Future of Media Video: Google Takes Over the World by 2050
Davide Casaleggio sent a tip to Read/WriteWeb about a video his company produced exploring the future of media. It is a very cool 6-minute video, which takes some educated (and imaginative) guesses at how the Web and media will evolve over the next 40-50 years. In the short movie, Google, Amazon.com and Second Life are the big winners - with Google buying Microsoft, Amazon buying Yahoo, and Second Life becoming the dominant virtual world.
The core future media concept is the Agav - an Agent-Avatar, which "finds information, people, places in the virtual worlds". Here's where it gets interesting. In 2022 Google launches Prometeus, the Agav standard interface, and Amazon creates 'Place' - a company that replicates reality. Then in 2027 Second Life evolves into 'Spirit', where people can become who they want to, via avatars. And then finally, the 'Google overloads' moment - when Prometeus buys Place and Spirit! By 2050 virtual life is the world's biggest market and Google/Prometeus reigns supreme.
Of course it may turn out different, but the video does make you think about where the Web is headed. Check it out...
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Great video.
Really thought provoking video.
Video summary: an unimaginative masturbatory extrapolation of flawed technology into ridiculous ends.
Notice they stopped short of 2060 ad.... Technology is developed that allows the internet to be powered by the virtual users actual human body and is renamed 'the Matrix'
:-) C'mon, it was a cool video tho.
Another movie thing: the "share your memories" bit reminded me of Total Recall.
nice enough video but doesn't really take the analysis far enough (or dig into enough current facts)
GOOG vs MS for instance... check the size of the war-chests to see who could buy who (even if the SEC agreed!)
Amazon and Yahoo! maybe... especially as there's no real competitive issue there.
IBM, MS, AT&T etc... these guys are going to be around for a long time yet
It's true that MS has a much bigger cash pile right now than Google. But remember this is 20 years or so out. It only took MS 10 years or so to build up their war chest, and it is slowly leaking as we speak (office and windows revenues both will probably go down long-term). Whereas Google's revenues are growing at a huge rate. So I don't think the video scenario is *that* sci-fi.
But anyway what I liked the best was the overall trends this makes you think about - shift to virtual experiences, etc.
No
uhm, try 2014. http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/
predicting something as far into the future as 2050 is laughable at the current rate of progress.
This definitely gives food for thought. Have you guys seen EPIC 2015 or 2014?
yes, it reminded me of the EPIC videos.
What would be really amazing is picking the company that dominates 2050, but it *doesn't yet exist*. But then I guess you may as well start developing it if that's the case ;-)
"Another movie thing: the "share your memories" bit reminded me of Total Recall."
That too but it reminded me more of Kathryn Bigelow's "Strange Days" where they traded in memory clips. Great film although it's probably a little dated now (seeing as the millennium has passed and all that).
great video! I'm still wondering...
Nice future look, but lite on the substance. EPIC 2015 is a much better take on the future of media. It is worth your time, and one you will share, unlike this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-auoYsPJ014
Google won't take over the world. They didn't exist 10 years ago. How can you guess what will happen 40 years from now?
Looks a lot like an older video that can be found here: http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/ But that one only went to 2015...
Hi Richard,
thank you for talking about the video.
I hope it can be "food for thought" as sriram said ;)
The clip contains some thoughts on what the media industry will become, but some of your readers might have more insight on what will really happen (or what is already happening).
Just a couple of questions for all of your readers:
1- Where do you think you'll read/acquire information and entertain yourself? (not on paper and in cinemas I hope...)
2- How do you think information will be created in 20 years time?
Names of companies aren't the interisting part, what they will do for us is ;D
I'm very interested in knowing your ideas!
ciao to all,
Davide.
It’s interesting to imagine a future where the static information will change into knowledge flow and where the copyright might become illegal…But what makes me think is imagining a future where memory selling becomes a normal trading or a future where we will be able to ‘live’ in replicated realities thanks to devices that recreate the five human senses...Cool or scary?...
