posted on Wednesday, March 08, 2006 5:30 AM
by
Endie
Ultra-ultra-fast internet access
The Times is today carrying a story about a trial of a new technology allowing 2GB per second internet access. The lucky residents of Shoreditch will be the recipients, which I can only presume was chosen because that (extremely deprived) area must download more pr0n than any other location in Britain. Goodness knows what else you'd do with such a fat pipe. I know, I know: it would let doctors use virtual reality to conduct operations across the blah blah... That's what people always say, because it sounds worthy. Clearly, lag is not a problem to these cut-happy surgeons. Maybe they can do the operations from safe, non-litigious domiciles. Like Shoreditch, large parts of which have no meaningful legal system.
But 2GB is a lot. I languish on 4MB at the moment, so that would be a five hundred times increase. I dunno what that would let me do. I suspect that I could download a year's worth of my TV viewing in a day, or something stupid like that. I suppose I'd rather it gave me a fully immersive 3d environment. But then I live in Edinburgh's New Town, which is a pretty nice 3D immersive environment as it is. The shading effects on the trees outside are pretty hot, too. Insert your own references to Nozick, the Experience Engine, and pointless French hyper-reality theorists here...