The future

Predicting the future is an amusing diversion with a long tradition. It can also be a bit frustrating because certain things which you would like to see, are going to happen after you have ceased investing in your own biological maintenance.

A very important trick is not to bother giving a time frame to the vision. I know it robs the game of a lot of the fun but it also gets in the way of contemplating the vision itself.

Some random thoughts on the matter…

Cars: Sitting in the car at the traffic lights, listening to the roar of the engines as the cars take their turns you realise that, at some point, we are going to have the cars, but not the roar. Electric motors are either silent or perhaps they whine a little, but they don’t roar. The dominant sound will become the road noise – the sound of the flexing of rubber and its impact with the tarmac.

Roads: Much further in the future , surely we will fly rather than hop in the car. We were “promised” flying cars when I was a child but the energy and control required were much greater than were appreciated at the time. Still, eventually I expect us to get there. The thing that intrigues me is the implications for the road system. There is a huge amount of real estate lying beneath tarmac. When it is all converted into green space it will be a Good Thing.

Mars: I’d like us to go to Mars. The radiation is a problem though. It is not an original thought but, what about caves? Mars is not short of cliff faces. Can’t we start out by putting our accommodation where there are many metres of rock overhead?

Food: Homo sapiens is constructed as an omnivore. That is unquestionably the natural way of things. I think though that if you offered folks something that was indistinguishable from beef (for instance) but had never been part of a functioning cow, they would take it with some relief. Tissue culture should eventually be capable of giving us this option. The sooner the better.