AI will give us all the time in the world – and nothing to do with it

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Once upon a time, the television – if you had one – was a large square box that occupied a substantial space in the corner of the sitting room. And a toothbrush was a small plastic stick with fibres with which you scoured your mouth before leaving home in the morning.

But technology stands still for no one, and last week’s Consumer Technology Show in Las Vegas unveiled the modern version of the humble toothbrush – a device that reduces brushing to ten seconds without breaking a sweat.

The telly too has undergone yet another transformation – in appearance and content; the latter to embrace new technology and ‘smart’ services, the former to offer two fingers to your neighbours and passers-by as they gaze through your front window.

Next-generation TVs are all equipped to stream supplied services to the highest technological heights, as the manufacturers attempt to restore the goggle box to its former place at the heart of the home.

The only problem with these new TVs is that you may have to move home to make the best of them – either that or watch them through the aforementioned front window – because they are way too big for the average room.

Still, this only has to be a problem when you’re actually watching it – because the next generation of television rolls up like an old-fashioned garage door, so that it is virtually invisible when not in use.

But it achieves the original aim of being super-huge when required and almost invisible when it’s not. And most of all, it’s as far removed from what we used to regard as a telly as a helicopter is from a bicycle.

The only remaining facet is that the modern TV is still a device that transmits pictures with sound – but there’s no one sitting waiting for the six o’clock news to start; instead you download what you want to see, you interact with it to find out the weather and you use it as a giant video phone to talk to your cousins in Australia.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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