It’s Saturday again and the transition from one weekend to the next seems ever more blurred and indistinct. That’s a sign of ageing, for sure, but it’s nonetheless discomfiting to imagine how many more weekends I have left. Morbidity seems to increase along with the passage of time. I’m 47 and already I fear death. Old age too, now I think about it.
If I survice to be the age my parents were when they went then I have about 23 years ahead of me. That sounds no time at all. I don’t suppose 40 years would sound all that much better. Still, it’s better than thinking I’ve got 5 years left.
Enough of such sombre thoughts.
I’ve been reading today about some of the gadgets people have invented, including – wait for it – the intelligent spoon which analyses what you’re eating and downloads the data to your computer via usb. So instead of listening to your body and eating as nature intended you can let a futuristic device take over. Just watch for short circuits if you get too much milk in your spoon. Or how about the memory lcd that retains the image without power when you switch the device off. That should find its way into watches and the like.
The transparent toaster above sounds good to me, even if they haven’t got it quite working yet. What a novel idea; to be able to see when your toast is exactly the way you like it. I want one. Now the origami dvd player, below, looks and sounds silly, but the concept could revolutionise communications and computing, in my opinion. Just imagine if you could pull out a decent size video screen from your small mobile phone (much as they do in Earth:Final Conflict) and see decent images (or indecent ones clearly, if that’s your bag)? Or how about an ultra portable laptop with a screen as big as you care to fold up? I know I value a small computer for convenience and a big screen for ease of viewing. I’ve just never found one machine with the two extremes built-in.
So all in all there are some exciting innovations coming our way! More things we didn’t know we needed until someone invented them!