ITU Telecom World 2013, the leading networking, knowledge sharing and industry showcasing event took place recent in Bangkok, Thailand. The event welcomed some 6000 participants from across the industry for a packed programme of far-reaching debate.
Discussions at the event spanned a diverse range of topics from social and mobile apps to the transformative impact of the Internet in Africa.
Here we explore just some of the conversations headlining the event agenda:
Visions of the future
Inspirational futurist Gerd Leonhard, CEO, Futures Agency, speaking at ITU Telecom World 2013, delivered a compelling, challenging, and at times chilling glimpse into a possible near future dominated by data, digital dependence and dramatic sociological changes.
Over the next ten years, human-to-machine interfaces will take us far beyond connected fridges, self-parking cars and intelligent wristwatches – and at an unbelievable pace, as real life begins to outstrip fiction.
Artificial intelligence will augment our bodies and extend our personalities into devices, as chips as small as 5 nanometres across become fast, cheap and embedded in everything.
This is the new version of the Internet: the Internet of everything with up to 100 billion connected devices. We will be living inside a computer – and our mobile phones will function as an external brain. Used responsibly, this can bring unprecedented benefits, increased efficiency, vastly more comfortable and convenient lifestyles. But there is an equally huge associated risk of unintended consequences in an age of exponential expansion in connectivity.
source: www.itnewsafrica.com
