What is “The Future”?
In the movie “Back to the future”, the future was somewhat a lot more interesting than what we have now. If it came out true, we would have things like automatic dog walker, Hoverboards, Tablet computers, so on and on. Well, we do have some of those predictions made. Lexus did come up with a hoverboard of their own, Apple established tablet computers in iPad, but there are some that are yet to be invented, but it’s just a matter of time. However, these inventions are merely something that people invented to serve a particular small purposes.
What is life changing technology like?
In order for a technology to be life changing, for me, it has to be able to go through these stages. (1) Changes the fundamental understanding of an aspect in people’s life, (2) fits the scale of economy so it could wide spread to most corners of the world, and (3) eliminates a whole set of old product.
There are already products that is showing signs to grow to be life changing.
- Hyperloop
The concept of this product is to create a near friction-less environment for a train-like transportation to pass through. Without the troubling of friction, theoretically the vehicle can be running at speed that could only be reached in outer space.
Currently the fastest train on Earth can reach the speed of 603 km/hr. A rocket in space would be reaching 7.9 km/s… Which is unlike they will do that for the hyperloop project, it’s not necessary nor is it safe, plus developing that technology could take decades. Currently they are looking at a normal speed of 962 km/hr, which is 1.5 times the speed of the current train, plus when it’s empty, it could reach 1,220 km/hr. As this technology progresses, we can already see the future traveling time shrink to fractions of what it used to be, and the urban/rural effect on the economy would be less, lowers the load on workers income thus prosper the society.
However, there are still challenges ahead. Imagine you are running a vehicle on the ground, very close to the city, at the speed of an airplane(or faster.) Chances are if anything happens you will kill people in that vehicle, and a lot more around the accident, and the result could be catastrophic. Plus, the idea is still theoretical, though seems highly plausible, it still needs to be tested out on whether it can really work like it says. There are already prototypes to be tested, let’s just wait for the news.
2. Electric Power Vehicles
I only chose Tesla because they are by my opinion the closest to the finish line. Many car manufacturers are working on this technology either because they are trying to stop the inevitable global warming, or simply because customers these days dig this idea of green vehicle.
Why is this important? Well, people would be dumping out of gasoline. I am honestly surprised on how it didn’t occur to everyone that you are traveling on a vehicle that runs on ancient dead animal body that became combustible due to high pressure underground, while the byproduct of burning the gasoline is hurting our planet which is still the only one we’ve got.
Some companies are still running on hybrid power, which means the power source is a combination of gasoline and electricity. Electrical powered car has two main challenges ahead.
- The travelling distance of electrical powered vehicles are getting good, but the number of charging stations are still very worrying, and it could be the biggest factor that is setting the progression back.
- In order for electrical cars to help with preserving our environment, not only the vehicle itself have to be clean, the source of electricity it is using also has to be clean, or else it would just be a transfer or pollution, and you wanna guess where the pollution would be dumped at? Ya, in third world countries where no one can afford to buy that kind of transportation, or simply building a network of electricity distribution.
They are just two examples of what I could grasp within a short time span, there are more exciting technology out there such as automatic driving car, reusable rocket launcher, wifi-launcher on an aircraft, etc.
How will the future look like?
We’re living in a very fast changing world. By change, I mean because global borders are getting thinner and thinner, great minds around the world are now able to work together to pull off something extraordinary. We have some horses in the market where they lead the market and the world in progression. Tesla, SpaceX, Hyperloop, GoogleX (Now X), they are all inventing, creating, and dreaming (and the first three are all somehow related or controlled by Elon Musk). They are pulling off products that children would present in a science fare by using the great minds of not one, or two, but hundreds and thousands.
We live in an exciting time, where the idea of technology is not to manufacture personalized computers or gadgets that makes you go on Facebook quicker or allows you to brag about your new iPhone(Shots fired!). Technology of it’s very essence is and should be to realize ideas that people could have only dreamed about.
The future can look like anything, and the future is already happening.
