The Near Future is Hybrid

The exponential growth of the web, in connection with all its derivatives and all scientific, social, economic and other consequences, created the widely accepted notion that the future(s) is (are) digital. This could not be more wrong and more misleading. Indeed, at least for the next couple of decades, the futures are hybrid in all aspects and in practically all domains. For example, we are still far away from an educational system that operates only in virtual worlds. Friends' circles in social networking sites turn out to serve primarily the sustainability of existing real world friendships. While simulations and software (virtual instrument) solutions were trendy during the last few decades, we now witness a rapid development in robotics. Flying (i.e., drones), ground robots (i.e., robot dogs), and microcontrollers, fully equipped with sensors and actuators are about to massively populate every natural or man-made environment. This talk will discuss how underlying principles of hybrid futures evade and dictate developments in every aspect of IT, ranging from education and HCI, to visualizations and digital humanities, all grounded in the intelligent linking between software algorithms and physical infrastructures. The implications for the Anthropocene will be highlighted and discussed.