There is a futurist cliche that we will control computers with our voices or faces. I don't believe that is likely; text and GUI controls work great and cost less. The war on text is not that.

Listening and looking are our most natural form of communication. As the internet becomes capable of running mainly on non-text forms like audio, video, and still pictures, text will be relegated to the same snooty ghetto online as it is offline.

Videoblogs, photoblogs, and audioblogs; in-browser voicemail and videomail; audio or video mailing lists, wikis and chat. Text online will be the same kind of functional tool as it is in the real world -- useful for road signs and labels, but otherwise ignored by the masses.

A comment I made in the videoblogging group about the war on text:

I'll be sad when that happens. I love writing and the way that the internet has gotten me to write all the time. I remember when the internet first blew up that I was exercising my writing muscles more than I ever had, but that's not going to be the case when things are mainly seeing and hearing.

(Also see Marc Davis: "Garage Cinema and the Future of Media Technology" [PDF] from way back when. -kc.)