Way of Life Predictions for the Opening
Years of the New Millennium
For much of human history, talk of the future was relegated to the musings of
self-described prophets, astrologers, dreamers and fools.
Experts of all stripes are studying the patterns of the past and present, trying to
project tomorrow. Nonfiction books like to give the impression, with their trend analyses
and expert judgments, that the future just might be glimpsed.
The whole appeal of the genre, including the science fiction genre, has always been a wish
to engineer a dramatically different kind of life.
But the truth is – and even futurists admit – that predicting the future is a highly
educated guess.
Here is what American futurists predicted in 1996 about probable ways Americans may live
in the opening years of the new millennium.
A Typical Day in 2006
After a hectic morning negotiating contracts with partners in Hong Kong, London, Moscow
and the Bronx, you step from your office into your kitchen.
What’s for lunch? You press a hand on your personal diagnostic machine. The unit
checks your blood pressure, cholesterol and weight-fat ratio and reads out your
nutritional requirements. Up pops a suggested menu. (Still a fantasy)
Kitchen robots move ingredients from a “smart” refrigerator that is built into a
microwave oven. A minute later, out rolls a garden salad with dill dressing and an
open-faced pork-roast sandwich on wheat bread – no crust. (Still a fantasy)
After lunch, you return to your home office to finish some business in South Africa. If
you’re done early, maybe you can squeeze in a movie: “Gone With the Wind”
you reconfigured the film with Bruce Willis as Rhett Butler. (Still a fantasy)
Food and Dining
Takeout meals and delivery of prepared meals are expected to be even more prevalent
because more people will likely work at home and late into the night to match business
hours around the world. (Takeout meals and delivery are becoming very popular.)
There exists a prediction that supermarkets may become hydroponic greenhouses where
shoppers pick their own produce from the vine. (Still a fantasy)
And for those who would not care for such a hands-on experience, groceries could be
electronically ordered and automatically delivered into home refrigerators designed to
open to the outside as well as inside the house.
How the meals of tomorrow might be prepared include the fanciful and the fantastic.
Some believe that by 2006, people will have personal diagnostic and meal preparation
machines. If you eat too much, the diagnostic machine will tell you to exercise. (Still
a fantasy)
Many experts anticipate advances in biotechnology that could lead to cows that produce
low-fat milk, disease-resistant potatoes grown by crossing them with a chicken gene (would
that make french fries taste like chicken?) and pork made leaner by introducing a
cow gene into the pig’s genetic pool. Even fat-free frying may be possible. (Still a
fantasy)
However, if, as expected, the world’s human population doubles in the next 40 years,
futurists predict the pressure to produce enough food to feed everyone is going to be
immense. They say that the pace of history is accelerating as soaring human demands
collide with the Earth’s natural limits.
Medicine and Aging
For many people, particularly aging baby boomers, a big question will be, how
can you add years to your life? Many futurists say that will be possible, at least for
those who can afford it.
In the near future the complete human DNA structure is expected to be mapped. Doctors
will probably know a person’s genetic characteristics right from birth, even before
birth. (Still a fantasy)
That could guide doctors to tailor lifestyles and treatments to help patients avoid
disorders they are prone to develop. Coupled with genetic medicine, a child born in 2010
could expect to live 120 years.
Futurists believe that advances in genetic research will lead to a whole new level of
pharmaceutical cosmetics. For instance, there may come a day when you have a pill that
will lighten your hair. (Still a fantasy)
Some futurists caution that public health and medicine is likely to be challenged by
another global trend: the rise in infectious diseases and their increased immunity to
antibiotics.
Modern travel enables a million people to cross national boundaries every day. The
increasing density of world populations and closer contact among people are all leading to
increases in infectious diseases, such as AIDS, Lyme disease, and others.
Transportation
Despite environmental pressures to encourage the expansion of mass transportation, the
automobile is expected to survive, perhaps even thrive in the new century. Everyone loves
the convenience and flexibility of personal transportation.
