I love the research that comes out of the Pew Internet & American Life Project in the USA. I’ve always imagined Pew to be the kind of place that American research boffins aspire to work – somewhere people actually listen to and read what you’ve discovered!
Their latest report is typically insightful. It’s called Future of the Internet III: How the Experts See It. It has a heap of interesting conclusions (which I encourage you to check out), but there are two that are particularly interesting when contrasted:
- The mobile phone is the primary connection tool for most people in the world in 2020: 77% agree.
- By 2020, social tolerance has advanced significantly due in great part to the internet: 33% agree.
There you have it folks. Despite all the great things that have already come, and will come, from ubiquitous connectivity, lightning-fast information and the ability to share with any other human being at any time… we’ll all still be hating on each other in 12 years. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s a bit depressing coming from the finest minds in the business.
I guess we can always hope Ray Kurzweil is right – we’ll all be well on our way to being quasi-robots by then anyway 
