THREE PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS
Using the Internet in the year 2005; Three Scenarios
by Storm A. King
February, 1995From; Shimabukuro, 'Internet in Ten Years: What Is Your Prediction?'
Arachnet Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture v3n01 (February 5, 1995)
URL = ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/pub/stacks/aejvc/aejvc-v3n01-shimabukuro-internet
Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture, ISSN 1068-5723
February 5, 1995 Volume 3 Number 1A Family Get-Together | Counseling over the Net | A World Wide Chess Tournament
PREVIEW ONE: A FAMILY GET TOGETHER
December 31, 2004, 4 PM, on the West Coast of the USA. The family had gathered in the living room, Mom and Dad on the couch, Cody and Sage sprawled comfortably on pillows, in front of the 6-foot, square wall panel display of the Info Center, purchased with last year's tax return. It was midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, and the first annual World Online new years party had just begun. The screen was split into 9 equal squares, showing scenes of the celebrations from cities around the world. Fireworks mostly, from those cities fortunate enough to be in darkness at this hour; parades and displays of civic landmarks from the daylight side.
"Can you show us Paris? I heard they were going to have a fantabulous laser light show there," said Cody, to his dad.
"Sure. Nando, hand me the keyboard please."
His wife passed over the wireless control panel with 8 inch flat screen display and full keyboard with joy stick and mouse ball built in. Storm clicked on the displayed menu, selecting "other channels of program in progress," found Paris and hit return. Abruptly the room was filled with the reflected patterns of thousands of colored beams dancing around the Eiffel Tower.
"Way cool!" exclaimed Sage, with the awestruck inflections unique to a six-year old.
A beep sound emanated from the wall mounted speakers, followed by "You have an incoming video call from...a Mr. Paquette."
"On screen," shouted Storm, in his best imitation of Captain Picard, from the old Star Trek show. The children giggled, then moved to be closer together, to be in full view of the video camera mounted above the Info screen. The speakers crackled, and the picture changed to show an older couple standing in their living room. The man held a small joystick.
"Hi Dad," Storm waved to the camera.
"Grandpa, Grandma!" shouted the excited children.
"Honey, turn the lights up so they can see us better," Nando said, as she maneuvered the joystick to take control of the video camera mounted in her parents' home and zoomed in on their faces.
"Hold on," Grandpa muttered. "I don't seem to have control here..."
Moving off screen to type a command, he was back in a second, again moving his joystick, saying, "There, that's it, now you're all in view."
Grandma explained, "We're all dressed up because we're on our way out. We are going to New York City tonight, and we just wanted to wish you well before we left." Grandpa added, "We can't really talk very long. We used up most of our ten free video hours that comes with this Netview account each month. Most of it was spent visiting with the Murphy's in Florida. I told you about their new grand child, right?" "Yes, yes, I read all about it in your email," Storm replied.
"Sorry I didn't answer. I have been so busy here, with the research and the kids and all..."
Cody interrupted, "Grandma, I want to show you the play I wrote that got accepted for next month's Northern California's sixth grader's rebroadcast journal. Can you set your center to display it in a corner? Then you can tell me what you think of it right now!"
Grandma, looking a bit puzzled, moved off-screen, muttering "I think I remember how you showed me to do that."
Cody went for the keyboard and started tapping furiously. Soon he shouted, "Dad, I can't find it! Help me."
"Well," said Storm slowly, trying hard to impose some sense of calm on the scene, "it's supposed to be in your work/school directory. You didn't file it in the root again did you?"
"I got it. OK Grandma," he shouted at the screen. "I'm sending it now."
Grandma, now quite close to the camera and maneuvering her control panel, said, "This is very nice, honey. Where did you get all these beautiful pictures of the buildings?"
"From my net-buddy, the one in Japan that I told you about. He had a whole collection of Frank Lloyd Wright stuff, and he sent it to me." Cody proudly explained.
"Well, that's very nice," Grandma replied, looking a bit puzzled again. "And I see you have described the construction of each one. Are you going to be an architect when you grow up?"
"Among other things." stated Cody, in an overly smug manner, earning a glance of disapproval from Nando.
"Well everybody, this has been fun," Grandpa interjected "but we're going to be into the two-dollars-a- minute surcharge real soon, so we better wrap this up."(Scene fades, with all saying "I love you's" and "good-byes" and throwing kisses at their respective cameras.)
Sable wrapped her coat tighter against the chill of the cold wind as she wandered aimlessly down Mission Street toward the heart of the city. Mostly deserted at this late hour, the bareness and harsh street lights created a fitting place to be alone and mirrored her depressed mood. Spotting a well lit and open entry hall, she noticed a sign blinking in the window of what seemed to be a church: "Open 24 hours, online counseling. If you need to talk, please come in."
