Britons expect to teleport in the future

A highly optimistic 31 per cent of Britons expect to be able to teleport at some point in the future, according to research carried out by Cisco to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The firms Connected Conversations research asked UK consumers for their visions for the future of technology in a range of areas, and also talked to both 25 year veterans, and 25-year old starters, in the world of technology.

Interestingly, the report found that many Britons stop considering something to be technology when it becomes a ubiquitous part of every day life.

For example, Alan Perryman, a 25-year-old business relationship manager at Transport for London (TfL), explained that while the company uses an array of technology, most passengers don't perceive it as such.

"There is more technology in the public eye - Oyster cards, passenger information systems etc - but a lot of people take that for granted and don't see it as technology. It's just there. Once these things are bedded in, they lose their visibility," he said.

However, despite this willingness to ignore technology once it's in use, Britons seem ready for a new wave of services to head online in the future.

For example, 80 per cent said they expected to vote online while 90 per cent believe they will have 100Mbit/s internet speeds, although 65 per cent said this would take at least four to six years to achieve.

A further 68 per cent said they expect to be able to talk to a GP via videolink at some point within the next 10 years while another 90 per cent expect most meetings to be held via video conference within a year.

Although teleporting may be a bit of a stretch, sadly, there's no doubt that the technology landscape has changed utterly since those heady days in the 1980s when Cisco first entered the market.

This research may be a little self-aggrandising (which vendor-sponsored report isn't?) but it provides an interesting snapshot into how far we've come, and how far there is still to go.

07 Jul 2010