When Will the 21st Century Become the Future I Used to Read About?
When I was a kid I used to read The Weekly Reader (which ran from 1928–2012), a small magazine distributed free to grammar school students. In my experience from about 1st grade to 6th grade, which for me was from the late 60’s to the early 70’s. It focused on news and events and of course was geared for kids’ interest. It was an interesting magazine and had interesting articles that explained issues to kids. I looked forward to getting it every week. It also focused a lot on the space program (this was the age of televised lift-offs and splash-downs; everybody knew the names of astronauts as well as baseball players), and speculation about life in the future. I remember articles on atomic cars, flying cars (the auto industry is on the cutting edge of technology, read further on), and people would have personal helicopters that they’d take to work every day. I know prognostications of the future aren’t always accurate, teachers used to wax poetic about how, by the time we were adults the metric system would be the dominant system of measures in use in the U.S., and how soccer (futbol) would replace American football. By this time in my life I was envisioning vacations to a Hilton space station or working on a moonbase. What I want to know is where is my atomic car and personal helicopter?!
Not all our dreams for the future have fallen by the wayside. Even as a kid when one of my uncle’s employers got a computer we went to see it (although I was disappointed when I learned you couldn’t ask it any question, it could only answer questions to information programmed into it). Now almost every home has a personal computer (on which this is being written) and just about everybody carries around more computing power in their pockets than any of the Apollo missions had on board the capsules. One of my former teacher’s prediction that in the future we wouldn’t have paper money just pay with everything via a plastic ‘credit card’ debit cards have been a reality for almost 30 years. Cell phones, TV screens no thicker than a picture frame, these are all little concessions to our dreams of the future. Where are the big science fiction (of our youths) innovations?
There is hope for those big science fiction futures, they are coming to fruition and virtually manifesting before our eyes. The science fiction staple of the self-driving car looms, although again a darker reality of one fatality may have slowed that a bit. However, self-parking cars, cars that have collision avoidance systems are already here. It seems the future is alive and well at car companies. The most exciting future is space, especially with Elon Musk’s Spacex program which recently launched a vehicle (literally) into space which had earth returnable boosters. Their landing inspires the same awe and hopefulness for and excitement about what life holds that I used to get watching the space shots of my childhood. A return to the moon, and Mars seem to be very realistic goals for the near future.
Robots and androids are jumping in technology as is artificial intelligence (AI). Anthropomorphic androids are very much on scientists’ and the public’s agenda. The quickly evolving advancements in these areas are combining not to create Terminators but androids which can be companions to humans and help out the elderly, disabled or even newsreaders, guides to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and in the most extreme example sexual companions (which has also been a science fiction standard). This is such an accepted idea that the November 2017 issue of Wired magazine had a cover story titled Love in the Time of Robots. Sexualizing new technologies does seem to be a way to break a technology to a mass audience. Penn Teller once pointed out that Guttenberg printed only one Bible, but pornographic pamphlets were soon rampant. The same for the internet, it’s the most efficient way to connect the world and communicate new ideas but it’s biggest use is as a porn delivery system.
Holograms have been with us for a long time. I remember an exhibit at a museum when I was a kid that featured a real hologram. We’ve also seen holograms in movies, Star Wars had faux holograms as early as 1977 (Princess Leia). The first iteration of holograms in our 21st century lives was through an entertainment application with the 2012 holographic ‘appearance’ of dead rapper Tupac Shakur, which was totally unexpected but also of a remarkable quality. In the aftermath of that the music/concert world was aquiver with the news and many were soon exploring or positing the possibility of a new Michael Jackson tour, Elvis (Elvis will never leave the building again all you need to do is pull the plug), Jim Morrison (the lithe rock-god Morrison or the bearded poetic Morrison?), any big name that promised big concert profits could be resurrected.
In the medical world nanotechnology seems to be nearer reality every day. Nanobots are microscopic robots that are programmed for some task and then introduced into the human body, course through the body until it reaches a point of infection, or damage, and rectifies the problem. Representations of nanotechnology have been showing up in movies such as the Hulk (2003), and Spiderman (2002). Other applications such as killing cancer cells, strengthening the immune system, dissolving clots are a few examples of what nanobots could be used for.
Tempering my youthful optimism for the future is reality which has a way of making our dreams darker. The fire in Apollo 1, the explosions of the Challenger and Columbia, are the price paid for our dreams. Wireless Bluetooth headsets have always freaked me out because they look like a first step to our becoming the Borg from Star Trek: The New Generation. There are technologies that already are creeping their ways into our lives that can be used for ill purposes if they get away from us. One example is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips that are currently placed subcutaneously in our pets in case they get lost. I’ve also seen those same chips being posited for use in children for much the same use, in case a child is lost or kidnapped. If that were to happen what would the real-world ramifications be? When would those chips be removed? Who would decide? Would they be removed? (Are You Safe?).
There are always new technologies that seem to come out of nowhere that bring the 21st century into our lives, a chip that uses real human cells, called human-on-a-chip, and could make testing new drugs more accurate and eliminate the need for animal testing. My childhood enthusiasm for the future remains intact because it looks like that future promised to an idealistic kid is near; maybe tomorrow.