The Semantic Revolution / Futurist Dr. Asher Idan

Two steps on the way to revolutionizing the future, writes Dr. Asher Idan, a futurist expert from Bar Ilan University. As part of the semantic revolution, all communication products will disappear into our clothes, and in the next step, the nanotechnological revolution will allow us to produce our food using today's word processor. And that's not the end yet

Dr. Asher Idan

Dr. Asher Idan, photo from his website

For the second article in the series:To speak Chinese in Hebrew - Dr. Aharon Haufman"

About the author

Dr. Asher Idan: lecturer for e-business, e-learning, and knowledge management, in the Department of Information Studies at Bar Ilan University and in the Department of Education at the Open University. Consultant and lecturer for business clients: Shufersal management, IDB management, the General Staff, Partner management, Ericsson Israel management, CA Israel management, Ministry of Education management, and other companies and banks.
The article is taken from the booklet "Twenty Years of Bezeq". The article appears on the Hidan website courtesy of Bezeq spokesperson Yotam Yakir, and Miri Friel-Green - responsible for internal spokespeople at Bezeq.

The semantic revolution

We will go through two stages on the way to the technological revolution: by 2013 our cell phone, personal computer and telephone handset will disappear into our clothes, jewelry and household utensils. All digital information will be understood by machines that will talk to each other, so that most communication in the world will be between machines and not between humans. The "semantic reality" that will upgrade the outdated "virtual reality" of the "Matrix".
Ten years later, by 2023, a "food processor" will appear that will upgrade today's word processor. Through it, every person will not only be able to process information, but also be a "personal granary" or "personal elite", i.e. a "table food factory" that will upgrade today's desktop publishing.

The Semantic Internet - Smart labeling of information

By 2013, every item of information will be cataloged and tagged in a way that will allow you to find it in seconds in search engines like Google. Moreover - once a certain piece of information is tagged and cataloged it can be understood by computers and without human help.
For example: those who will need an appointment with a doctor in the health fund in the future will not have to call the hotline to make an appointment nor bring the medical file or form 17. It is enough to type the doctor's name into the computer so that it will connect to the patient's and the doctor's outlook and find a free time for both of them. At the same time, the computer will transfer the patient's personal medical file to the doctor as well as Form 17.

This is the Semantic Web, which began to be built in 2000 on the ruins of the primitive Web of 1993-2000. "Semantic", because each item of information has a meaning that computers understand.
The stage described in the above example is only the first stage of this network, and in the second stage, not only the information items in the world, but also material items will be cataloged and tagged: products on the supermarket shelf, raw materials in the supply chain, pets, elderly people with forgetfulness, buildings and more. A sensor will be attached to each of them that will contain their identification details and will also receive data from the environment such as the amount of water in agricultural crops, the degree of pressure on buildings at risk of collapse or the degree of toxicity in a public park.

From that moment, and it will happen until 2013, objects will be able to communicate with each other in the network even without human intervention. The material objects, devices and items of information will not only be smarter but really social, and the volume of communication between them will exceed the volume of communication between humans.

The networks of information items and networks of objects are based on several technologies that already exist today: broadband and wireless communication, of which Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is only the first swallow. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) for labeling and cataloging material objects. Web Services which are a set of standards for communication between objects and devices and themselves, containing yellow pages, a language and a communication protocol built into machines.

The economy of lack and needs to the economy of the "desire for power"

The revolution of the personal computer and the Internet were made possible due to technologies that make it possible to work with devices, such as the processor components, at the micro (thousandth of a millimeter) level. Now the next revolution is approaching that will allow working at the nano level (one millionth of a millimeter). The nanotechnology revolution is manifested in three areas: nanodevices, nanomaterials and nanosensors.

1. Nanodevices or nanomotor: The most prominent nanotechnological device is the nanomotor or nanotor. What is a nanotor? This is the highlight of the efforts aimed at building systems at the nano-millimeter level (micro-mechanics). A nanotor combines sensors, motors and digital processors on the order of a millionth of a millimeter, like a molecule or an atom, that work when they are integrated with each other. For example: such as a spaceship the size of a bird that will be sent to Mars and replace the spaceships of today (which are the size of a multi-story building) and whose fuel consumption will be of the order of magnitude of the fuel consumption of a car on its way to the nearby city; Or a "body repairer" the size of a bacterium that penetrates the human body and repairs damage such as blockages in the arteries, destroying areas infected with bacteria, detoxification and more.
Nanotor is not only a very tiny and very cheap engine, but also very smart. A normal mechanical engine contains parts made of "stupid" materials, and its wisdom is found in its human operator. The wisdom of the nanotor, on the other hand, is found in its parts, similar to the wisdom found in all parts of the organism, in the DNA. and in neurons. An airplane or a car containing nanotors are modular devices that change their shape depending on the driving or parking conditions. For three years now, the airbags in the car have had first-generation nanomotors, which "know how to sense" the force of the blow needed to release the airbag. Today, the first experiments are being done with nanomotors that connect to each other and create spontaneous communication networks similar to coral colonies. The computer and communication companies Lucent and Siemens are already experimenting with wireless communication nano-networks and the University of California is working on a wireless computer network with a server the size of a credit card. Within ten years, anyone with a computer the size of a credit card will be able to move in a space containing modems and wireless servers that will allow him to transmit voice, video and data from any point to any point on the planet.

