Warning Indicators
How will the future turn out to be in 2015?
That is very hard to tell. Except from a small number of 'certain' driving forces like the increase in scarcity of water and the increase in Internet speed/capacity, the future is still pretty much unclear to all of us.
Although we have developed and written the Real Net scenario, what are the chances that the future will evolve this way? We can't give the right answer to this question, the only thing we can do is provide a number of indicators that mark whether the future is indeed evolving in the direction of the Real Net.
The indicators should be used to measure the current status of the the technology, economy, society and politics, for instance every two years. Thus, it can be assessed whether the world, and in particular the Internet, is moving towards the Real Net.
A summary of the most useful indicators that can be used in the period from now until 2015 are:
- Speed of Internet connection (GB/sec)
- Number of wireless connection points
- Radius of wireless transmitting (m)
- Number of PC's per 1000 people
- Number of Internet users per 1000 people
- Number of people with chips implemented in their bodies per 1000 people
- Number of chips per square meter
- IT industry contribution to GDP (%)
- IT industry growth (%)
- Cost per computer chip ($)
- Number of international Internet laws installed
- Number of workers from home per 1000 people