Bruno Giussani is a writer, the European Director of the 
Catching up with magazine reading, I found sci-fi author Bruce Sterling's "Dispatches from the hyperlocal future" from Wired's July 2007 issue: fictional dispatches dated 2017, with the writer, under the assumed identity of Harvey Feldspar, traveling to European cities and to Dubai, Mumbai and Washington, DC (but, really, it's all just one hyperinterconnected locale). In DC, he's called to testify before the US Congress "about the fast-gathering passport bruhaha". Short excerpt of a long, funny, crammed-with-future-technology, worth-reading piece:
Anyway, fact is, a passport is redundant — even if it's crammed full of RFID chips that howl your ID to every passing parking meter. The US should do what the Japanese do: track every foreigner's mobile. If he does anything freaky, jump on him.
"But Mr. Feldspar, suppose this international criminal doesn't carry a mobile?" demanded representative Chuck Kingston (R-Alabama). It would have been rude to point out the obvious. So I didn't. But look, just between you and me: Anybody without a mobile is not any kind of danger to society. He's a pitiful derelict. Because he's got no phone. Duh.
He also has no email, voicemail, pager, chat client, or gaming platform. And probably no maps, guidebooks, Web browser, video player, music player, or radio. No transit tickets, payment system, biometric ID, environmental safety sensor, or Breathalyzer. No alarm clock, camera, laser scanner, navigator, pedometer, flashlight, remote control, or hi-def projector. No house key, office key, car key... Are you still with me? If you don't have a mobile, the modern world is a seething jungle crisscrossed by electric fences crowned with barbed wire. A guy without a mobile is beyond derelict. He's a nonperson.
Good catch, Bruno. And not so far fetched after all. My, times have changed!
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | August 27, 2007 at 12:39 AM
We invited Bruce Sterling to brainstorm about the future of our networked spaces on September 12 during a free LIFT event in Seoul, Korea. Join us, Adam Greenfield and Korean architect Yoo Suk Yeon for a free event at the Yurim Art Hall!
More info http://www.liftconference.com/lift-evening-seoul
Posted by: Laurent | August 27, 2007 at 08:41 AM