What kind of communications system do you envision in the house of the future? (Tacoma, Wash.)
Michael Toutonghi, Vice President and Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft: The home will have regular phones, cell phones, e-mail and video-voice communication. The key will be that they work interchangeably, enabling a person to have whatever kind of experience is most convenient–text, voice, video. I’ll be able to click through voice mail with my remote control while sitting on the couch or listen to my e-mail while sitting on the porch.
What is it about e-mail that encourages people to reveal the most intimate details–even when they are using office e-mail? (Portland, Ore.)
Katelyn Mckenna, psychology professor, New York University: When we talk to someone in person, we pay attention to their subtle body language and facial cues that let us know how we are coming across. This fosters reticence in fully expressing our thoughts and feelings. The absence of those social cues in e-mail can make people feel less inhibited about expressing what they are thinking and feeling.
Where can you get the cheapest air fares online? (Delbarton, W.Va.)
Pauline Frommer, executive editor, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel Online: There’s no one site that’s always the cheapest. I like to use the “bot” search engines like Qixo.com and SideStep.com to take a quick look at many sites at once. You can’t buy air fares or hotel rooms through them, but after you input an itinerary, they search all of the major sites and return a list of cheapest to most expensive air fares, car-rental rates, hotel costs.
What’s the best software to encourage creativity in kids? (Juneau, Alaska)
Warren Buckleitner, editor, Children’s Software Revue: Look for software activities that let them undo what they just did. Once they understand this, they are unencumbered by mistakes. Imagine if Michelangelo had this ability with a block of marble!
Are there any aspects of vacation planning that you should not do online? (Steamboat Springs, Colo.)
Frommer: It’s important to get offline and read non-travel-industry literature when you’re doing your initial planning. If you’re planning to visit Europe, learn a little bit about art history, or read a historical novel. That way you’ll have a better idea of what you want to see once you’re at your destination, and you might do your online planning a bit differently.
Why aren’t the ratings on videogames enforced the way they are for commercial movies? What’s the difference? (Denton, Texas)
Buckleitner: Attempts at enforcement are in the works, but I agree that there is a discrepancy between enforcement of movie and videogame rating systems. The ESRB (esrb.org) rating systems (“Everyone,” “Teen” and so on) can be useful, as long as you know how to use them. Many parents consider the descriptors (violence, comic language, nudity, etc.) more useful than the ratings themselves.
What do you do to keep your kids safe when they’re on the Internet? (Orlando, Fla.)
Buckleitner: The answer is that there is no answer. For my 11-year-old daughter I have AOL’s parental controls on, and her version of [the search engine] Google filters out the blatantly pornographic sites. But she can still get pornographic spam messages in her mailbox, and nasty ads creep into pages that slip through the filters. (We recently spotted a banner for exotic condoms at a pumpkin-carving site.) No filter can replace simply being in the room or having a bit of common sense when online.
My friend met someone in an online chat room and says she has fallen in love. What do you really know about someone from an online chat? (Tempe, Ariz.)
McKenna: You may get to know more of the “real” person online than you would were you to initially meet him in person, because of the intimacy of online interaction. There is a tendency for online relationships to develop quite quickly because of this heightened self-disclosure.
How do you see technology changing the way we live 20 years from now? Will it make life easier or more confusing? (Portsmouth, R.I.)
Toutonghi: Easier! Your home PC will probably be the smartest among many smart devices and will morph into something that works with an ultrahigh-speed Internet to deliver seamless entertainment, communications, record-keeping and convenience in every facet of your life. Immersive 3-D display systems and virtual reality may become commonplace. Researching something will likely be as easy as having a conversation.
When will hybrid cars become common? (Algonquin, Ill.)
Wes Brown, automotive consultant: We are at least 10 years away from gas-electric hybrid vehicles’ becoming mainstream in the U.S. marketplace. Toyota and Honda have led the way and are expected to expand their technology to most of their product lines during the next decade. Unfortunately for the domestic manufacturers, Japan has quite a head start over the United States.
