| On a consumer, everyday user level, the Internet started with bulletin board services (BBS), where users could dial in and leave messages for specific topics. Then, they could later log back on and look for any new messages. From that point, the system evolved to allow users to start sharing files via the Internet. A major step for early users was the development of live chatting so they wouldn't have to post messages, then wait for replies.
Today, e-mail, chats, graphics and even audio and video are commonplace on the Internet. And, we are beginning to see the Internet converge with other forms of communication, such as the telephone and the television. The Internet of the future will continue with this trend and eventually be integrated into most aspects of our lives.
A major revolution with the future of the Internet will be a solution to connectivity issues. Download times will be a thing of the past. Accessing information will be as fast and as easy as accessing files directly on your hard drive.
Access will also become completely wireless, allowing the Internet to be integrated into appliances, vehicles or even clothing. Imagine your refrigerator walking you through recipes or keeping track of your groceries and reordering when you start to run low. Soon, it may even be possible to control any of your appliances from your car or office.
Once we are beyond the connectivity barrier, the Internet can truly become much more integrated into our lives. Designers are already working on Internet devices that can be worn with your clothing or a display built into your glasses, devices that will make it possible to access the World Wide Web and e-mail through a display sewn into the sleeve of your shirt.
From there, it is conceivable that an interface could be connected directly into your neural pathways. By accessing your thoughts and visual impulses, keyboards, mice and monitors would become a thing of the past. People would just be networked into computer processor farms that would have access to any information you needed.
Then, to send an e-mail, you would just think what you wanted to tell someone and send it off. Or, to show someone a photo, just look at it and attach the image, with your thoughts, to a message like you do now with conventional e-mail.
In the end, no one knows what is in store for the Internet and how it will evolve. In fact, it is likely to become something very different that hasn't even been invented yet.
However, I do believe that it will change from being a remotely used electronic device to an information and entertainment resource integrated into nearly every aspect of our lives.
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