2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY
2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY
The dialogue, between many suppliers and many consumers, will clearly have the potential for creating immense complexity. For all but a very few very important transactions, it will be beyond most individuals. In the first instance, they are likely, therefore, to sub-contract much of this activity to commercial organisations - consumer clubs, say - which will wield the buying power on their behalf. The sourcing of the (human) 'intelligence' needed to run these activities may be further sub-contracted to organisations and individuals in the Third World - as programming and data entry is already being sourced - where such labour is still relatively cheap. You may find, in this way, your baked beans are being bought on your behalf by an Indian, sitting in a mud-hut but connected to a satellite communications system!
Ultimately, though, you are likely to sub-contract much of the work - especially the search for information - to more developed versions of the 'gophers' (now most often called 'agents') which are already in use on the Internet. These will reside in your computer, and from there will search the world for your requirements.
16 May 2003
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