Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: DoctorBeaver on 01/06/2008 22:01:19
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Do any UK members remember that program? Originally introduced by Raymond Baxter & James Burke, if I remember correctly.
For our overseas friends who are unfamiliar with it, it was a program that tried to look at where technology might go in years to come. Most of the time it was waaaay off the mark. I remember well 1 episode where they forecast that by the year 2000 we would all be travelling around in flying vehicles on vertically stacked air-highways.
So, I thought it might be a bit of fun to make our own predictions - serious or frivolous. I'll start.
My prediction:-
Mobile phone technology has moved forward at a phenomenal rate; now it's time for watches to do the same. Within 4 years we will be able to view a TNS video podcast on our wristwatches with Bluetooth audio capability.
But that's not all. Rather than requiring all citizens to carry ID cards, we will have to wear these watches. They will have to be bought from goverment sources and will have a sensor on the back to ensure the wearer's DNA matches the person it was sold to. Using GPS, this will also enable Those-who-must-be-obeyed to keep track of our whereabouts.
The same watch will monitor our pulse and blood pressure and, in the case of diabetics, check their blood sugar level periodically. Anyone whose blood pressure or blood sugar level deviates too far from that prescribed by Her Majesty's Chief Health Officer will automatically be issued with a fixed-rate penalty notice.
Due to the government's success in pricing motorists off the road and the dire state of pubic transport, pedestrian areas will be a lot more crowded. To overcome this problem, pavement (sidewalk) congestion charges will be introduced in certain areas. The GPS capability of the watches will be used to ensure those who haven't pre-paid a congestion charge can be fined.
Frivolous prediction? Maybe not!
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Using GPS, this will also enable Those-who-must-be-obeyed to keep track of our whereabouts.
Even after death ...
As in all cemeteries, there are careful records kept of the exact location of each interment,
often using modern survey techniques such as GPS.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2206253.htm#
Check out the reusable coffin "transporter" with trapdoor exit,
[I don't remember anything that macabre on "Tomorrows World"].
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TW had something called a 'Video Recorder' what ever happened to that?
Raymond Baxter used to do the commentry before they found Murray Walker.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7R_XId0YabQ (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7R_XId0YabQ)
Don't watch this if you are involved with health and safety.
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So what are your predictions?
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Deserts will once again flourish and streams and rivers will flow into lakes teaming with fish. It will rain where it no longer rains and with a life bringing frequency. Children will run and dance in the rain and have full bellies and no longer eat dirt and watch their parents kill each other. And this will be achieved by using human and animal waste found in sewage and waste water to irrigate the coastlines of the deserts and transform them into forests. Former Battery Farmed chickens roam freely here to convert the insects into a valuable source of free range protein that is shipped to every corner of the world where it is traded for sewage. The waste water is transported by the super oil carriers who no longer thirst for oil but thirst for salt free water enriched with all of the organic material and nutrients required to bind the desert sands into a fertile water holding crust.
Oil crops abound here in this new land, so much of it that the deserts have become the most important lands in the World after war destroyed most of the “Civilised countries and left them glowing in the dark with radiation from the real weapons of mass destruction”
Peace is a word that is known in every tongue of those that avoided the stupidity of the superpowers.
Once baron shorelines are now abounding with fruits crops and animals.
People migrate to bend their backs and work in paradise and turn away from the cowardly leaders who now hide in bunkers under ground and machine gun anyone who goes within 5 miles of them.
People gather tree seeds and plant them for the future. Cutting down trees for fuel is no longer frowned upon because two hundred trees replace the one we use.
Drug companies now keep warm at night by burning all of the paper money they have strove for so long to accumulate. Money has no place in this new land. Soldiers that were themselves locked out of the underground shelters hand their weapons in so that they can be reclaimed and turned into something more useful. After many years of fighting, they eventually listened to the peace protesters that they had been trained to shoot on sight and they cried for their wives and children and mothers and fathers who were irradiated when the rockets began to find their targets.
Endangered species was mankind but now even mankind lives in harmony with the soils that sustain him.
