In the spirit of these fun daydreams about worlds that might be, let's wonder what technology might be like in the future. I feel kind of stupid saying this, but I'm pretty sure the best place to look to catch glimpses of future technology is science fiction books and movies. As nerdy as sci-fi might be, I bet it forecasted many of our major advances in technology -- flying machines, space exploration, the internet, etc.
What's next? What will the next 10, 30, 50, 200 years see? Here are some of my thoughts:
Coming soon(ish)
Really good talk-to-text software. It seems like this should already be here. As someone who never really got the whole "typing" thing, I've been waiting for this to arrive and be cheap for years. I don't know how important this technology will be, but it would certainly be convenient for those of us who type awkwardly and like the sound of our own voice. Looking further ahead, I think this will be integrated into everything, so that we will be able to speak our emails, text messages, facebook statuses, school papers... you get the idea. Everything we now type.
I can't think of anything else right now for this category. Help me.
Things that will happen, but I've resigned to not seeing them in my lifetime
Hoverboards. My heart breaks when I watch Back to the Future Part 2 and have to live with the reality that hoverboards don't exist. It's one of those inventions that just seems like it should work. You can easily picture a board that cruises along quickly about 2-3 feet above the ground. The tricky part, of course, would be for the board to take you along with it instead of just leaving you on your butt. But with the technology in Segways that allows them to adjust to your shifts in weight without letting you fall, this seems like it could eventually happen. I don't actually necessarily think this will come after my lifetime, but I've had to brace myself for that possibility. Otherwise the crushed hopes of each new hoverless year might destroy me.
A bunch of technologies that respond to your thoughts. I think the day will come when we understand the human brain a lot more than we do now. It seems conceivable that we could find a way to "sync up" certain machines with our brain to allow for them to respond to thought commands. The possibilities with this seem endless.
Sci-fi Fail (things that will never happen)
Time machines. I love dreaming about time travel, and puzzling out the paradoxes that it would present. In other words, I'm the biggest nerd you've ever met. And yet, I'm pretty sure there are certain things we can dream up that will never happen. The biggest evidence for time travel's not happening is perhaps the fact that we're not constantly (or ever) bombarded by curious time-travelers from the future (or from the past?). But there are real scientists doing real research on the possibility of sending light back in time or something.
Teleportation devices. I don't think there will ever be a guy named Scottie beaming people up. The only "real" reason I can give for this is that I think teleportation (along with time travel) would require movement faster than the speed of light, and I'm accepting physicists' theories that this isn't possible for any kind of particle.
All right, what new inventions, gadgets, or showdowns with centuries-old foes are you waiting for?
Jon
