Portrait of the Internet in 2025

In 2015, will we forget that the Internet exists? Will the Internet evolve so quickly that people can't keep up or will it make people feel extremely lonely?

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Comedy Charlie Chaplin once said the cinema was just a fad. In 1936, The New York Times newspaper wrote that "missiles will never fly away from the earth's atmosphere." In 1955, Variety magazine announced that rock n 'roll would disappear in June of that year. It is difficult to predict the future, but this cannot prevent researchers from promoting their imagination.

Last Tuesday, Pew Research's Internet Project and Imagining The Internet Center of Elon University built an image of online life in 2015 by synthesizing predictions of research institutes and scientists. learn. Here are the most interesting predictions:

In 2015, you will forget that the Internet exists

'The Internet (and communication activities that take computers as intermediaries in general) will be used more commonly, but will exist in forms that are more difficult to see with the naked eye. To a certain extent, it will hide behind everything we do , 'said Joe Touch, director of the University of Southern California's Information Science Institute.

Universal access to the Internet and the opportunity to access human knowledge

With existing knowledge sources such as Wikipedia and Khan Academy, the Internet is currently allowing us to access an education that has never been before. Many scholars believe that these sources of information can only get better and better, creating a more level playing field. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, believes that 'the biggest impact of the Internet on the world will be universal access to human knowledge. Currently, perhaps the world's smartest people are stuck in some corner in India or China. Facilitating learning for that person - and millions of people like him or her - will have a profound impact on human development. '

The Internet will change so quickly that you can't keep up

The philosopher Marshall McLuhan once said: 'We make tools, and tools make us' . Many commentators participating in Pew's survey agree with that. As technology advances and evolves at unprecedented speed, there is concern that we cannot recognize the consequences and potential pitfalls. The fear is that people will not be able to see and fully grasp what they are engaging in, what they are agreeing to and what they are doing online. A survey participant wrote: 'The information we need will find its way to us, when the Internet knows how to accurately predict the user's interests and weaknesses. That will incite us to stop seeking knowledge, limiting our vision. '

The Internet will break the geographical distance

'When everyone on this planet is able to reach and communicate with everyone else, the power of the national state to monitor every citizen in the geographic border will gradually decrease , ' According to David Hughes, a pioneer in telecommunications, said in a consultation with Pew.

The Internet will make us extremely lonely

Mr. Bob Briscoe, research director of British Telecom (UK), is concerned that while the Internet makes people interact with each other more, it may also make people-to-person relationships great. superficial and unsustainable.

Some other scholars believe that global connectivity will lead to local isolation, that 'world village' brings its own benefits, but also makes us feel lonely.

'Her' is a famous film directed by Spike Jonze about the impact of modern technology on human life. The main character of the film is a man in the midst of loneliness because a broken marriage falls in love with a computer operating system. In 2025, maybe this scenario will happen in real life.