Say what you will about Microsoft, but they do occasionally blow off the doors, innovation-wise. In this 5-minute video montage called “2019,” the software company paints a picture of a world where technology is literally a functional extension of ourselves. It’s melded into our everyday lives in ways that we’re just beginning to realize.
The future seems like a pretty cool place to live.
I read Bill Gates’ manifesto, The Road Ahead, when it was first published in 1995. Back then, Uncle Bill was espousing ideas like “always-on” networking and integration between our everyday (non-PC) devices and the Internet. I read it again about 2 years ago (the original edition, not the updated one) and was astounded by the number of his prophesies which had since come to pass, and several that just never quite materialized (even gurus don’t always bat 1000).
One of the things I fondly remember is the book’s accompanying CD-ROM (a common gimmick in the early days of multimedia), which contained an electronic version of the text, as well as several videos of Bill discussing his future vision and “what-if” clips like the one above. I actually had a hard time finding a compatible media player that could still decode them, but they were pretty entertaining nonetheless.
Watch the video and see if you can spot the references to Microsoft tools that we’re already using today.
– Greg
gregsedwards 