The Next 25 Years in Tech

Remains of the Day: Life, Bit by Bit

We have met Big Brother, and he is us. Tiny cameras and wireless connections may herald an era of "sous-veillance"--observation from below--says Jamais Cascio of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. Cameras and microphones in your glasses or shirt buttons will record every moment, upload it, and let you replay the good bits.

Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto, has used wearable computers to record nearly all of his waking life since 1981 (see the video "nVidia GPU Computer Vision for Mediated Reality"). Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has collected his life's work in his MyLifeBits project.

"Imagine recording every conversation you've ever had with your spouse," Cascio says. "That kind of enhanced, easily searchable memory will change what it means to be a person in a way that most technology doesn't."

A Factory on Your Desk

One day you might order a new coffee pot, or even a new laptop, and not have to wait for delivery. Instead, you'll use a printer-size factory to download and build it.

Already, 3D inkjet printers build prototypes for industry. Chemical giant BASF is developing inks that will enable ordinary printers to spit out paper or plastic circuit boards. For $2400, you can buy a Fab@home desktop fabricator that lets you build objects out of acrylic; the company hopes to produce units that can build with multiple materials in the future.

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology predicts that personal nanofactories will be in operation by 2020. Jamais Cascio, founder of Open the Future and a director at CRN, says nanofactories will have a huge impact: "If it becomes cheaper and more efficient to have something printed out locally instead of made in China, it will have a big effect on things like trade balances, international labor, and...our national economy."

This story is part of PC World's 25th anniversary celebration. We invite you to read the other stories and to share your memories about PCW with us, too.