GRAND RAPIDS ? In 15 years, the concept of privacy will be replaced by an all intrusive social network connected to people who have wireless electronic devices implanted in their bodies, predicted West Michigan serial entrepreneur Keith Brophy in his annual technology forecast.

Brophy, CEO at IdeoMed in Grand Rapids, revealed his forecast March 21 at an event hosted by aimWest in the San Chez banquet room. Brophy has been offering his future tech predictions for more than a decade.

In years past, his trends have ranged from a couple years out to a couple decades. This year he focused on the brave new world of connected people and connected communications he sees manifesting by the year 2027.

A drum roll please:

1. 15 years from now, everyone knows all about us as soon as we meet them, this is used in daily interactions between businesses, and we are all OK with it.

There is a societal shift from privacy concern to a realization that privacy is gone and there are efficiencies and economies from just sharing everything, so many of us just share everything. Businesses begin to engage more and more by analyzing a vast ever widening pool of past historical information on individuals before every engagement, often triggering the exploration with facial recognition of us as we walk onto their premises for the first time.

2. In 15 years, mobile devices become part of us….at least some of us… with portions literally built into our bodies.

We will be able to have embedded speakers, microphones, memory and brain-sensing implants to trigger interactions with our mobile devices. We will never have to worry about power – it will come from body head and the electrical energy of the body. Today 40 percent of individuals ages 21 to 40 have tattoos. The percent electing to have personal device implants in their bodies will eventually approach this, but in 15 years the trend will just be starting.

3. Within 15 years, we will see many homes with personal health chambers that residents use on a daily basis, supplanting much of the in-person clinical screening that takes place today.

These chambers will check us out, analyze a variety of inputs like weight and skin readings, and then use the screens that surround us on every wall in our health chamber to present us with past, present and future health summaries and projections, and lead us in the direction of maximum health. Te families that use health chambers daily will have dramatically better health and lower costs for health care, leading insurers to incent and employers to subsidize the use of them.

4. Within 15 years, cars – as we know them today – will start to be replaced with our own “connection lounges” which will relocate us from point to point with no interaction, while we are surrounded by screens that let us indulge in virtual reality recreation and business activity.

We will make our vehicle purchase decisions based on luxury rather than mechanics or ride. The vehicles with move themselves down roads with sensors that detect and follow roads, and sensors that talk to other vehicles. When the “connection lounges” encounter unusual situations on the roadway, their control will be temporarily taken over by remote drivers, who assess situations for us and remotely steer with full focus on our behalf from regional driving centers ( which could be overseas ). Many people will give up driving forever, as the human species reaches to a point where we simply cannot focus well on driving with our highly multi-tasking, device interacting brains.

5. Within 15 years, email – as we know it – will be replaced by virtual personal valets who handle all of our communication needs.

Our virtual valet will be smart software highly trained in our lifestyles via feeding it extensive data on our past, and then tuning it to our preferences as well as how to monitor us day by day. Then it will be able to independently handle the many streams of communication coming at us, using a voice and video presence that simulate us. It will screen out or directly address many communications requests. When it needs to pass on a message to the real us, it will find the appropriate manner and time to pass it on – for example, popping up a message on a video mirror as we brush our teeth in the morning, or whispering another in our ear as we drive to work, depending on content. Likewise we can verbally tell our valet which messages to send back. We will progress past the experience of hours spent pounding out emails on the keyboard each morning and night.

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