subject: World Technology Failures [print this page] With new and exciting technology being developed every day we are always being promised life changing inventions. It seems that for every success we are treated to an array of failures. Some expected and some that seem like such a good it is hard to see where it went wrong!
Doomsday Project - The BBC Doomsday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers, Philips, Logica and the BBC and was designed to mark the 900th anniversary of the original doomsday book. It was compiled over a period of three years and was published in 1986 after having over one million people contribute to the project. The material included maps, colour photos, statistical data, videos, virtual reality tours of major landmarks and the entire 1981census.
This information was stored on specially adapted laserdiscs with the intention that future generations could then look back on the material in years to come, however the laserdisc standard never lasted and, as such, it is close to impossible to find a machine nowadays capable of reading the code. Eventually a project was started to emulate the old system and publish the information to the Internet however the gentleman who was reverse engineering the project suffered an untimely death and as a result the Doomsday Project website remains offline.
The Internet Connected Fridge - Although it is too early to say that such an invention will never take off, the Internet Fridge has spent ten years in the making and doesn't show any real promise of becoming mainstream. Personally I've never liked the idea of my fridge managing my kitchen inventory and then automatically buying my weekly shopping online.
I would like to think that even in the 21st century individuals find at least a little pleasure in selecting what they would like to eat in the following week instead of having their fridge do it for them. I also am not too enthusiastic about a machine deciding that because I had strawberries and cream after tea this evening that I would want the same thing delivered to your doorstep as a replacement.
Paperless Office - There has been talk of a paperless office for years; creating a world where printers are redundant and all information is stored digitally. Fortunately for us here at Refresh Cartridges (but somewhat unfortunate for our environment) in reality the modern office is a long way from being paperless. I feel a lot safer with paper and when faced with a large report it is bizarrely easier to read it off sheets of bleached bark than from a monitor.
Video Phones - The longest video phone conversation that I have ever had lasted two seconds, and that was simply to test that my mobile phone SIM card supported 3G. There have been real attempts to push video calling on to the general public and it is one of the main sales pitches of the mobile operators when touting their new high speed networks however the service still struggles to find an audience. There are now no real technological barriers preventing all of us from video calling, however the simple truth of the matter is that people don't want to see who they're calling.
