What is the future of digital cultures?

There have been many advancements that have happened over the decades and I think that the world should brace itself for a few more.

As computer games allow us to become more and more a part of them, with the invention of Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move it is a wonder what they will come up with next. Personally, i feel that they will go even further with that technology especially since we have surround sound  and cinema home systems already available. They could introduce games that are projected into your living room so that you are actually within the game's environment and you are surrounded by others.

I think that surveillance will also become a bigger issue than it already is now. The Daily Mail recently released an article stating that there is one CCTV camera for every 32 people in the UK.

This is a picture of a drone that could be in our skies in the near future if the Home Office gets their way. They have proposed that unmanned drones should be in the sky looking down onto the streets of Britain as well as CCTV cameras.  This is an example of how the fictional book 1984 is becoming more and more likely. As I outlined in my privacy blog, I don't think that we'll have that much privacy for much longer especially if the government now wants to have drones in the sky watching our every moves.

I think there are going to be many digital advancements in the future, though the one that really worries me the most is surveillance. Surely we are entitled to some privacy. We already have too many cameras watching our every move, do we really need anymore?

Do Xbox Kinect and the Wii make us cyborgs when we play their games?

New technologies have been developed which allow users to physically become part of video games when they play them. For example, the Wii  is a console is that controlled totally by the players movements. Each game allows the player to interact completely with the game. All the player has to do it move their arms and body's around as though they are the characters in the game.

Shortly after this, microsoft brought out Xbox Kinect as a way to try and compete with the Wii. However, this differs in the way that it has sensors which sense every movement that the player makes. Therefore, it takes game play to the next level as the slightest movement is mirrored byt the character on the screen.

Nintendo has also released Playstation Move which incorprates both elements of the Wii and Xbox Kinect but also uses a different technique as it includes a webcam so that it can see your movements. Furthermore, Playstation Move also uses 3D technology to make the player's experience even more realistic.

With all of these consoles bringing out games that allow us to be physically a part of them, do they turn us into cyborgs?

When we disappear into these video games, we are entering cyberspace and becoming a different being, therefore pointing towards us being cyborgs. With these technologies in our hands, literally, we are able to control the technology that is in front of us. Subsequently, this can be seen as us being a part of the computer or having a part of it in us.

Cyborgs are often seen as having super powers, or being indestructible. Gaming may not have gone that far yet, but who knows what the future may hold for video games. In the 21st century, technology is developing very fast. Will we all be able to actually transform into a cyborg in the next 50 years?