UbiComp: a 100 year problem?

I don’t think so. New Now Know How points me to an article in Fred’s House, which claims that UbiComp could well be a 100 year problem. I’m of the opinion that UbiComp will progress leaps and bounds in the next 10 years. It won’t be perfect, but then, nothing ever is. Sure it’s much harder to deploy technology to the real world compared to the lab, but slowly it’s already happening. Perhaps Japan is the leader in real world deployments of this technology. They are showing that the stuff can work. The gripes raised by Gene Becker (the proprietor of Fred’s House), largely revolve around fiddly handheld computers. In ten years’ time, handhelds may be a thing of the past. UbiComp is not about handheld computers anyway; it’s about hiding computers from sight altogether. I accept that this grand goal may not be achieved within 10 years, but it’ll happen within 100. There are many, many problems to overcome before the true dream of ubiquitous computing arrives. But in a limited sense, it’s already here.