Have you ever wished you lived in a different time period?
When you’re riding the low tides of life, it feels natural to find the root of negativity in our surroundings. I have often yearned to live in a different place and time, but I am quick to forget how exciting these times really are.
I read once that humans have accomplished more in the last 40 years than in all of history. Things are changing at an alarming exponential rate, yet even the technologically challenged seem to be adjusting. All you have to look at is recent boom of iPod-using seniors.
Most of us have probably heard our parents talk about the differences in their childhood and growing up. However, even their generation who have grown up constantly adjusting to technology are having a hard time keeping up now. My father (who has owned a computer since the early eighties and is very technologically literate) took longer than most to make the VHS to DVD transition.
“The Human Factor” is a book that shows there is often a broken link between the technical engineers who design new technologies and the everyman. Why is DVD better? With VHS, you just stick the tape in and hit the big green button. With DVD, you have menus, and chapters, and the DVD itself which is extremely sensitive to being scratched. Technology should be making things easier, but it often just complicates things.
So, in 2026, I’ll be lecturing my son about how I couldn’t rely on a driver-droid to get me around, or how we didn’t have holo-vision, and we actually had to type our homework instead of transferring brain waves to our wristwatch PC’s. Of course, he’ll just be busy trying to ignore Outkast playing on the oldies station.
We will see a lot of crazy things in our lifetime. Affordable trips to stay on a hotel on the moon. Full reliance on alternate sources of energy (solar, hydrogen). The continuing effects of global warming (supposed to last another 100 years, even if we got off fossil fuel today.)
Some towns are being built in the Arizona area to be vehicle free. That is, everyone gets around by foot or bike, homes are built underground to save on energy, massive windows provide light. Did anyone see that pyramid they were proposing to build in the ocean just off Tokyo? Supposed to be a city of 1 million, with full residence, shopping, employment, etc.
Being the video game nerd that I am, I’ve been following the news about the new Nintendo console coming out this year. Its codename is “Revolution”, and very little has been revealed. We do know that the controller is fully virtual, meaning that it detects hand movements on screen. Many rumours point towards the console supporting stereoscopic 3D vision, which is supposed to be in all IMAX’s and many theatres by 2007. (stereoscopic is a way of displaying movies in full 3D, as in objects coming at you, but more advanced then the old school red/blue glasses technique.)
Things I can’t even conceive I will see in my lifetime. I just hope I can keep up.
How far can technology go? Only as far as the imagination.
When you’re riding the low tides of life, it feels natural to find the root of negativity in our surroundings. I have often yearned to live in a different place and time, but I am quick to forget how exciting these times really are.
I read once that humans have accomplished more in the last 40 years than in all of history. Things are changing at an alarming exponential rate, yet even the technologically challenged seem to be adjusting. All you have to look at is recent boom of iPod-using seniors.
Most of us have probably heard our parents talk about the differences in their childhood and growing up. However, even their generation who have grown up constantly adjusting to technology are having a hard time keeping up now. My father (who has owned a computer since the early eighties and is very technologically literate) took longer than most to make the VHS to DVD transition.
“The Human Factor” is a book that shows there is often a broken link between the technical engineers who design new technologies and the everyman. Why is DVD better? With VHS, you just stick the tape in and hit the big green button. With DVD, you have menus, and chapters, and the DVD itself which is extremely sensitive to being scratched. Technology should be making things easier, but it often just complicates things.
So, in 2026, I’ll be lecturing my son about how I couldn’t rely on a driver-droid to get me around, or how we didn’t have holo-vision, and we actually had to type our homework instead of transferring brain waves to our wristwatch PC’s. Of course, he’ll just be busy trying to ignore Outkast playing on the oldies station.
We will see a lot of crazy things in our lifetime. Affordable trips to stay on a hotel on the moon. Full reliance on alternate sources of energy (solar, hydrogen). The continuing effects of global warming (supposed to last another 100 years, even if we got off fossil fuel today.)
Some towns are being built in the Arizona area to be vehicle free. That is, everyone gets around by foot or bike, homes are built underground to save on energy, massive windows provide light. Did anyone see that pyramid they were proposing to build in the ocean just off Tokyo? Supposed to be a city of 1 million, with full residence, shopping, employment, etc.
Being the video game nerd that I am, I’ve been following the news about the new Nintendo console coming out this year. Its codename is “Revolution”, and very little has been revealed. We do know that the controller is fully virtual, meaning that it detects hand movements on screen. Many rumours point towards the console supporting stereoscopic 3D vision, which is supposed to be in all IMAX’s and many theatres by 2007. (stereoscopic is a way of displaying movies in full 3D, as in objects coming at you, but more advanced then the old school red/blue glasses technique.)
Things I can’t even conceive I will see in my lifetime. I just hope I can keep up.
How far can technology go? Only as far as the imagination.
posted by andrew at 8:32 AM
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