Future or Fantasy?
What will our world be like in the future? Can we look ahead twenty five years and dream about the transformations that will take place? The scholars who make it their business to try to predict the future are not all in agreement about what the future holds. If you visit displays at places like Disneyworld, you can get a glimpse of what some of the predictions are for our lives. As we fantasize(幻想) about what our life might be like a few decades from now, we can speculate about different aspects of our lives.
Personal
Clothing styles change from year to year and also from culture to culture. Do you think that we will have sleeves in our shirts and blouses? Will we wear socks to protect our feet? Will plastic gloves be used routinely as part of everyday life to avoid transmission of germs(细菌)? Will we still use buttons to fasten our clothing? Will we all wear the same kind of jeans or pants (like a uniform) or will each culture be different? What textiles will be used in manufacturing our clothing? Will a type of nylon fabric be used in an effort to make our clothing more durable? Synthetic fibers which will not fade can be produced in bright colors such as pink and purple in addition to all the other colors of the rainbow.
When it comes to matters of personal cleanliness, will we soak in a bath? Will we spray ourselves with water or some other substance in a shower? Will we have a choice of which to use? Will we go to visit a barber for a haircut or will we be able to control the growth of our hair? If growth of a beard could be slowed, the daily ritual(老规矩) of shaving would be unnecessary for men.
Health
In the western world the number of people who smoke cigars or cigarettes has diminished(减少,递减) substantially in the last several years. Maybe the use of tobacco will be eliminated completely.
Will we be able to heal illnesses and diseases as soon as the symptoms are identified?
A cure for cancer would be considered a miracle. Could the disease be conquered with adequate commitment of federal funds to furnish financial resources? Accomplishment of this project would be a triumph of enormous proportions. It would be equivalent to sending several rockets to Mars simultaneously(同时). It would improve the welfare of all humanity(人类).
Instead of using a thermometer to take our temperature, maybe we will have sensors(传感器) implanted in our bodies that will be read by a personal health care monitor. The machine could tell us if we are in need of more oxygen in our blood or if the food we just ate in difficult to digest because of too much acid in our stomachs. Will an appointment with a doctor be automatic if we are in need of treatment or will that profession become obsolete(消亡的)?
The monitor might also have the ability to prescribe a lifestyle program for us. A woman might be able to determine if she is pregnant from the use of this machine. A remedy for a sore limb might be verified if the person is uncertain how to treat it. A sore throat, a cough or a stiff neck might also be diagnosed and treatment prescribed. Tension in parts of our body can be caused by stress and precautions and preventative(预防性的) steps could be recommended.
A machine might be used for the administration of medicine as well. Could you adjust to the idea of having an injection given to you by a robot using a needle? In fact, the precise dosage might be easier to attain using this method.
It seems logical to make use of equipment that evaluate symptoms and interpret data if the performance proves reliable.
Critical illnesses could be diagnosed earlier and we could be confident that even the diagnosis of a complex disease could be clarified and the disease could be treated before it becomes fatal.
Supposing a life-threatening virus could be controlled, by inference viruses would no longer constitute a threat to our well-being.
The concept or idea of people living to an extremely old age has been suggested. Will the consequence of that possibility be that people could also maintain their intellect as they age?
Will people be able to make arrangements to have their body or its parts used after they die? The donation would help others to have some of their body parts replaced. Will people still have funerals and be buried in a grave as is the current custom or will cremation(火葬) be the common practice?
If we wear corrective lenses now, perhaps our vision could be improved or restored through laser surgery. We would no longer need to wear glasses.
The tragedy of a stroke and the resulting mental disability(伤残,残疾) could be prevented if a monitor could analyze the person’s condition and recommend changes in lifestyle or treatment that could avert(预防) a stroke or a heart attack.
An ambulance equipped with sophisticated portable medical diagnostic equipment could have the ability to assess multiple injuries of the victim of an accident. Recovery would be assisted by the provision of prompt treatment.
The prospect of a joint that swells, being treated by a restraint that causes lack of motion, is not a new idea, but will a synthetic joint be used to replace the joint instead of being treated in the current familiar way? Will replacement of a hip joint become more commonplace? Could a doctor operate on one of our organs without having to invade our bodies? Could surgery be performed with the aid of a small that it would be measured in millimeters? The opening required to insert the camera into our body would be tiny.
Could a microscope be used in the study of biology to watch the development of a specimen of synthetic bacteria and then the specimen is used to create a treatment for the disease being studied?
