Where Is The Future Taking Us?

It’s amusing to look back on cinema of the past and see how they predicted the world would be today. Films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey portrayed humans as being far more technologically advanced by this time than has turned out to be the case. Yet these films have also missed technological leaps that have occurred and the impact they have had. Things like the internet and mobile phones were not assumed by the movie-makers of Hollywood. While touch screen and advancements akin to new multi touch capabilities have been guessed at, their functionality on small screens each person carries around with them would have been hard to predict.

There are a number of developments we still project in our films that we’d like to see in our reality. Namely, time travel, space exploration and similar things but the actual developments have been far different. Instead of being related to exploring, improvements in technology have tended to deal with the person having their world suit them, making things as convenient and easy to access as possible.

What will things look like in just a few years time? If you listen to many who deal in the world of cosmology and numerology, as well as Hollywood writers, you might believe the world will be completely different after 2012. While this is a very questionable assumption, there’s no doubt that there will at least be major changes with the way we interact with computers, and the nature of these computers themselves. It’s been estimated that capacitive touch screens may replace the common computer mouse in the coming years, due to its easier to use nature. It seems unlikely that we’ll be able to replace something that seems so essential to computer use, but the success of differing platforms such as the iPhone has made it possible to interact with software without the mouse, and this has shown that it may soon be a thing of the past.

Another good way to see how technology could improve is to look at the technology of years ago. It was recently reported that email is now seen by teenagers as being ”old school” technology. The new way to talk to friends and meet new people over the internet is through interfaces such as Facebook and Twitter, in which the conversations happen far more rapidly, with less detail given to each sentence, and correct grammar not being the least of anyone’s concern. If this is how technology has changed so far, what is to come? Can the brief sentences we send to each other get any tinier? Is it possible that very soon Facebook and Twitter will seem like the old technology to the next generation?

It should be obvious from this essay that technology is altering at a faster pace than ever. It will be fun to see how long technology can improve the ease of our lives, and provide more and more help to us before we come completely dependent on technology to run our lives. In that case, perhaps some of the futuristic assumptions of Hollywood will someday come true?