…and we may never see it!
When we read about the future in books or watched it on the silver screen, everything seemed so integrated and smooth. Now that we’re finally here [the future] is convoluted, fragmented, and restricted. Let me explain each of those as I drive my point home.
Convolution – Most future products revolve around technology, as we call it, and that technology is very confusing. With different operating systems, interoperability, and prerequisites, nothing is easy and compatible with the other. In science fiction, it seems there is only one ‘operating system’ and everything works in perfect harmony. This would be easy to achieve if the world’s corporations weren’t money hungry and only concerned about making you buy a new model year after year.
Example – Every device I own has a different interface and input method. It’s too tricky for most people to learn to use different types of technology.
Fragmentation – All our ‘future’ technology is separate and sand-boxed within itself that it cannot talk to other devices. Even devices of the same operating system [Android] cannot run together. The future we learned about in movies had us expecting one device for everyone that talks to everything else without interaction.
Example – My phone should be able to open my door at home, control my TV, dim the lights, and start my oven without having to buy different systems and multiple smartphones.
Restriction – Transportation is the slowest evolving aspect of our future. Cars and trains haven’t changed must recently, especially the speed of travel and propellent. As a young boy I read of high-speed rail and flying cars. The reality is most of our research is put into consumer devices so companies can make $500 every year by sucking me in to new smartphone features.
Example – Why isn’t high-speed magnetic rail everywhere? It’s so fast and efficient!
The main reason for all of these gripes is commercialism. If it weren’t corporations striving to be the first, best, and highest-grossing, we might actually have progression.
We need to put all of our eggs into Tesla’s and Apple’s baskets to carry us into the real future, that we’ve always dreamed of. BB