Google CEO predicts 'end of Internet'

Speaking on possible scenarios around the future of the web, Schmidt, who was addressing the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland: “I will answer very simply that the internet will disappear.”

Google’s executive chief continued to say he believed the internet’s presence would end up being to  all-embracing, so ubiquitous that people won’t even be aware of its presence, according to  an article in Hollywood Reporter.

“There will be so many IP addresses … so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it … It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic,” said Schmidt.

Technologies will be built into the very fabric of our communities and personal lives to such an extent that we no longer actually pick up that are all around. As a result, Schmidt said, the internet would end up being “highly personalised, highly interactive and very, very interesting”.

An example used to illustrate the point was the use of artificial light. It was only fairly recently that this technological advance in fact became common-place or mainstream.

It was a lot more recent when it indeed became affordable to the point that most people no longer need consider whether or not to turn on the switch.  Whereas the humble light bulb was a stand-out technology that people really noticed until quite recent times, these days by contrast only its absence is noticed.

Schmidt also addressed the issue of techno-replacement, and the notion suggesting we could all well be losing our current jobs to machines as computers increasingly get smarter and more powerful.

Schmidt roundly dismissed the idea, noting that rather technology would provide new job categories.  Some seven out of every  eight of these would be non-technology jobs, which will nonetheless be benefited by technology, he noted.

"That somehow no one is going to have a job in the world, and it's just going to be the Davos elite who is going to have a good time and everyone else is going to be rioting is completely false," added Schmidt.