You can't live without it, I can't live without it, we can't live without it. OK. That being said, a big percentage of the world's population surprisingly does not have access to Wi-Fi. So yes, they can live without it. But I guess they won't be living without it for long.
Let's start from the beginning. Wi-Fi began 2 years after the first moon landing of 1969 in the Hawaiian Islands. From there, the technology was popularized in the United-States under the not very well known name of WaveLAN. Wi-Fi was then (and today) just a transmission of information by radio frequencies.
But today, things have changed. And our way of looking at Wi-Fi will too. Google, like Facebook, is looking for a way to bring Wi-Fi to the rest of the world that has yet to be illuminated by the magical attraction that the internet.
So the plan, called Project Loon by Google, is to create a network of high altitude balloons that spread the internet to the entire world. The balloons float in the Stratosphere and connect to the cellular spectrum (provided by the cell-phone companies in place) of the people to share the internet via high speed links.
That seems awesome, but why would Google want to do that? Well, it is pretty obvious that, with Facebook, all Google wants is to access more costumers with their products.What is Google's main product? Google Chrome and their Search Engine. What is Facebook? A social network. Both of these companies rely on the internet to reach their customers. So if everyone had internet, they'll obviously have a lot more costumers.
But I can't blame Google and Facebook; in doing so, they help the rest of the world access vast amounts of knowledge and an incredible way to communicate. I think this is a fantastic idea, but also a dangerous one. Now that the entire world will have access to the internet, anyone can connect with anyone or steal from anyone. "Private" is not really a word that can be used when referring to the internet; everything that is in there is shared.
Finally, I would also like to mention an emerging new technology that uses sensors to harvest emitted radio-frequencies and turn it into a DC current. In other words, those sensors can use the Wi-Fi without damaging the signal to charge any electrical device without touching it. For now, this can charge your phone from 20 feet away; but it will get better and better. Imagine charging all of your house using only your Wi-Fi. Combine the balloons and this technology, and, who knows? Maybe everything will be able to get charged from thin air one day.
So are theses new Wi-Fi technologies all that great? I think so. But we'll always need to be careful of how we use it. You never know who is out there.... Every person in the whole world will have the possibility to stalk your profile on Facebook without you ever knowing! Careful what you put out there.
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