Futurism Unbound
A very interesting discussion about the future technologies.
The Paper Computer
I’ve been blogging for 9 years now and for about that long I’ve been talking about e-paper and how it will change the face of portable devices. It’s incredibly cheap to manufacture, uses little power and will replace print. It has taken a long time but it looks like it’s day has come. This article goes into details on the paper phone, which is an iphone like device made of epaper. It’s basically a paper thin computer.
Sony has a paper thin oled color monitor already as you can see here. As cool as the iPad is now, the stuff they will be selling in a couple years will blow you away and it will be even cheaper. Much cheaper.
Here’s a video on epaper. This is the kind of thing which will save the publishing business. Printing costs are insane, but that will soon be a thing of the past. And the paper computer will soon be a reality you can buy yourself. Probably for less than $100.
3-D Printing Will Change Everything
The future is going to be stranger than you think if the world economy doesn’t collapse due to the stupidity of our leaders. Because, in the not too distant future, you will be able to get things made to order, from clothes to goods at a local shop instead of from a manufacturer. In fact, big box stores will be a thing of the past. Everything you need will be obtainable from a local store. And then, not long after that, things can be made to order in your home like something out of a Star Trek replicator. The technology is called 3-D printing and it’s already here.
The day may come soon when even buildings are made by printers.
3-D Printing will be able to make almost anything on demand, which will save untold billions in transportation, shipping, manufacturing costs. Of course it will radically change society and eliminate jobs on an insane scale. However, this transitional. The transition will be a nightmare, but the end result will be a world where everything is much cheaper to obtain. And people will be able to have things more easily. Waste can be reprocessed into the materials for the printers, so recycling will actually be efficient. It would make for a radically greener world economy, as many harmful mining, manufacturing and processing done today would no longer be needed.
There could also be major negative impacts as the world economy is changed. That’s the scary part. But at the rate were’s going now, the world economy is going to change in any event. At least things like this and nano-tech offers a real hope for the future.
In my graphic novel Aftermath I talk about “grown buildings” which are buildings assembled by nano-robots from raw materials, grown to the specifications programmed into those robots by the architect. Printed buildings are a cruder method, but just as science-fictioney, except they are already testing this right now.
3D Hologram Phones in 5 Years
So says IBM which predicts a bunch of other things as well. If they are talking about 3d Holgrams being common in 5 years that means they have them in the labs right now. The battery predictions are interesting, too.
Instead of the heavy lithium-ion batteries used today, scientists are working on batteries that use air to react with energy-dense metal, eliminating a key inhibitor to longer lasting batteries. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices.
By rethinking the basic building block of electronic devices, the transistor, IBM is aiming to reduce the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 V. With energy demands this low, we might be able to lose the battery altogether in some devices like mobile phones or e-readers, which could be recharged by simply shaking the device.
Cool.
Now That’s An App!
Too bad American cell phones won’t work in many overseas countries.
Holographic Pop Stars
In Japan, they already have Holographic animated pop stars giving concerts. I have to say, the animation on her is pretty good.
Iron Man Style Power Suits in Five Years
So they claim in this article. These exo-skeletons will be used in battle. Only, a more refined version that what we see in the video in the article.
They are also developing exo-skeletons for the elderly, so they can do a lot more. You may see old people coming down the street with power suits someday.
iPod Nano Watch
Pretty cool, I must say. They need to fix it so you can set watch to default mode instead of player. But it’s cool. Not sure how stable the clip would be on a watchband, though. They seem to think it’s OK.
Mind Machine Interface
The first commercially available mind-machine interface is here. It’s designed to help paralyzed patients communicate, but as this technology improves don’t be surprised to see something like this become available for other applications. like gaming, driving, etc.
Awesome Robot Hand
A super fast robot hand that can do all kinds of complex things. It seems mostly suitable for robots not humans. But it’s very cool.
I can see something like this working well for humans. But this is faster than most people probably think.
Siftables
Imagine what toys will be like in 10, 20 years! Provided the world economy doesn’t collapse and we’re all shooting at each other.
