Leave the Lights On

The other day I had a posting about kids become fanatics about saving energy. On the extreme opposite end of things, I got an email from my friend telling me that he had installed solar panel and that meant no more worrying about leaving the lights on.

It's not really true that installing solar panels means that you can leave the lights on. If you are like most people and you install solar panels, during the day, you feed energy into the grid which the power company has to pay you for and at night, you draw from the grid (think non-solar panel energy) and you have to pay for it. Because the sun is such a GIGANTIC form of energy for a lot of people installing solar panels means their power bills virtually disappear.

But let's look at a future where we draw from multiple forms of natural energy, tidal energy, wind energy, solar energy. If we had enough to go around, would it mean that we would no longer have to be energy conscious? If we had solar cars would it mean that we would no longer have to worry about wasting energy by driving? What changes would this mean to our day to day lives? Or would it simply mean that we could make the changes that are so desperately needed at the present time?

To Hell With Scratch

It's hard to think of baking a cake as a technological innovation, but every few years companies like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury and Duncan Hines try and come up with new products that capture people's imagination that use new or existing technology to reinvent the wheel. My favorite these days is Warm Delights by Betty Crocker. You take this little powdered mix and mix it together with a bit of water in the included container. You squeeze a sugary goo over it, stick it in the microwave and you have this little warm fresh baked desert. It's really good for someone like me who can't really be trusted with a whole cake or batch of cookies. I particularly like the mini ones because they are the perfect serving. But these new fangled products come and go. Will this product be available in 10 years?

The purpose of this desert is to provide indulgence with limitation. Is this an important direction for food products? What is the future of desert?

Sunday Morning Shopping Spree

These days it seems that I find it harder and harder to get motivated to go to a store to buy things. As often as not, I'll set out to find some product and when I get to the store, which 'should' have it, it doesn't. So I end up going to another store and then another. So lately I've become an online shopper. Last Sunday I placed three orders from three different stores in about an hour and spent about $250. I always dread the 'delivery charge.' I even went ahead and bought an extra book on Amazon just so I wouldn't have to pay for delivery. The problem is that although having something delivered is actually providing me a valuable service, I don't yet see it that way. I saved the time of having to go to the stores that was freed up to do other things. I saved gas not driving to the stores and with gas prices these days, that little shopping spree would have been $5-$10 in gas.

But I do worry, what are stores will be left in the future? Will everyone eventually move to the Internet or will that siren lure of going store to store still motivate people to get out in the world and shop?

What Channel is That On?

One of the things that I love about a lot of the more science fiction TV that's on today is that it's on multiple times a week. I never really have to worry about two of my favorite shows overlapping. And many shows are even on the Internet so I can always catch them whenever I feel like it. So what does this mean to the future of TV? I was one of those people who gave up a landline in favor of a cell phone early on and I'd certainly be someone willing to save $50 a month in cable costs. But where will this new technology leave regular old TV that is accessible to everyone? Will one day only people with Internet access have the same number of programming possibilities that exist today with a basic cable package?

Yee Shall Not Partake of the P B & J

There's been a dramatic increase in the number of kids who are allergic to peanuts (Kids and allergies: When PB & J turns dangerous.) It's so scary that some schools are banning peanut products from their institutions. There are some theories that it's the super-clean way we live that is causing the increase in allergies. Other theories point to the use of antibiotics. The fact is that no one really knows at this point. Could we see changes in our culture as a result? I sometimes find myself worried about eating peanuts even though I'm not allergic just because I hear on the news so much about these allergies. There are foods that are banned in some ancient cultures, shellfish & pork for example. Were these bans originally based on a real problem with those foods that was perhaps lost?

On the other hand there are interesting new developments on the horizon with peanut powder treatments and allergy-free peanuts.

In the end, which will win out? Treatment or banning? In the Matrix, the bad guy says that humans are like a virus. Is the planet fighting back? Are these allergies like an antibiotic for the planet to fight humans? Are we, just like a virus getting stronger and better to fight off these efforts?

Sports and Drugs

I'm not a big sports fan, but the use of drugs by sports celebrities has been big news lately. Marion Jones admitted that she used drugs (CNN article) which it's assumed helped her win medals in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. It's kind of crazy that 7 years after an event it turns out she wasn't the real winner. I wonder, will they have a special ceremony to honor the 'real' winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals? Will the person having gone home with no metal be happy to find out 7 years later that she actually is entitled to a metal?

