The popular quote, "Everything that can be invented has been invented," by the Commissioner of the U.S. office of patents in 1899 is starting to cross the minds of people once again.
It seems like only a couple years ago when rich, important people were the only ones will cell phones, and before that car phones. Now there are 4-year olds sending pictures to their families of their goldfish.
I read in a powerpoint presentation that in 20 years, websites may be obsolete. It's hard for me to imagine anything quicker, simpler, and easier to acquire than a website, but the same could be said for when the telegraph was invented.
As for myself, I'm thoroughly excited about the future of technology. If you look at how far the world has come since the Internet became a mass media, it's obvious that there is more out there. The younger generations are more technologically knowledgeable than a good amount of the older generations, and as those younger generations get older and learn more, they will become responsible for how to make those things better and how to use them to their full potential.
That is how history has always worked, and the Internet is not the "end-all be-all" of technology.
However, my excitement is also of the morbid variety. I believe that there will be downfalls to how far the use of technology will take us. I don't mean downfalls like, "the post office will become obsolete," (because I do believe that will happen, but it may not be for several generations from now) I mean downfalls like, "the only reason I get out of bed is to use the restroom." However, I did mention that maybe the next generation of Apple computers will involve a toilet application where it processed your poo into a fuel that can be used for your flying car, space ship, or moped.
Imagine, if you will, a turn dial that controls the length of your grass so that you never have to cut it, but it you want long, luscious grass you can have that or even a mud pit for fun wrestling, football, farming, or building.
Maybe the food industry can take google's current idea of having a central "brain" that holds all the information for every computer so that a person can access all of their computer software, files, and internet settings from any computer. The food industry could someday have a central "brain" where all food, recipes, cooking, and related items stored so that all a person has to do to "shop" is go online to order what groceries they want, the plant will put the items into the person's individual "food bank", then the person can "order" anything they want to eat based on what groceries they have bought (or if they want to eat something specific, the program would give them a notice saying they don't have that item, but if they want to buy it they just need to press a button and it will be added). How the food would get to the person's house... I don't know, that is something for the creators to figure out. Of course we have things like Jenny Craig or NutriSystem and whatnot, but I'm talking about instantaneous-meals using recipes from homemade to Applebees to that expensive Japanese restaurant in Chicago (that I will not die happy if I never get to go to again).
What will this do to society? It will allow us to eat more creative things than mac & cheese or ramen noodles on a budget, it will allow us to need less storage space in a household, there will be less fires causes by kitchen mechanics, it will be easier to buy diet-specific foods without having to read every label, a person could buy foods from other countries (or simply hard-to-find foods) without having to find a specific store, and it will save money when it comes to shipping costs. More grocery buildings could be used as space for other stores also.
Downfalls? Of course! The art of cooking would be lost to a great extent! Creativity in creating your own recipes and ways of doing things would be difficult, having "virtual" food may give false impressions as to the quantity of food you actually have, so it would be easier to over-buy and over-eat. The restaurant experience is something that would either be lost, or would become even more of a treat, however the food would not be a treat so much since you can get it anytime.
The Jetsons are not far off. While some people are still looking for their flying cars, I think they are missing what is right in front of them and the possibilities there. While flying cars sound cool, I don't see the need. Society would still need a system to control the flow of traffic. In any case, I'm really hoping for the best, but expecting the worst to happen first.
What say you?
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