Its almost 2010 wow crazy. I definitely don’t remember the 80’s. I barely remember the 90’s I mean I was only 15 when they ended. So this post isn’t about life experiences or anything its about what technology exists today that would probably amaze me 10 years ago.
Portable Gadgets:
I sold cell phones at Best Buy around the turn of the century (doesn’t that make me sound ancient) All the phones we had were black and white screens, didn’t have cameras, internet, or played music. In fact the biggest selling point was size. We didn’t have Zach Morris phones, but they were definitely large. Now we have the IPhone. It takes high resolution digital pictures, it records video, watch movies, surfs the internet at high speeds, has a star trek like touch pad.
Mass Storage MP3 players from back in the day pretty much consisted of the Nomad Jukebox which was basically a giant CD player sized device that had about 6 gigs of memory. My current ipod which is a fraction of the size has an 80 gig hard drive and plays movies, and probably has a 10x longer battery life.
This is what amazes me the most about our modern day portable gadgets, I can take an IPhone download a movie from an online store, and watch it. No plugs needed. I can then take a picture of where I am and email it instantly 3000 miles away.
My Computer:
So in the late 90’s my computer was an Acer with a Pentium 160, 32meg ram, 2 gig hard drive, a modem, and a huge 15 inch monitor. Right now I have a laptop which contains dual 2.1 ghz processors, 4 gigs of ram, 320 gig hard drive, high speed wireless internet. My laptop is pretty much identical to my desktop except my desktop is 3 years older. My laptop isn’t even top of the line its just a middle of the road. They have even better computers that weigh less than 5lbs. It’s just ridiculous.
Video Games:
Holy crap! The video games that existed in 1999 are pathetic compared to what I have now. From time to time I will pull out an original Playstation game usually Final Fantasy VII which at the time was the most amazing graphical experience ever, now it just burns my eyes. The giant pixilation is horrible. The FMV movies are still ok but not nearly as elaborate or as beautiful as modern day ones. Current day video games FMVs aren’t even necessary in game footage is just as good as FMVs. My Xbox lets me do such cool stuff too, I can play fake instruments, play zombie killing video games with friends all across the country, I can stream high definition movies and TV shows over Netflix. I couldn’t even watch movies on an original Playstation.
My Car:
So in the past 10 years I probably haven’t kept pace with car advances, but here’s what I’ve seen has changed in the past 10 years. Cars have built in GPS. Some cars have built in hard drives that can interface with MP3 Players. I’m lucky enough to have a car that can pick up radio signals from F’en space. I guess they probably aren’t radio stations if they are coming from outer space. Also cars run on electricity now. Well a small percentage do, maybe in the next 10 years all of them will.
So in the Future:
I’m excited for augmented reality In 10 years people will hopefully wear contact lenses that will provide a digital overlay of your environment. Basically all of our existing devices will be replaced will invisible gadgets.
Food wise I think we are going start growing meat not from animals but from test tubes. It’ll be cleaner, safer, and no cruelty to animals. Of course we may develop this but will people actually eat this?
Medicine wise I’m guessing there will be huge advances. Artificial organs, manipulated genes, even advances in prolonging human life spans.