Voice Activating Computing Will Change the World

[Wayde]

VIVO [Voice-In/Voice-Out]: The Coming Age of Talking Computers is a new book by William Crossman a University Professor who has studied at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Prof. Crossman is a futurist philosopher widely considered one of the six key visionaries of our times that includes names like astronaut Jim Lovell and physicist Stephen Hawking.
VIVO has a simple message that many of us who follow technology can already see emerging. Text and written language is becoming obsolete. One of Prof Crossmans most bold claims is that text based literacy will be all but dead by the year 2050. Many of you are already thinking: What a tragedy it is that one day people wont really know how to read. But Prof Crossman sees it as a positive and cites the emergence of oral and graphical communication and the true democratization of information.
Personal literacy note: When I was a kid I was diagnosed as dyslexic, which meant that while the rest of the kids were recognizing letters I was sitting in the back of class learning how to make people laugh. What got me interested in words were comic books and storytelling through art. I couldnt get enough, comics literally taught me how to read (pun intended). It was comic artists like Neal Adams and Jack Kirby (especially Kirbys monsters).
Talking Computers
Computers will listen and understand us and will speak back to us, theyll translate any language to us providing Earth with one true voice. Crossman sees this as a boon for everything from human rights, distribution of wealth and promotion of third world economies.
It all sounds so Star Trek. But soon computers will be so cheap well regard a powerful voice activated computer sa no more than a scrap piece of paper. Theyll all be connected worldwide. The idea of tyrannical governments withholding information from its people will become a thing of the past. Anyone will communicate with anyone else in the world with little more than a thought.
Four key technologies drive us toward the VIVO age:

• Human evolution
• Technological breakthroughs
• Young peoples rejection of text
• Everyone's demand for universal access to information

Its a universal truth that literacy is suffering in modern times. Students consistently score lower in key skills of reading and writing but theyre still getting more intelligent. IQs are actually growing. Prof Crossman states that the shift is toward multi-tasking and filtering massive amounts of information. Young people today must learn the difference between garbage and the useful morsels of information theyre actually looking for. Who can blame them? No generation has been the focus of such an intensive bombardment of junk information in the form of spam and advertising than todays 9 to 16 year old. Theyve become Dr.s in ** extraction surgery and if they werent theyd be sad wrecks of human beings.
Good Bye to Peaceful Reading
Remeber the Twilight Zone episode where the guy only wanted some peace and quiet so he can read? Of course you don't. But I guess he'll never get it in the future.
The only thing I fear might be lost in this brave new world of voice communications computers and instantaneous trans-continental video communications is tranquility. Nothing is as peaceful lying back in a hammock on a warm summer day with a good book. Having to filter out advertising on a computer that reads text to me would be stressful and a distraction from the natural sounds of a summer afternoon in a hammock outdoors.
Its an interesting and thought provoking book, not yet available in voice activated Com-Card format. Perhaps by 2050 youll be able to download it directly to your head.


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