Toying with an idea
Apr. 26th, 2011 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffyHere's something to think about...say you're a time traveler from 2048. You've arrived in this decade and you're interacting with the locals...what surprises you? What's different? What technology do you miss from your own time?
Given the lengthening life expectancy of people in the US, it's not implausible that you or I might still be alive? What might you ask a person from the future? What advice would you give them?
Just in my lifetime, I've seen a lot of technology become "obsolete". I remember reel-to-reel tapes, 8-tracks, cassettes, vinyl albums and 45s. Even things like digital cash registers didn't come along 'til the late 70s. I remember when the only computers around were the ones in the lab at the college, programmed by computer punch cards. I remember so-called personal computers with a whopping 4K of memory, using a cassette player as the hard drive for a Texas Instrument computer, 6" floppy disks giving way to 3" diskettes, long before CDs or USB drives.
40 years ago, computers were gigantic and took up an entire room. Instead of terminals on every office desk, there were typewriters. I remember typewriters being superceded briefly by "word processors", which *weren't* the same as computers, although they tried. Twenty years ago, a portable phone was the size and density of a brick and came with its own carrying case. A car phone was a status symbol, but it stayed IN the car. Even 10 years ago, most people would have scoffed at the notion of hand-held cordless phone wwith a screen that could access the internet.
I'm trying to invent a creditable future for my time traveler. How virtual is 2048? Instead of HDTVs, are they holographic? What are the trendy gizmos of the day, what are people wearing, how do their daily routines differ from ours? What are the world events of the day? I'd love to hear your thoughts, with the caveat that I may want to borrow them for a spot of fiction....
This is your chance to predict the future, although I suspect Jules Verne is going to stay the all-time master of that sort of thing.
Given the lengthening life expectancy of people in the US, it's not implausible that you or I might still be alive? What might you ask a person from the future? What advice would you give them?
Just in my lifetime, I've seen a lot of technology become "obsolete". I remember reel-to-reel tapes, 8-tracks, cassettes, vinyl albums and 45s. Even things like digital cash registers didn't come along 'til the late 70s. I remember when the only computers around were the ones in the lab at the college, programmed by computer punch cards. I remember so-called personal computers with a whopping 4K of memory, using a cassette player as the hard drive for a Texas Instrument computer, 6" floppy disks giving way to 3" diskettes, long before CDs or USB drives.
40 years ago, computers were gigantic and took up an entire room. Instead of terminals on every office desk, there were typewriters. I remember typewriters being superceded briefly by "word processors", which *weren't* the same as computers, although they tried. Twenty years ago, a portable phone was the size and density of a brick and came with its own carrying case. A car phone was a status symbol, but it stayed IN the car. Even 10 years ago, most people would have scoffed at the notion of hand-held cordless phone wwith a screen that could access the internet.
I'm trying to invent a creditable future for my time traveler. How virtual is 2048? Instead of HDTVs, are they holographic? What are the trendy gizmos of the day, what are people wearing, how do their daily routines differ from ours? What are the world events of the day? I'd love to hear your thoughts, with the caveat that I may want to borrow them for a spot of fiction....
This is your chance to predict the future, although I suspect Jules Verne is going to stay the all-time master of that sort of thing.