On Thursday, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt stated during a webcasted panel held at the end of the World Economic Forum in Davos that the Internet, as we know it, was about to disappear and be replaced by “a highly personalized, highly interactive and very, very interesting world.”
Mr. Schmidt also explained that there would be so many IP addresses, sensors devices, smartwear and “things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it” that people would simply not sense Internet being a separate thing of their lives. This will mark the end of the Internet as we know it.
It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room,”
he said.
[…] the Internet will disappear,”
he bluntly concluded.
The panel was called The Future of the Digital Economy and featured other high profile guests such as Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s executive chairman.
During the debate, Google’s COO also commented on his company’s market dominance in Europe. He claimed that the rise of the smartphone apps would bring new players to the market, which would experience “a reordering and a future reordering of dominance or leaders.”
He also argued that no one knows how the future of the smartphone app infrastructure would look like since a “whole new set” of tech companies plan to power smartphones. Mr. Smith also said that smartphones were nothing but super-computers, while the mobile device market was a “completely open market”.
Google’s executive chairman was also asked about his latest trip to North Korea. He replied that North Koreans had access to Internet through data phones, but there was no roaming, while the World Wide Web was “heavily supervised.” Mr. Schmidt also said that heavy surveillance wasn’t a good thing neither for North Korea, nor for other countries.
Both Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Schmidt praised the Internet because it allows people to express their opinion and be heard by millions. They also reported that only 40 percent of the world’s population has Internet connection.
Ms. Sandberg displayed a highly optimistic attitude towards the future of the Internet. She said that the possibilities for the industry were endless once more than 50 percent get Internet access.
She even turned to feminist argumentation to support the idea. She said that women were the great beneficiaries since the Internet narrows divides.
At the end of her speech, she concluded the Internet was the “greatest empowerment of citizens” because “suddenly they have a voice, they can be heard.”
Image Source: Interaksyon
