The Really Big Leap

This week, Great Ideas looks at the future of communication - how we'll be chatting, and what language we'll be doing it in. And could your fridge teach you te reo?

In the past 20 years, the way people communicate has undergone the biggest revolution since the printing press.

But how might we be talking in fifty years, and what language will be speaking?

And how will we know if we're getting the information and entertainment we need?

In this episode, Megan Whelan discusses the future of work with three knowledgeable people from AUT, Dr Kate Jones, Greg Treadwell, and Dr Dean Mahuta.

"The really big leap is away from visual communication at all, from messaging," says Greg Treadwell.

"I could see an implant to help us communicate," says Kate Jones. She points out that no one bats an eyelid these days over cochlear implants, or hip replacements. "I'm not so sure yet, if that could be a one on one communication, but I could see an implanting, potentially, helping us communicate, for example, with the shopping mall."

For Dean Mahuta, he doesn't mind what the technology is, as long as it's in te reo. "I guess that's the new taniwha that we're fighting in terms of Māori language revitalisation, is how do we now create a household that has the Māori language in there?"

"Maybe we have a house where the surface of the house can speak to us - in whatever language we choose," says Kate Jones. "We can speak to the house, the house speaks to use. We know we have the technology to do that...why not have a personal intelligent wall?"

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details