The Future: My Take

Every now and then around New Year's, you hear a lot of TV shows talking about what the world will be like in 20, 50, and 100 years from now. However, a great number of them have things that seem way out-of-this world, utilizing technology that is yet to be invented. Luckily, there are people like me that have ideas that make more sense to the common human:

In the more developed areas in the United States of tomorrow [let's just call it the Mañana], suburbanized areas will be efficient in every aspect. Though not very common at the moment, Solar will become one of the most prominent differences. As I type, scientists and universities everywhere are looking for ways to make solar panels, thinner, lighter, cheaper, and more efficient. One company, Nanosolar, has exactly that, making use of a couple of $7M silicon printing machines and a modest workforce. Eventually, we'll have solar panels that cost less than shingles on a roof, and hopefully, they'll look good, too.

Another thing that will be common is energy generators powered by waste. There are already ways developed to do this (and a couple of actual toilets in Japan that does it), but there's yet to be a full line of manufactured Eco-Toilets. Oh, and don't worry about how clean your water is; you'll have your own personal filter that assures you that all you'll drink is pure H2O [check it out for yourself].

Moving onto cars. In the Mañana, combustion engine-based cars will be a minority on the road, with just about every auto maker moving onto Electric vehicles. These cars will probably take advantage of every energy-generating opportunity it can find. Solar roofs, the typical hybrid's brake friction thing, and maybe a little wind power generator under the hood, all going straight to a super-dense battery pack (may be Lithium-Ion, though maybe we'll be using something else by then). Oh, and chances are, you may not even have to use any of those features for everyday driving, with the help of a little power inlet on the side. Gas stations will become power stations with gas on the side and an upper-class cafe a few steps away. By the way, in case you didn't know, General Motors is working toward this vision, and it won't be as far off as you think [check it].

Oh, and Hydrogen/Fuel Cell vehicles will be around, but pure electric will become the preference (frankly, I don't see such a flammable substance to be a viable green solution).

Also in the Mañana, communication will be pinnacle. You'll be in a world where the Internet is free, and all around you (though sadly, it'll be more government controlled, like China). The way this'll be done is through a new technology called WiMAX. It takes a while to explain the system [which is much simpler that it seems], but in a nutshell, it's high-speed WiFi spread over a 30-mile radius per hotspot. An organization called XOHM [composed of Sprint, Nokia, Google, Intel, Motorola, and many more] are working on bringing this technology to every metropolitan area it can get it's hands on [link].

Through this newfound ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet, you'll be able to check up on all of all your friends, send medical data to your doctor (i.e., a medical status update server), and listen to your library through your home-based personal server.

As for nanotechnology, we're yet to see if the world will be ready for it, so I'm not going to really talk about it.

In the future, third wold countries will be living kind of like us Americans are right now. Some areas are nice, some are still dumps, and hey, even the cars will be the same (we'll have no use for gas cars, so they'll all be transported to the slums of Yemen).

Oh, and you know how people are paranoid about the eventual overcoming of super-intelligent computers? Well don't worry, it won't happen. Seriously, there's always a way to manually shut down a computer, whether it's a button or a giant lever-based plug.

Unfortunately, the society of tomorrow is grim. I don't mean to sound old, but as generations go by, the ethical values of humans decline. To prove my point, look at the 60s. Movies were a place that you can take the entire family, and not have to worry about sexual references or bad language. The most popular song of the decade (and still the best-selling single of all time) was The Twist, and some people found that to be risqué. Today, you see movies like Cloverfield, about a sudden invasion of a giant creature wreaking havoc throughout Manhattan, destroying everything in it's path. The top song this summer was I Kissed A Girl from Katy Perry, and the most popular song in the last few years being Low by Flo Rida and T-Pain. One can only guess how obscure the wold will get.

So there you have it; A porthole into the future. A land where technology is everywhere, and people are ruder and less ethical than ever before. If you have any additional input, leave a comment below.

Ciao!
~uH