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To: Robert Douglas who wrote (8967)	1/13/2001 6:16:06 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 9256

More futurist meandering. zdnet.com Berst Alert Friday, January 5, 2001 Five Technologies that will Change Your Future Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk New Year's pranksters put a monolith in a Seattle park Sunday night like the one seen in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Click for more. Just like Orwell's vision in 1984, life isn't much like Kubrick's look into the future. But there's hope yet for futurists and doomsayers. Whether you think we're on the verge of a wonderful new age, or the demise of the planet, there's evidence to support you. I'm going to give you a glimpse into our future and then give you examples to show we're on the right track. WIRED WEARABLES Someday computers will be wired into our clothing, our minds and even be used to augment our senses. Jackets. A collaborative of European electronics companies and Levi Strauss are making four jackets equipped with a GSM-standard mobile phone, MP3 player and remote-control device. Available now if you've got the $900. But not in the U.S. Click for more. Shoes. And don't forget the boots that convert walking energy into power for cell phones and handhelds. Click for more. Mind-controlled PC. This isn't nearly as far out as it sounds. Scientists at Georgia State University say they are studying brain activity to the point of listening in and understanding it. The research is aimed at giving people with disabilities more ability to use computers. This is something the government is encouraging as a way to bridge the digital divide. Click for more. This will work via neurotrophic electrodes that can be inserted directly into the brain and actually talk with neurons before transmitting the signal wirelessly to a computer. Click for more. Better than 20/20 vision. Researcher David Williams used technology developed by astronomers for stargazing to develop an optical system that improves the vision of people with even 20/20 eyesight. Click for more. TINY COMPUTING Someday, computers will be the size of molecules. I'm talking about nanotechnology, the art and science of technology on the scale of one one-billionth of a meter. These tiny machines will be so small, you won't even be able to see them. Click for more. Some examples of what they can do: Optical switching. Switching incoming lines with outgoing has been a continuing bottleneck with fiber optics. The signal must be converted to electrical, instead of optical pulses to be understood by the computer. A Nanotech switch solves that. The market for such a switch will reach $1 billion by 2004, according to Cahners In-Stat. Click for more. Nanovans. University researchers are already putting together nanotech motors that are part biological and part mechanical. The potential future is medical, as these little motors, once injected in a cancer patient, can motor to the tumor site, mix and deliver the drugs directly without damaging other cells. END OF THE WORLD Of course, none of these will happen if we destroy ourselves along the way. Few major technology advances come without doomsayers. Sun Microsystems software guru Bill Joy last year warned us about nanotechnology. Joy warns that nanotechnology could produce computers capable of reproducing themselves without stopping until they turn the world into gray goo. Click for more. Lucky for us, we avoided Orwell's vision. And Kubrick wasn't even trying to predict the future. Joy's vision won't come to pass either. But somebody needs to make a movie about nanotechnology anyway. How about The Day Gray Goo Ruled?