Great video!
Andrea
then, speaking of Second Life, there's this view of things:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2145408,00.asp
This Is a fascinating film to analyze! It certainly makes a slick commercial for Google, Amazon, and Second Life, but here's a few perspectives that will perhaps make you think differently about the techno-hype and digital-based futures:
First off, US culture can already be considered a failed experiment in virtual reality. Its population and subsequently many others are "already soaking in it" and have become so disconnected from environmental realities that it continues to create a number of unstable global circumstances, if not already 4th world war scenarios.
What many of us would call a projected "dystopian" technopoly future in the film assumes that a US dominated economy could hold for... 5 more decades?!!! Are there even any signs that its current course could last for even one?!
Basic resources to sustain life such as water and agricultural necessities will under sane development policies require far different priorities than realizing some silicon valley elite's fantasy for holodecks.
And, it should be mentioned there seem to be a number of people who have either misread Philip K. Dick's genius or simply plundering it for a number of sadly all-too-real venture capital opportunities. Think it was in "Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", where "2nd life" was a DESPERATE attempt for a labor colony on Mars to somehow find an escape (and/or reconnection) from an unbearable life away from earth. The fact that people spent their wages to fill their barbie-like doll houses with model objects (to remind the of home) was an hilarious joke about our consumer/virtual society, not a concept to pursue as future social engineering. But there ya go, some idiots from the Military Entertainment Complex with too much money at their disposal have attempted to make it the next shopping mall.
Nice Video.
I don't like seeing Google take over the world, but it sure can happen.
The ‚ÄúFuture of Media‚Ä? YouTube spot is pure propaganda. Fake science. Pseudo-Think Tank. Don‚Äôt believe the hype. Simply reading their ‚Äúabout‚Ä? page shows their true intentions of making money trying to tell corporations how to make money. This video is pure PR crap, hoping to lure in the cash. No mention of government. No mention of how to sustain the technology. No mention of the millions who will probably never have net access. No mention of those billions who don‚Äôt use Second Life and probably never will.
The hubris of the techno-elite, and their fetishizing of anything that advances the philosophy that all tech is good for humanity, and the bottom line, disgusts me. I think they’re missing the underlying theme in all of PKD’s fiction: technology cannot be trusted…
If anyone would jam this YouTube vid, they should put the text below as the subtitles:
Ca$aleggio A$$ociati
The mission of Casaleggio Associati (www.casaleggio.it) is to development strategic Net consulting for companies through the specific skills of our associates, affiliates and partners and to produce reports on the digital economy. The company’s objective is to develop a Net culture in Italy through original studies, consulting and articles, books, newsletters, seminars and through the creation of brainstorming and focus groups.
Casaleggio Associati defines the structure, purpose and implementation path for sustainable and profitable business models for the use of the Net and identifies web marketing strategies through the study of the target of reference, the message to be conveyed and the channels to be used.
Casaleggio Associati assists companies in the development of the Intranet that allows each individual company user to access the processes and information that regard them in a profiled mode through a dedicated portal.
Finally, it identifies Social Networking techniques for companies that operate in the ‚Äúrelationship business‚Ä? (such as CRM, sales processes, Intranet marketing, etc.) and develops social network applications for the analysis, management and direction of relationships.
Thanks for the links Richard.
Sure people still have to feed, clothe and shelter themselves but take these pieces of projection at face value. Ceteris paribus how will the internet develop?
I actually don't see anything very radical here. What interests me is whether the web actually deconstructs and in the process moves away from Google or other big engines. What if everyone one becomes their own web world, just another node in a self organizing system.
Now that would be interesting.
HI, yes nice and well done video.
So : no Chinese, Indian nor Russian company till 2050 ?
So : no World War 3 or 4, 50 years of peace ?