Hesitating, Sable thought about the events of the evening and knew from the knot in her stomach that she needed to talk about it now. Climbing the short flight of stairs, she saw the marked door off the entry way labeled "Counseling Room," and the green marker near the doorknob that said "unoccupied." The main door ahead that led into the church was obviously locked for the night.
Entering the small anteroom, Sable activated the monitor by pressing the word "start" displayed in its center and sat down facing the mounted camera. The four foot display panel came to life, with a logo of the church. A computer generated voice asked, "Is the nature of your visit an emergency? Please answer yes or no."
"No," replied Sable.
After a moment, the screen displayed a man, seated behind a desk, viewed from the side, who looked up from the clutter of papers scattered in front of him and swiveled to face the camera and examine the screen in that direction. Bright sunshine streamed in from a window beside him.
"Hello," he said, in a thick accent. "My name is Dr. Kerring. May I have your name please?"
"Sable."
"Well, Ms. Sable, I see you are calling from San Francisco. I am in Stockholm. I am one of the many volunteers that man this help line. We have a completely private connection here, and your confidentiality is protected. It would make things easier if I could see your medical records. Do you know where they are archived?"
Sable straightened in her chair, eager now to get the details of establishing a connection over and proud of her knowledge of such matters.
"They are at the University Medical Center of Denver. The read-only pass word is 454545."
"Thank you. Just a moment." Dr. Kerring typed at and examined a side screen, hidden from Sable's view. "I have them now. So...how may I help you today? I mean, tonight?"
"Well, I was walking by, and I saw the sign, and I...I don't know what to do," an increasingly agitated Sable blubbered towards the screen.
"Tell me about what has you so troubled," Dr. Kerring said, in a soothing voice.
"It's my boyfriend. He..." Sable paused, and then stammered, "we had a fight and, well, he hit me." She started to sob.
"That must be very upsetting for you," Dr. Kerring intoned. "Look around. You should find a box of hankies. There usually is one somewhere."
"Thank you," said Sable, blowing her nose and sobbing.
Dr. Kerring typed at and consulted his side terminal again while Sable composed herself enough to continue the connection.
"My records indicate that there is a woman's shelter not far from where you are. Perhaps we should talk a bit about whether or not you think you might want to go there when we are done with this session."PREVIEW THREE: THE WORLD PLAYS TOGETHER
A hush fell over the assembled crowd. Play in the final match of the World's first all invitational chess tournament had begun. Sitting on the stage, with a table and board in front of her, was one of the two final contenders. On the 20 foot screen behind her, the opening move had just been displayed, transmitted from China where the other finalist lived.
The local chapter of the 18 and under chess players association had been chosen to provide proxies to make the physical moves for the opposing player at this site in Germany. A well-dressed young man, honored to be first, came forward from the side of the stage and carefully moved the pawn to the position indicated on the screen.
Play progressed in this manner, while the reporter for the German online live Internet feed typed comments about how the tournament had been organized and how it had all come down to this one match.
He told his audience that over 5000 viewers, some of whom had waited days, had completely used up the available video feeds. It was estimated that the text-based live reports were being viewed in real time by nearly a million people, one of the largest audiences for a single event that the Internet had seen so far.
He continued his narrative, in-between analysis of the moves in progress, with a description of how this largest ever tournament had been organized. Using the vast interconnections of the Internet, tournament organizers had registered over 90,000 players world wide. A random number generator was used to assign the players to the initial rounds, with no handicapping. This made it possible for anyone, anywhere to end up as the true world champion, for all who wanted to enter could, and all the games were conducted by email.
The reporter described the complex software that assigned game times to all participants, based on the best match between their home time zones, and how that same software was used to copy all moves made in all games to a repository accessed only by the tournament referees.At this point, the narrative was interrupted while the reporter described a commotion in the audience. He quoted the live contestant as saying, "I don't think my worthy opponent in China would have made that move." An obviously flustered young man, who had been in the process of leaving the stage, came back and looked at the board. It seems, in his excitement to be involved, that he had placed a knight in the wrong square and not truly replicated the move displayed on the screen. Apologizing profusely, he corrected the mistake, and play resumed.
Returning to his narrative, the reporter informed his audience about how it was the role of the referees to assure that only humans participated in the tournament. Many allegations had come up, and claims were made that an artificial intelligence had been used to win one of the games. The referees did in fact find several instances where a contestant had received assistance from a program. They used a special software routine that examined the moves and was able to tell the difference between the styles of human and nonhuman players.
As a last reference to the history of the tournament, the reporter explained how all the participants had voted by email as to the time zone in which this final game would be played for the maximum benefit of all. To the surprise of many, the time zone for Eastern Europe won the right to have the game at 8 PM their time.
The information revolution rolls on, don't let it roll over you :-)
Created and maintained by Storm A. King
last updated 01/2006
