Monday, July 6, 2009

I wonder...

I was wondering of the implications of the thread of discussion in class last friday. That instead of having multiple cables going into the house, there would just be one fiberoptic line carrying telephone, cable, electricity and internet. We had jokingly said that if one went out then all your utilities go out with it. And following the Philippine experience, this might not be too far from the truth.

But if this was truly feasible, it would surely revolutionize housing design! No more need for multiple conduits but rather just a single main line which would allow smart appliances all over the house. If all the appliances were interconnected then we would be able to tell the coffee maker to start the coffee while still in another part of the house.

Furthermore, this would also revolutionize telecommunications especially if we could use the same technology to make wifi or wi max freely available, we could check up on the house at any time. It would certainly beat going home to check if you had turned off the iron or the oven. Furthermore, it would also allow us to check the contents of the fridge as we shop and no longer would we scratch our heads when we forget something because we forgot the list.

However, this would probably also be a haven for hackers and haydens. Stealing and internet voyeurism would probably skyrocket.

Still it's a dizzying thought, isn't it?

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