Seeing Into the Future: What Technology Has In Store for Our World

     Remember a few years ago when everyone was talking about going to the moon? Celebrities, movie stars, and socialites throughout Hollywood were paying big bucks to be a part of a special mission to Lunar paradise. During that time, I particularly remember seeing a brief news clip of former N'SYNC band member Lance Bass trying on space gear and practicing his "space moves." It was a hoot watching him get excited for a mission that never happened, but was so highly anticipated by many.


I also saw a YouTube video in late 2013 of Lady Gaga on New York radio personality Elvis Duran's show.

She talked candidly about headlining a show in 2015 on planet Mars. The show, which would be sponsored by entrepreneur Richard Branson (Virgin Mobile and Virgin Atlantic Airways), was only for the elite -- wealthy business people, A-List celebs, etc. If you could pay for it, you would fly first class on "Virgin Galactic" to watch Lady Gaga perform her most memorable hits. Who were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, again?!

There was a point in time when going outer space seemed like an enigma. Thanks to advancing technologies, however, going to the moon -- and other planets -- is not a farfetched idea anymore.

Have you ever thought about what the world would be like in five, 10, or even 20 years from now? Technology has changed so drastically, in such a short amount of time, it is hard to imagine life differently.

     It is amazing to me the type of innovations humankind has developed in just the past several decades: from being able to record live television, to watching movies and television from a mobile phone. Let's not forget about one being able to read magazines and books on tablets, order food online, deposit checks from a mobile device, have live teleconferences and board meetings from around the world in one location, and be able to find any restaurant or hotel on the planet, with just a touch of a button. As popular recording artist Gwen Stefani would say, "This is bananas!"

Some scientists and technology experts believe that someday, technology will become one, gargantuan unit.

     Kevin Kelly, publisher and former executive editor for WIRED magazine, says that the World Wide Web is only 5,000 days old. He mentions that technology – these “handhelds, cellphones, laptops and servers," etc., are one big machine. This “global” mechanism gets “100 billion clicks per day,” with “55 trillion links between all the web pages of the world.” In addition, Kelly says there’s “two million emails [made] per second,” “170 quadrillion transistors,” "55 trillion links,”  "emails running at two megahertz itself,"  "31 kilohertz [of] text messaging," "246 exabyte [of]storage” [that's] generated by this global machine. In addition, the machine runs with “nine exabyte RAM,” and with “seven terabytes per second” of total traffic. Kelly says in the next “5,000 days” or 10 years, we will become completely “codependent” on this big machine.  We won’t be able to function without it.

In the years to come, Kelly also believes that everything will be connected to, or feed off of, the web – including spreadsheets, Word documents, cell phones, and things we make or manufacture.  Kelly says eventually, every idea -- or every piece of data -- will be supported by the Web.

Kelly also says that in order for users to have more “personalization,” they must be willing to showcase “transparency" at the same time. In other words, in order for the process to work, we have to be willing to be open to disclosure. This “machine” will automatically “know us” (individually) without much effort from us. This super computer and humans will simultaneously work together – unified.

     World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee believes that all of this information, or data, is about creating powerful relationships. Lee says the more information you have, the better for the whole. Government, enterprise, institutions and individuals, cannot hold onto data, but must be willing to share it for mass consumption. According to Lee, this "unlocking" of massive data will help to solve some of the world's most pressing problems and answer many plaguing questions.

     After considering what both Kelly and Lee have said, I wonder if these current technologies have spoiled us? I often sit back and wonder what we as humans would be like without some of the things we have become accustomed to? We have seen what the world looked like in 2000 and 2010. What will the world look like by 2020? Twenty-30? What about 2050?

     Will we be able to log onto a computer using our brains? What about being able to dump all of our thoughts and/or brain contents and activity onto a computer to be researched? Will we actually have the first human clones living among us? You've heard of tracking devices in dogs who stray from their homes, but what about tracking devices placed in more than 90 percent of Americans? Will I have a robot as a next door neighbor? Will there be such places, cities and towns, such as "Robotville" or "Drone City?" Will I, or a family member, have an opportunity to live beyond age 200? What about actual human life on other planets?

Technology will be so advanced that humans will no longer have to eat the same foods or take prescription medicines for diseases or health and wellness purposes. Let's not forget about transportation: We all may one day own spaceships or be able to touch our wristwatches to travel to other cities instantly! What about eye glasses that offer us out-of-this-world visuals of a certain city before we even decide to travel there? It seems impossible, but so did many of the other high-tech inventions we have today. As technology continues to advance and expand, who knows what human kind will look like?! Somehow, the 2002 thriller Minority Report doesn't seem so Science Fiction after all!


 
 
 

     As I've mentioned before, it is my belief that technology is just making us lazy as a nation and world. Everything can be done at a touch of a button or a voice command, without much effort from us. Though advantageous in a lot of ways, opening the door for many to have advance knowledge and access, technology encourages us to be more dependent rather than independent. We depend on technology to purchase our goods and services. We depend on technology to educate us. We depend on technology to care for us. We depend on technology for almost everything.

It has been said that many scientists believe that in the years to come, humans will no longer have to have secret passwords or codes to gain access to certain sites. Pretty soon, computers will be able to recognize our voices, gestures, and physical appearance, and be able to unlock our brains to produce a desired output. Some even say that computers, not humans, will run the universe! Did you hear that? Humans will have to answer to robots! This is quite scary to think about.

     The global technology that Kelly mentioned, will eventually have access to every human. There will be no need for special identification or social security numbers. Whatever the next millennium may bring, technology seems to be going in the direction of a one world mentality, with a one-world-order. Are we ready for this as individuals, as a nation, and as a world? I don't think I am.