Does this suggest that instead of only testing athletes at the time of an event, that sports officials should do medical tests and retain blood and/or other 'samples' indefinitely. As drugs change and technology improves should those samples should be retested? Does the fact that so many athletes have been found to be using drugs eliminate the idea of fair competition? What will the life of a pro-althete be like in the future?

Body Burden

I'd never heard the term Body Burden until I read an article on CNN: Tests reveal high chemical levels in kids' bodies. It has to do with the chemicals in the body picked up from the environment -- negative chemicals that is. There's a little more detail in the article: What's in you? One of the main chemicals they find in this little 18 month old baby is fire retardent that's used in many things found in the everyday home.


There's an old movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman where the character is exposed to a combination of everyday chemical products and it causes her to shrink.

Is the new Dawinism surviving the products that we create to protect and extend our lives? What products will eventually be removed from the market as these 'body burden' studies continue? What changes will we see in our everyday life?

Author Outs Character

So it's old news by now, but J.K. Rowling outed her character Dumbledore as being gay: (read the CNN article) While the Harry Potter books fall more in the realm of fantasy vs science fiction, I thought this news was worthy of notice. There's a huge group of people who don't just read Harry Potter, they obsess about the Harry Potter world. They learn every little detail of the books. I remember an interview after the release of the movie in which Hermoine is wearing a dress to go to a ball. One of the young fans being interviewed was very disappointed that the color of the dress in the movie was different from that of the book. And let's face it, it was some young fan asking questions about Dumbledore's love life that prompted the author to out him.

So will this change anything for anyone? It would be interesting if someone documented the lives of 'super fans' and saw how the events of the Harry Potter industry impacted their lives ten years or twenty years from now. And what about those kids who have already been taught that the teachings of Harry Potter are evil. What will they be like as adults? Is Harry Potter forming a generation? Generation X, Generation Y, and soon... Generation P? Will one day the far extremes of Generation P be arguing across the senate floor? What will they have to say to each other and will we be able to to trace it back to the Harry years?

The Truth is Out There

In the movie Serenity, the bad guys have a little problem on one of the planets they colonize and rather than try and fix the problem and/or report the problem to the general population, they just erase the fact that the planet was ever colonized or had any problems. People have vague memories of some sort of news about colonization, but nothing more.

At one time to research history, a person had to enter the dreaded 'stacks' of the library and flip through dusty old books to find information relating to their area of interest. If you were researching something that happened in the 1940s, it was more than likely that you would be looking at books that might have been written near or around that time in addition to more modern volumes. Today, more and more information is created first in electronic form which means it's far easier to access, but also far easier to change. Are we approaching the day when changing history is a simple search and replace function?

I wonder how the US text books present Columbus Day these days. On Columbus Day this year, there were protests (Columbus Day protest leads to arrests) because for some Columbus day represents the beginning of the end. In Japan there is a lot of controversy over how to present some of the events in World War II in textbooks (Japan’s Textbooks Reflect Revised History) and there's been protests about this too.

Will the children of the future have access to the data of the past and will they bother to access it? Many companies have data retention policies. Will we one day have data retention policies regarding our everyday lives to document who came before and what they did? Or will the future 'define' history? Or for those who believe that time is a dimension that will eventually be conquered, will we have viewers of the past so each generation can do their own research and interpretation of the past.

Another Kind of Hybrid

Apparently with ethanol as the latest and greatest form of energy, corn prices are going so high that the cost of corn syrup which is used as a sweetener in many products is impacting the prices of those products. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Seeing Sweet Savings, Heinz is developing new hybrids of sweeter tomatoes to address the issue in their products (think ketchup.


On the other side of the tomato world, whenever I got to my local grocer, there, right by the cash register, are the heirloom tomatoes. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, they are the icky looking tomatoes sold at farmers markets coming in a spectrum of yellows, greens, reds and oranges and ranging from gigantic monsters to little tiny ones. I've only tried them a few times, quite delicious. These are supposed to be the non-hybrid tomatoes.

So what direction will food take in the future? If colonists were sent to another planet, would they take the heirloom tomato seeds or would they take those of the sweeter hybrids?

Baby Robots

If you can bare with the fact that this video is in Japanese, it's definitely worth watching: (YouTube link)



It doesn't surprise me in the least that someone would want to make a baby robot. With birth rates dropping in developed countries baby robots might be the future. Could it be when robots make robots that the importance of procreating becomes a part of their programming? Would adult robots take care of the baby robots? And if baby robots never grow up, do they have a purpose?

What Makes a Successful Robot?