2. Nanomaterials based on carbon nanotubes: Just as the highlight of the nanodevices is the nanocolumn, so the highlight of the nanomaterials is the nanotube, made of carbon. A nanotube can be used for power fibers (elevators to space), for communication fibers (at the transfer speed of a DVD per second), and as an artificial substitute for blood capillaries and neurons. At Bell Laboratories in the USA they have already succeeded in building chips that build themselves from a given raw material and at the University of Rochester they have already succeeded in building polymer molecules that create pre-planned structures in shapes such as a cylinder or a ring.
Molluscs build shells which are the strongest structures of all that man knows how to build. Spiders build webs which are the strongest threads of all the threads that humans know how to build. why? Because human construction has until now been a mechanical construction, in which parts are attached at the millimeter level, while construction in the biological world is an organic construction in which the parts are built atom by atom or molecule by molecule - the attachment of the parts is at the micrometer (thousandth of a meter) or nanometer (millionth of a meter) level.

3. Nano-control and nano-surveillance based on nano-dust: these are millimeter-sized grains. Each grain contains a sensor that measures temperature, speed, humidity, etc. and translates these "sensory data" into digital information. A communication system transmits information in a fast wireless network between grain to grain or between grains to a "grain-server", which centralizes the information and transmits it to the control center or the human user. Networks of nanosensors can detect an enemy on the battlefield or terrorists in sensitive areas as well as a lack of moisture in agricultural crops, light earthquakes that predict strong and dangerous earthquakes, and the like.

The effects of nanotechnology

The applications of nanotechnology have a double meaning: first, they enable the production of materials and devices and their transmission at speeds and ease comparable to the speed and ease with which the Internet transmits information and applications. And secondly, since the raw material of nanotechnology is atoms, it is infinite and found everywhere.

In the future, we will not have to send a space station to Mars from Earth, but only send a nanotech builder the size of a bacterium to reach Mars and build the entire colony from the atoms found there. If today it is possible to reproduce an entire book found in the USA on paper using a printer located in Israel within minutes via the Internet, nanotechnology will have a "printer of materials": instead of a refrigerator, a "food printer" will be installed in every home with a cartridge of sea sand. Our computer will store or download formulas from the Internet. From the existing molecular formulas and thus we can get foods according to our request: ice cream, salad and the like.

Communication, then, advances by leaps and bounds: at the beginning of the 19th century, the telegraph transmitted signals. At the end of the 19th century, the telephone was already transmitting voices. At the end of the 20th century the Internet transmitted data and video. At the beginning of the 21st century the nanointernet will transfer materials.
This is a bigger and more drastic revolution than the agricultural revolution of thousands of years ago, the industrial revolution of hundreds of years ago and the electronic revolution of decades ago. Just as 20 years ago there was a lack of information and today there is an excess of information because of the Internet, so we are expected to an era of excess in food and raw materials, and perhaps as nanotechnology has developed, Nano-Reality will now develop.

To summarize: the semantic revolution and the nano revolution are manifested, as in every technological revolution, in three layers: the first is the hardware layer, which includes terminals and communication lines. By 2013, the cell phone and the computer will be swallowed up in the clothes and jewelry. By 2023 they will engulf our bodies and minds and the distinction between humans and devices will not be relevant since the cyborg (cyber-organism) will be Superman. The communication lines will be nano lines with DVD transfer capability. in a second, so they will be able to easily transfer not only information but also materials. Most of the communication will be between devices and not between humans.
The second is the software layer, which includes an operating system and applications. We will be able to interface with computers in a natural way like we speak and touch humans and a food processor will appear, which will be an extension of a word processor, and a browser for browsing between food databases which will be an extension of the browser for browsing between databases. A "Napster for sharing food and cars" will appear, which will cause a "world war" between manufacturers of food, cars, furniture, etc., and "nano-internet providers" that will allow users to download cars, stacks, etc. from the Internet.
And the third is the uses layer, which includes content and business activity. nBusiness will appear to expand eBusiness. The nBusiness will enable a full real-time economy so that anyone can consume and work from anywhere.

Mishna:

By 2013, objects will be able to communicate with each other online without human intervention. The material objects, devices and items of information will not only be smarter but really social, and the volume of communication between them will exceed the volume of communication between humans.

In nanotechnology, there will be a "printer of materials": instead of a refrigerator, a "food printer" will be installed in every house, containing a cartridge of sea sand. Our computer will store or download formulas from the Internet. From the existing molecular formulas and thus we can get foods according to our request: ice cream, salad and the like.
To Dr. Asher Idan's website