The ##

This is a guest post by Phil Johnson, a local musician of Boulder, Colorado.

With the release of the new iPod Touch and Nano, humankind has come one step closer to the inevitable: the ‘D.’

The ‘D,’ it is theorized, will be a personal electronic device of some kind that contains all of the user’s digital information: music, photos, video, contacts, documents, etc. The ‘D’ not only holds this information, but can both record/create, share and present it to others. Of course Mr Jobbs will argue that the iPhone 4 is already capable of doing “all this and more!” But, the ‘D’ isn’t just a cellphone with a camera attached to it. The ‘D’ is your primary camera, your HD video camera, your full word processor and presentation software and your best and only place for your contacts and social network data. The ‘D’ means that the only other electronic device you’ll own will be an aging and dusty desktop computer somewhere in the bowels of your home.

As all this is mere “speculation,” one might ask, “How do you know civilization will buy into this seemingly extreme public exposure and added societal ties?” Surely a backlash, a renaissance of existentialist rebellion, will purify our new age yuppies and hipsters and save us from this inevitable future of digital self-hood. I’m afraid not. You see, underlying all our “organic” wishes (when we cut our six-pack soda rings and quit-Facebook for-lent-isms) is the real world and the D-theory.

The theory simply states that as our access to knowledge and communication increases through technology, our dependency on these devices are equally increased. When the iPhone came out, emails, photos, music and social data now could suddenly be stored on one device that went where ever you went. Aside from the practicality of conducting business on the fly, with communication and knowledge flowing at an ever faster pace we all became dependent on our smart phones.

But if you thought the iPhone and other smart phones of today have a grip on your lives, just wait. The D will be here very soon and no iPhone or Crackberry will dare compete. The D, in the physical world, will only be a 1” x 1” x 1” cube (see “artist’s rendition”). Four of the sides will be small touchscreens similar to to newly announced iPod Nano. One of the remaining sides will be a lens that can record videos, take photos and project both on to any surface, including 3D projections. With a compact projector at your fingertips, then you’ll be able to view any of your media on any suitable wall or surface and make all the on the fly editing one desires.

The D will be so compact that the industry will likely have to reinvent the standard 1/8th inch headphone jack. In fact, wires would only taint the beauty of the clean cube. The ‘D’ will not only be free of physical buttons but also without jacks. All interfacing will be done using the touch screens or the projections (i.e. a projected keyboard). Audio will be transmitted wirelessly to headphones. Data to your TV or home computer will be transferred not through the soon-to-be-archaic Bluetooth technology, but through the much more amped “Black Fang.” Even charging your D will come from a dock that suspends the D in a magnetic field. This isn’t a Steve Jobbs wet dream but rather the inevitable future as told by the D-theory.

As all the euphoric possibilities swim through your head, I will admit one likely downside to this device. Essentially everyone’s digital lives will be accessed through their D which will make them very valuable; so valuable that loosing your D during a drunken bender will have far more severe consequences than getting tossed in the pool with your clothes and iPhone. Insurance for the D may be an offshoot business for some of the D manufactures not to mention the ring of Russian identity thieves will love to become part of futuristic pic pocketing. Until then!

UPDATE: So it begins.