The Ultimate Convergence<BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> Roger Ebert<BR> <BR> <BR> Technologies that converge with one another are simply inventions. It's<BR> when they converge with us that Convergence gets interesting. Humans of<BR> course have been tool users ever since that clever ape threw the bone into<BR> the air for Stanley Kubrick, but until recently the tools stayed outside our<BR> bodies. Now simple tools have found their way beneath the skin (pacemakers,<BR> hip replacements, lenses grafted onto the cornea) and The Great Convergence<BR> will take place when those humble tools are followed by the god of tools,<BR> the computer chip. Bionic humans are on the way.<BR> Various kinds of computers and calculators have been sidling up to our<BR> bodies in for years. Watches give us wrists that can tell time. Cell phones<BR> and palm computers extend the reach and usefulness of our ears, hands and<BR> brains. Today we can get on the Internet from just about anywhere, if we<BR> want to badly enough. Now it's time for the Internet to get onto us.<BR> The first steps will be crude and messy. The movies "Strange Days" and<BR> "eXistenZ" point the way. First we'll "jack in" with external devices that<BR> communicate to our brains. Then we'll have bio-ports, so that computers can<BR> plug directly into our spines. These virtual reality inputs will be buggy<BR> and irritating: One moment we're exploring the moons of Jupiter with Lara<BR> Croft and the next moment there's a power surge and all we have is a<BR> headache. Many of the virtual realities we explore will have ad banners<BR> floating in the sky, or product placement ("It's dry here on Mars. Hey--a<BR> Gatorade machine!").<BR> The Great Convergence will be followed by the Ultimate Convergence. Tiny<BR> computer chips will be implanted soon after birth, hard-wired into the<BR> cortex, and parents will teach their children to talk, and log on. Just as<BR> we instinctively control our bladders, we'll learn to switch from the real<BR> world to a data screen and back again--or superimpose the Internet over the<BR> backdrop of reality. In the early days, the log will be triggered by a<BR> physical movement, but eventually it will only take is a thought--the same<BR> kind of mental question mark that currently triggers a physical Web search.<BR> Television and movies will come into our heads the same way. The<BR> telephone, too, will be internalized. The pictures and sound will be much<BR> improved. A global grid will sent it everywhere. The image will fill our<BR> peripheral vision and hearing, and houses will burn down around us unless a<BR> clever Java engine stands watch and sounds the alarm. <BR> How will this happen? MediaLab at MIT has already patented a chip that<BR> rides in your shoe, so that when you shake hands with another person<BR> similarly equipped, your bodies exchange all of the information found on<BR> business cards. This technology makes use of the body's electrical charge;<BR> the same weak field will be tapped to send and receive telephone, Internet<BR> and TV signals.<BR> New rules of social etiquette will be necessary. A person who starts<BR> talking to himself on the subway will not be schizo; he'll be making a call.<BR> A simple hand gesture will indicate this to others. Probably the same<BR> gesture currently used to indicate phoning: thumb and pinky extended, other<BR> fingers folded inward, hand held next to head. When a user is accessing<BR> Internet screens he may seem to be giving us the 1,000-yard stare. To excuse<BR> his rudeness, he'll make an "L" of his thumb and hand, fingers vertical,<BR> thumb horizontal, and hold it in front of his face. This is half of the hand<BR> gesture used by movie directors to frame a shot, and indicates that the user<BR> is looking in a special way.<BR> Advantages will be limitless. We will have total access to information.<BR> We'll be able to buy stocks and book trips simply by thinking about them (a<BR> daydream-blocker will ask us to confirm all transactions). Pornography will<BR> be a delight. The built-in phone will allow us to have running conversations<BR> all day long with everyone we know, so that it will hardly seem as if we've<BR> left home. Strategies to protect privacy and commit adultery will require<BR> unimaginable mental discipline.<BR> Do-gooders will of course want to pump uplifting messages into the minds of<BR> criminals and misfits. Advertisers will also be tempted. Ads jacked directly<BR> into the consciousness will allow pinpoint demographic accuracy. The Supreme<BR> Court will decide how the Founding Fathers would have balanced our right to<BR> access the Internet with our freedom from the advertising that pays for it.<BR> There is already a joke about the Ultimate Convergence. A guy walks into a<BR> bar. He starts talking to his fingers. Bartender asks what he's doing.<BR> "I've got a cell phone implanted in my hand," the guy says.<BR> Soon he's typing on the other hand: "My computer keyboard."<BR> He goes to the john, and when he comes back, he's trailing 10 yards of<BR> toilet paper.<BR> "Hey, buddy!" the bartender says. "You can't walk around here like that!"<BR> "Give me a break," the guy says. "Can't you see I'm receiving a fax?"<BR>