Greetings brave readers. Thanks for being here. Today I’m going to begin discussing my thoughts on the technology of the future. As a sci-fi writer I try to read as much as I have time for about what futurists believe is waiting for us in the coming decades and centuries.
Sadly not all of you have read my book yet (get with the program, it’s a fun read!) so I will tell you it takes place about four hundred years in the future. In the interim there was a period of natural disasters and environmental collapse which moved technology back some.
In my future we’ve see a backlash against technology. I am certainly not the only sci-fi writer to have used this meme. Frank Herbert uses it as a significant plot point in his Dune novels.
I’m not a huge fan of many modern conveniences. I use the internet (we’re all here aren’t we?), I have a big-screen TV, DVR, ipad, laptop . . . I don’t always like these things but I use them. I don’t have the internet at my house. Not necessarily by choice but since the phone company (who shall not be named) lied to us when we were looking at the house only to say later “No, you can’t have the net.” I find that I do enjoy being away from the connection. I have more free time now that I am not looking up the history of every director who’s movie I watch.
I tell you this so that you know why I have included in my futuristic novels the concept that people will eventually get bored with toys and get back to relating more and more to people directly. I have a deep hope that this happens. I believe it is essential for the continued growth of society.
I’ve heard from several people recently the idea that they just don’t like people in general. (???) What is wrong here? Sure, there are knuckleheads out there but where would we be without people? It is our human connections that give life true meaning, not our collection of toys. I see technology getting in between human relations and I think that is wrong.
It is my fear that people will continue to buy what TV is selling them. They will become more and more reclusive and disconnected. That will make it much easier for someone to control society from the top rather than the people actually having a real say in the way things work.
So, I am pushing, lobbying, crying for people to spend more time together and away from their “things”.
OK. That’s off my chest. I am an optimist. I see a bright future for humanity and our little world. I see some fun and interesting technologies coming our way. “My future is so bright I have to wear shades.”
Starting with tomorrow’s post I will begin my predictions for what technologies we will experience in the near and distant future.
Earth Year 2013
Never mix red wine with Oodo.
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