We live in science fiction
I keep seeing little things that remind me that we are in fact living in the future (despite the best attempts by the Republicans and Stephen Harper, et. al., to drag us kicking and screaming back into the Dark Ages–but more on that later).
For example, we can now apparently make concrete that sucks the carbon dioxide out of the air as it hardens. Tell me that a “forest” of high-rises cleaning up greenhouse gases doesn’t sound like science fiction to you. (Link via Futurismic.)
If the architecture angle is a little too impersonal convince you, how about a robotic alarm clock that hides from you to make sure you don’t keep hitting the snooze button? Surely that’s personal enough. (Link via Gizmodo.)
Or, how about a story that brings the personal and the architectural together, with something that you’ve seen in almost every science fiction story more recent than the Lensman books and their contemporaries: a little badge that functions as both communication device, and a way to give orders to your house. From what I’ve read, the device doesn’t need to be trained, and recognizes not just commands but semantic patterns of multiple commands in a sentence.
I’m all for cellphone/email-as-badge, but all the smart house stuff gives me flashbacks to a lot of bad science fiction and thrillers (not to mention an episode of that series where Parker Stevenson was the sooper-genius). (Link via Unmediated).
Trish
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:59 am
I have to admit, I would pay money to see Chris, blind without his glasses, still mostly asleep, and wearing his usual nighttime outfit (I leave that to everyone’s imagination) chasing a little alarm clock around the room so that he can hit the snooze button. I’m already laughing.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:00 pm
My God woman, I’m an engineer.
I would solve this problem the obvious way: design a second robot to hunt down the first robot and press the snooze button.
March 23rd, 2005 at 2:40 pm
For some horrible reason, I picture Chris’ nighttime outfit to be a pair of tiger-striped speedos. And now the image won’t go away. All I can picture is Chris in his nighttime outfit, looming over me and laughing. *whimper*