In the old movies and TV shows robots (with the exception of the wonderful Blade Runner) usually didn't look like people. They had some semi-human qualities like the fact that maybe they could reach like a human or talk like a human, but in general, they weren't an effort in replicating a human. C3PO couldn't really move like a human and although the actor brought a lot of character to the robot, he was clearly a robot. 'Robot' in Lost in Space wasn't able to smile. And what about the Cylons in the old Battle Star Galactica. Not many human qualities there. But lately that's all changed. The robots in AI, I-Robot, and the new Battle Star Galactica all look more human and express human emotions.

Are we on the cusp of robots invading everyday life? And will those robots look like people? In ten years will the world be a different place? Will robots replace people on some jobs?

Utilitarian? Companion? Both?

By now, most people have heard of the Roomba, the cute little round robot that will vacuum your house for you. But did you know that people are becoming strangely attached to their little Roobas? There's an interesting article in the San Jose Mercury News (and many other papers) They love their Roomba about some of the odd relationships people are forming with their Roombas. Some people are giving them nicknames. Others are dressing them up. People are even willing to change their house around and do a little pre-cleaning to make their little friends more successful in their job. Kids have started a company, myRoomBud, making costumes to outfit their little friends.

Will a robot be more successful if it has a 'companion' aspect to it? Or is it the other way around? Does a robot have to have to be utilitarian first and companion second. Is that why Sony discontinued Aibo, the robotic dog?


What will be the first successful robot?

Children Take Over the World

A friend of mine was complaining the other day that her kids kept turning on the lights (and then leaving them on) after she made a big deal about turning them all off and explaining the importance of energy conservation. Sounds like a pretty normal scenario right? Well apparently this is not how all kids are reacting the information they get about global warning and saving energy. There's an article in the Wall Street Journal: Inconvenient Youths that talks about how kids are being taught so much about conservation in school that they are starting to put pressure on their parents to become greener. In the article some of the parents are questioning whether it's the school's place to introduce political topics -- like global warming. Is trying to educate a child to be a good citizen of the planet a way of teaching politics?


The whole article brought to mind so many possible futures. Could there be a future where education become so narrowly defined that children have to take pre-taped classes over the Internet so that there can be no possibility of introducing 'un-sanctioned' topics.

Increasing Expectations

Interested in finding out your life expectancy? Try the life expectancy calculator on http://www.livingto100.com/ Here's what it made me think... can I realistically ever retire?

Does the whole idea of work need to change? In the future will fifty percent of jobs be reserved for those fifty and older? What trickle down affect would this have?

Are We Overstaying Our Welcome?

I was watching animal planet and there was one of those shows on that gives interesting facts. One of the facts was mammals live for approximately 1 Billion Heart Beats. Little animals with shorter life spans have faster heart beats and bigger animals with longer lifespans have slower heart beats.

There's an exception to this rule, us, humans, people...

People can have 2.5-3Billion Heart Beats.

What if the heart beat really were a way to track lifespan? What if everytime your heart beat a little faster, your life got a little shorter? "You just about scared me to death" would take on new meaning. I often think about the complexities of the human machine. People didn't used to have 2.5-3Billion Heart Beats. When average ages were lower, people had fewer heartbeats. It would be interesting to know what the upper range of possible heartbeats is.

Nobel Prize for Manipulation

Three scientists have won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine for "groundbreaking discovers that led to a technique for manipulating mouse genes."

Gene manipulation is an amazing subject. According to the National Institutes of Heath, the human genome has approximately 25,000 genes. It is so complicated with so many possibilities. Many people today have genetic testing done to see if they will develop a disease in the future or if they will pass that disease onto their children.

Michael Crichton's Next ambitiously tries to cover the many possibilities that Gene research may lead to.

Several of Robin Cook's Books have used genetic research as the basis for the stories.

As the knowledge of he human genome grows there will be endless possibilities for science fiction writers.

No Biometrics - No Entry

I got my monthly newsletter from the US Embassy in Tokyo. (I used to live in Japan and never bothered to unsubscribe.) Japan is instituting new immigration procedures starting November 23, 2007. Foreign nationals (i.e. US citizens and the like) will be required to provide fingerprints, a facial photograph and there will be an interview of some sort. It will be interesting to see if people are informed of this new requirement before they make the trip and how they respond to the new requirements.

The US instituted the US-VISIT program on September 30, 2004 (from what I could find) so basically the Japanese are just balancing the scales.

So soon traveling will mean that many countries will have your fingerprint and picture. Will this be a problem for some people? What could happen if that data is compromised? Could identify theft go to a whole different level?

