HIGHTOWER: Your Future is Being Wired

Let's journey again into the Far, Far, Far-Out Frontiers of Free Enterprise.Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you to a place that I don't really want to visit, but I'm told I'm going to live there. It's the high-tech future being developed for us by Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Sony, and other Masters of the New Universe. They tell me that, very soon now, "everything will be connected," and the internet will run our lives for us. They say that this is a positive thing ... but I leave that to you.According to a breathless article in Newsweek, "The New Digital Galaxy" is upon us. Among the blessings to come is a totally wired environment -- your house, office, pets, car, appliances, clothing ... and even your toilet discharges. Told you I didn't want to go here.Here's what they've got in mind. Your refrigerator won't just keep things cold, it'll note that your brussel sprout supply is low and that the expiration date on your milk is coming due, so it'll send an email to the supermarket to deliver more of both to your door. Your dishwasher, television, and all other gadgets will detect when something is wrong with them and contact their manufacturer for repairs. When you're working at your PC at home, a video monitor will sense when you're restless and will switch the screen to a sports event or video game. Also, if you add an appointment to your daily schedule, you'll enter the change on your palm computer, which synchronizes with a tiny computer woven into your clothing, then when you get in your vehicle, its computer will download the new appointment address from your clothing, look it up on the internet, and call out directions as you drive.And, yes, we're all to have "smart toilets," which will analyze the chemical content of our [quote] "outputs" and send the data through the internet to our health care providers.This is Jim Hightower saying ... And, of course, there's that little chip they'll put in your brain to ... well, I'll leave that to your imagination ... until they take that away from you, too.