After a friend at work pointed me to an interesting article about "DNA computer" that fights cancer it got me thinking.
All that stuff in sci-fi books about The Future we are starting to see. Robots that do boring household chores and other tasks; wireless tech that works magically for 99.999% of the people without them having a clue how it works; tech that allows people to communicate anywhere in the world, in real time; being able to "create life" on the DNA level... the wonders just go on.
Hell, they've been working on stuff from Star Trek for years. We already have the pda's and communicators (and I think hypo sprays). They're working on the "transporter" idea now too (with light). We're starting to understand our world on a level that can be hard to wrap your head around (at least for me). And people will continue to push what we know because I'm sure we are no where near the "right" answer yet.
What are we using all this knowledge for? Well, since we're still human, some good things, some bad, and some funny. Funny entertainment things like Shrek 2 which is a great movie. (whew! Got that plug in there...)
I just think that it's cool. I have to start reading more sci-fi now to see what other people have envisioned for the future. ;-)
You're right Jim, they do have limited-use hypo sprays available. Although I can't remember where I saw/read it (probably slashdot).
ReplyDeleteI think one of the 'magic' technologies that always fascinated me has been radio. I mean literally when you think about how the internet changed people's lives in the 90's and 00's, it pales in comparison to the impact that radios had when they became available to the average consumer (1920s?).
Exactly. Imagine the how the telegraph changed lives. If you wanted to get a message to someone before that, it had to be physically delivered to them. Then all of a sudden you could send electronic messages over large distances instantly. People must have had a hard time comprehending that kind of change at first.
ReplyDeleteElectrolux has this cool little robot vac. cleaner that was showcased at the Stockholm science and technology museum.
ReplyDeleteIt was really cool because display setup bascically showed the evolution of the project inside the company. They displayed some project artifacts like documents, prototypes, actual potential designs and marketing strategy plans. The docs were a little difficult to read (I don't speak swedish) but still interesting to see how they were almost identical in format to the "artifacts example" in our SW PMP book.
I would love to just go into a company and view their product development process and compare it against the one I'm currently involved with. I think consumer product companies such as Electrolux probably have great expertise in having a consistent outpout of successful projects. But I'm sure they also have the odd recalls here and there of a vacuums mutilating the house cat.