“Man is a social animal. He who lives without society is either a beast or God.”

-Aristotle

Task as Presented

How do you imagine social interaction within 10 years, taking into consideration the impact of

technology on human relations?

Let’s take a quick look at how social interaction has

transformed over the years…

Mediums of Social Interaction

Mediums of Social Interactions

Cave Paintings

Petroglyphs

Pictograms

Ideograms

Literature

Telegrams

Post Mails

Telephones

Newspapers

& Magazines Paint

ingsSculptures

Dance & Musi

cEmails & Cell PhonesSocial Networking Media

Social Interaction helps exchange opinions & ideas.

These ideas, then, help frame rules and structures among a

group of human beings.

So how has social interaction contributed towards the world

we live in today??

▪ Social interaction can impact in 3 ways:-– A local impact in a state

or a country such as culture, art/literature, reforms and ideologies

OR– A global impact such as

economy, technological advancement, world wars and political relations

OR– A glocal impact such as

education and food cuisines.

Revolutions Ideologies & Reforms Education

Technology World Wars Civil Wars

Formed new countries and developed old

ones

Started and ended

civilizationsArt, literature and culture

With developments and advancements in every field, happening at an astronomical

pace, social interaction will change drastically in the coming years.

But before we dive into that, let us see what new technology is

awaiting us in the near future!

Holograms▪ Remember all the fancy holographic technology we saw in movies

like ‘Back to the Future’? Well, it is almost here and will be available for the public in a few years.

▪ Apple has filed for patents in 2012. However, Microsoft has already developed a prototype called ‘Hololens’ and HTC’s ‘Oculus Rift’ is already here (although critics and experts have rated it poorly!).

▪ We will be able to interact with life-sized projections of people and their surroundings who live miles away! Sure beats video-call facility that currently exists.

▪ Even miniature projections are possible through watches and smart phones.

▪ We can touch them and even go through them since they are projections, how fascinating!

Brain-Computer Interface [BCI]▪ Wow! Sounds very technical, doesn’t it? But, it’s

actually quite a simple concept. Humans will be able to interact with computers and other electronic devices via thoughts. That’s right, thoughts.

▪ A thought is nothing but an electrical activity in the brain. This electrical activity is transmitted to the computer, which translates it into data.

Signal Acquisition

Digitized

Signal

Feature

Extraction

Translation

Commands

BCI Application

▪ Applications of BCI in communication are vast:-– Paralyzed people will be able to control their prosthetic limbs,

thus improving non-verbal communication.– Facilitate communication with people in coma, whose brains

are still active. It is said that even a 1-sided communication heals people in a coma, imagine how effective a 2-way communication would be!

– Allow deaf people to hear again, blind people to see again and mute people to speak again.

– Upload/download memory, monitor sleep and capture dreams, which can then be shared on social media.

– Communicating with animals is also a HUGE possibility. How fun would it be to communicate with our pets?!

Augmented Reality▪ As the name implies, augmented reality (AR) is a type

of virtual reality that augments additional information to a combination of a real event and a virtual event.

▪ Additional information can be either computer generated data or something that enhances our sensory perceptions.

▪ Oh, and it all happens in real-time!

▪ Applications of AR in communication are enormous.

▪ From a daily use perspective, how convenient it would be to just point the AR device towards a restaurant and get the menu, the prices, the reviews and the specials.

▪ Or, point it at a person and get their personal information, professional information and your mutual friends/acquaintances.

▪ Interestingly, there are already a few AR gadgets in the market such as Google Glass and AR apps for smartphones like Google Goggles.

Artificial Intelligence [AI]▪ I am sure everybody has dreamt of having a

personal assistant like JARVIS from Iron Man comics. Brace yourself, we may just have something along those lines in 10 years.

▪ We already have a very basic form of AI in Siri, Google Now and Echo. A lot of research is being put into developing it by Apple, Google, Samsung and even Amazon.

▪ For example, picture a smart home that runs on AI – it will keep track of the movement of all the family members and their well-being, all the electronic devices and automobiles and the safety and security of the members and the house. And, that is just the tip of the ice-berg.

Fancy technology! But how will it impact social interaction??

▪ This world will only become flatter and smaller in the next 10 years when connectivity between east and west, and between north and south will become stronger.

▪ Information will make interactions very transparent. Almost everybody’s life will be an open book, even more than what it is today.

▪ Since everything will be available online, interactions among humans will be for important things that add value to our lives.

▪ Social interaction will be highly contextual and specific.

▪ Several social issues and taboos will be eliminated. The Black Dot campaign is a fine example where anybody facing domestic violence can upload a picture of themselves with a black dot on their hand on social media and they will be rescued by the local authorities.

▪ People with disabilities will also be able to interact with everybody, like normal human beings.

▪ Since interacting with animals will also be possible, conservation and protection projects of flora and fauna will improve.

▪ Companies will be able to personalize their communication with the customers, based on needs and demands. For example, Amazon is working on predicting future orders of a customer. Therefore, going forward, communication with that customer will be on a personal level.

▪ Technology will allow ‘Mood Communication’, where a person’s mood will influence surroundings and therefore interactions. For example, a smart house can read a person’s mood and would try to lift it, if it’s down, by changing the light pattern and music!

It sure seems like 2025 will be bright!

Or, will it?

Shortcomings▪ There is always 2 sides to a story. Same is the case here!

▪ Currently, it is seen that technology has dwarfed real-life social interaction whereas virtual social interaction has grown.

▪ To prevent us from becoming virtual zombies by 2025, we MUST use technology for development and knowledge acquisition, primarily.

▪ With possessing technology that invades people’s personal space, security will be a huge concern.

How we use the upcoming technology for interacting socially

in 2025, is in OUR hands.

If used correctly, we may be looking at a prime intellectual

evolution, even before the next century!

Thank You!Gracias!