[Closed] Things that are the future now

Google Translate using your phone camera and augmented reality already seems like science fiction.

"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed" William Gibson

For some people fresh water and a reliable food supply is the future but we can get it now.

Narcissism. It's everywhere these days. Seems to be the way society is headed.

I thought hoverboards were very futuristic until I found out they don't actually hover.

But self driving cars are pretty futuristic, even cars that park themselves are pretty cool.

What's the most futuristic thing that we can get now?

Radiation poisoning?

Ebikes probably.

Big Data.

Machine processed decision making.

Skynet is here

A small box in my pocket than can access the entire knowledge of human kind. That's pretty impressive.

Blockaboots

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Just read that the new Google Pixl 2 and special earphones will be able to translate things said to you in 40 different languages real-time. That's pretty damn cool.

obesity

'...You wanna know what Zeus said to Narcissus
You'd betta watch yourself...'

Marilyn Manson

We all know how that ended eh? Not that well for Narcissus.

[i]The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book.

It looks rather like a largish electronic calculator. It has about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million "pages" could be summoned at a moment's notice. It looks insanely complicated, and this is one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into has the words Don't Panic printed on it in large friendly letters. The other reason was that this device is in fact that most remarkable of all books ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitch hiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in.

It is not an Earth book, and has never been published on Earth.

In fact it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor.

Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one-more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.[/i]

Written in the 1970s. Carried around by all of us today. The only thing he got wrong were the number of buttons, the fact the you have to pay for it and it not being published on Earth.

Sent from my smart phone.

@chip

Such fond memories of those school 'information' films 🙂

Mountain bikes.

Seriously. I once borrowed a mate's 1992 Kona Fire Mountain which was an absolute hoot, despite low spec thumb shifters, a rigid Project Two fork and toestrap pedals. I never imagined we'd have such things as full suspension that didn't feel like a spacehopper to ride, affordable carbon bars and hydraulic disc brakes.

Scotroutes - thanks that's fantastic! Last time I tried that sort of thing it only worked on photos and was crap so I gave up. This is magic!

Just read that the new Google Pixl 2 and special earphones will be able to translate things said to you in 40 different languages real-time. That's pretty damn cool.

Hmmm

Going to look around a secondary school this evening ... they don't study french or German, it's Spanish and Mandarin... which I think makes sense.

But electronic translation blows that out of the water really.... or it certainly will do by the time my kids hit the work force in 10, or so, years time.

HTS - it has often occurred to me that a tablet with access to Wikipedia and maybe also the Lonely Planet website is basically the Hitchhiker's Guide.

HTS - it has often occurred to me that a tablet with access to Wikipedia and maybe also the Lonely Planet website is basically the Hitchhiker's Guide.

But only the chapter relating to earth and its near neighbours

Just read that the new Google Pixl 2 and special earphones will be able to translate things said to you in 40 different languages real-time. That's pretty damn cool.

absolutely incredible! Even if it only works half as well as in their demo, what an achievement! Why is no-one talking about it though?!

They are...just not in one of the 40 languages it works with!

That is going to kill your data connection (but does sound incredibly cool).

But only the chapter relating to earth

There's quite a bit of info on other planets too. The amount of writing dedicated to places to stay and where to eat on those planets corresponds to the facilities available.

EDIT damn ninja edit.

But there's stuff about the universe too.

Driving around in an electric car it feels like the future has arrived.

Just read that the new Google Pixl 2 and special earphones will be able to translate things said to you in 40 different languages real-time. That's pretty damn cool.

Also, to continue the Hitchhikers guide analogy, they've invented the Babel Fish.

But there's stuff about the universe too.

What about life and everything?

HTS - it has often occurred to me that a tablet with access to Wikipedia and maybe also the Lonely Planet website is basically the Hitchhiker's Guide.

The old keyboard version, doubly so. I keep meaning to hack a DON'T PANIC screensaver onto the one I have.

Impressive, so now you understand the question, but what's the mechanism to reply?

Isn't it obvious? [i]Everyone[/i] needs to have their phone.

Cheesecake

Cheese and Cake ... What will they think of next ?

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Rain and wind.

but what's the mechanism to reply?

Shouting-o and waving your arm-os abouto.

Bipedal robots that actually (kind of) work. Like that hardworking Glaswegian one from that thread a few weeks ago.

LED lighting. Not only has it transformed torches and bike lights, but home lighting is markedly better than that available even just 5 years ago. Dunno if anyone has flown at night recently, but LED-equipped streets give off less upward glow than they did with sodium or mercury vapour lights.

I'll add to that - proper compact flat screen technology & the expansion of touch & gesture control beyond phones & tablets. The age of the black button on the black background with the little black light that comes on to tell you when you've not pressed it is here.

Impressive, so now you understand the question, but what's the mechanism to reply?

Pretty sure you can already talk into it in your own language and it can reply in the other?

Those artificial muscles that were on the other day.. that could be another big one for futuristicity.

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We are not far away from our replicant years.

[i]Blade Runner - the tale of a hunt for four dangerous "replicant" humans - is a classic envisioning of a dystopian future, set in 2019 Los Angeles.[/i]
Update available this weekend 😉

The age of the black button on the black background with the little black light that comes on to tell you when you've not pressed it is here.

Is that like the fourth H2G2 reference on here today?

😀

Share and enjoy!

IGMC

DickBarton - Member

That is going to kill your data connection (but does sound incredibly cool).

The normal Google Translate asks if you want to download the language pack for a particular language. I only know this because last week I was trying to get it to translate a patent written in Japanese & it prompted me to download the language pack.
It was 40Mb.

So presumably, if you are going on holiday you can just download the language pack before you go & it'll probably work fine.

Share and enjoy!

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[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strimvelis ]Strimvelis[/url]

Want genetically modified humans? they are out there already.

Reusable rockets that make a controlled landing tail end down.

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