If you’re from my generation, you grew up watching shows like The Jetsons, Inspector Gadget, and even a love story featuring the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Although these shows were fictitious, they provided a possible glimpse of the future. While we may not be able to hop into our personal spacecraft and zip off to the supermarket, autonomous trucks are already being utilized for transporting goods in Europe. You may have wondered if you would ever really talk to your watch like Gadget, or if someone could really have a damaged leg replaced with a robotic one.
Several years later, nearly thirty million Apple® watches have been sold. This device allows you to communicate, pay bills, and even monitor your exercise — but these features are likely only scratching the surface. Time will tell, but rumors are that the watch will eventually cannibalize the phone within 2-3 years.
The medical field has made significant technological strides. What was once a dream has become a reality, as surgeons routinely use robotics to replace knees, hips, and ankles.
Burn victims used to have little hope they would ever regain their previous appearance, but an incredible procedure utilizing adult stem cells has yielded phenomenal results in testing conducted on injured firefighters. In several trials, stem cells were administered to severely burned areas, and within weeks, the areas were completely healed.
In countries such as Austria and Europe, rotary cuff surgery has been dramatically reduced by injecting stem cells directly into the damaged tissue. Another major initiative is showing great promise, as some highly regarded research institutions focus on eradicating diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes with stem-cell therapy.
Sure, movies such as Robocop and Drone provide great entertainment for audiences, but the technology is not as farfetched as one might think. Consider that Mesa, Arizona and many other police agencies have added robots to their force. Some are only used in hostage situations to provide logistical information, while others are equipped to engage in battle.
In most cases, the military lists their development and utilization of drones, robots, and artificial intelligence as classified, but it is widely known that drones as small as bees have been utilized in combat scenarios, and armed, unmanned aircraft are commonly deployed in hostile environments.
What does the near future look like? Imagine you decide to build a new home, and it is completed in thirty days using a 3-D printer. This same home is completely automated, so you no longer need keys because it recognizes your face and voice when you approach. When you enter the kitchen, the automated room assistance asks you what you would like for dinner, and then proceeds to order the necessary ingredients from the store to be delivered within fifteen minutes. Once the automated assistant has prepared your dinner, you relax in the living room where the audio/video screen automatically recognizes you and awaits your instruction. You may think this automated home seems years away, but it’s already a reality at Google in California.
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