Tell me your future
Mario here:
First off, let me direct your attention to the review of Jeanne's
Blood Drive in
The Denver Post.
Click aqui to check it out.I need your help. For a book proposal I'm researching what the future will be. I'd like your ideas not only about the yet-to-be invented gadgets but also what will be going on in society.
Last week I watched an Internet video about the futurist Ray Kurzweil gassing on about how the exponential increase in computing power will lead to Utopia.
According to him, by the year 2029 we'll be perfect human-cyborg creatures. Nanobots running around inside our bodies will cleanse us of disease and connect us all via virtual experience. I asked Victoria, barback at
The British Bulldog, her thoughts on this. "Big deal," she said. "We'll all still need jobs."
That's my beef with this rosy-eyed vision of tomorrow. Kurzweil didn't acknowledge the most obvious questions. So all this cyborg stuff is going to get rid of mortgage payments? Idiot bosses? And who's going to program all this future human-computer mind melding? I'm not impressed with our track record so far. Recently the
Colorado Department of Revenue had to scrap their new multi-million dollar computer system for managing vehicle titles and that's brick simple compared to plugging into your brain.
I like the idea of using nanobots to zap tumors. I lost one sister to cancer so I'm all for this technology. On the other hand, most of us can barely afford health insurance, how the hell are we going to pay for this Star Trek medical care? What's the co-pay? A million dollars? (photo from
CG4TV.com)Futurists are like any other experts. They get paid to tell what those in power want to hear. Fifty years ago atomic energy was suppposed to light up the future. Nuclear waste? No problem, if we ignore it long enough, it'll go away. Kurzweil talked about these nanobots fusing into your nervous system and creating virtual experiences indistinguisable from real life. So you're plugged into this virtual net, how will they handle spam? Now solicitors will be inside your brain. It'll be like Futurama!
What's your prediction?