Revisit the future by reading from the past…

In his column of September 21, 2003, Dan Gilmour, Technology Columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, made the observation, “Now I know why my refrigerator should be connected to the Internet.”

That’s a prediction I made years ago — read the extract from the book.

Dan made this comment after returning home from a trip – and finding the rather unpleasant results of a power failure. His comment? His fridge should be Internet equipped so that it could call a repairman!

It seems an opportune time to resurrect an extract from an old book I wrote with my partner years ago – in which we specifically noted that “we believe that we are destined for a future in which the everyday appliances and technologies which surround you are soon to be linked into the Internet, often, through the home network or a wireless Internet connection that is set to invade your home! As this occurs, the devices will emerge with capabilities that are quite unimaginable today.”

Related to this was our prescient prediction that one day your fridge will call your repairman.

As the world emerges from its 90’s tech-hangover, it is a good time to revisit the fact that an era of hyperconnectivity is still set to emerge – one of multiple sensors, multiple devices, linked together in a fascinating new world of hyperconnectivity