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The biggest advancement in the second half of the 20th century is clearly the microchip, or the semiconducter. Almost everything we have today vs. 40 years ago is based on that technology - the ability to minitarize amazing computing power - PC's obviously, as shown above. But in phones, MP3 players, cameras, home appliances, automobiles, almost everything...expect that to continue to be the wave of the future. Microchips will be implanted into our bodies next.
One of the problems if your going to do the sets for a science fiction show, is how to suggest futuristic without getting past that leap and the audience not relating. Star trek tos had a set. The cast decided what the buttons did and were insistant they be pushed properly, but it was all special effects. This was enhansed some in next gen and DS9. But the movies were simple. They went and bought laptops and wired them in. The buttons really did things and had to be pushed right. They controlled the screen displays among other things. And the communicator of old looked like a cell phone. And the first commercial cell phone was designed to look like a communicator. And the new communicators were a pin. If we today can carry around our own communicators and padds, then they have to look at least some advanced.
The huge transition, the first real android, will be a human wired into the net by a chip. This is different and vaguely worrisome to people today. If you create a 'future world' and want the audience to relate they won't. So its seperate, but at the rate we're growing technology, we may not be able to site any major difference between a human with impanted cyber parts and an android with an organic body since in terms of capabilities, they may be much the same.
I would argue that cell phones and the internet and especially cell phones -with- the internet make flying cars and moon colonies look quaintly old-fashioned.
If we'd tried we probably could have moon colonies by now. It's close enough to supply and the lack of atmosphere is an advantate over the partial one on Mars. Landing on Mars until we know how is going to be dicey. And there are plenty of people who would love to live on the moon or mars. But its a highly complex thing and we know we don't have all the particulars in place. I think when the generation who doesn't see a reason goes, the one to whom technology is just normal will look again.
And the problem with flying cars is even if you could do something about the privacy and noise, it would get just as crowded as ground level cars. You'd have to have 'lanes'. It wouldn't fix the problem, just make it different.
But cell phones, and internet loaded cell phones are here and practical and have already become part of the landscape. The first one we got, a flip phone that I kept for a long time as a communator prop, we got in the 90's. It just did phone calls. Unlike flying cars, people loved the idea. And today we see the continuing dissapearance of the land line. I haven't had one for ten years. It replaced something different, but it was something which worked for the masses. I'm sure a flying car would have had a few buyers, but as it wasn't something most could or would go for, it would have been a novelty.
We can build a monorail system (just look at Disney) it's just cost prohibitive.
Some places there's not room on the freeway itself and no room for expansion. It would have to be elevated. If that were done, it would require some sort of earthquake standard. The monorail at Disneyland didn't run on days with high wind gusts as they caused problems, so elevation was a problem even then. Much the same technology has been employed in the fast rail transit placed on the ground however.
I agree 100% and very few people understand the total implications of this and how it will change the way we live, learn, work and allow us to live longer then we do today.
We are starting to see it now but by the mid 2020's 80% of people will have some kind of micro chip implanted in them. Get ready the future is here.
I think one of the first could be something which improved or rewired those with dementia. Many people would resist having chips in their body which were keyed into the brain, but this would be considered a miracle.
They do have medical monitors capable of transmitting an alarm in case of emergency and which store the daily history for a doctor to wirelessly download. Medical uses will be the first wave since it will have a greater acceptance.
Some places there's not room on the freeway itself and no room for expansion. It would have to be elevated. If that were done, it would require some sort of earthquake standard. The monorail at Disneyland didn't run on days with high wind gusts as they caused problems, so elevation was a problem even then. Much the same technology has been employed in the fast rail transit placed on the ground however.
That is kind of my point that it can be done and in the case of HSR is being done but to have it like was suggested is cost prohibitive. Here in Colorado they want a HSR from Albuquerque New Mexico to Pueblo and Pueblo to Fort Collins (north of Denver) and the main hub would be in downtown Pueblo. The only thing stopping it is not lack of technology, we have it, but cost as it would be in the billions.
I think one of the first could be something which improved or rewired those with dementia. Many people would resist having chips in their body which were keyed into the brain, but this would be considered a miracle.
They do have medical monitors capable of transmitting an alarm in case of emergency and which store the daily history for a doctor to wirelessly download. Medical uses will be the first wave since it will have a greater acceptance.
Medical uses is already one of the first waves as we already have them for some diseases like diabetes and Parkinson. In the next 10 years the use for medicine will grow exponentially and then you will see it for other uses like enhancing our cognitive ability and yes for games.
I'll confess I've never considered that particular problem, lol. (But I can certainly see where that would be a concern. ) We were also promised a monorail system that would run in the middle of the freeway system in So Cal. I'm still waiting for that too.
The whole concept of MASS transit is woefully 19th century, based in the idea of getting workers to a workplace and being able to charge for the privilege of being able to ride a horse drawn cart or streetcar.
That is kind of my point that it can be done and in the case of HSR is being done but to have it like was suggested is cost prohibitive. Here in Colorado they want a HSR from Albuquerque New Mexico to Pueblo and Pueblo to Fort Collins (north of Denver) and the main hub would be in downtown Pueblo. The only thing stopping it is not lack of technology, we have it, but cost as it would be in the billions.
The high speed rail in larger cities seems to pay for itself, but thats where the rub comes in when its not a big city. Where I lived had 3 million people, and impossible traffic, but within the city you had busses. They worked if you didn't mind your twenty minute trip taking an hour and a half, most of that sitting by the road breathing the fumes. It is no wonder that people drove by choice. Replacing the main connecting line with a rail line was proposed, but not only money but space was a problem. Even with the population its still the main road through town. So the bussed plod on and the people try to leve early for work to avoid the snarled freeways by snarling up the surface streets....
Where I live now there are no busses. There is my relative's son and rides. People ask why in small towns and rural areas there is no transportation system, but even a bus wouldn't pay for itself. There is a plan to add a train between OKC and Tulsa using existing rail. It wouldn't be fast, but it would get there, and hopefully somewhere close to us. (geographically we're extactly halfway inbetween) It wouldn't be super fast, but it would get you there. The train from OKC to Dallas/Ft worth is well used and mostly by people not driving, so people will take other transportation if its convenient and comfortable.
It's interesting that so much of the future predicted by Sci-Fi was often dominated by flying cars or hoverboards or space travel--maybe because some of the most revolutionary developments in the early 20th Century were in transportation. However no one seemed to predict the internet in retrospect. In a lot of science fiction someone is often contacting someone else or a main super-computer to look up the information--the idea that any 12-year-old with an I-Phone could somehow look up practically anything with a basic cellular connection doesn't seem to be something that writers of the early-mid 20th Century really anticpated--though I could be wrong if anyone knows any examples.
I can think of a few small examples, but they weren't on the portable side.
I can think of more examples of a "go anywhere, portable" phone by far though.
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) We were also promised a monorail system that would run in the middle of the freeway system in So Cal. I'm still waiting for that too.
