Wearable computers arrive at Internet World

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 23 May 2000 08:26 BST

Futuristic wearable technology could hold the key to the survival of the human race in an age dominated by technology.

That's the outlandish claim made by Alex Lightman, Co-Founder and CEO of futuristic company Charmed Technology ahead of Britain's Internet World conference which opens Tuesday at Earls Court and runs until Thursday.

The claims may sound like the most outrageous marketing spin, but Lightman believes that co-evolution with machines will help humans avoid the catastrophic future recently predicted by the founder of Sun Microsystems Bill Joy in Wired Magazine.

In the article, Joy claimed that in the next 30 years humans could be out-evolved by futuristic biochemcial, genetic and nano-technologies.

Lightman says the work of Charmed Technologies, a MIT spin-off which researches nano-technology in its wearable computer products, could help humans to live in harmony with these immensely powerful technologies.

"I think that wearables are the answer to this," he says. "If they are used to augment rather than replace humans, then computers could help us evolve thousands of times faster."

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