Computing in 2100: Wearable Computers, Flying Cars - and Immortality?
Computing in 2100: Wearable Computers, Flying Cars - and Immortality?
Posted 05/04/2011 at 2:55pm
| by Gord Goble
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Imagine a world where peas grow as large as beets, where suburban commutes are completed in mere minutes and cost but a penny, where the letters C, X, and Q have been eliminated from the alphabet, where all wild animals have died, and where retail purchases (and even meals) are conveniently propelled to the consumer's home via a city-wide, nation-wide network of pneumatic tubes.
A wacky vision of the future? Sure, but this wacky vision was postulated in the year 1900 for the year 2000. In other words, according to the article, published in the December 1900 edition of Ladies Home Journal, all of the above should already be a familiar part of our world. It is not, and for that we give thanks. For the very idea of beet-sized peas is enough to make anyone run screaming from the dinner table. Blech!
Yet the Ladies Home Journal piece was, in some ways, prophetic. Of the nearly thirty predictions journalist John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. put forth, several would inevitably prove, at least conceptually, to be correct.
Watkins claimed automobiles would eliminate horse-based transportation. He predicted wireless communications, audio/video streaming, high-speed trains, air conditioning, and the widespread adoption of food refrigeration. Not too shabby.
Our point? Those who professionally paint a picture of the future leave themselves wide open for scrutiny once that future begins to unfold. And although they'll be seen as godlike wizards if their visions pop into focus, they can also look mighty silly if they're miles off base. It is with that in mind that we enlisted the aid of four of the world's most prominent futurists to help us understand what life might be like – particularly from a technological standpoint – 90 years from now, in the year 2100.
Meet the Futurists
From British-based Futurizon comes Ian Pearson, a man who spent seventeen years prior to founding that organization as futurologist for British Telecommunications.
Professionally trained futurist/forecaster Garry Golden joins us between keynote speaking engagements.
From Colorado think-tank The DaVinci Institute we have Executive Director and noted futurist speaker Thomas Frey.
And last but certainly not least, we have famed computer scientist/futurist/science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, the man arguably most responsible for popularizing the concept of "Singularity." More on that in a bit.
We did not ask them if human life will be wiped from the earth in a nuclear firestorm of our own creation. We did not enquire about fashion trends or stock market picks. Our thoughts were very much tech-centric – how technology will evolve and how the day-to-day lives of Joe Average Citizen will change because of it, provided nothing catastrophic occurs beforehand, and they helped us arrive at some rather interesting conclusions that, for the most part, we believe have a pretty good chance of coming to fruition.
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Eve
July 29, 2011 at 10:13am
Immortality doesn’t sound good at all. What will we do when we’ll get bored? We’ll know all the things, we’ll visit every place and read every book eventually. And then what? I met a guy once when I was looking for conversion vans for sale. He was a simple man. The thing he said about immortality touch me. He said: “I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” That was pretty cool, didn’t expect this from him. I don’t know if it’s a famous quote or it’s something he thought about for a long time.
theabsinthehare
May 08, 2011 at 12:59pm
Immortality would be boring you say? Have you learned how to play guitar yet? Do you know how to surf? Have you ever built a musical tesla coil? Do you have a Ph.D? Your life is boring now because you don't have the time to learn the skills that open up exciting avenues. With infinite time comes infinite possibility to do whatever you want. Maybe this century you could spend 30 years becoming a piano virtuoso and become a rock opera god for a while, then spend 25 years studying electronics and help some company design the greatest robotic companion, then 45 years working on your writing career inbetween dives as you study marine biology on other planets.
EdgeTrigger
May 06, 2011 at 10:20am
There can never be immortality, even if the bodies DNA could be trick into regenerating its self to make you forever 25 years old. What about a car crash or when the sun burns out. Sure you could live longer, but never forever in human form, only the spirt is everlasting (so i've read).
