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Convergence is the fact that two or more things, ideas, etc. become
similar or come together.
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Like all things, there are both good and bad aspects to convergence.
However, I perceive it as mostly detrimental.
Convergence of mobile electronics (PDA, phone, camera, music players,
..) means that we're not hauling about a lot of separate
devices. However, once your phone breaks or the battery runs out then
all of these functions stop working.
Convergence of communications seems to be bringing everything to the
internet. The majority of consumed media (music, radio, movies and tv
services) are now streamed over the internet. Our PSTN telephone
services are being updated so that they are essentially VOIP and our
messaging applications and email too all run over the internet. This
has the same issue in that it's a single point of failure, no
internet connectivity means all these services are unavailable.
Convergence presents single points of failure, centralisation for
control, big targets for espionage or ransomware, surveillance and
censorship.
The more we converge the more load we put on the infrastructure, the
more likely it is to fail, the less choice there is and the less
resilient we are.
Hold onto your radios, tv-tuners, music players, cameras and hard
media (CDs, dvds, bluerays, records, ...). If we stop using discrete
services, devices and media they will steadily disappear.
