Whenever I think about the future of technology, I get a sense of serenity from how much closer to the physical world it will take us. Today people talk about screens taking us away from our physical realities and making us unaware of our surroundings, but one of the clearest visions I have for technology is a reduction of its physical presence.
The fact of the matter is that *physical technology comes with its challenges*. Typing on my laptop from bed isn’t an unpleasant experience, but I feel aware of the presence of my laptop. I’m unable to shift positions and still be able to read and type. If I get into the wrong position, it can even lead to my laptop being accidentally pushed off my bed. Not only that, it also takes up space. The physicality of my laptop makes it so I can’t see the linen of my bed beneath it. In summation, the current manifestation of technology makes demands tradeoffs on how we can functionally engage with it.
With this, we can start to idealize a world closer to the civilizations of our ancestors but with even better amenities. As we approach the future, devices as we interact with them today may not be needed. Our senses themselves would be integrated with technology. In a perfect world there would be no overheating, no fan noise, no keyboard, no screen, and no laptop, it would for all intents and purposes be replaced by our technology-enhanced bodies. The transmitters and receivers we use today for channeling energy will shrink and make our base reality quiet, calm, and *less dense*. These technologies will inevitably come with its own challenges that when made by the wrong individuals can encroach on our rights but I believe we can do, and have been doing so, in a privacy-forward manner.
The best technology is technology that is unseen most of the time and solves the problem that motivated it’s creation. Technology for the average individual should be so seamless it practically changes their notion of reality. Like how preservatives make food that lasts more than a week the norm. Imagine we could take it a step further and replace fridges with food packaging that keeps food cold as the default. As we develop more and more as a society, we’ll continue to innovate in ways that free our attention to focus on newer and better things. Arther C. Clarke once said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” but today I see that less as an observation and more as an ideal to strive towards.