IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 4

Working in an
Always-On World

T

he atmosphere at this
year's Fortune Brainstorm
Tech meeting, held
in Pasadena in July, was
unsettled. Unlike previous
Brainstorm Tech meetings,
which more often than not
have been feel-good events,
this gathering saw a steady
stream of magnates from
publishing, advertising,
marketing, and technology
approach the stage to analyze
the storms besetting their
industries and predict what
the next silver linings will be.
Entertainment and
publishing giants like Walt
Disney Co., Sony, and News
Corp. are struggling to figure
out how to make money in
a world where people are
served up an endless buffet of
free news, information, and
entertainment, anywhere,
all the time. Public relations
and marketing firms are
scrambling to respond to
the Twitter/Facebook effect,
which lets companies talk
directly to consumers and
vice versa, 24 hours a day,


without having to go through
flacks and marketers.
Telecommunications
and computer companies as
always are striving to deliver
the most flops or baud in the
smallest, cheapest, cleverest
appliances. But now they're
doing it in an environment
in which anything less than
a killer app has a shelf life of
less than a year. Ouch.
Even politicians are
chastened. Speaking at
the meeting, former U.S.
presidential candidate
Howard Dean said that
while President Obama's
use of new Web tools put
him in the White House,
these same tools have the
potential to "put politicians
out of business." Citizens,
Dean went on to say, may
not need politicians to get
things done anymore. They
can organize for themselves,
whenever and wherever
they want to.
Into this subdued
setting came Ray Kurzweil,
inventor, entrepreneur, and

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * SEptEmbEr 2009

technological optimist, to
research, collect, sort, update,
deliver a bracing rendition
and weight information.
of his well-known thesis
People will decide what to do
about the exponential
with it next.
advance of semiconductor
Kurzweil (and no, he's
technologies and their
not a game developer) has
impact on technological
said that video games "are
innovation. What used to
the harbingers of everything"
fit in a building, Kurzweil
and thinks that in the next
is fond of saying, now fits in
decade or so "full-immersion"
your pocket, and what fits
virtual reality games will be
in your pocket today will fit
widely used for business and
inside a blood cell in 25 years. pleasure. And if computer
Such advances will continue
networks get powerful
to fuel a wealth of smart,
enough, meetings really
intercommunicating devices
could go virtual. "Attendees"
that will allow us to improve
would simply project
our health and our world.
their charts, data-and
They will ultimately lead
themselves-as if they were
in the next 20 years to what
all there for real. What a
nice change from the huddleKurzweil and his cohorts
call the singularity, the
around-the-speakerphone
moment when machines will weekly staff meeting!
achieve consciousness and
This all made me
humans will begin to lead
think of a prescient article
indefinitely long lives.
IEEE Spectrum published
But what does a daily life
nearly a decade ago by
look like for the rest of us?
Professor Philip Agre of the
What will work be like in
University of California, Los
10 or 20 years?
Angeles, called "Welcome
to the Always-On World."
Some say it will be a
lot like it is today, only
It described how new
more so. Organizational
communications technologies
theorists like Thomas W.
would push human
Malone, of MIT's Sloan
relationships to evolve in
School of Management
potentially unnerving ways:
and author of The Future of
"The always-on world...is
Work, believe that any job
a world of freedom, but it is
that involves parsing or
also a world of anonymous
creating knowledge will be
global forces that ceaselessly
carried out by "e-lancers"
rearrange all relationships
who will rarely go to an
to their liking. We don't
office. No more sweating in
understand this world very
traffic jams, but the alreadywell, but we will soon have
shrinking divide between
plenty of opportunity to study
work and personal life will
it firsthand."
continue to disappear.
Well, our always-on world
Others think offices
is now here, and it's clear that
will remain important, but
it deserves plenty of scrutiny.
that embedded sensors and
While the benefits of our
intelligent agents, combined
wired-up transnational
with high-powered search
society are many, the
technologies, will make
"existential downside," as
some kinds of knowledge
Kurzweil calls it, merits
our concern. -Susan Hassler
work obsolete. Machines will
www.spectrum.ieee.org

Colorblind/Getty imaGes

spectral lines



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum September, 2009

IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 1
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 2
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 3
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 4
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 5
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 6
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 7
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 8
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 9
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 10
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 11
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 12
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 13
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 14
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 15
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 16
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 17
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 18
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 19
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 20
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 21
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 22
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 23
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 24
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 25
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 26
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 27
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 28
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 29
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 30
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 31
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 32
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 33
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 34
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 35
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 36
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 37
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 38
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 39
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 40
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 41
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 42
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 43
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - 44
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum September, 2009 - Cover4
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