CCNx (code) is a next-generation content-centric “networking” protocol born from the CCN research group at PARC. Instead of connecting hosts like traditional protocols, CCNx creates a P2P model where clients address data instead of other clients (protocol overview).

I, for one, don’t want to ask the lights of my home-of-the-future to dim by way of an IPv6 address, and I don’t think we’ll be running DNS servers for our homes either - naming every appliance and application would be a chore. I hope to explore the implications of “everyware”, as Adam Greenfield calls it, on future networking in later posts.

(via Trivium)

We ought to set down some core principles to refer to when discussing the future.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Predictions aren’t very useful without hard evidence to back them up, and the best sort of evidence is reality. All short-term predictions, if they are viable, ought to have a clear next step to bringing about their existence. The most reliable and trust-worthy predictor will have already taken this step.

With that said, the next best way to make a prediction is to examine the past. In general, history is an excellent resource to inform us about how we act, perceive, and record. For example, I have trouble believing we will ever have personal jetpacks - the history of air travel is predisposed against it (not to mention physical impracticalities, fuel costs, inconvenience, and general sentiment for public transport). A good prediction will examine historical precedent.

Beware Science Fiction.

Science Fiction is fiction first, science second. Sci-Fi has some neat ideas, but they ought to be examined carefully. Many times, Sci-Fi will introduce seemingly near-practical inventions while failing to take into account their full implications. Predicted inventions should not be considered out-of-context.

The future will be messy and human.

There will be no clean lines and gleaming surfaces, there will be no single human government, and there will be no universal hive mind. The future will be distinctly human, because it will have been built by humans. No purely technical change will unify humanity, solve it’s deficiencies, or end all suffering.

The future may not be good.

Humanity, indeed, all life, is a happy accident, and we are still in a very fragile position that is  not getting any better. There is no reason humanity has to survive. We have only one habitable planet, no easy way of reaching others, no inexpensive way of Terra-forming others, and an steadily-increasing population.

There are no aliens.

At least, we won’t ever run into them. The universe is very very large, life is very very fragile, and if we encountered any extraterrestrial life, we probably wouldn’t be able to recognize it as such or communicate with it. Drake’s Equation examines many factors necessary for meeting intelligent life, and the end result gives us almost no chance at all.

Your editor’s views did not spring fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus, although he sometimes likes to think so. No, instead he has done lots of reading of smart folks’ writings, and you should too. Here are a couple of websites, authors, and resources to explore.

• Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, who also writes at Speedbird about futuristic urbanism, interface design, and design and architecture.
• Raymond Kurzweil is an inventor (the scanner, OCR, TTS, speech recognition, and the synthesizer) and transhumanist. He predicted the future by inventing it, and continues to do so.
• Marvin Minsky and Eleizer Yudkowsky have done some thinking about AI.
• The Long Now Foundation “was established in 01996 to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.”

Note: I’ll keep updating this page, so check back.

Welcome to Sencepta Futura.

“The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.” Sci-Fi author William Gibson recognized that the future we dream of is not that distant, and in many cases, has already arrived. Sencepta Futura aims to highlight these arrivals and document their integration into our conscious lives.

Furthermore, as Computer Scientist Alan Kay explained, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” However, it is important that we invent the correct future, and so Sencepta Futura also aims to educate you, dear reader, which futures are meaningless fantasies, and which we actually have a chance of building and those that have a chance of enriching our lives.

If you come across something you think merits a mention, please send it to me via DISQUS, Twitter, Tumblr, or some other method.