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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Oh, and look into LiFi. Think WiFi, but with light. Your basic incandescent or LED lightbulb would be a WiFi station. Instead of radio waves, it uses imperceptible changes in light intensity to send information, somewhat along the lines of a barcode scanner, or a fiber-optic cable, but without the cable. It also has the added benefit of being far more secure than WiFi, because it stays contained in the room it's in, and doesn't go through curtains, blinds, or walls. :)

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/08/new-wireless-
technologies-lifi-and-dido.html

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
More likely the answer will come in the form of further-compressed data and "burst" communications. If you have limited bandwidth, shrink the data. MP3 and MP4 shrunk previously huge music and video files down to manageable levels; think along those lines.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Anthony, I think you may be worrying needlessly.

*AT CURRENT RATES*, we'd run out of bandwidth by X date. But that's the rub - we likely won't keep gobbling bandwidth at current rates. It will either get more expensive as "freewidth" becomes narrower and more rare, or (more likely) devices will stop using so much of it. Right now I've got in my possession a laptop, an iPod, a cell phone, and an iPad - all of which are WiFi and/or 3G/4G connected.

Within a generation - probably within a *computer's" generation - those four things will be compressed into one. Think of a laptop/tablet/wearable hub that has a Bluetooth headset/earbud/camera unit that fits your ear, and a small portable wireless keyboard in addition to a touch screen for input. It will be the size of an iPad or smaller, but will contain a full-powered, full-featured computer, plus all your music, contacts, phone stuff, your TV and movie selections, etc. Everything you put on your pad and phone and iPod now, you'll have in a smaller, faster, lighter, AND more powerful package. And it will use less bandwidth as well.

There are more "smart" devices now than there are people on the planet, and it seems everyone who has one has four or five, at least. At some point, that's going to simplify and streamline.

This is actually one area where I *do* trust the market to adapt and improve, because if bandwidth starts getting strangled and becomes cost-prohibitive for the average person, prices WILL come down, which means that companies will fight to find ways to bring those prices down.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Wishimay: well, currently we rely on a flow of electrons to fulfill simple true/false on/off conditions and switch them around. But anything can become a computer if you're creative enough, including atoms beamed one at a time someplace quantum mechanically. You'd just have to make a system of rules and a machine that would read and translate the message into sound or whatever humans will use for communication in the future.

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