The Ice Cream of the Future

A few years ago I saw a TV special on the making of Dippin' Dots and I wanted to try them, but up until just a few days ago I never saw them anywhere. Then there in the San Francisco Zoo, a stand was selling them. So I bought a little pack of chocolate dippin' dots for $3.50. There's nothing like a tourist spot for nice prices, right? Well I thought so until I went on the dippin' dot site where they sell them for $5.40 a serving if you buy 25 servings. (I'm guessing they must ship them in dry ice.)

The thing that caught my eye way back when I saw the TV special was that to produce Dippin Dots special sub-zero freezing techniques are used. According to their website the Dippin' Dots would stick together in a home freezer so only places with the proper equipment can sell the dots which explains why you can't get them just anywhere.

The dots were dubbed the ice cream of the future. It seems like they've caught on and even Oprah has given them her thumbs up. Is this really the ice cream of the future? Will freezers of the future have the little dots compartment? Probably not, but what is the ice cream of the future? Does ice cream have a future? Ever noticed that in science fiction there's always a lot of pain taken to explain the alcohol of the future, but not to talk about the ice cream and candy of the future?

The Language of Foreign Syndication

When I lived in Japan it was absolutely depressing how few US TV shows were on TV there. Of course a big factor is that it's very expensive to add subtitles to a show and if a show is too complex/sophisticated then it's just too damn hard to translate. On occasion I would laugh at the way that whole sentences would be translated down to one word. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a great scene in Lost in Translation where a photographer is giving instructions to Bill Murray in Japanese and the translator is telling him whatever she feels comfortable with.

I remember hearing that Bay Watch was one of the most internationally watched shows. Apparently scantily clad men and women running on a beach is very easy to translate. Many science fiction series are very simplistic in terms of language which may explain why science fiction sells around the world. Some shows use complex new words to give the show an exotic-ness, but those words don't have to be translated.

Do producers of science fiction consider the possibility of foreign syndication in their language choices? What if they did? Would it change what we watch?

The Bionic Woman

I just finished watching the series premiere of The Bionic Woman and it hit me that I couldn't remember a single character's name. I was confused right from the beginning. The show has a kind of overall dreary/gray feeling to it. Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica) is in the first scene, so I thought Tivo had screwed up and I was watching Battlestar Galactica. Then a little bit later in the show to confuse me even more, Molly Price appears, who I thought was the same Katee character with a slightly different haircut. Sorry producer people. I need a lot more differentiation between characters, particularly if you are going to have the dark look and feel of a video game. Watching the show actually was a lot like watching a video game. In one of the last scenes there's this to-the-death type of fight scene (I say to-the-death because no one actually dies.) I had no idea what they were fighting about. It seemed like they were fighting just to fight. Maybe it's the chip implants. I didn't understand why the Jaime Sommers character didn't just use her nifty bionic legs to run away from crazy blond chick

It will be interesting to see where this show goes. The feel of the show is so much like Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if that will continue. I wonder if Jaime will get regular assignments like in the original. Will there be more character development? Ah... I just made a connection. Miguel Ferre plays some kind of boss guy in the show who insinuates that they'll just 'dispose' of Jaime if this doesn't work out. He played almost the same exact role in the movie Point of No Return (1993) with Bridget Fonda.

Future Vacation Spots Part 2

While I have very little interest in space flight because in my lifetime spaceflight is probably not going to get me anywhere except maybe space, it seems that there is a market for space flight. Richard Branson has already started planning: (Click here for YouTube)


And New Mexico is getting ready to build Spaceport America and cash in on people's fascination with space. Of course it makes sense. People are already taking vacations to go to the UFO festival in New Mexico.





Who will be the first 100 commerical travelers in space?

Future Vacation Spots

There was an article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle: Fictional places we love: Travel guide to our top film, literary sites that talks about fictional places that people would like to visit. Most of them were pretty mundane fictional settings that easily could be real settings. For some reason they decided to exclude science fiction and fantasy type fictional settings. Maybe because the point was that people are looking to take vacations inspired by TV, film or literary places and today it's still pretty hard to come close to a vacation inspired by Star Wars. I did manage to find a tour (Boutrostours) to Tunisia that mentions visiting a location where Star Wars was filmed.

I can certainly see where people (even today) would want a more fantasy/science fiction related vacation. Where would you go? Would it involve space flight? Aliens? Nature at it's best? Personally, a vacation to space doesn't interest me. I like fictional worlds where I can fly without the assistance of a space ship. A luck dragon like in the Never Ending Story would be okay, or wings like in When the Wind Blows. Hum, maybe I should be looking into hand gliding or parachuting vacations. But it wouldn't really be the same.