Daily live
If there's one thing we can be positive about, is that the future is going to make life easier. To what extent no one knows, but there are already many promising inventives.
E-Book
To start with: what exactly is an e-book? An e book is a small, sometimes in-foldable, screen on which you for example can read a book or a news paper. It’s size is variable but mostly about a half A4-sheed. A demand to call something an e-book is that is has a fixed page division. So a long undivided role of text on a screen isn’t called an e-book. The texts you read on this piece of technique are called e-texts. You can for example download them, but also buy or hire a chip. The inventors think in future people won’t buy books and newspapers anymore. They’ll download or get an update of their newspaper every day and if they want to read a book they’ll just buy a chip at a “bookstore”. The Times and in Holland the NRC Handelsblad already have an e-book version of their daily paper which you can download each day in only two seconds.
The main advantages of this “book of the future” are:
- You’ll win a lot of space because libraries don’t have to store all these books but can safe them on a much smaller computer.
- They have a big plus for blind people because the e-texts can now immediately be converted into spoken words.
- People with poor eyesight can adjust the size of the letters. And you can even read in complete darkness because of the back light.
- Students won’t have to carry a whole bag full of books anymore but will store all their books on a single e-book
But of-course, like every new invention, the e-book also has it’s disadvantages. The biggest is that people from the elder generation will probably never get used to reading on a screen. They will still prefer to read a real book. And it will take a long time before books will only be published as e-texts and the normal book will disappear for good. There are also practical problems. For example the fact that e-book will be stolen more often than normal books. And if you’re e-book breaks down you’ll lose all your information and will need a new one immediately because there’s no other way to read things anymore. A very important health problem is that it can be harmful for your eyes to constantly look a screen which sends off light. Because actually it’s like you’re watching television the whole time. And people who claim to be allergic to electricity won’t be able to use the e-book and, as the normal book disappears, won’t be able to read at all.
So I think it will take a whole long time more and a lot more development before the e-book will be used in large numbers. Because the idea is good but the technique and the starter problems must be improved first. So even though is has a lot of advantages, the disadvantages and the restraint from the consumers are bigger a this moment. In fifty years I expect the main problems to be solved and at least that all papers have their e-book version. For all the problems we see now they’ll have found a solution and everyone will have an suitable e-book. And eventually the regular book will disappear and only old literary works will be kept.
Future Clothes
Clothes have changed a lot over the years. But mostly considering style. Now, a new change is coming up: change in function. But how exactly will clothes develop in future? Will they be more interactive and respond to you surrounding? Will your shirts be able to send text messages? These are a few ideas that may become reality in future:
-Automatic clothes: They can be changed into any kind of clothes according to people's will. They can become warmer or change in colour.
-Seasonal clothes: You can wear them in all four seasons. They are suitable for both cold and warm weather.
-Odorised clothes: They work like perfume. The only difference is that the smell comes from your clothes and doesn’t come off when you wash them. Another variation for this is that clothes will be coated with a layer that turns the smell of sweat into an odourless substance.
-Invisible coats: They may work like an energetic field around you that keeps your warm.
-Dirt-free clothes: They are coated with a dirt rejecting layer. This partly already exists but only for very small amounts of dirt so these clothes still can get dirty.
One technique that already is being realised partly is electric clothes on which you can for example charge you mp3-player. Very thin wires are woven into the fabric and connected to a battery that gets charged by the movement of your body or by solar panels on the outside of the fabric. The problem at this point of the process still is that you can’t wash them. And, an even bigger problem is that if you sweat or walk in the rain the wires will make a short-circuit which could electrocute you.
Biometric Payment
Imagine, you don’t have to pay for anything with coins, paper or credit card, but these means will become your own fingerprint.
The technology for this already exists. There are several companies that use this, for example computers are secured with fingerprint readers. It still doesn’t work properly, but it is being improved every day. This technology will be able to be used in all places where payment still doesn’t always go fluently. Connected to your fingerprint is all your data; your name, your living place, etc.
It is said that the mass use will appear very quickly, just like when we got used to using the credit card.
Banks will have a database with the fingerprints of every client and the only money you will have is your pay check which is directly send to the bank and only you have access to it. It will be more secure, because it’s almost impossible to take advantage of; you can’t fake a fingerprint.
Instead of the need to show some identification or put a signature, you just put your finger on a reader and it’ll recognize unique marks. This will be useful in hospitals, in spite of looking for all the records of the people.
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