55°

Soon we will use our PDAs for video conferencing. Think of this as e-mail that allows you to see and hear the people you are communicating with. Your PDA will act as a mini-video camera. You'll be able to set it on the table in front of you and "go online" to attend a meeting.

Of course this will cause some problems. After all, one of the wonderful things about using e-mail is that no one knows just how awful we look in the morning. Soon after we start using video conferencing we will resent having to get dressed up just to sit at home and talk to our PDAs. This will give rise to a market for PDA "appearance filters," which use special effects to change your appearance on screen. We'll go after them like 9-year olds after a Harry Potter book. Here are a few filters that promise to be on your digital shelf sometime soon.

This is just the beginning. Everyone will be interested in the "look alive filter." It will massage your video image so that you appear thoughtfully engaged in what others say when you are anything but. Another feature will be "laugh at the boss's jokes," which needs no explanation. And you've heard the old saying, "When you're mad at someone and need to lighten up just imagine them with underwear on their head?" Easily done with the new software coming your way.

Technological evolution won't stop here. We will have PAEs (Programmable Alter Egos) that will attend meetings for us. PAEs will come with a lot of standard programming. For example, when they hear the phrase "paradigm shift" they will respond by saying, "I'm sure it will boost sales!" And when they hear the word "innovation," they jump into the conversation and say enthusiastically, "That's my middle name!"

Some fear we will become a world of vidiots, glued to screens to avoid real contact with humans. But think of it this way: Not only can we be anywhere, anytime, but we can also be whoever we want while being nowhere in particular. As a friend of mine put it, in the future we will be able to do virtually anything but nothing really. What a great time to be alive. Really!

Jason Ohler is author of many books and articles about living and learning in the Digital Age. He is a professor of educational technology at the University of Alaska Southeast. © Jason Ohler 2002.