Food
Our diet might contain come of the same foods that we eat now. Will we still use flour to make a loaf of bread? Maybe there will be ways to preserve our food so that bread never goes stale. Will we still eat common food combinations such as liver and onions? Will our favorite meal be roast beef or sausage and be cooked with cabbage? Will a typical breakfast menu include toast and jam? Maybe we will have a substitute for butter which tastes good.
Food might not be purchased from a grocer or from a supermarket. Instead, as customers, we might order our food, using the internet and have it delivered to our residences. Maybe an automatic recorder would be placed when food is removed from a refrigerator. Preparation of food might be eliminated but because people enjoy eating, maybe there will be the option of nourishing our bodies through food or using some other means. Perhaps a series of pills will provide adequate nourishment. Fruits such as grapes, peaches or pears might still be available in several forms such as frozen or dried for our consumption. Candy would be difficult to give up for anyone who enjoys eating sweets. Pie for dessert is a favorite with some people and maybe a way will be found to produce a pie that tastes good and yet will be a healthy food for us to eat. A hot bowl of soup not only nourishes but also comforts people and we would not want to relinquish(放弃) that. Protein sources that have not been used before will become evident.
Provision of a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch might be available through a special appliance that takes our food order and prepares the food and delivers it to us.
Ice-cream could be made, with the option of using either artificial sweetener or sugar. Will we fry foods like bacon and steak or will we be able to cook them by other means? We could combine foods such as peas and carrots with garlic to gain an abundant supply of vitamins from one dish.
Household
What kind of accommodations will we enjoy? We are used to having more than adequate housing so we would not enjoy having to convert to a smaller residence. The access to our homes might be controlled for security reasons. Our entry might be gained by having a computer read our fingerprint(指纹) to see if it will correspond to detect if the right person is trying to enter the residence. Some suggestions are that it would be better to use the print of a thumb so the thumbprint would be used instead of a fingerprint. Both are a possibility.
Our garbage will be put in a garbage disposal unit that will eliminate the need for trash collection. Light bulbs will seldom need to be replaced, as they will be made to last a minimum of five and a maximum of ten years. To decorate our homes, we might just give a description of what we want and have it completed by an interior decorator(装修工) with little interaction required from us. We could have our choice of background music played throughout the house, or varied from room to room. We might hear a symphony(交响乐) orchestra in one room and jazz in another. Will we have the luxury of having a maid do our cleaning or will that be unnecessary, as our home will become self-cleaning? Will we use soap and water to do our laundry or will another method that is friendly to the environment be developed? Will we use a furnace to heat our home or will we control the micro climate indoors by the use of solar power?
For people who live in a home in the suburbs will the tedious chore(家庭杂务) of mowing(割草) the lawn be accomplished in an efficient way by a robotic mower? Will weeds in our grass merely vanish as the mower emits a time release chemical to destroy them?
Transportation
Will we float over highways or drive on the road surface as we do now? Will the cost of a gallon of fuel still be our concern? What will our vehicles look like? Will the profile of our automobiles look like the shape of space age aircraft? Will the notion of using paint to protect the car’s exterior be obsolete? Perhaps the coating on the car will give a durable shine and we will never to wax or polish it. What kind of battery will we use to power our car? Will we still have a mechanic repair our car at a service garage or will robots that are computerized(用计算机处理) do it? Will the motor be powered by a new kind of petroleum product or by hydrogen? Will the cars still be equipped with horns as a warning signal or will a new device be available? Will there be a gauge(测量仪表) to warn us if our speed is too fast or will radar be used to guide the car so that driver error is no longer a concern?
Electronics
Will we be able to play any musical instrument such as a guitar easily with a process the machine teaches us? Will other media, such as movies, be interactive? Will we have access to optical discs that can be played by laser? Digital images will more closely imitate reality. They will be so realistic that it will be virtually impossible to tell them from the real thing. Our enjoyment of watching a video will be enhanced by the quality of the images. Will we have equipment capable of manipulating ideas, eliminating the need for journalists to write and edit the news? Will computer software be available to modify what we type so that our errors are corrected automatically? Will computer hardware include massive amounts of memory that will allow us to file an enormous amount of material?
Will we be in the habit of carrying a small device with us that can be used as a cell phone, a fax, a microphone and an internet connection?
Summary
Look at the world around you and consider some of the concepts discussed in this document. Careful observation will lead you to the conclusion that many of these things have already happened. I urge you to reread each paragraph of this article to see if perhaps they are all things that are available somewhere in the world currently. If that is the case, then you will agree that the future is now!
