Sunday, January 25, 2009

Future of the Web

By 2015 Web 2.0- The Social Web- will have developed into a complex multimedia interweaving of ideas, knowledge and social commentary, connecting over three billion people on the planet. In combination with the genesis of the next generation Semantic Web 3.0 it will automatically analyse, interpret and create new forms of layered knowledge beyond the world of today's blogs, wikis, videos, images, augmented reality, podcasts, social networks and games.

Over the next decade these early trends will continue to evolve at a frenetic pace. Social networks will both fragment and unify, catering to special groups, but also overlapping and creating within the next few years a global social network of networks. At the same time, social networks, virtual communities and game worlds will converge, along with powerful simulation technology, to create the first realistic virtual realities. Social and enterprise networks will also have converged.

By 2020 Web 3.0- the Semantic Web- will have made many important contributions to new knowledge through network relationships, logical inference and artificial intelligence. It will be powered by a seamless computational mesh, including trillions of sensor webs and virtual channels layered on the Internet, enveloping and connecting most human life.

It will encompass all facets of our social and business lives- not just data, but equations, algorithms, techniques, procedures, processes and protocols- always on and always available, to manage most of the services that humanity and life requires.
Web 3.0 will connect not only many of the 7-8 billion individuals on the planet, but also link with other biological and artificial life forms, as well as countless everyday electronically embedded objects and cyber-physical systems. The Social and Semantic Web will have combined.

By 2030-40 Web 4.0- the Intelligent Web- will be ubiquitous- able to interact with the repository of almost all available knowledge of human civilisation- past and present, digitally coded and archived for automatic retrieval and analysis.
Web 4.0 will mark the beginning of a new intelligent entity- a sentient and cogniscent multidimensional network, powered not only by billions of ultra-fast tiny processors and unlimited communications bandwidth, but by the first quantum computers, capable of processing trillions of operations in parallel. Human intelligence will have co-joined with advanced forms of artificial and virtual intelligence, creating a higher or meta-level of knowledge processing. This will be essential for supporting the complex decision-making and problem solving capacity required for civilisation's future progress.

By 2050 Web 5.0- The Wise Web will have emerged, embedding all biological and artificial life within a global cooperative intelligence. All critical decisions affecting our planet and life, including those relating to global warming, sharing vital resources, health management and the ethical resolution of conflict and human rights, will be guided by this global intelligence.

The Wise Web will mark the beginning of a new threshold in human civilisation- a new form of global consciousness- in which all life will be embedded.