My perspective about IBM's 5 Future Predictions

I wanted to have some inception going on: I'm going to make predictions about IBM's predictions. [Taken from this article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/19/tech/innovation/five-tech-predictions-ibm/] The 5 predictions are as follows: 1. IBM thinks that smarter, more technologically advanced schools can make kids smarter. By "tracking everything a student does," IBM thinks that big data can help "tailor"education for students. I don't see this working for the following reasons: -Although technology is useful, the more dependent we become on it, the lazier we become. -The widespread availability of technology is sometimes a distraction for children. -It's hard for every school district to own this type of technology. -I think children are very smart without this technology as it is, and controlling their lives through technology might actually stifle their development. (It would be sad to become a civilization like that of Wall-E.) 2. In five years, Local retailers will fight back and become "better than e-tailers can ever hope to be," according to IBM. IBM claims that local retailers will take advantage of digital tools to give customers a "richer in-store experience." Although this sounds nice in theory, I doubt that it'll come true, as local retailers struggle to compete with e-tailers. Large corporations may have the means to take advantage of digital tools, but smaller, local retailers have a harder time funding these projects. It is possible, though, for technology to become increasingly cheaper, which would then make it cheaper for both smaller and larger businesses access technology. 3. Doctors will be able to routinely analyze our DNA to give patients individualized treatments. I think this is definitely possible, as medicine receives a lot of funding for research projects. The only thing that I wonder is the extent to which individuals will be able to afford this kind of health care; it doesn't seem likely that everyone will have the resources to receive these specialized DNA check-ups. 4. IBM has a vision for the creation of "digital guardians" that would know our digital life inside and out: they'd track all of our accounts and know our cars, houses, and electronic devices in depth. Instead of relying on passwords or unlocking features, these guardians would be able to analyze "contextual, situational, and historical data to verify your identity and your actions on different devices." This is an incredible idea, and I really hope that it can come to fruition. I don't see it happening on a wide-scale extent in the near future, but definitely in the next few decades, these digital guardians could become essential to our daily lives. There will definitely be prototypes of these digital guardians within the next five years. 5. The last of IBM's predictions is that the "city will help us live in it" by using sensors to adapt to our needs. This is another great idea, but realistically not everyone owns a cellphone, so only the privileged, wealthy individuals may benefit from these kind of mobile-developed sensors, but lower-class individuals may not. Also, by having politicians and city leaders in charge of these resources, there will need to be an extensive check on their usage of these resources to make sure that they don't take advantage of them.