The
Convergent Family
This is fiction. It is the story of a weekday morning in the life of a couple with children. It could happen two months from now, or two years or two decades in the future.
You might say that convergent technology (like the merging of wireless and Internet technologies into mobile Internet) plays a major part in their lives. But they would probably not see it that way.
For them, the marvel of new technology is overshadowed by its pure utility. New convergent technologies have changed their lives just as e-mail has changed ours.
5:00 a.m. - The Dearbourne family sleeps. The father, Luke, is a nurse in the city hospital radiology department and does not start his shift until 8 a.m. The mother, Barbara, is sales manager for a small software firm. Her workday begins about the same time, although she works from home. Their son, Ewon, is nine years old and starts school at 8.30 a.m. Barbara also has a child from her previous marriage, a daughter named Erica, who lives with them. Erica is 13 and is rigorously training for the Olympic trials in gymnastics.
The family's house never went to sleep. The security system has a direct link (both landline and satellite) to the police, as well as to two neighbouring houses. The interior climate system is in sleep mode, controlling temperature and humidity in each room based on user preferences. Everything else is in energy-saving mode. The environmentally harmful emissions produced by the house are approximately equal to that of one chicken.
5:01 a.m. - Luke receives an e-mail on his mobile phone. The e-mail is marked urgent, so - by Luke's own design - the mobile triggers a silent alert pad in his half of the bed that gently wakes him. He reads the e-mail. Trauma case. He views an attached scan on a digital screen in the master bathroom. Afterwards, he makes a video conference call to work in which he advises the attending physician. Although Luke is on call, he won't have to go in to work. He returns to bed. The alarm is reset by a sensor in the mattress.
5:30 a.m. - The home's basement server begins to prepare for daybreak. Solar panels swivel into position on the roof. The interior temperature rises. Ewon wakes up early and watches a small ceiling-mounted TV. On a morning programme, he sees a feature on a new interactive weather balloon for recreational users; he points at it with his remote and clicks. A new screen gives him product information and asks him if he would like to buy. He clicks "Yes"; quantity: "10". Fortunately, Ewon's parents have installed parental discretion. He sighs, sends a TV-mail to his mother about the "gift idea" and returns to the programme where he left it.
5:35 a.m. - Barbara's PDA automatically reconfirms her 6:30 p.m. flight to London with the airline and orders a taxi to come to the house at 5:00 p.m.
5:45 a.m. - Luke wakes. His car, hooked up to a remote online traffic tracker, begins charting the most rapid route to work, updating itself every two minutes. Luke plods over pre-warmed bathroom floor tiles into the shower. In the shower, he uses a touch-screen television to navigate through the news. Luke switches to house control. The planned breakfast is a steamed tomato, a piece of ham, a biscuit and orange juice (the Dearbournes have subscribed to a dietary package sponsored by a television programme in conjunction with a food chain. Their meals are planned by a famous television dietician and executed at the local level by automatic communication between their refrigerator and the food chain. Ingredients are delivered automatically. The Dearbournes, of course, approve each week's menu in advance, and they have full manual over-ride). Luke notices in the corner of the screen that he has used up half the hot water; he turns off the shower and jumps out.
7:00 a.m. - The Dearbourne family sits around the breakfast table. Fifteen peaceful minutes pass as they discuss the upcoming summer holiday.
7:20 a.m. - Erica begins with the laundry (it's her turn). The washing machine scans each clothing article's label and retrieves washing instructions online from clothing manufacturers. Since they bought their washing machine with scanning and satellite connections, the Dearbournes have not accidentally tinted a sock pink or shrunk one woollen sweater.
7:30 a.m. - Ewon is ready to go to school. But, since it is raining, he does not want to walk. He enters a text message on his mobile telephone (a limited functionality unit that he uses only for calls to and from his parents, as well as a few other vital contacts - police, fire department, school bus…). The school's system gets the message and the bus driver's route is automatically corrected to pick up Ewon.
7:33 a.m. - After Luke drives off to work, Barbara basically shuts the house down. All interaction is now passive. Climate control, emergency notification and electricity management continues, but all other functions cease. In essence, she is now living in a slightly advanced house of a few years ago: nothing talks to her. She gets no updates, no reminders and no helpful hints. It is a kind of domestic cruise control that Barbara and Erica have agreed upon in order to have peace and quiet for work and studies.
7:45 a.m. - As Luke Dearbourne follows the path of least resistance through city traffic thanks to the car's heads-up navigator, he decides to do some banking. He wakes up his mobile phone, which is voice-activated. Luke asks it to dial a secure line to the bank, tells it his PIN code and proceeds to open a special holiday account. To this account, he re-routes a portion of his salary. He gets confirmation and tells the phone to hang up and chill out. A printed confirmation is automatically faxed home. Despite taking the fastest route to work, Luke is going to be late. Cursing to let off steam, he voice-activates his mobile phone and calls the watch supervisor at the hospital.
8:00 a.m. - Erica has enrolled in a special school that provides a concentrated music curriculum through interactive home learning. She studies at home to facilitate five hours of rigorous gymnastics training every day. While studying, Erica has access to lectures, can partake in online discussions with other students, explore new pieces of music, compose and perform on a piano and enter a huge database of topical information.
8:30 a.m. - Luke is at work. He consults peers about cases via e-mail and video conferencing. Barbara is also at work. She receives software product updates from her company's developers and, with a little editing, can send them on as direct mails to prospective customers. She also reconfirms a contract signed the day before. She enters some information and 200 software units will ship to 50 different customer destinations on schedule.
10:30 a.m. - Barbara is chairman of her neighbourhood services group. She reads through contracts for the neighbourhood's cable, Internet, remote connection, power management, sewage management and a host of other contracts. At each place in a contract where a change has been made, she can click on the change and get further information. Satisfied that nothing is taking a turn for the worse, she clicks, "approve". All parties, homeowners and service providers, are updated.
10:57 a.m. - Ewon feels unwell at school. He calls home and his mother agrees to arrange a taxi to bring him home. She sends an SMS to her taxi service. The taxi brings Ewon home and the cost automatically goes on a monthly bill. Barbara need only send one message to call off her evening flight and another to inform the customer that she was due to visit.
12:00 p.m. - At lunch, Luke needs a break, so he plays chess online with three different people somewhere on the planet through his mobile phone.
12:15 p.m. - Barbara arranges a special lunch for her sick son, but she and her daughter have the planned meal: a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich with a banana and a cup of yoghurt.
Some of this technology is now available; some is not, but soon will be. Some may never see the light of day. The point is this: technology is here to serve us. If it fails to do so, it won't survive. If it does, it may be used in ways we never imagined.
Text by: Ryan Skinner
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