JohnP
May 05, 2011 at 5:55pm
Geez, everybody concentrates on technology here (well, understandable I guess). Yeah, there will be lots of bells and whistles and distractions, but people are still...err...people. They will gossip, fight wars, cheat on their mates, want to actually GO to someplace rather than visit it virtually, fart (excuse me), and generally behave the way they have always behaved for the past 5,000 years of "civilization". Yeah, a bablonian may not get how to operate a Blackberry but he would certainly understand what a bar fight was all about. Besides, it takes money to do all this stuff and most of the world simply will not be able to afford it. Bottom line, neat stuff but not as world changing as we imagine it will be.
Brdn666
May 04, 2011 at 5:05pm
Immortality is great and all, but there are some huge drawbacks (aside from any phisophical/spirtual problems.) Over population is one. But the main one is that our whole society is based around death. Cracked.com has ran a few articles about these.
illusionslayer
May 05, 2011 at 2:34pm
Having to apply through a rigorous process or limiting child birth would fix population issues.
Societies never ever change ever do they?
Marthian
May 04, 2011 at 4:57pm
yeah I agree with the Timelord thing. Being immortal, it depends on if you can find a whole lot of stuff to occupy your time with.
If you watched Doctor Who (and guessing by the reference, I'm going to say yet.), you did notice that one guy that couldn't die (forgot his name...), wasn't he wishing to die?
don2041
May 04, 2011 at 4:50pm
Commute for a penny? Those old timers underestimated what GREED would do!
wirehedd
May 04, 2011 at 7:12pm
Not really. Think about what the "value" of a penny was in 1900. Wages were normally in the SINGLE digit value of dollars per week or less. A penny at that point in history would have held as much value as $10 would today.
Can you think of any major urban area where there isn't a public transportation system immediately accessible to the public? I don't think there is anywhere $10 wouldn't be enough to get from one side of town to the other and maybe even back again in possibly less time than it may even take to drive. Especially if they have a subway system.
illusionslayer
May 04, 2011 at 3:49pm
I don't understand why people are so against immortality.
I'd personally love an infinite ammount of time to do whatever I damn well please.
JohnP
May 05, 2011 at 5:42pm
It is called BOREDOM. Been there, done it, seen it. Shoot, how much of our lives are wasted in boring tasks, brushing teeth, dressing, taking a dump.... Now take away all the interesting bits of our lives now and make THEM boring as well...The only way around it would be to have SELECTIVE amnesia, freshing up life as it were. That is why I really, really hope there IS NOT an afterlife, what the fricking hell would I DO facing eternity. No thanks! Dying is a GOOD thing.
Besides, there is NO SUCH THING as immortality. Eventually, everything dies- stars, planets, cats with nine lives, everything. When the universe is in heat death with nothing above the temperature of 3 degrees above absolute zero, do you REALLY want to be around for that?
illusionslayer
May 11, 2011 at 3:29pm
Boredom is subjective. Ohhhh solving math problems that no one else has is boring...time to take up computer science! Ohhhh now that's boring...time to learn historu!
Also, something has to be alive and exist for it to die. Stars, planets, and cats with nine lives can't die.
Also, I suspect I'd die long before we get to those temperatures since we're talking about immortality not invincibility.
mattman059
May 04, 2011 at 5:19pm
to do whatever you please...and pay taxes, and buy gas, and never retire, and hear about exillionaires (thats a millionaire times 1 000 000 000 000) and feel sorry for yourself because you know you'll never achieve that....and did i mention never retire...yeah..living forever would be....awesome....... . . . . . . . . ....
illusionslayer
May 05, 2011 at 2:32pm
I see myself not retiring anyway. Research jobs are nice.
Paying taxes is as painless as paying my internet bill.
Of course if you assume your life's going to suck you don't really deserve it in the first place.
Fecal Face
May 04, 2011 at 3:46pm
Being immortal would suck.
Having regenerating abilities like a timelord would be nice though, because you can still die.
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