10 Ideas about Future Tech that may change our lives

What does the future hold?
As a reader and writer of science fiction, I like to keep an eye on what people are saying about the technological innovations that may fundamentally re-shape our world in the future. 

Science fiction itself has opened windows on many ideas that later became reality--think about Arthur C. Clarke writing about geostationary satellites, for example.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke was one of many sf authors who have correctly predicted future innovations.

Other things apparently were less predicted. Few people really seemed to foresee and understand the potential for massive changes that would ripple out from the advent of personal computers, the Internet, wireless technology, and smart phones, before they our lives forever.

Few of us realized what a revolution these represented, when they first came on the scene.

Nowhere is the wireless revolution and the advent of smart phones having a greater impact than in the developing world. Here's an image from rural Bihar, India.

I've been looking at recent videos on YouTube that attempt to answer this "what future tech is being developed?" question. I shared one in Bionic Sensory Enhancements that I thought looked interesting. 

Here's a video that explores "The Top 10 Future Technology That's Here Right Now." Published in early October by the Top Ten Archive, it predicts a range of innovations from sunscreen pills to personal nanotech factories.


The video's show notes include a full list of the ten technological developments profiled, as well as links that offer more detailed information about each.

IMAGES: Many thanks to the Telegraph Media Group for the image of Sir Arthur (unfortunately on his obituary). The photo of popular smart phone brands is from a TechReviewPro article about the top smart phones of 2015. The photo of mobile phone users in Bihar, India, is from an excellent article on the Design Public Blog. The video is from Top 10 Archives on YouTube.

Future Visions of Home Interiors

One of my projects in 2015 was designing a space station. Not for NASA or any other agency--I've been world-building for the sf novel I'm writing. 

And in the course of gazing into the future through the collective wisdom of the Internet and entertainment media, I've discovered some odd things about the places we apparently think we will live, in the future. 

1. They will be either blindingly white, or very dark. And either way, they'll be cold. 
It appears that in the future very few of us will live in normal lighting. If we are very wealthy or on a spaceship, our homes are likely to be all white. 

From Prometheus 2, via Flavorwire. As if it wasn't cold enough, they added a snow scene in the background!

Curves that make impractical use of space, and blinding white: from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, again via Flavorwire.

If we are poor and live on the wretched Earth, or on a different kind of spaceship, our homes will be dark and tiny. 

The dark side of the decor: Deckard's apartment from Blade Runner, via Bladezone.

Murky lighting, odd color schemes, and hard furniture: how relaxing can you get? From Star Trek: Insurrection, via the Memory-Alpha Wiki.

2. There will be inexplicable things on the walls. 
It appears we will not care about the dust collected by 3D wall textures. We also won't have paintings (as an artist, this bums me out) or photos of loved ones on display, because there won't be room for them.

More of Deckard's apartment from Blade Runner, via Bladezone. What is up with the funky wallpaper?

House Atreides Frigate from Dune, via Flavorwire. Is that a robot-face at far R?

3. Doors and other architectural features will be odd shapes.
In addition to the examples above, consider the practicality of the following:

From Battlestar Galactica, via Flavorwire: triangular doors? Really?

Another view from Prometheus, via Ben Procter. Octagonal doors and rooms: Sure. We all love living in places where the walls aren't square to each other.

4. All the seating will be uncomfortable.
Couches and chairs will have no arms, there will be no throw pillows or afghans, and there also will be no recliners, no chintz, and absolutely no lovingly-restored antiques.

Even the actors at R look uncomfortable (from 2001: A Space Odyssey, via Flavorwire).

Harsh lighting, a knee-bumper table and an oddly retro rolly-chair combine to make this one of the least comfortable-looking offices I can imagine. Plus, his back is to all the action (or potential snipers) outside that massive window. An Elysium concept, via Moviefone.

It also apparently won't matter how many hundreds of years we are from now: the Future Design Ghods have decreed that once these design principles have gone into effect, we will henceforth always have to live in cold, dark, cold bright-white, or oddly-shaped interiors, with illogical openings and uncomfortable furniture. 

Here's to the future! Happy New Year! 

IMAGES: Many thanks (as attributed above) to Flavorwire, as well as Bladezone, the Memory-Alpha Wiki, Ben Procter, and Moviefone. 

Bionic Sensory Enhancements

As we creep up on the turn of the year, I've been thinking about the future.

I remember the heyday of early-'80s Cyberpunk (I know, I just admitted I'm old), when science fiction writers explored ideas about the possibilities of linking humans and computers. 

Poking wires and jacks into the brain? Er, maybe not!

Back then, however, we weren't thinking about wireless connections--we assumed we'd have to "jack in" to a computer, and of course there was a lot of discussion about the impracticality of poking wires and jacks into the brain. Even the 1999 movie The Matrix assumed a hardwired connection.

These days, reality has outstripped our earlier "wildest imaginations." I recently found a roundup of current realities in bionic sensory inputs that I thought you might find interesting. Warning: it's from D News, which means there are a lot of ads at the end that I couldn't edit out.



But it also contains a lot of interesting information in the middle. Anyone who is interested in the future, whether science fictional or otherwise, probably will appreciate that part. 

In light of the title, I was disappointed that host Trace Dominguez didn't get more into future applications: an aromatherapy lapel pin was about the extent of that exploration, though he did say contemporary cochlear implants and a retinal prosthesis he profiled were in their early stages. In the YouTube show notes he cites his sources, which can be helpful if one is doing research.

But as someone who hopes to live a bit longer into a future that even a few years ago we couldn't predict, I'm fascinated with the things that keep popping up. I hope you are, too.

IMAGE and VIDEO: Many thanks to the blog Could this Happen? for the photo (also an interesting blog post), and to D News for this video.