The [Google] Earpiece
The Google (TM) Earpiece became popular in 2005, finally ousting the ubiquitous cellphone as the portable gadget of choice. By simply listening in on the ambient conversation, and relaying various relevent facts quietly into the ear, the user became able to converse knowledgeably on any subject, however specialised.
History:
Early models of the Earpiece were surgically implanted through the digestive tract, with a wire passing through the radial artery to a hand control unit inserted under the skin of the fingertips:
Later models were inserted directly into the outer auditory cortex:
Revolution:
In the aftermath of the 2010 Sapper report on international competitiveness, the government was forced to initiate the distribution of the Earpiece to all US citizens. In the same year the Education Standards Board recommended the scrapping of all fact-based learning, replacing the traditional primary and secondary schools with abstract reasoning centres, teaching lateral thought and creative analogies to all children over 5.
It was only in 2026 that the full social implications of the new technology became fully realised, with the acknowledgement that hive minds now comprised some 40% of the world population. The hivers had learned to take advantage of co-operative thought - by discussing ideas in parallel they could exchange and correct ideas far more quickly than was ever possible using separate brains. It took four years of subsequent campaigning before the hive minds were accepted by the ICC as lawful entities, leading to the 2031 Sentient Entities Rights Act.
This reads like the issue of Wired I bought over the 1999/2000 changeover. It's full of bullshit about what fantastic things we'll have in 2004/05. I will post a summary here in the next few days.
- Oh yeah! Wired is so funny. Their articles on the 'next big' technology are actually quite useful - as a guide to whatever buzzword is going to get over-hyped and then forgotten.
- See also: [Hi-Tech Homes]
