Richard Acevedo
Professor Jonah Brucker Cohen
MCS 214 Final Paper
Transcending past 2-dimensions is where the future is heading. A hologram is a three-dimensional image created from a photographic technique that records the light scattered from an object. Holograms have presented themselves through out countless sci-fi films, shows, and books such as Star Wars or Iron Man. Our actual holographic technology hasn’t quite caught up exactly to the movie magic shown in those films but we are not far. Holograms are the next level for us in digital media. We are already fascinated by them as it is.
Holograms have numerous advantages to help change the way our society runs. It will change our society from 2D to 3D. FaceTime and Skype are already very popular because they allow us to see each other and not only hear ourselves. Holograms are just going to be the next step in communication with each other. They will give the impression of seeming more interactive or alive than current displays and imagery. “New technology that allows visually stunning projection of holograms will begin to find application in the meetings arena.” (Jeff Cavins) This will hit the corporate world and change the way he hold meetings in every field. The United Nations meetings will no longer require all of our worlds leaders to meet at one place to communicate or handle big world issues. Having all of our world leaders meet up in one place is a big national and global security issue because that then becomes a big red target for possible terrorist attacks. In the business side it will allow business deals to be held not only in person but also through holograms and have the same power that an in person meeting could have. The projection of the person your talking create this sense of safety that isn’t there when communicating through telephone or messaging systems. Have the ability to see small details in someones body language is a big deal in deciding whether you trust someone or not, especially when it comes down to business meetings. This hologram technology has the ability to save time when it comes to making deals with people regarding business and other fields.
In terms of the entertainment industry holograms can have huge benefits. There has already been examples of holographic performances or concerts such as hologram Tupac and Michael Jackson. This is a great opportunity to allow holographic performances for musicians and artists that have past away to bring some nostalgia back to their fans and even appeal to a new audience. Pulse Evolution own the rights to the Micael Jackson hologram and several others. They were responsible for the hologram performance of Michael at the Billboard Music Awards. The performance took people by surprise when Michael Jackson or rather a hologram of him appeared and performed “Slave To The Rhythm”. On the touchy topic of deceased people holograms can also apply to the funeral industry. This could allow the possibility of having a hologram instead of traditionally a tomb stone. Allowing people to remember their relatives or people close to them, how they would like.
Moving from the topic of death another industry that will be affected by the emergence of holograms is the medical field and education in it. “‘A surgeon that’s going to plan to remove fragments and fix that kind of injury might benefit by viewing a true 3D representation of what they will actually see when they have the patient in the operating room” Napel says from Smithsonian Magazine. Practice makes perfect and with holograms it allows surgeons and doctors to have as much safe practice as they want. This holds the possibility to produce even more skilled surgeons and doctors for the next generation. Medical school will become far more convenient than having to start with real people.
Not only can holograms upgrade our forms of communication they can also be great assets you our military. Imagine being able to have an entire battlefield showing all of your allies and all of your enemies that have been spotted. The amount tactical capabilities this could create would revolutionize warfare. In a perfect world we won’t have any more wars or battles, but the way it looks currently violence won’t be disappearing soon. There is already a big market that makes a lot of money of off wars. This is just another piece of technology that would change the way wars are fought and won. This can hopefully even prevent some deaths from battles which are already a sad situation.
Now change is always a scary thing. Human beings have this innate fear of the unexpected and change. Virtual Reality is another piece of technology that is on the rise. VR though is a bigger than step than holograms and thats one big reason I see it being more appealing to the majority of people. It not a form of escapism from reality as Virtual Reality is. Instead it’s more of just an upgrade that can make reality more entertaining and visually stimulating without having to plug yourself into something. That is the big unappealing part of VR. Although there will always be people who complain about new technology and surely will argue against the idea of holograms, it is much easier to feel secure with this coming change compared to holograms other competitors in the wave of new digital media. This has happened countless times with new technology. Socrates even told a story bout a king who was skeptical about the idea of written word because he believed that it would cause human to lose their strong sense of memory. Television, the internet, and definitely social media have all been at the beginning looked at with skeptical eyes as well as with hopeful ones. Parents were afraid of allowing their kids to use the internet because they weren’t able to know who their kids were communicating with all the time or what they were looking at. There is always skeptics but eventually we move on with the times and have accepted our new technology.
Holograms are going to be the next big thing in digital media. They hold many numerous applications to different fields. It will be a big step in altering how our society communicates, educates, entertains, and even sell products with each other. The future looks very bright in terms of technological advances. Holograms just look to be the most plausible first step into making our old Star Wars and other sci-fi fantasies into our current reality. Sci-fi movies and novels have always predicted these far out ideas of how the future will turn out and if you pay attention they usually predict things we have invented or will invent. At some point we will invent teleportation, space travel, and all these other far out ideas, but the very near future is already creating virtual reality, holograms, bio-technology, eco-friendly vehicles, and even robots. The future is looking very bright, holograms just happen to be in my opinion at the forefront.
https://youtu.be/Um-jOMvL-og
Work Cited
Workman, Robert. “What Is a Hologram?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 23 May 2013. Web. 20 May 2016.
Smith, John. “3D Hologram and the Future of Technology and Entertainment.” Business 2 Community. N.p., 29 Apr. 2015. Web. 20 May 2016
Handwerk, Brian. “Medical Holograms Are Now Part of the Surgeon’s Toolkit.” Smithsonian. N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 20 May 2016.
Droste, Ryan. “An Elvis Presley Hologram Will Perform 15 Shows Next Year In Las Vegas.” The Inquisitr News. N.p., 12 July 2015. Web. 20 May 2016.
Cavins, Jeff. “Holograms, ‘Minority Report’ Gestures And Other Ways Your Meetings Will Change By 2018.”TechCrunch. AOL Inc., 02 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 May 2016.