Andrew K Fletcher
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Andrew - I know I said that frivolous is allowed, but that is downright absurd! [:P]
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in the future we will never go to school due to subliminal images and sound in our TV and radio which will constantly feed us with infomation that we would normally get in a textbook, this will also be the same for news brodcasts . also in the futurenot only will we have people on earth but we will have many space stations orbiting the earth as colonies
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Sorry doc was just thinking aloud
Andrew - I know I said that frivolous is allowed, but that is downright absurd! [:P]
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in the future we will never go to school due to subliminal images and sound in our TV and radio which will constantly feed us with infomation that we would normally get in a textbook, this will also be the same for news brodcasts . also in the futurenot only will we have people on earth but we will have many space stations orbiting the earth as colonies
Do you not think it more likely that we will have cerebral implants that will allow the direct transfer and retrieval of information?
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in the future we will never go to school due to subliminal images and sound in our TV and radio which will constantly feed us with infomation that we would normally get in a textbook, this will also be the same for news brodcasts . also in the futurenot only will we have people on earth but we will have many space stations orbiting the earth as colonies
Do you not think it more likely that we will have cerebral implants that will allow the direct transfer and retrieval of information?
it is already happening - the US Air Force is testing this method on volunteer pilot. in F-22's the pilot already does this input through non-invasive sensors over critical brain cortex areas that have been trained for the tasks need - such as "emergency bank left" or something - no idea what the real input tasks are.
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in the future we will never go to school due to subliminal images and sound in our TV and radio which will constantly feed us with infomation that we would normally get in a textbook, this will also be the same for news brodcasts . also in the futurenot only will we have people on earth but we will have many space stations orbiting the earth as colonies
Do you not think it more likel;y that we will have cerebral implants that will allow the direct transfer and retrieval of information?
well wouldnt the parents pay for the implants, doing it subliminally would cost nothing and they are constantly learning even while they are sleeping. also you don't have to worry about complications with the implants and the risk of surgery
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In Britain Public houses are no longer permitted to allow alcohol to be drank on the premises Drinking is done on the street corners where the community of steadfast “outcast smokers and drinkers” congregate, in fact the people no longer purchase drink from the public houses and homebrew is the order of the day, brewed from vegetables and fruits they find in the refuse collection skips from the Wealthy segregated areas and tastes a damned site better than the £46.00 a pint that you can't drink inside a pub. The brewery trade has transferred most of its boozers into flats and rented them out. The Government has imposed a curfew and anyone found drinking after Curfew hours is silently taken away and is believed to be held prisoner in our own version of Guantanomo Bay.
Elections don't appear to make any difference to who get's in power, it is always Labour or Conservative which is rather odd considering how they screw everyone.
Taxation is absurdly high and many families are paid with food and goods under an illegal barter system that cuts out all taxes. How can the government tax a banana? Maybe in the future they will come and take a bite out of it?
The Internet was closed down about ten years ago and special forces are patrolling with data detectors and tracers to track down illegal transmissions after private satellites were launched in a bid to get the Internet back online. The penalties for being caught in position of a mobile phone or any other kind of illegal personal transmitter other than the ones controlled vehemently by the government is met with brutal sentences and hard labour is imposed because no one wants to work for money these days due to the taxes.
Resistance farming has established pockets of home-grown crops and supply those that refuse to pay taxes for serving in the revolutionary front. A group of hardened self sufficient common people who the government branded terrorists and extremists. But the majority of people support these brazened freedom fighters who form raiding parties on the government controlled food crops and distribute them to those who are starving and freezing on the streets.
Andrew K Fletcher
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Andrew - how depressing. No need to go so dystopian on us.
My (rather mundane) predictions for 50 years time:
It will be very similar to how it is now, except we will suspect standards have fallen. Things will seem very expensive, but we'll buy them anyway. New technology will allow us to carry a huge amount of processing power in a wristwatch, which will be able to communicate with our mobile phones which will also connect to the internet and home computers. However, due to software and hardware incompatibilities, we will never actually have everything working together smoothly, and will still need to write things down in a paper diary.
