Black Mirror, the first television series, really describing the future. The near future, a black future.

The future we have to prevent. It is easy to think of the future as science fiction. Monsters from other planets, people with unusual mutations, world wide disasters. But, the future is us. What do we want? What do we need?

Credit

Your online credibility is independent from your offline credibility

We are important, we are people. I have an identity. You can be trusted. The stakes of online transactions will go up. Buying houses online, do investments online, dating online. My prediction is that there will be a company in the future, “Identity Inc.“, which delivers services around identity. Being able to guarantee that you are who you say you are online will be incredibly important. Commitment towards providing people with means to see who you are, will give you power. A company that can provide online privacy while at the same time provide online credibility will prosper. Currently credibility is an opaque concept and conflated with financial credibility. We all know what happens if bankers are allowed to define credibility. In the end, a transparent system will win. A system in which you can be anonymous when you want, and prove who you are when you want.

Money

Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weerd

You and me buy potatoes, bread, coffee, newspapers and alike every day. And we pay a lot for these things! Counting in entire dollar cents, euro cents, or the exotic currencies of the future. However, online service we want for free. There real costs might be a fraction of a potato, but we want them for free. Why is that? Do we really not want to pay 10 cents per month for our Google searches? Actually, I don’t think so. It is the hassle of micro-payments that keep us from paying for these things. We now pay a few bucks for a game from an app store. Why? Because it is made easy. Just as micro-loans open up opportunities in developing countries, there are immense opportunities for people that crack the problem of micro-payments and micro-subscriptions. If money has to flow, if liquidity is important, this is the way to go. The future lies in the miniaturization of our money.

Cloths

Nobody “wears” their nails

Naked. We are alone. Till now. This will change. As humans, we have been good in decorating ourselves with eye extensions, skin extensions, hair extensions. We came up with special words to describe them; glasses, cloths, hats. Our technology however hasn’t been organic enough to seamlessly integrate with us. When we sleep, when we shower, when we sport, we get rid of them. Google Glass is one example of technology that wants to be more integrated with us. But it is a clumsy attempt. The struggle for the always-there-device is only starting right now. What will win? It can be electronic lenses, piercings, underwear, jewelry, finger nails, wigs, artificial teeth, but in the end, it will be more organic than any of these. It will be beautiful, it will be us. The modern human is born.