On a fairly regular basis, IBM publishes its "5 in 5" predictions that mentions 5 new technological trends or developments that will occur in the next 5 years. Given that this multi-billion dollar Corporation is actively involved in developing and creating these products and marketing, there is a good chance they are accurate. After all - there is a lot of money at stake!

And if anyone doubts these ideas based on the scale of the project it's worth remembering that India has recently signed up to record the biometric data for its 1.25 billion people. The government will then use the information to issue identity cards. An interesting development given the Father of the Nation's strong opposition to ID cards.  

IBM's most recent 5 include:

Energy - we will tap new sources of energy never before accessible. Kinetic energy (from movement)

Security - no longer will you need to trouble yourself with remembering a password - the machines will recognise your biometric data. No more effort required to remember anything!

Mind-reading - in fact, you will not even have to type in your commands to these machines - they will simply read your mind. And as a bonus doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists - will be able to predict actions by computer aided analysis of brain activity.

Mobile - in 5 years 80% of the current people in the Word will have a mobile device. Since it's cheaper to buy a phone than a laptop or even open an account, many people will use one gadget to handle all their increasingly social and economic interactions.

Analytics - we will be analysed until all our desires are catered for by the machines around us. No more junk mail, in 5 years intelligent systems will filter all our information and only allow through the relevant material - without us having to ask for it. Favourite band coming to town - it will reserve tickets. Snowstorm expected - it will re-route your flight.

It all sounds terribly exciting to us gadget monkeys but perhaps we should hear a few thoughts on these topics from some of our community who have spent their lives understanding machines and people.

Energy - tapping kinetic and other sources of energy is a great way to go for becoming less dependent on centralised systems, which increase the likelihood of systemic failure. Like the discovery of fire it remains to be seen what applications will employ these new methods. The positive possibilities should not eclipse the less savoury ones. Will the unemployed and homeless be given the opportunity to contribute to society by having their energy tapped? Of course this is ridiculous, right? But the poor in other countries sell their blood and kidneys to earn money - so why not this? It's intriguing to see how popular culture has recently explored this issues. Here's a fascinating clip that does just that:

Security: there has never been nor will there ever be a system which is invulnerable to exploitation. Anything built by mankind - can be broken by them also. By this we mean that when a new service or technology is developed the full impact of its release must be considered prior to investment, development and launch. Whether this is the advent of national identity cards (also pioneered by IBM for the Nazis) or hacking prodigies engaged in harmless Wargames:

Nazi IBM link:

Mind-reading - machines providing information for us without us ever needing to ask for it. Being of the school of thought that certain types of challenge help us develop so that we may be moderately independent beings - what happens when the decisions are routinely made for us? The increasing dependence of humans on labour-saving devices must be assessed both positively and negatively. If a mind-reading device removes the need for us to exercise our intellects, in order to share information, will this also enable our minds to deteriorate? Will we have minds left to read? Are we being overly paranoid or should we err on the side of caution? You decide, but since the advent of the calculator, spell-checker and mobile phone - many younger people are growing up less and less capable of doing basic arithmetic, writing or even holding a coherent conversation. Innit?

One wonders if they have seen The Forbidden Planet? This is the stuff of nightmares. Very few people have complete control over their thoughts and emotions. What happens when momentary frustration gives way to a negative thought? Even if a harsh word slips out we usually have an opportunity to apologise. With those individuals with impulse control issues, much more serious situations can arise.

Mindless vandalism, shaken babies, random acts of violence - all are within the scope of human behaviour. Until we can eradicate these choices from our repertoire of actions, allowing a machine to respond to our thoughts is extremely risky. It is hard to code for every exception and eventuality. Mobile phones have made the pre-existing hazard of 'drinking and dialling' an increasing risk. You no longer have to wait until you get home (hopefully soberer) before you dial you ex and jeopardise your or their current relationship. And for those who doubt our concern, have any of you ever auto-dialled the wrong number, deleted the wrong file, started the washing machine on the wrong setting..? If you can make absent-minded man-machine mistakes during these normally conscious moments - think what could happen if you thought the wrong thought with a robotic lawnmower capable of responding!

Mobile - one of the fascinating events we have seen is the all pervasive nature of mobile phones as they increase in power and versatility. The number of phone-hacking events has steadily increased with their proliferation. The UK may have the highest density of surveillance cameras in the World (so this is what is meant by a free democracy?) but allowing our employers, the media and faceless Government employees - or their out-sourced ones overseas - to track our every move, may not be the wisest. Since the advent of the Oyster card, police requests for travel information of private individuals has steadily risen from 436 during August 2004 and March 2006 to 6,074 in 2008. Given that one of the mandates of the Police is to prevent crime, surely these numbers should be dropping? Maybe it's a case of a few bad apples spoiling the bunch - maybe more than a few?

Analytics - anticipating your desires and enabling them. Automatically filtering information so that we don't have to think about it? Pre-digested food anyone? Further reducing our opportunities to exercise our minds are going to make us more vulnerable to external problems - like power-cuts. And desires made true sounds very Monkey's Paw! Google recently tried this with its social network expansion to Gmail. Suddenly without users' permission, Google flagged up and publically shared all their most important contacts - by order of most email or chat. Many a relationship was strained as red-faced partners had to explain why their attractive office colleague was getting more attention than their husbands and wives at home. Oops!

Perhaps allowing fallible machines and their even more mistake-prone operators to know our deepest desires is not the wisest thing. Like rash thoughts, our inner self is capable of imagining many scenarios and toying with the possibilities. A well-balanced and socially adjusted person learns to suppress the negative and destructive ones and develop the positive and constructive. If we reduce the barriers to our imagination we may find ourselves unleashing Pandora's box.

"News, sport, politics - giving power to your mobile phone to make purchases on your behalf. You'll trust that technology will know what you want."

Not likely!