Tech Inspiration

The tech sector seems dominated by some not-very interesting ideas these days: Web 2.0 trends, smartphone and tablet apps - (a lot of which are just nicer ways to participate in Web 2.0 services).

Visions of the future of tech seemed to be a lot more ambitious and challenging back before the Web, and specifically Web 2.0 took over.

I'm going to try and recapture some of those ideas that seem to have fallen by the wayside here:

• Virtual Reality (Goggles, gloves and CAVES)
• Interactive Movies, Interactive Fiction (CDi, Crawford et al)
• Smart Agents
• Artificial Life
• Smart devices, post-PC era
• Robots
• Realtime 3D graphics
• AI

None of these ideas are dead, some are flourishing beneath a wave of Web and smartphone hype.