Figure 1

Coming soon, a service for people who have neither the ability nor the inclination to operate complex devices such as cellular phones! The service will allows a user to press a single button and access an operator who has a personalized database and can respond directly to requests. The cellular phone that implements this service is designed specifically for people who cannot read small writing or press tiny buttons. The speaker is louder than normal and the unit is large enough to handle easily. The cost of this service is low enough for seniors on a tiny budget, primarily because this service is used infrequently. A cellular telephone designed to optimally serve people who wish to dial, talk, and listen in the easiest possible way. Large buttons, large writing, and a large display make the unit both intuitive and less error-prone than more complex cellular phones. The contact file in the phone is updated remotely through the use of Internet access or a phone call. There are no cameras, MP3 players, Internet access, or any of the other features that most people neither want nor use. And there is no instruction manual—operation of the phone is truly intuitive.

It is ironic that, in today's music market, we are asked to buy a piece of plastic in a cardboard box in order to listen to the music we want to hear. How much more simple it will be, in 2025, to carry a device that allows us to reach out, wirelessly and at low cost, for any music we desire at any time and to have it played for us then and there. This service will require a new form of low-cost, high-speed transport, but that too will happen as a result of new technology.

Everyone knows that the objective of photography is to capture a specific vision and to subsequently share this vision with others. It is amazing that the photographic industry has grown to its present size when one considers the complexity of achieving that objective with film, and later with digital photography. The film version of photography involved loading and unloading of cameras, processing, and the inherent delays involved in these irrelevant steps. Digital photography solved some problems but introduced a new level of complexity requiring computer skills. In 2025, the consumer will have a camera with two buttons. Press one button to take a picture (ultimately a three-dimensional picture with voice accompaniment), press the second button to deliver that picture to a means of sharing—such as a television set. My son takes a picture of my granddaughter, and I see it on my television set, if I wish to, a second later, no matter where I am in the world. A newspaper photographer has an image on her editor's desk a second after taking the picture at the event she is covering, along with the verbal representation of the story.

Imagine the social consequences of a teenager in Toledo playing a game with another teenager in Beijing with no barriers of language, culture, or politics. And think of the impact upon society after a generation of this capability.

We now have the ability to measure virtually every body function both simply and accurately. In fact, there is a "life vest" available that will measure 39 such body functions. It is not difficult to imagine these measurements being consolidated into a digital signal that is transmitted to a doctor for diagnosis. This diagnosis would occur when the individual is in distress, not as is done today, when the individual can get an appointment at the doctor's office. The doctor then can take whatever steps are appropriate to resolve the distress, frequently without a visit. Of course, the doctor can prescribe medication also through the wireless telecommunications path.