Fort Lewis College Annual Reports Fall & Winter Issue 2013 | Page 4

The Last Paper Issue
The Foundation Transitions Into Interactive Digital Annual Reports

by Shan Wells

T

he merger of personal digital assistants with increasingly more
powerful cell phones, has resulted in the manifestation of devices
capable of enabling the consumption of information at a rate unprecedented in the history of civilization.
As tools like the iPhone become increasingly common, (or even
wearable), many futurists like physicist Michio Kaku have begun
to speculate that such innovations are a first step towards a bionic
stage of human evolution. In other words, in the latter part of the 21st
century, we may become a synthesis of human and computer, with
many of the functions for which we now rely on external gadgets,
becoming internalized, and as natural as breathing or eating.

1

For example, impossibly tiny
microchips may eventually be
implanted in our bodies, letting
us see, basically, everything.
Facial recognition software
utilizing your natural eyes as
cameras will make sure you
never need to remember a
name.
Access to worldwide
databases may instantly
translate foreign languages,
identify plants you find
while hiking, or let you
download instructions on
how to use a complicated
tool.