25 Years Ago - 25 Years From Now - Technology Time Capsule

[clackamascoug]

25 years ago, I was 26, and just had my first son. I drove a 1984 Celica GT-S. In 1988 I bought a computer, and it didn't even have a hard drive. I actually knew a guy that had a cell phone the size of a brick. It didn't work very well, if at all. I was cool because I bought a SONY Betamax for its superior technology. My golf clubs were Yonex fiber carbon, not wood.

Cars are better, but not leaps and bounds better. Golf clubs are better, but I was still shooting high 70's. My computer now is a Quad Core with 8 gigs of ram, and a terabyte HD. My TV is better, but I still remember Clay Brown and the Holiday Bowl in living color.

I know the internet is the coolest thing ever, but I think smart phones and calling and being called anywhere, anytime, is the biggest advancement to normal life.

What will the next 25 years bring. Is there something that will change everything like the internet, and phones have done in the last 25? Make a prediction of what you'd like to see. The cool thing... we may be able to look back upon this thread in 25 years and see how close we came.

For a Start, I think cars will drive themselves while we sit in the back surfing the version III of the Internet.

Reminisce and Predict Away.

[Uncle Ted]

I think that TV will be pretty much all on-demand. The viewer will pick what they want to watch when they want to watch it. Of course, the FBI will be tapping your cable and taking notes concerning what people are watching so they can blackmail them if they happen to run for public office or something.

Also, I think there will be a lot of options how people watch sports. On the replay the viewer may be given the option to pick the camera angle and may be able to freeze and rotate a 3D image and look at it from different angles. There may be cameras in a lot of the players helmets and the viewer could then bring up other small windows on their screen to get the in-helmet view for the players they select. Also, players may have GPS-like tracking devices in their helmets so you can see the route they ran on the replay without some John Madden dork trying to draw it for you.

[SoCalCoug]

I'm still waiting for hovercars like on Back to the Future.

[Uncle Ted]

We will conquer Mars with an army of these within the next 25 years...

[YOUTUBE]nUQsRPJ1dYw[/YOUTUBE]

[U-Ute]

Graphene.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/24381

Oh, and personal jet packs.

[DrumNFeather]

My great grandma was born in 1892 and died in 1992. I've ofted marveld at what advances occured during her lifetime and it is really remarkable. She spoke of watching the first car drive by her home in Rexburg and hearing music from a Phonograph etc...

I'm sure many have grand parents or great grand parents with similar stories...but it is just remarkable to me.

Down at Kitty Hawk, NC there is a display in the Wright Bros. museam that says "from first flight to the moon in 66 years." Again, incredible (to me.)

As for what lies ahead...who the heck knows...probably bigger and better TVs that are somehow clearer than they are right now.

We also know from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure that we can expect world peace and more water slides.

[pellegrino]

I'd just like to take a moment and say hello to CUF in 25 years. Hi.

[wuapinmon]

I think the next big thing will be heads-up hands-free displays that will end the need for manual inputting of queries to select data. Maybe it'll be in glasses or some kind of matrix broadcast to our vision by an earpiece, but I expect to see that in my lifetime.

[San Juan Sun]

Free helicopters that run on children's laughter.

[jay santos]

I would say Google (wikipedia type information) has the biggest impact on my quality of life. It affects how I do business, how I shop, how I choose entertainment options, nearly everything I do.

Second I would say instant communication, especially instant contact to other people through email, text, cell phone.

[falafel]

I miss Clack.

[wuapinmon]

I miss Clack.

Me too. He still logs in, but he doesn't post anymore.

[venkman]

Artificial intelligence. Computers/machines will become self-aware and start killing us. We'll be holed out in caves trying to dodge their lasers and stuff.

[Drunk Tank]

I miss Clack.

Me too. He still logs in, but he doesn't post anymore.

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/showpo...postcount=1443

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Robotics is the next frontier.

Also, I think there will be medical breakthroughs through some kind of gene therapy/ stem cell therapy that will extensively prolong our lives/make us age a lot slower.