It's almost finished now, so this is a little late in being posted, but the Washington Post has been running a week-long series of on-line chats with noted "futurists," under the title Beyond the Future. I'm a little dubious about most "futurism," but reading about people's predictions for future trends and gadgets can be a good way to waste a little time on a Friday afternoon, if you're so inclined...
(Sadly, I can't really afford the time-- I've got to get back to my windowless basement lab, and align some optics...)
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MEMORY, Blake wrote, enables us to "traverse times and spaces far remote". It constitutes mental time travel, with which we can recollect, in vivid detail, events that took place many years ago.
The Free-Ride offspring, talking during dinner:
Younger offspring: I'm not ever going to die.
Elder offspring: You don't know that. You might get hit by a car just before you turn 90.
Younger offspring: No, I will not!
Next Tar Heel Tavern will be hosted tonight (Saturday) by etbnc (one of my most frequent commenters) on My Blue Puzzle Piece.
Top sci-fi authors discuss the future of technology :
21 December 2012 - filling of the 13th and final baktun of the Maya Long Count; the end of time. Take Christmas early that year.
~2015 - Baby Boomer retirement causes phase transition of the Welfare State. 80 million infinitely plunderable pockets suddenly cry "GIMME!" without end. Whipped cream turns into grease, New World and Old World.
~2050 - the end of petroleum. We will have burned all 60 cubic miles of the OEM fill.
More than a billion Mexicans in Mexico, almost 2 billion Blacks in sub-Saharan Africa, 2 billion East Indians, 2 billion Chinese. What future?