Technology of the Future (extra-credit)

Technology of the Future (extra-credit)

I have really enjoyed my information technology class this quarter at the University of Washington. Or professor sometimes mentioned the trajectory of technology, So I decided to do a little research on the future of our technology and while doing so I decided to combine the definitions of both trajectory and technology.

Trajectory is defined as “the path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces.” And technology is defined as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry "advances in computer technology” (Oxford Dictionaries). I found this to be very interesting. I deduced from these definitions that we as the human race are applying our sources of scientific knowledge to advance computer technology. The question is, where are we going?

According to the News of the Future.com “December 15, 2030 - There's no doubt that space trips will be the most popular Christmas present of the year. Influenced by the launch of the first manned mission to Mars next month, you will most likely get a present with stars, a gift card for a space trip.” When I first read this my thought was why would I want to travel into space? After all there are enough places on earth that I have not seen. Plus, I already do not like to fly in airplanes.

The article goes on to say, “November 19, 2040 - Today was a historic day for Iceland when their President this morning at a symbolic ceremony officially shut down the last gasoline pump in the country. Iceland is a model country when it comes to the fuel transition from gasoline to hydrogen and became today the first country in the world to complete it.” Now this transformation from gasoline to hydrogen actually makes a lot of sense. At the rate in which we burn fuel especially in the United States we probably will not have a choice. However, I wonder how this transformation will affect our environment? Will we have an ozone layer in 2040? Do we need more man made carcinogens floating around in the air?

Finally, we make it to Mars in 2050. Sorry but this is just not my type of vacation. The author posits, “September 21, 2050 - At a press conference today it was announced that the first tourist heading for Mars will be the 38-year-old US businessman Patrick Clifford. He will leave the earth in the launching window of June 2052 and set his foot on the surface of Mars in November, together with the other 6 astronauts assigned for the mission to further explore the planet. I assuming that by 2050 the human race will have explored the entirety of the planet earth and just began to get bored. However, just as we see in sci-fi movies maybe we will be on the hunt for natural resources.

These were just a few stories that I found to be interesting about the future of our technology. I just hope that a lot of our scientific knowledge will be applied to taking care of mother earth and its people first!