Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1996
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You're Not Wearing My Socks
If I walked into your office and asked to use your pen, telephone, copier, or fax machine, the chances are you would willingly agree and think nothing of it. You might even let me sit at your desk. But if I asked if I could use your personal computer you would probably react as if I had asked to borrow your socks. Isnt it curious how we personalise technology and then become so blas? that we think nothing of it. As a child I remember cameras, radios, televisions and telephones being prized items - and a big deal. They were definitely a measure of status and wealth. Asking to borrow or use someone elses took a deal of courage - you just did not do that sort of thing unless it was an emergency. All such items were relatively scarce, fragile, expensive and mostly luxuries. Today these technologies are incredibly reliable, low cost, and in abundant supply. So, they are no longer prized, no longer luxuries, they are now necessities, and just using them is the norm.

Why then are personal computers still in that ancient category of prized possessions? Well they are certainly expensive as the sparse technological luxuries of 40 years ago. But there is, I think, much more. We invest a lot of time organising our machines and filling them with our most valuable possession - information. The thought of someone changing or rearranging our bits, or chancing upon those bits that we dont want them to see, is more than we can bear or risk. Probably the accidental corruption of our data and a system or disc crash is what we fear most. For many of us, the removal of the PC, or the loss or damage of data on a hard drive would be something of a catastrophe that would cost us dear. We would just stop working for days while we rebuilt our virtual office and workshop. No screen no work is now often the norm.

Not surprising then most of us see a PC as a really personal item - an extension of us - like our home, clothes and jewellery. Someone entering our world of data and IT is akin to the prospect of being burgled or mugged. I wonder if we will react in the same way when we have networked computers with limited personal and local information storage and processing capability - perhaps not. At that point the computer will have assumed a similar level of depersonalisation as the telephone, radio and TV. Access to those bits we dont want other people to reach will be easy to control and limit. And our applications (Applets) will be a communal facility anyway, like a bus or a taxi, and just hired for the period of use. Moreover, it will be a world where we can access our personal information from afar using any convenient terminal PC, kiosk or organiser in any company or location, public or private.

After network computing we can expect combined computers and communicators we wear with voice access and interaction, optional head mounted visual systems for animation and pictographic immersion, and artificial agents that do our bidding and generally look after us. Ultimately the technology may become invisible as it is embedded into the fabric of buildings and vehicles, clothing and other personal items that think. We can also anticipate that it will become humanised and able to develop personas to suit us and our specific needs. At this point the socks syndrome will probably reappear as the technology becomes more than a piece of technology and more a part of us. Truly personal, just like socks.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk

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