Are Care Bears the forebears of an implantaBLE beacon future?

It’s the nightmare scenario of our time: it’s late, you’re alone, far from public transit and need to request an Uber but your mobile phone is dead.

“Oh I know, I’ll use my belly badge beacon” – Cheer Bear

Wait, did a CGI render of an eighties stuffy just suggest using a beacon?   Yes, you heard right!

Care Bears, which first appeared in the early 1980s, each have a unique marking on their belly which reflects their personality. Moreover, according to Wikipedia, “the Care Bears can also use their belly symbols to summon other assistance such as heart-shaped balloons, cloud cars, rainbow bridges and sending out a distress signal.”

Cloud cars?   Did these prescient bears predict not only the cloud computing paradigm, but also the disruptive ride-sharing industry it would enable? Which further begs the question about the belly badges: are the Care Bears hinting at a future where implantable Bluetooth beacons become the societal norm?

Are the Care Bears predicting a future where every person has an implantable Bluetooth beacon?

Wow. While we at reelyActive have long advocated for personal beacon technology to advertise oneself, empower the IoT as our brand ambassador and eventually supersede the smartphone, we haven’t yet breached the topic of going under the skin (fur?) — there never seemed to be a need to go beyond wearable (bearable?). Or has there…

Stuffed animal characters predicting future technologies and their societal impacts? Owl believe it when I see it!