Modern inventions

Modern inventions – Network radio, television, digital clocks, frozen food, ballpoint pens, freeze dried food, bubble gum, dial telephones, electric adding machines, copy machines, home fax machines, GPS, cordless telephones, cell phones, electric typewriters, digital cameras, power windows, rooftop television antennas, pizza, desktop computers laptop computers, electronic tablets, 8-track music players, compact discs, personal checking accounts, credit cards, Teflon frying pans, paper napkins. Now that’s just the short list of a few inventions that have popped up in my lifetime. My life has been different, and better, because of them,

All of the marvelous modern inventions I’ve mentioned above will be relics of the past. Some are already long gone. New marvels replace them. A thousand years from now things will be different and, I hope, better, for all life on this planet.

Ask me about my portable calculator, my digital camera, my paperback book, my bible, daily newspaper, portable music player, wristwatch, alarm clock, stopwatch, egg timer, beeper, GPS, ballpoint pen, thermostat, and cell phone – they were all replaced by my Smartphone. My Smartphone will be replaced, anon, with my Wearable Tablet. My WT will be waterproof, unbreakable and never need recharging. Beyond WT will be implants.

Consider the year 1015, just a thousand years ago. How different was the human experience? Virtually no one could read or write. Toilet paper, toothbrushes, comfy socks and zippers weren’t invented. Most humans lived on the edge of disasters that we now consider inconsequential. Who among us today has a friend or relative that was killed by a lion, tiger or wolf? Folks died young of diseases and injuries that would be considered minor today. All our ancestors in that millennium were concerned with acquiring the necessities of life through agriculture, hunting or force of arms. Vacations hadn’t been invented.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, just celebrated the fact that over one billion people now use Facebook. A major article in Time Magazine detailed his plans to hook up every human on earth. The implications of this are enormous. The price is big and there are obstacles to overcome. But don’t bet against him. Such an event will do irreparable harm to cruel dictatorships, kloptocratic governments and poverty. The benefits will way outscore the costs.

I’ve been thinking about these issues because they are integral to the plot of my most recent novel, Hunter III, Beyond the Year 2055. The great advances I envisioned in the book are often minor headlines in the news on my I-pad.