Society

"The Net Will Bring The Biggest Change In The Child Student"

He is called the Nostradamus of the digital world. Dr Nicholas Negroponte studied at MIT where as a graduate student he specialised in the then new field of computer-aided design. He joined the Institute faculty in 1966 and was also a visiting profes

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"The Net Will Bring The Biggest Change In The Child Student"
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How will the digital economy affect our lives?
Hasn’t it started affecting your life yet? If you are using the Net, chances are youare already part of the digital future. But it hasn’t stopped there.Telecommunications-for instance, mobile phones and videoconferencing-television, medicine,education...work in all these areas has already been transformed by the digital wave. Yousee, digital is not just a piece of technology. It’s a medium. Just like we uselanguage to converse, digital is a medium by which man and machines will communicate. Inthe future, you will see a clear distinction between atoms and bits. Atoms are that whichmake the physical world. Bits are information-information that’s shared by peoplewith people, people with machine, and machine with machine. Bits are going to morph andexplode. For example, if you are reading a newspaper or a magazine, it may not exist inthe same format in the future on a piece of paper produced by felling wood. Instead, youmay read it on an electronic paper.

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Will this really happen in say, the next 20 years?Or are these some fancy experiments in the Media Lab?
I’m sure it will. Five years ago, if I had told you that there was going to be athing called the Internet which would revolutionise the way people worked and conductedbusiness, would you have believed it? The problem with us is that we are linear beings. Wecan’t think exponentially-which is why I am amused when official estimates saye-commerce would be a $327-billion industry next year. I bet it will exceed $1-trillion.

How is life at home going to be affected?
Let me give you an example. Technology has already been developed to make the refrigeratormore user-friendly. Manufacturers are now getting into the option of inserting an RJ jackin the wiring and adding a bar code reader to the freezer door. As a result, I have adisplay panel which tells me which food items I am running out of or what needs to betaken out of the refrigerator. I can have the same information on my computer at home oreven in the office. So, when I go home I know whether I need to pick up a can of beer ormilk on the way. Imagine what this does to people at home! And, mind you, this is going tobe as common as frost-free refrigerators!

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But personal computers have failed miserably toincorporate artificial intelligence, haven’t they?
Yes, and isn’t it sad? I had less problems starting my computer 10 years ago thannow; these days it asks so many questions! Computers have got more complex, unlike, say amobile phone which has become easier to use. The inputs from people haven’tdecreased; they have actually increased. In the future, I see-and I pray-this will change.Computers will change to incorporate more user-friendly inputs. For instance, it will haveeyes (video cameras), feel (touch screens), voice (voice recognition systems) and sense.The trouble is that my dog has much more intelligence than a computer despite all thesetechnological advances. A simple change of my tone is enough to send different messages tomy dog. Computers will become more intelligent-or should I say they will have more commonsense?

An intelligent refrigerator, a computer with commonsense-all this is going to have an interesting impact on personal relationships,isn’t it?
Yes, personal relationships are going to undergo a metamorphosis. Now you can sit at homeand work from there, and get paid well for it. What is this going to do to people andhouseholds who have been used to having their relatives and loved ones go to office?That’s not all. Think of how it feels to work for a boss whom you have neverphysically met, who works in, say Australia and your co-workers are in, say Japan, the US,Dubai and Iceland! Tele-working, which is already a multi-billion dollar business, willincrease. Along with it will develop a new work-relationship culture.

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Companies too will change, especially the way theyconduct business with individuals...
Oh, yes, definitely. That’s what the Internet economy is eventually all about.I’ll give you a personal example. I travel about 800,000 to 900,000 miles a year. Agreat deal of my time is naturally spent in hotels all over the world. My biggest problemis getting my shirts and pants drycleaned. It’s too costly and takes too much time.The best alternative I have found is that before I start on my journey, I Fedex (courier)with a return-to-owner option a clean pair of shirts and trousers to each of thedestinations I go. When I reach the place, I put back the used pair in the box and sendthem back home. This way, I travel light, spend less (it costs less to Fedex than todryclean!), and have more fun. Where’s the digital bit here? Fedex uses digitaltechnology to track its packets. In the future, companies will have to see how they canadd value to what they are already offering. If they don’t, they will not survive.

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Let me come back to relationships at home. Do yousee any trend emerging on who would get most affected in say, a family?
While the Internet will affect all, I am most impressed with the manner in which it hasbecome a potent force with children and grandparents. Ironically, parents are the mostresistant to a technology shift. Children embrace anything that’s new. I have foundthat, contrary to popular belief, children who spend more time on the Internet are moresocial than those who don’t. In the case of handicapped children, we have found theInternet to be a magical tool-the communication skills of autistic children have improvedtremendously.
The biggest change will take place in the child student. You see, the educational systemwe have is one of the worst and has been the least benefited by technology. If a personwho was a doctor a hundred years ago enters an operation theatre today, he will hardlyrecognise anything except the patient lying on the table. But get a teacher from the sameage and the person will see that nothing has changed. The teaching methods are still thesame boring stuff. We have mastered the art of killing curiosity and passion in a childwith our education system. What the Internet and the digital world will do is to makelearning a much more rich, entertaining and interactive experience. And for that a childwill not necessarily have to go school; it can be done at home. Going to school will bemore for physical activity, say a drama rehearsal or playing basketball.

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You were talking about grandparents...
Yes, that’s an amazing story of how the Internet is changing our lives. What do oldpeople need the most? A feeling of belonging, of community. The Net is an extremelyefficient community with low entry cost. Some of the most avid users of the Net are thoseabove 60 years. It is parents-not grandparents and children-who are going to feel lonelyin the new age.

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