Artificial Intelligence
If Her had come out in the 80’s, it would have seemed like a long-shot concept, a man falling in love with the digital AI assistant within his phone’s operating system. But in 2013, with the likes of digital assistants such as Alexa, and Siri invading our phones and homes, the plot of her seems to be more of a inevitability than a possibility. Perhaps even more interesting is the the look of tech as proposed by Her, a space where interfaces no longer feel cold and manufactured, rather handcrafted, softer and much more personal.
Socializing
The Netflix series Black Mirror is a regular buffet of dark speculation regarding the near future of technology and the part it will play in our daily social interactions. From a society gated by a peer-to-peer review system, to bio digital interfaces that record and erase our memories at will or even block a unwanted person completely from our life, this show successfully shows a dark alternative to every step of progress that we are likely to soon be taking as our tech dominated society charges forward into the unknown.
Virtual Reality
With virtual reality having been finally realized in a way that could have only been dreamed of back in the nineties, it is unlikely that progress of the VR tech space will slow any time soon. The world of Ready Player One showed us a populace that escapes an increasingly crowded and dingy reality to the virtual world of the Oasis to live their lives on their own terms. As our own world seems to get darker and more depressing each day, is it so hard to picture a day in the not so distant future where large numbers of the population check out to a world of their own creation in a form of the ultimate escapism?