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What will come next to our society?

Inkstainedwretch

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
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1,037
Location
United States
Toilet paper will probably soon be 3-D printed right in your bathroom. You'll never run out again and you'll be able to specify your own design. Whoever you're mad at gets their portrait printed on each sheet.
 
sheeplady

sheeplady

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
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4,479
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
I think the next big thing will be adaptive technologies and technologies that integrate and work behind the scenes to improve our daily lives.

When smart phones first came out, they were mini-computers. Essentially "efficiency machines" that shrunk your computer down to allow you to carry a email machine and a web browser in your pocket. Now they are getting better at using GPS tracking and data mining to be able to predict your behavior- for instance, my phone gives me "cards" that indicate how much time it takes to travel to such and such a place, knowing which days and times I visit it. For instance, I teach Thursday nights this semester, so I get a card every Thursday afternoon updating me on my travel times taking into account accidents and weather. Definitely a step towards phones being a bit more "smart" rather than just a shrunk computer.

I think the next area is integrated platforms across machines. I think Windows 10, which is designed as a platform to run apps of all sorts of source code, is the first step. (This is also a leap in thinking about computers more as platforms rather than file-based machines.)

I think eventually we'll get to the point where our technologies can all integrate together and trade data with one another to adapt to the way you live. I think much of this will be seamless. I can see a world in which your home thermostat senses your phone is x-distance away on your commute home, and based upon the ambient temperature, starts the heat or cooling so your house is 72 degrees the minute you walk in. There's a lot of interesting work being done in this field for aging in place, with the idea that these invisible technologies that integrate (without the user having to do anything) could allow people to stay in the their homes longer.
 
Inkstainedwretch

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
Location
United States
I want to see a time when older people can make use of the new technologies as effortlessly as the young. We're slowly getting that way, but still far too much tech assumes that you got your first computer in fifth grade.
 
Fading Fast

Fading Fast

Messages
16,876
Location
New York City
HudsonHawk said:
The best thing at the airport in Tokyo is the automatic beer dispensers in the lounge. Those things are awesome.
Click to expand...

I've been told that Japan, in general, loves and embraces vending machines much more than they are in America. This, though, sounds like an idea that could take off in these United States.
 
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