machine to hook his brain up to the ship's computer, with the result that Picard has to convince him to disconnect and therefore die so Picard can get his ship back. I think it would be cool to hook your brain up to the internet like in Neuromancer, but the problem is that a power outage would kill you.

[byzantium]

Originally Posted by Fadzuli

Definitely changes are inevitable...even the internet is changing...What is known to be Internet today will evolve into the "Grid"..

I'm not surprise that cars can fly someday.. We'll see!!

Read here..
The Grid: The Next-Gen Internet?

That sounds cool. It reminds me of Neuromancer, where "cyberspace" is conceived of as "galaxies" that you can plug your brain into. The novel was written in 1984, and William Gibson's first royalty check went towards one of the old style IBM PC-AT's. He later called it a "victorian engine" and talked about how disappointed he was that it wasn't "some crystalline like thing". He couldn't access the internet back then, of course, so he was doubly disappointed.

I think that The Grid will raise fears among the mark of the beast types of a "one world government" and bar codes tattooed on our hands or chips embedded in them. I think they'll be left behind though; most people won't care about the chip in the hand as long as they can have a Neuromancer experience.

I sorta wish that the cyberpunk subculture had taken off; this sort of thing would be perfect for it. I also think that no network can be 100% unhackable; there will be cyber cowboys like in the early days (they've been largely pushed aside in favor of organized criminal and espionage activity by governments and mafias).

I also think that there will be new sociopolitical philosophies to go along with it. The cyberpunks were grasping towards it, but got preempted. Who will be the Cyber Marx? How about the Cyber Emma Goldman? (Google her.) Will The Grid be a separate entity superseding old style nation states? Will computers demand their freedom?