Living through the lens of the future (part II)

Originally published on Tumblr.

No more wires, please.

Wires are ridiculously old-fashioned. We shouldn’t need them to transmit data, and we shouldn’t need them to carry power.

We’re getting there, but not fast enough.

Setting up a monitor to play a movie at my house is an ordeal. It wouldn’t be, except that I insist on not having it out when it’s not in use. A dead monitor is an eyesore. When I want to watch a movie, I have to:

• find an extension chord for power,
• find the right cable to connect to my Apple TV or computer to the monitor, which in turn need power,
• find the right cable for my speakers, and then
• plug those all in to the right places.

Drives me crazy. I shouldn’t need any of those cables.

I wasn’t intending to talk about remote controls, but that’s another artifact of the 80s and 90s. I need two of them to run this setup. None of them are intuitive. And I have to find them. Why can’t I use my phone?

The great thing is that we now have wireless speakers. My monitor doesn’t support them yet, but the next one will. We’re close to commercially-available wireless monitors. That’s another cable gone. And it looks like we’re close to remote power. I love the idea of my devices charging when I walk into a room equipped with a compatible remote charge.

I’m looking forward to the day of ubiquitous charging, transparent and wireless device cooperation, and of course such constant and seamless network connectivity that we don’t even need a UI to manage it.

We’re getting there, I know. In the mean time I’ll keep living in the past.