quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Dark:
A quote from the master:

Another:

"I don't try to predict the future - I try to prevent it!"

- Ray Bradbury

"People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better."

Yup-yup.

grasstains: Predicting the future is too easy?

I don't think so.

quote:

Originally posted by grasstains:
...and predict more of the same...

That's exactly what I predict.

A hundred years from now will be much the same as it is now. Subtle changes.

Humankind are slow to initiate changes, and slow to learn.

There's never really anything new. So I am not alarmed by the telegraph or the steam train. It's really just the same old stuff: reading and riding. A hundred years from now it'll still be reading and riding.

~Grandpa Doug Spaulding, 1875

Mr. Dark, always good to read a post from you!
But I saw Tommy James and the Shondells in the late '60s, and the only message I came away with was "My Baby Loves The Hanky Panky". Must have miseed something there...

When US News & World Report arrived today, I found the cover and main article theme especially ironic, in view of this post topic. Travel "back" 50 years and see how life was, better or not!?:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/1957/index.htm

...and also some enjoyable images:
http://images.google.com/images?q=1957&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-...a:en-US%3Cimg%20src=

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

fjp451:

The practical future is not that far away in surprising advances. Your links to, for instance, US News and World Report reminds me of an article I read this past month about nanotechnology put to work in the media formats, that is to say, magazines and newspapers, as you see them on internet websites, soon (!) in a handy one sheet display that can actually be folded up and put in your pocket. Unfold it, touch the appropriate icons around the edges, and arrive at all the publications online in a techno-display that antiquates the latest computers by a myriad of times. Transistors, in nanotech, measure 2,500 per the width of a human hair. It works with the positioning of atoms. What's up ahead in the next 25 yrs. with nanotechnologies will boggle the imagination.

see:
www.zyvex.com/nano/
for more info

You are all welcome to my world, the world of the very small. I worked in that world for over thirty years. When I started things were built on 3/4 inch diameter silicon wafers and had dimensions of mils in X&Y (10's of microns). Today, the wafers are approaching 400 mm (just under 16 inches in diameter) and features are sub-micron, approaching 0.1 microns in X&Y.

The increase in wafer diamter reduces the cost of manufacturing, thus enabling the consumer to enjoy many thousand-fold increase in computing power in each new generation of devices, at a continuously lower price per unit. The reduction in feature size keeps the technology on the famous Moore's Law curve. Each generation, occurring about every three years, results in smaller geometries, more devices per chip, slightly larger chips, and the cost continues to go down. There is no other industry that works on metrics like these. It would be the equivalent of getting today's cars with the electronics, GPA, etc at a price of about $500. Anyone want to play in that sand box?

The next big breakthrough is likely to be the melding of human organic cells and man-made ciruitry across an interface that will allow the circuits to become embedded in the human body to better serve as early warning, early on-site repair, and direct learning and communication devices. Science fiction writers, got your pencils? Go.

Nard, Patrask: the old adage "Think Big!" no longer applies. Smaller, faster, ultra-efficiency is the future.

How? Batteries attached to retinal nerves, treatments piggy-backed to capulets in the blood, and a replica of the Sistine Chapel fit onto the head of a pin (with plenty of room for a Monet, Picasso, and even a humorous Rockwell.
http://www.rome-tour.co.uk/sistine_chapel_1.jpg

What? 80,000 times thinner than a human hair.
nano - n, Billionth / Milliardth 0.000 000 001

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

Braling II: The song is "Chrystal Blue Persuasion"

Look over yonder
What do you see?
The sun is a-rising
Most definitely
A new day's coming
People are changing
Ain't it beautiful?
Chrystal Blue persuasion...

Somewhere later in the song it says, "Love, love is the answer".

Tommy James and the Shondells also did, "I think we're alone now."--one of my favorites from that era. I catch myself singing it all the time.

The Beatles, of course, "All you need is love".

Carol King, "Only love is real..."

Hope you are doing well.

PATRASK:

No need for sci-fi: From everything I read, nano-technology is here and impacting life in unbelievable ways now. It may have passed up science fiction!

In this case, science was faster than fantasy . . .

SF pretty much missed the cellphone revolution boat. I read a lot of stories and novels from the 40s, 50s, and 60s where there is always the need to find a phone or some kind of vis-a-phone or something along those lines. Even STAR TREK's good ol' communicator only fulfilled three functions--verbal communication device, global positioning system, and if tweeked just right could cause a minor explosion.

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Mr. Dark, thanks. I'm saving up for my bass repair.
I recall both of those T. J. & the Shondells tunes you mention. When I saw them, "Hanky Panky" was at the top of the charts. It's a fairly inane song, actually. The ones you mention are lots better.
I saw them with Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs and The Association! (Were the Dave Clark Five there too? Can't remember...)
Have you heard Weird Al's version of "I Think We're Alone Now"?

The Future! How about genetic engineering? I could see basketball teams going after guys like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6937655.stm

In an attempt to bring some exitement to the game and to counter the steroids bloated records, Major League Baseball will use ticket stubs to choose from the crowd one pitcher per inning. In the seventh inning (the seventh inning stretch) all position players, except the pitcher, will be subbed for fans and only then will teams be able to use their own pitchers.

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