Digital Destiny

Humanity is entering a new era. Beyond the mere acquisition of ever more digital devices with ever more incredible functionality, the immediate future will usher in the all-digital lifestyle and an "Internet of Everything." Everything from your dishwasher to the shirt on your back will soon be online--perpetually acquiring, analyzing, and utilizing the data that surrounds you.

What's on the horizon in the next decade?

- Devices as convenient as wristwatches will measure your vital signs and help you monitor and manage your health

- Appliances within your home will tell you when repairs are imminent and will make decisions on your behalf--from setting temperatures to adjusting cooking times to reordering milk when it is running low

- Devices that constantly measure your mood will intuitively and continuously adjust things in your environment--from the music that is playing when you walk in the door to the time you're scheduled to leave for an appointment across town

- Cars that drive themselves will forever change the way we work, live, and communicate

Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Electronics Association(R) (CEA), reports from the front lines of the greatest technological revolution since the invention of the printing press. The road to our digital destiny won't be without bumps along the way. Millennia-old institutions--such as the city--could be completely redefined. And beyond these disruptions, privacy concerns will need to be addressed.

In the end, even as digital mechanisms take up more and more of our lives, we'll work more efficiently, stay healthier with much greater ease, and have more freedom in our leisure pursuits than ever before. And some of the most stubborn problems that have plagued mankind, up to and including poverty and disease, could finally have a solution. Massive inefficiencies in supply chains will be overcome, improving the products and services we access and enabling destitute individuals around the world to live well on food that previously rotted before it could be delivered. The driverless car alone will save thousands of American lives each year, and perhaps hundreds of thousands around the planet.

The transformation of our lives will be breathtaking. Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate is your guide to the future that's hurtling toward us.