Where Are Our Heads Heading?

After talking on Thursday about new ways of interacting with computers I began thinking about what will be the next big thing. Maggie talked about the new phenomenon that kids are glued to virtual reality and they are no longer living life in the real world. I think our society has seen this sad occurrence and is trying to offset it. Lets look at video games as an example. Back when I was growing up my friends and I played super Nintendo and sat there mashing buttons but now kids have new systems like the Wii that allows the user to interact and be somewhat active. Companies are starting to notice that people like to interact physically with their virtual reality. We talked about the Microsoft Surface in class but there is also another new computer system that takes people away from a screen and a mouse. Here is a link to a video if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sz8ExZndc

I see that we have somewhat hit a peak in terms of making tasks as easy as possible. There are ways to use computers for entertainment, learning and physical activity all at the same time. It will be interesting to see where interactivity goes next.

This idea comes back to the idea in the article, "The Seductions of Cyberspace". We know that we probably will eventually be able to download vast amounts of data into our minds and the body might become obsolete. But just because it can happen doesn't mean that we will let it happen. I think it will just be a new challenge for humanity in the years to come. Instead of having to struggle to put food on the table or become literate, now we will have to fight to stay in shape, keep our bodies nurtured so our minds can become stronger and faster as well. I feel that humanity is going in a direction that focus on our minds and information, but until evolution gets rid of our bodies we still have our bodies to help us along.

Maybe Futurama wasn't that far off when they put old people's heads into a water tank.