Yet cars may undergo radical alterations. Automobiles with more than one fuel source
may become the standard. These hybrids would, for instance, use a highly efficient
internal combustion engine (getting 60 to 70 miles to the gallon) to burn an
oil-based fuel for high acceleration, then switch to compressed gas or electricity for cruising
speeds. The result would be a relatively low-polluting vehicle. (Hybrids are now
becoming popular.)
Electric cars are expected to make modest gains by 2010.
Some futurists anticipate that cars in the new century will learn how to drive. They
will use computers, cameras and road sensors to create an automatic pilot. That technology
might well give rise to company cars that are traveling offices: equipped with the latest
business devices, telephone, couch, exercise equipment and even a wet bar. (Still
a fantasy)
Trains are also expected to evolve. Conventional trains will probably be updated.
Exotic technologies like magnetic levitation in trains are expected to be employed. (Still
a fantasy)
Practical concerns about dwindling fossil fuels and land may force a familiar
mode of transport to the fore: the bicycle.
Computing
Wireless communication should untether many portable computers as they continue
to grow smaller, become more personal and further integrate their functions. (Many
wireless open ports are now available at business, popular restaurants, malls, etc.)
Futurists say that the near future is likely to unleash even more hand-held and
highly interactive tools. (PDAs have both color screens and audio capabilities,
enabling them to be used as mobile phones (smartphones), calculators, clocks, calendars,
computer game players, radios, video recorders, and cameras. Many interactive PDAs can
access the Internet, sending and receiving e-mail.)
Hardly larger than a credit card, these little databanks will digitally organize all
sorts of personal and business information and messages and respond to the sound of a
user’s voice. (Still a fantasy) Everyone will eventually carry mobile
cards to receive all their telecommunications.
In the future many people won’t be using a telephone. They will likely have an
information appliance. A flat screen mounted on a wall and linked to the device will pour
practically everything, from office information to movies, into the home of the future. (Still
a fantasy)
Eventually, these devices will be equipped with instant language translators. There may
be two buttons. One for the language you wish to talk in and another for the language you
want to hear in. (Still a fantasy)
Housing
Futurists expect little change in how Americans are going to build and live in houses
in the next few years because home behavior changes pretty slowly. But from 2010 to 2020,
they anticipate “fundamental change.”
People are going to move out of single-family dwellings into community condos because
graying baby boomers will be unable to live alone, but will be unwilling to live in nursing
homes. (It is becoming more popular.)
New materials are expected to help build houses very quickly. Fuel cells the size of a
deck of cards and an expanded use of solar cells, coupled with computers to control them
all, will provide cheaper power to homes. (Still a fantasy)
Futurists predict that homes will be so comfortable and so wired to the outside world
with communication and entertainment equipment that people will rarely want to leave them.
GLOSSARY:
musings deep thoughts that someone believes
the Bronx a district of New York City
cholesterol a substance found in all cells of the body, which helpes to carry fats
up pops = (coll.) suddenly appears (on the screen of the computer)
dressing a liquid mixture for adding to food, esp. saladЪ
if you’re done = (coll.) if you have finished
squeeze in smth = (here) to have time to do smth
vine any creeping or climbing plant such as the cucumbers, grapes, etc.
french fries = chips (BrE) – long thin pieces of potato deep fat fried
baby boomers Americans who were born between 1945 and 1964
Lyme disease a serious disease carried by ticks of animals, which is often
misdiagnosed as the flu
mile = 1.609 meters
gallon = 3.78 liters in America
cruising speeds fairly high, but steady speeds
wet bar a cabinet that holds alcoholic beverages
force (smth) to the fore = force smth to have a leading position
untether = loosen
mall = large shopping center
unleash = set free
PDAs = personal digital assistants, hand-held devices that were originally
designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. One of the
most significant PDA characteristic is the presence of a touch screen
community condos (= condominiums) privatly owned apartments with shared
facilities
nursing home private establishment where old or sick people are cared for by nurses
and others
Questions for Discussion:
1. What’s the good of predicting the future? Explain your opinion.
2. What do you think are the most important things that people should have in the near
future?
By Vladimir Pavlov,
The Moscow Academy of Business Administration
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