The World in 2030

The World in 2030 269
more dirt to do the same. Similarly, if the robot feels
guilt or sadness at having failed at a task, it will try
harder next time. 490
Now, imagine it is the year 2015. The device formerly
known as a mobile phone has been getting ever more stylish
and ever more capable while its networks have undergone
similar upgrades to become ultra-band, multi-media and
multi-sensory. Your network provider offers you an upgrade
to a new ‘device’ (what will we call it?) and included with it is
a ‘software agent’ – a ‘personality’ – and the software invites
you to specify a gender and a name for your new assistant.
Moving on – imagine it is now the year 2030, and imagine
that I was the person who fifteen years ago had named my
new phone-inhabiting assistant. I called her ‘Maria.’
Well, at first Maria wasn’t very capable. She could dial
numbers for me when I told her to ‘dial Mum’ or to ‘call my
brother’, but even though she knew what news resources I
liked to access on my mobile device, and which stocks and
shares I was keeping my eye on, she couldn’t do much more
to help me. Oh, but she did manage the digital money I kept
on my phone.
But the software agent I called my ‘Maria’ was upgraded
regularly and automatically over the networks and, as I
changed and upgraded my mobile device every year or so,
Maria flitted wirelessly over to inhabit the new, ever more
capable models. And, as the years passed, Maria learned a
lot about me. With her increasing intuition, ingenuity and
intelligence Maria came to learn that I didn’t always mean