February 18, 2010

  • We're already a month and a half into 2010, and you know what you may not have really thought about? We're in the future! For many many years, books, TV shows, movies, etc... have foretold what the future would be. Looking back at the predictions from... say 30 to 50 years ago...  the question people should be asking now are "where's my personal jet pack? "where's my hover board?" or "where's my flying car?" Sure the jet pack exist, but it's nothing we all would really want to use. The hover board might exist in some form out there, but probably nothing like it was imagined in the "Back To The Future" movies. The flying car supposedly does exist, but it's probably just so impractical at this point for us to care.

    Other predictions I could think of about this century, are fantastical stuff. Aliens from space should have already being contacted. World War III was always foretold to happen, and with the state of the world right now, that may still happen soon for all we know. Predictions about clothing has always been a fascinating thing to see, but thank goodness the aluminum "shiny" look that the future is suppose to have has not caught on with society.

    Now how about things we actually do have today, like the DVR? MP3 Players? High Definition Video? GPS devices? Smart phones? All these things would definitely be considered futuristic 30 to 50 years ago. Heck, go back 15 years when it was still all about the VCR, CD players, and pagers. Mentioning things like recording TV programs digitally on a box, having a small device that could hold thousands of music in it, or that the cellphone is pretty much a hand-held computer, would completely impress somebody in 1995. Now how about the fact that the internet is completely a part of our everyday lives? E-mail. Google. Blogs. Youtube. Facebook. Twitter. Imagine showing somebody in the past what can be done on the internet of today, and it might completely overwhelm them. 

    I still remember my life back in 1984, and what we have now would have been things I could only see in movies about the future (or James Bond films). There's no need for me to use my imagination anymore for these fantastic things we now take for granted. If I'm thinking "wow, what a life we have now," what is the reaction of a 90, 80, or 70 years old person, who is browsing the internet, while talking to their grandson via their iPhone?

    It's 2010 folks. Welcome to the future!

Comments (6)

  • Hoverboard?  Made one 15 years ago like this.
    Not to mention everyone is near Borg-like now with IM, SMS, VoIP, videochat, RSS feeds, etc.....
    It's just not futuristic because to us it's "now".

    Now the truly futuristic things that may become commonplace in the next 30 years.  Stopping aging (they're quickly finding the pathways that lead to aging and are learning to pause them), brain interfaces (not science fiction any more but not practical yet either). 

    The scary part is this.  We are quickly understanding how the human brain works.  It will be possible in the next 50 years to simulate a brain.  But with that simulation is the ability to speed up the brain or make it better.  Soon after that, unaugmented humanity may be obsolete.  Considering the human lifespan is now reaching 100 yro and beyond, this is well within our lifetimes.

    Then we'll really have fun.  Although there's a chance of a more hopeful future.  Although some of the smarter people out there analyzing this think it's a fairly small likelyhood.

  • i think old ppl hate new technology. they don't want to learn it most of the time they find it to be a hassle =P nor do i think they're that astounded? i could be wrong, don't know too many old people haha

  • @kalamai - Not sure about that, I've met a lot of older people in the tech industry that are sharper than most 20yros.  It comes down to if a person is willing to learn or not.  In fact some older people are doing cutting edge stuff beyond what most kids can imagine.  I've changed direction and technologies in my career more than several people's lifetime.  It all depends on the person, not the age.  When I'm 100+yro, I'm sure I'll be running rings around all the whipper snappers.

  • @darren_macintyre - That hoverboard is nothing as slick as Back To The Future's.
    @kalamai - I know old people who hate new technology, because the learning curve is so much higher for them than it is for us young ones. The trick with new tech is to make it so simple to use, the old timers who are intimidated by them could still use it with no problem.

  • @darren_macintyre - right, but you said it yourself--it's people within that industry. i'm talking about the everyday old person.

  • @patrick005 - right! but there are new things that even i hate learning to use because the user interfaces were so poorly designed!

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