Rhymes of History

Mark Twain says that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. 

Dr. Thornburg similarly describes one of the forces that drive emerging technology as “Rhymes of history,” which is a term he uses to define new technology which has emerged due to the impact felt many years before from another technology, or when a technology rekindles something from the past.

In Kevin Kelly’s speech, "The Next 5,000 Days of the Web," he discusses the impact the web has on society and states that: “We will increasingly be dependent on the Internet and it will increasingly be dependent on us.” We already depend on many technological aspects of the Internet, such as using different mobile technologies, connecting with each other, and even communication with banks, schools, and government offices. We use the cloud computing to store, retrieve, and transmit data, in addition to communicating; and new technologies are continuously emerging.

In tune with Kelly’s concepts of embodiment, restructuring, and codependency, we can look at the development of Skype as part of a “rhymes of history.” Video phones have always been a part of collective imagination which can be seen from their use in the Jetson cartoons, and the James Bond and Star Trek movies. In earlier times, drawings of future princes and princesses were carried by messengers to arrange marriages around continents; we always wanted to see the person with whom we are communicating. From the idea of the Telephonoscope, came personal video phones and Skype, where users can transmit live images. Videophones were mostly developed due to broadband Internet technology. As cloud technology advances, Kelly states that the Internet will become more personalized, where we will all have a global profile that will be our identification on the Internet, which means that we and others could connect and “see” us.

 










CNN Tech (March 2, 2010) ran an interesting article on high-speed Internet, television and Skype and whether it could be combined to create a videophone TV: “Skype on TV: Will the videophone finally be reality?” (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/02/skype.on.tv.videophone/index.html)

The latest article on CNN Tech (January 4, 2011) “5 gadget trends to watch at CES” (Consumer Electronics Show) showcase technological tools whose meteoric technological advances were possible due to the development of the Internet and cloud computing.  http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/01/04/ces.expected.trends/index.html?hpt=C2

Reference:

Friedman, N. (2009). The high cost of computers? U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 135(3), 90−91.

Kelly, K. (2007, December). The next 5,000 days of the web [speech]. Speech delivered at the EG 2007 Conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2010, June 11). The future of cloud computing. Retrieved from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1623/future-cloud-computing-technology-experts

Thornburg, D. (Producer). (nd). Rhymes of history. [Video Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.

Thornburg, D. (Producer). (nd). Six forces that drive emerging technology. [Video Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.