Everyone's vision of the future is different. If you lived in ancient Rome circa 316AD, I'm fairly sure your vision of the future involved Rome being this great big empire (so basically, things just staying the same forever). In say, the 1950s, people thought that in the future, everything would be automatic (and rounded- think the Jetsons. These are the people that brought us the microwave). Cold War and Vietnam-era people thought that the future held some apocalyptic world war that few would survive from (there are some really great movies from this period- watch "A Boy and His Dog", 1974). What is the current vision of the future (hey- all of your online accounts will link together and the internet will have the smartest ads ever!)- I'm not entirely sure. However, I can tell you what my ideal vision of the future would be.
In the ideal Liber Lexica future, batteries for electronics will last longer (is it asking too much for a laptop to run all day, or my phone battery to last maybe overnight?), and since I'm making this future up, I'm going to request that electronics themselves just last longer. Because, honestly, you shouldn't have to replace your phone and computer every couple of years, but you have to, because they completely fall apart.
In this magical future, there is also a huge, speedy, on-time network of transportation that is completely convenient, no matter where you are. I don't care how you make it happen, future, but I'd really like to travel more and it's a pain. Speed trains everywhere? Fine by me. Portals that instantly zap you to your destination (like the Floo Network or apparition!)? Even better. Hrm, thinking about it, I'd be cool if the future was just like Harry Potter's world of wizardry, minus the doom and destruction of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Right- so my vision of the future has super fast, CHEAP worldwide travel.
Also, maybe the future will hold this massive push for education, especially in the arts and humanities, so they will needs tons of new professors. Right when I get out of grad school. Hey, can't hurt- it is my futuristic vision after all.
Things I really don't want to see in the future:
1) 3D, 4D, 5D movies. Its really not that cool, film industry. It just hurts your eyes and makes you vaguely dizzy, and who really wants that? Plus, I'm convinced it is just a way to make movie tickets even more expensive than they already are. Since the world is already in 3D, I don't really need my movies (which are just escapism anyways, really) to be in 3D.
2) Computers inside my head. Occasionally sci-fi movies and books decide that in the future, our brains will connect to computers and our eyes will be like screens. That is so not happening in my version on the future. Brains are brains, and computers are computers. Maybe if you need to develop the technology to help people medically, that's fine. But no one needs to check facebook in their head or send twitter updates of their thoughts instantly as they flicker through their neurons. Plus, I might also be secretly afraid that if people had computers implanted in their brains, someone could hack them or infect them with a software virus and we'd all be in some serious trouble then. Picture it.... terrifying, no?
Regardless, the future is pretty much a total mystery (to me at least), so who knows what it will hold. Hopefully TVs and cars stick around at least as long as I do, because I would be sad to see them go. But it will be strange to see what future generations come up with. (My parents went through college without Wikipedia or the internet! what on earth will the youngins of tomorrow make fun of us for??)
No comments:
Post a Comment