The World in 2030

70 The World in 2030
Since June 2006 thousands of digital mousetraps have
been put in big buildings and venues such as London’s new
Wembley Stadium. The traps communicate with central hubs
that connect to the internet via the mobile network to alert
staff if a creature is caught. The system provides a wealth of
information. The data it collects and analyses on when and
where rodents are caught enable building managers to place
traps more effectively and alert them to a new outbreak.
New examples of ‘machine-to-machine’ (M2M)
communications applications are being announced almost
every day. In the USA some prisons have already placed
location and identification sensors 134 in plastic bracelets
worn by all of their inmates (and their guards) and
they report significant reductions in violence as a result of
their use.
By 2030 we will all be ‘tagged’ but it will be for our
protection, rather than to restrict out movements (and if
you don’t like the idea of humans being ‘tagged’ consider
the fact that your mobile phone negotiates with your
cellular wireless network 800 times every second and your
network always knows where your phone is whenever it is
switched on).
We will all transmit our locations constantly, data about
our bodies’ vital signs and physiology will be collected and
transmitted to ensure our well being and, if we are taken
ill, help will be summoned automatically. All soldiers on
battlefields will transmit their location, all passengers
on underground railways will transmit their location
(Londoners, remember the plastic Oyster card you carry