I thought it would be fun to try to imagine what the average decent American house would look like in 100 years, provided we don't nuke, plague, starve, shoot, pollute, freeze, burn or vote Democrat/Republican ourselves into oblivion in the interim.
This is my imaginary trip and tour of a neighborhood and newly built upper middle class home in a town near you, ca. 2112. Just about everything I describe is actually being worked on by scientists and engineers today and is very likely to become reality, unlike robot servants and personal jet packs.
The first thing I notice after stepping out of my Toyota Corolla-turned-time machine (Deloreans are too spendy and unreliable, it turns out
) is that... well everything looks like a 50-100 years ago! I find myself on a tree-lined street surrounded by the styles of yesteryear; Victorian, Craftsman, Tudors, early modernist and even classic stone vernacular homes line the street, all perfectly maintained with immaculate yards. If it wasn't for the automated street sweepers and lawn mowers making their rounds, you'd be hard-pressed to tell you were a hundred years in the future at all!
The other thing that gets you is how quiet it is... there is no background city "roar", only the chirping of birds and insects, like being in a forest. The air is just as clean and sweet-smelling too.
I wait for a stylish car to drive by before crossing the street... it's still on wheels and rolling on the ground but it sails by nearly silent, then suddenly changes color from a deep red to bright white before disappearing around the corner. There are no license plates on the car and surprisingly enough, no driver! That leaves me scratching my head, but I continue up to the door of a very lovely craftsman home which looks very reminiscent of the Gamble House. As I wait, I wonder where the mailbox, driveway and garage are.
It isn't long before I meet my host, Fred Astaire. Yea, that's his name, but only I would would make a joke about him dancing... seems nobody in 2112 draws the connection!
Fred invites me in, and asks me how I like the future with a look of amusement in his eyes. I know he's in his 50's but he doesn't look a day past 30! Must have good health care these days!
Anyway, I'm full of questions and start firing them off...
"Great house Fred, but where's the garage?" I ask.
"It's with the outhouse!" Fred says with a chuckle...
"Actually, it's downtown. If I need a car for the day I just ask for one and they send it straight to my door. It's a lot cheaper and more convenient than trying to own one, you see."
Suddenly the driverless car I just saw makes sense. I soon find out cars these days are all electric, made mostly of carbon nanotube material, can be fully charged with a 400 mile range in seconds, have a "skin" of a material that "grows" to repair dents & scratches and can be changed to any one of a variety of colors at the touch of a button, can be automatically operated from a central hub and cost as much as a house... but I digress... this story
is about houses, after all...
"How about the mailbox?" I ask...
It's inside... oh wait, you mean a postal service box! I read about the postal service in school when I was a kid." Fred snickers. "That place went under decades ago!"
"Where are all the white round plastic-y buidlings and white jumpsuits?"
"It turns out people like to live in real houses" Fred explains bemusedly. Fred says with all the technological advances and virtual worlds to play in online, people who can afford it like to root their real lives in places that feel like they have a history, a connection to the past... keeping in touch with their humanity, as it were.
I have to wonder where all the houses from my own time are... Fred tells me they are few and far between.
"it turns out that plywood glue and fast growing tree farm wood doesn't last a 100 years" Fred says it like it should be self-evident. " An old house like that essentially has to be torn down and rebuilt to be livable, so it makes more sense to tear it down and build something nice instead."
Things have certainly changed... there is hardly a century-old house to be found anywhere, though if you go back 2 centuries or more, there are plenty of examples to be found. It's like there is a gaping hole in American domestic architectural history!
I feel a brief sense of loss, but quickly forget when Fred offers to take me on a tour of his house, built in 2108...
"That's what I'm here for! Let's do it!" I say excitedly.
The first thing I notice is how traditional the layout is; The hall and living room look like they were cut straight out of a historic craftsman bungalow, but the lack of wear and "new house smell" tell me the place is of very recent vintage. It's a bit dark, so I start searching the wall for a light switch that isn't there. In fact there are no light switches or electric outlets at all!
Fred just chuckles and says "Lights on, living room" and the place lights up. My jaw hits the floor as he explains to me there isn't a single foot of line or cable in the entire house; all the fixtures are powered by a device on the roof that receives power beamed from solar collectors in orbit which in turn beams the correct current to the lights and various electrical devices in the house. Lines and cords are completely banished from daily life, just like corsets and top hats were to us!
I am also quick to notice that apart from the light fixtures, there doesn't seem to be a single electrical object in sight. No TV, no stereo, no computer, no telephone!
I soon find out why; with a simple voice command, half of an entire wall on the far side of the room lights up with a clarity that puts 2012's best High Definition big screens to shame. Fred tells me how the entire house is rigged to a computer that controls everything from the temperature to the oxygen content and is connected to the 'net everywhere in the house. The TV screen is actually a sort of wallpaper that is put up in every room. The internet itself is
nothing like what it was to us... today in 2112 the net is more aptly described as seemingly never-ending series of virtual worlds. Every user has his/her virtual space tailor-made to their desires, places that make Twitter, Facebook or Second Life seem as hopelessly archaic as a silent "talking picture" would seem to an internet junkie of 2012. Almost the entire scope of the human experience is on or recreated virtually somewhere on the net.
At least cellphones are still more or less the same... there are no land-lines being maintained anymore though... there just isn't a reason for them.
More to come if you want to hear it...
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