Are we ever going to have cars that automatically navigate themselves? (Boise, Idaho)
Brown: We are at least a decade away from such products. Our roads will require significant upgrades and investment to place the necessary monitors and sensors for such vehicles. And older-generation consumers are not going to feel comfortable being behind the wheel of self-navigating vehicles. Generation Y will be the first to accept such technology.
How do you spot “the next big thing” in toys? (Nashua, N.H.)
Al Kahn, chairman and CEO, 4Kids Entertainment: We believe that kids are kids–no matter what country they’re from. For example, if a toy is a hit with kids in Japan, we believe there’s a good chance it will also be a hit with kids in the United States and other coun-tries. We do some globalization, taking out the inherently cultural references and leaving in the fun and excitement.
How do you envision the home of the future? Would it be more “Jetsons” or “Star Trek Enterprise”? (Arlington, Texas)
Bruce Sterling, author and futurist: I see a lot of potential for “sensitive houses,” rather than smart houses. They won’t have a lot of tiresome artificial intelligence, but they’ll always see to it that the inhabitants are warm, snug and taken care of. A house should shelter people, not boss them around with computer algorithms.
I’ve heard you can already get a robot vacuum cleaner. Do you think robots will be available to perform other household chores like dishwashing or doing laundry? (Stone Mountain, Ga.)
Sterling: The robot vacuum cleaner looks like a go to me. It’s cheap, and it more or less works. Washing dishes is incredibly complex. Laundry is no picnic, either. It’ll be some time before any machine masters that kind of vision and manual dexterity.
Do you think we’ll eventually see a backlash against the omnipresence of cell phones, pagers and PDAs? (Athens, Ga.)
Sterling: Absolutely, there will be a backlash, especially when people figure out that cell phones are also Orwellian tracking devices. There’s a fine line between connectivity and an electronic prison cuff.
I don’t approve of violent computer games, but all my son’s friends play them. Are violent games harmful? (Austin, Texas)
Buckleitner: I am confident, after reviewing the research and talking to family counselors, that violent videogames alone cannot “make” a kid violent. All kids (except a small number of very disturbed children) have the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality, and videogames are complete fantasy.
Why do videogames have to be so violent? (Dublin, Ohio)
Warren Spector, Game Developer, Eidos Interactive: The answer is pretty simple. We simulate violence because it sells–people clearly want action-packed, adrenaline-rush entertainment. A more subtle answer is that we do it because, as developers, we can do it relatively easily, and there’s not much that’s easy for us! Remember, we’re an infant medium. We don’t have a hundred years of established rules and conventions to help us present more subtle material. But we will figure out those rules, and we will start telling more sophisticated stories. We’re already seeing signs of movement. The most successful games–Myst, The Sims and others–don’t feature a lick of virtual violence.
Between pagers and cell phones, I can reach my children almost any time I want–well, when they want me to be able to reach them. I’ve heard about other devices that a child can wear that emit a tracking signal. After the string of kidnappings this summer, the idea doesn’t seem so bad. What do you think? (Park City, Utah)
Buckleitner: I took your question to the bus stop this morning, where there were eight elementary-age kids, including my own two daughters. All of them said that they’d gladly wear a bracelet or necklace that would help their parents locate them if they were lost. But then my 11-year-old daughter said (with a twinkle in her eye), “Of course, I’d take it off when I wanted to.” While I agree with the kids that this is a great idea (not only for kids, but for the dog, car keys and TV remote), the technology is early and pricey. It makes sense to wait a bit until more companies are on the market, the price drops and the features improve.
Do you think science fiction predicts the future, or is it all just lucky guesses? (Berkeley, Calif.)
Sterling: We should feel lucky to have a future at all. Every day is a gift, isn’t it? Of course no one can “predict the future” in a strict sense, but it is possible to take the future seriously and think about it in fruitful and useful ways.
