Predicting the Future

I know how tough it is to predict the future; I’ve watched Disneyland go through multiple incarnations of Tomorrowland.  Yet we keep trying.

Like in the AARP Bulletin of June 2018 with its cover article “What’s Next: How Your Life Will Get Better in the Coming Years.”  Five areas of our lives are examined, and experts make some bold predictions in each.  Here are a few examples.

1  Home — 4. We’ll Be Rooming With Robots

“Robots that help with chores will work to maintain a home both inside and out. They will continue to clean floors, they will maintain the yard and they will help with other daily tasks.  With the development of new technologies, they will also possess new features.  Robots will be able to pay special attention to highly trafficked and commonly dirty areas, like under the kitchen table and around the dryer.  When you leave for the day, a home security robot will patrol the home, providing you with the peace of mind that the whole home is being monitored.” — Colin Angle, CEO and cofounder of iRobot (maker of the Roomba)

2  Health — Patches will deliver injections painlessly

“Multiple drugs will be available for administration by microneedle patches.  They are painless, are easily self-administered, generate no dangerous sharps waste, and can be easily stored and transported without refrigeration.” — Mark Prausnitz, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech

A shirt that does CPR — MIT is working on a textile application that will utilize nanotechnology.  The shirt will be able to detect a heart attack, send emergency alerts and location, and administer CPR.

3  Transportation — The Longer View: A Whole New Meaning to Traveling in the Tube

“The technology needed to transport people in pods through systems of sealed tubes at hundreds of miles an hour is quite straightforward.  I’d be surprised if we don’t see some version of it in the next five to 10 years somewhere in the world — possibly a transatlantic submarine train.  It will be traveling at 100 or 200 miles per hour.  But in principle it’s possible to go supersonic.  There’s no reason you couldn’t go 1000 miles an hour” — Ian Pearson, head of Futurizon, a British consulting firm

4  Privacy — Passwords Will Be in the Past

“In the next five years, we will do away with passwords.  I have always believed that passwords are for tree houses.  This is a 1964 technology that we should not be using still today.  There is a new technology that exists today from Trusona that can 100 percent authenticate the person on the other end of the device, without the need for passwords.” — Frank Abagnale, FBI consultant, AARP Fraud Watch expert and subject of the movie Catch Me if You Can

5  Money — We’ll Repeat Our Past Mistakes

“A decade ago, everyone learned about buying a home with too big a mortgage and too small a down payment.  Everyone promised they wouldn’t get caught in a housing crunch again.  They’ve forgotten that lesson; mortgage and home equity debt have climbed.” — Terry Savage, syndicated financial columnist

I just hope I live long enough to see if these come true.

Unfortunately, the article isn’t on the Internet yet.  But the description can be found at  https://press.aarp.org/2018-6-7-June-AARP-Bulletin-Special-Feature.

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