Beyond the Information Age discusses a new way of thinking about computers, knowledge and understanding. See the editorial for more information....



Epilog

Both ISSU and Dave would like to thank you for reading this book. We hope you find the knowledge you gained useful in many aspects of your life. We also hope you will share the book and your knowledge with others so that a general understanding of the potential of this new technology may spread through society. If all we ever do is eliminate the need for office buildings and the drive to work, that would be enough.

You may not have noticed but the book presented four new sciences that all need additional study. The sciences of Data Physics, Nature of Knowledge, Mechanics of Natural Understanding Engines, and Intelligent Systems Science, are all new to this world. We hope that people will take an interest in these sciences and strive to understand them more completely. The design of ISSU will benefit greatly from a more detailed understanding of this new science.

Now Dave has dedicated his life to the development of ISSU and figures that is the least that he could do for society. It is unclear whether this book will be the impetus that will get the ISSU project off the ground. If the book fails to gather support for the development of ISSU, I expect Dave will try different approach. ISSU needs the support of thousands of people before it can become a useful tool for human kind.

In Dave's perfect world he would be given a billion dollars and a thousand screaming programmers and begin development of ISSU software. In the real-world it will probably take years of knowledge warfare to destroy established institutions that control the status quo today. Only when these institutions are completely demoralized will people begin to think to a better way of life. It is not clear which path we must follow or how long it will take to develop ISSU. The only sure thing is that if society doesn't destroy itself first, a system like ISSU will eventually be developed.

Building ISSU may be the most difficult software development project that human kind has ever undertaken. Today the most complex software systems are computer operating systems like Windows™ and UNIX™ and they have taken over 20 years and millions of person-hours to develop. A human operating system like ISSU will be much more complex and require much greater resources to develop. Millions of details will need to be worked out, and thousands of new inventions must be found along the path to completion. Certainly ISSU will evolve from a crude scientific instrument to an everyday friend on the phone, but how long it will take to do this is anyone's guess. It all depends on the market for an idea like ISSU.

Once the idea of ISSU catches on in human society it will create jobs for billions of people mostly working from home using ISSU and the Internet. There is so much work that needs to be done to dismantle the old information age structures and build new ones. It will be like building the Internet all over again and take years to accomplish. The office buildings and highway system will also need to be removed or re-designed to make way for the new age. With no more rush hours the need for eight lane freeways should go away. It will be interesting to see what people do with these extra spaces.

We expect this book to evolve through different editions as new knowledge becomes available. When the development of ISSU begins, the book will be updated to chronicle the progress of the project. Web-sites will be put up to support the book and keep people up to date on current issues. Eventually all editions and notes that went into the book and web-sites will become a permanent record in the historic document ISSU.issu. Once this document is complete the need for books and web-sites will be no longer and people will learn about ISSU from ISSU itself.

It is an exciting future we have to look forward to and we have a big project ahead. We think the human race is up to this challenge, and will succeed in a shining fashion. As the planetary mind of true and trusted knowledge develops we will witness a change in society so dramatic that what has gone before will pale by comparison. In our quest to explore the limits of understanding in our universe, we have only just begun.




Last Update: 2006-Dec-23