SF has its advantages ;)
Watched it now a couple of times, and it was also very informative to take a peek about what people on various sites are saying ( 441 blog links as i write this) unfortunately not many with much sociological prognosis... and it doesn't seem to provoke people as it probably should...i.e. the dangers of media consolidation.
For people who are more curious and/or disturbed by what this future scenario might imply... take a look at this not-so-futuristic clip from the UK :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTLL1UjvfU
Of course, the piece from Casaleggio Assoc. attempts to show some "strangely positive" outcomes in the new environments, you could say "The future of media" seems to employ the usual consumer marketing oblivion to what is actually occuring in our society, while the 2nd is lacking in any creative alternatives for where this shit's gonna go...
Davide, if you're reading this, and for anyone seriously interested in social-machine interfacing, new media environments, etc. this new book is highly recommended: Devices of the Soul, Battling for Our Selves in an Age of Machines, Steve Talbott, O'Reilly, 2007. It's got some mind-blowing deconstructions regarding the reductionist computer landscapes, and inspiring thoughts for how to save our asses ... i.e qualitative science.
And if anybody comes up with a third-mind film to illuminate us, keep us posted!
Thanks Richard,
The video reminds me of Robin Sloan's Epic 2014, but it includes the successfull newcomer Second Life, integrating the Avatar concept.
It is fun to watch –maybe scary for the media companies– but my major comment is that it simply avoids the development of new concepts and does not seem to include the future raise of China and India (except the mention of CCTV).
As everyone seems to consider the future with Google ruling over the Internet / Mobile / Media world, maybe the main question is/will be : would will be ruling Google in the year 2050? Hopefully someone "not evil".
The World has a problem.
The Society has actually only one huge problem that has created with its own hands!.
It is a purely economic problem because it relates to the issuing of money.
The money-issuing is decided, controlled and managed by Private Entities and not by the democratically elected Governments. After centuries of counterfeiting, illegalities and Machiavellismes, these Private Entitles have now gone so far as to control and rule whole Nations, no more sovereign but slave to an economic and financial mechanism known as «seignorage» (with the addition of the even worse «fractional reserve» [banking system, n.d.A.]).
Very often, too often, the politicians of every Nation, called to defend and protect the People that have democratically elected them, are corrupt and collaborate with these ruthless «money creators». In this field, the laws themselves are created at the advantage of the International Bankers. Other laws that could help the People free themselves from this slavery are changed, distorted or simply ignored.
The current Banking System is based on a Disgraceful and Inhuman Fraud.
This Fraud is called «Seignorage» [or «seigniorage» - n.d.A.] & «Fractional reserve» [banking system - n.d.A.].
The information channels are manipulated and controlled by the economic power of Private International Bankers and no newspaper, TV or radio station will ever talk about «seignorage» and/or «fractional reserve». There have been Presidents and men known worldwide who died under the powerful and inexorable blows of these Supranational Entities.
Lincoln and Kennedy for example, died after having issued money in the name of the People and for the People, trying to release Americans from the slavery of Central Banks, disguised as «public institutions». To spread information on this worldwide taboo and contribute to unmask these stranglers of individual and collective freedoms is EVERYBODY’s duty, a duty for EACH OF US. Search the Internet for keywords like «seignorage», «fractional reserve» and «public debt».
Read alternative information; do NOT blindly trust mainstream information. Support the cause by spreading this leaflet and letting real information reach other people by means of the Internet, look for information free of any political ideology enslaved to the Power of International Bankers.
18 July 2005
http://www.signoraggio.com/coupon.html#anc_uk
There so much that bothers me about this video.
It's full of gratuitous hyperbole and holds not a candle to its inspiration, EPIC.
There are many examples of why this video is waffle but the one that stands out to me most (as it's the most indicative) is the the ignorant notion that Lawrence Lessig would "ban copyright". The author clearly doesn't understand what CC is all about yet fells entitled to comment on it.
Ok, I've had my bitch pills now - off to bed :-)
-dg
:-) Amazing!
...and maybe it's not so science fiction...