Years ago, I had the opportunity to have dinner with a group of computer gurus at a convention in Las Vegas. <Talk about being intimidated> anyway there I was, able to listen in on conversations about the future of technology. Obviously, I had nothing to contribute; I had only recently learned how to run a Macintosh Computer. Although fascinating, most of what I was hearing was beyond my comprehension.
However, there was one conversation I have never forgotten. I heard a statement, I’ll paraphrase… ‘if we compare where we are today with computers to the motion picture industry; we are now at the stage of silent films’ ~ Sherwin Gooch This was in 1991. What a remarkable prediction!
I think about the changes I have witnessed these past twenty-one years! Star Trek and the Jetsons are no longer only science fiction. In my mind I can compare it to how my Grandparents must have felt seeing the change from horses, to automobiles, to flying machines, to sitting in their living rooms watching men walk on the moon. It excites me to imagine how my grandchildren will be living in the future.
I ask you to look around your own life. How many toys, gadgets, appliances, phones, music, automobiles… <the list goes on and on>… involve some sort of computing technology? Most were not available twenty years ago, some not even ten. Computers are shrinking a big universe we happen to occupy.
Let me give you a few examples of what is happening now which only makes me believe good things will continue to happen in the future…
My cousin Michael Johnson <MRJ STUDIOS> is in ‘Time Shifting Echoes’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0alQeKHkdZE 15 musicians, 28 instruments, 14 different languages come together to create this amazing video. Every contributor used their own home equipment to film and record. Take the time to watch and listen to the entire video… I get goosebumps every time I see it. You will see and hear the future of music.
The blog you are reading now has had visitors besides the U.S. also from Canada, France, Japan, Norway, and Republic of Korea <I find this incredible> I’m sitting at my kitchen table in Cullom, Illinois.
How many people do you know have a Star Trek communicator? <Oops, I mean smart phone>
Children don’t use black boards in school, they have ‘Smart Boards’.
An Uncle has an implanted defibrillator that sends reports to his doctor, it saved his life. The advancements in medical technologies boggles my mind.
A Global Positioning System can direct me from Point A to Point B, and tell me how long it will take to get there.
Video games so realistic, I can be fooled into thinking I’m seeing something live, not a game.
Athletic shoes with a component able to download and analyze your running and jumping skills.
Humans have the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere. As I write this someone is communicating with a robot on Mars.
To me, it all sounds like magic!
An example using a 3D Scanner and Printer. The model on the left, reproduction on the right.
I just became aware of three-dimensional scanning and printing. It is predicted it will have just as significant impact on the future as the printing press did in the 1450’s or the steam engine in 1750. I don’t fully understand it… however, I like to think what my future grandchildren will be doing with such technology.
I find it fun to believe in and imagine the future. I guess in the same way I believe in magic. I don’t have to fully understand something to know somehow it is possible.
I also believe we are beyond the silent movie analogy, and have moved to talking pictures although, still in black and white. One only has to wonder what it will be like when we reach the full technicolor stage. It’s going to be magical.
This is fantastic… I just got notified, I can send a message to the future… I think I might have to try it out. <JFGI> It’s true!
<I will always believe and so should you>
Later… Barbara
Barbara Hahn's Blog 