Traditional tv will be almost completely replaced with download-on-demand tv, which will require either hefty subscription fees, or will force us to watch adverts before we can see the programs we downloaded.
Public transport will not have improved much, and the price of running a car will have greatly increased. People will whinge about it, but nothing will get done.
It will still be cheaper to go on holiday in Spain than in England.
Cash will be rarely used, as people will pay electronically for everything.
Supermarket trolleys will still have a wobbly wheel.
Despite having factor 130 sun cream, with built in streak-less self tan and moisturiser, people will still get sunburned.
We (as in those of us alive today and still around in 50 years) will not like modern music.
The Earth will be hotter.
I'll be 76, my nose and ears will be bigger and hairier, and I will probably be wearing a flat cap.
We wont like the government, and so will vote back in the people we didn't like 5 years previously.
How's that?
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People, in the future, will have a device that they can use in the supermarket to contact home and make sure they are buying the correct type of peanut butter.
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Ben you have done us proud with your predictions for the future :) Enjoyed yours thanks
Women will have boob jobs on their backs. Not much to look at but fun to dance with [:I]
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Fuel will become so expensive that the aircraft industry will collapse into a few small global companies and the only people who can fly then will be the rich.
The licensing of private transport will be restricted for use on a work/needs basis otherwise its public transport for the rest.
All public transport will be electric powered with trolley buses and trams, the power coming from local incinerators that burn rubbish to generate electricity.
Because of global warming and fuel costs package holidays will be out and British holidays back in.
All music and media will be free but supported by adverts and Microsoft will no longer produce software as Open Source is now standard.
The high cost of food has a knock on effect as less people are becoming obese.
Everyone will keep a bit of the ice cap in their freezer before it all melts so it can be put back at a later date.. [;D]
[:P]
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So what are your predictions?
Now I see the purpose of this thread: a free laptop for Dr Beaver [:)] ...
http://www.newscientist.com/visionsofthefuture.ns [Deadline is 8th June]
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So what are your predictions?
Now I see the purpose of this thread: a free laptop for Dr Beaver [:)] ...
http://www.newscientist.com/visionsofthefuture.ns [Deadline is 8th June]
Oh bu**er, "Microsoft will no longer produce software as Open Source is now standard." I got no chance now with a line like that!
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Bill Gates Becomes a Buddhist monk and gives away all of his money to Help the starving millions while seeking penitence for selling poor software and expecting his customers to solve all of the glitches by reporting them.
The new kids on the block unleash their new Doors Platform which has evolved from Linux which evolved from Open source as stated in the previous post. Their selling slogan is.
Why use closed windows When the Doors are open source. Doors will always open for you! Unlike Windows. When One Door closes another Door will definitely open!
Remember you heard this on Naked Scientists first Folks Software name is copyrighted :P
Andrew K Fletcher
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Somebody will invent an electronically controlled bee smoker that doesn't go out at crucial moments and causes the beekeeper to get stung.
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People, in the future, will have a device that they can use in the supermarket to contact home and make sure they are buying the correct type of peanut butter.
It's called a mobile phone.
In any case, shops will stop selling peanut butter in case someone gets anaphylactic shock reading the label.
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So what are your predictions?
Now I see the purpose of this thread: a free laptop for Dr Beaver [:)] ...
http://www.newscientist.com/visionsofthefuture.ns [Deadline is 8th June]
Yikes, I've been rumbled!
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Bill Gates Becomes a Buddhist monk and gives away all of his money to Help the starving millions while seeking penitence for selling poor software and expecting his customers to solve all of the glitches by reporting them.
The new kids on the block unleash their new Doors Platform which has evolved from Linux which evolved from Open source as stated in the previous post. Their selling slogan is.
Why use closed windows When the Doors are open source. Doors will always open for you! Unlike Windows. When One Door closes another Door will definitely open!
Remember you heard this on Naked Scientists first Folks Software name is copyrighted :P
Andrew K Fletcher
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Fclapping%2F2.gif&hash=f3ac90d0f104dd89dbe260c598e013a8)