Do you guys know of any science websites which make projections of what gadjets we may be using in future times? I'm currently interested in the 2040s.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Life in the 2040s
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Do you really mean gadgets, or technology in general? I don't know of a website but I could think of dozens of things that might be developed in the future. It's all just a guess however. I remember my dad had a bunch of old Popular Mechanics / Popular Science magazines from the fifties in the attic. They tried to predict what life would be like in 2000; some of the things I remember were that everyone would have their very own helicopter-like flying machine; nuclear powered homes; shuttles to Mars; and all food produced hydroponically. Yeah, well, that was before anyone tried to eat one of those hydroponic tomatoes! 
ac
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Any place that makes projections by decade could be off by as much as a million years.
50 years ago, the future of technology could hardly be imagined. And, when it was speculated, the direction, speed, and impact of technological change was almost invariably wrong.
There will be grand changes that improve health, longevity, and quality of life. Who gets it and who profits from it are interesting questions to ask. New diseases will run rampant, and plagues will still exist. Overpopulation can come from both directions - the newborn and the undying.
There will be major changes that, with luck, are hardly noticed. Moving away from a fossil fuel economy might not affect trasnsortation (much), or the whole global economy could be torn down and built up again (or not).
There will be multitudes of minor convenience devices in use - or maybe only one that serves as communication, identification, data, currency, and entertainment source all in one.
There will be monumental strides that are taken, leading to the same old problems and uncovering new ones. New colonies and terraforming, asteroid mining, and extensive manned exploration.
There will be greater and greater weapons developed, and fear of using them will never stop a war from happening. Greed, arrogance, and hatred will still exist.
There will be new nations, new economic models, and new superpowers. New threats, terrorists, insurgents, and patriots will be fought/lauded.
Sorry I couldn't help, but instead dumped some rhetorical ramblings on you.
50 years ago, the future of technology could hardly be imagined. And, when it was speculated, the direction, speed, and impact of technological change was almost invariably wrong.
There will be grand changes that improve health, longevity, and quality of life. Who gets it and who profits from it are interesting questions to ask. New diseases will run rampant, and plagues will still exist. Overpopulation can come from both directions - the newborn and the undying.
There will be major changes that, with luck, are hardly noticed. Moving away from a fossil fuel economy might not affect trasnsortation (much), or the whole global economy could be torn down and built up again (or not).
There will be multitudes of minor convenience devices in use - or maybe only one that serves as communication, identification, data, currency, and entertainment source all in one.
There will be monumental strides that are taken, leading to the same old problems and uncovering new ones. New colonies and terraforming, asteroid mining, and extensive manned exploration.
There will be greater and greater weapons developed, and fear of using them will never stop a war from happening. Greed, arrogance, and hatred will still exist.
There will be new nations, new economic models, and new superpowers. New threats, terrorists, insurgents, and patriots will be fought/lauded.
Sorry I couldn't help, but instead dumped some rhetorical ramblings on you.
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I'm not sure, if I was writing sci-fi, that I'd use something someone else speculates will be around at that time period. Wouldn't that be plagiarism?
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Maybe it's me, but I always thought coming up with what would be around in the future was the SF writer's job.
All I know is that we were supposed to have flying cars and robot butlers in the year 2000. I want my flying car, dammit.
After getting my last electric bill, I want my nuclear-powered house! One of them dang housekeeping robots in a French maid's outfit would be nice too.IggytheDestroyer said:
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Here's a good place to start:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html
from: http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll/
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html
from: http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll/
This book is a great tool to help fire up your imagination when trying to visualize the not-too-distant future (yes, I own a copy):
TechTV's Catalog of Tomorrow
TechTV's Catalog of Tomorrow
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IggytheDestroyer said:
Well, there was "Space: 1999." Think we missed that.
2001 A Space Oddity, Oddyssey. Think we missed that.
I believe "Lost in Space" was set in the 90s. Missed that.
And I guess I missed that he said "science websites." I'm not sure of the laws of plagiarism, but I guess if something is proposed in a scientific journal or such then it's open game for us to use speculatively. But I don't know for sure.
Shadow_Ferret said:
Well, Crichton read a science journal with an article about prehistoric mosquitoes caught in amber and came up with JURASSIC PARK, so I don't think it's plagiarism.
Thanks for the input, folks. What I'm writing is really sf dark fantasy so I mostly wanted to see if it was okay to have people speeding around in solar-powered vehicles and things like that.
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dtwilbanks said:
Might want to look at the technology itself if it's going to be a major plot point. Since it's science fiction, you won't have to come up with a whole design, but it's nice to do a few back of the envelope calculations to get a feel for what's possible. For example, take solar powered cars. They exist right now, but are very expensive and not nearly as powerful as gas or diesel power. The cost may come down, but the power is limited by the amount of sunlight. It would be plausible to have them come down to affordable prices, but not to give them 400 hp engines.
By 2040, the technology behind solar power may have improved significantly that solar-powered muscle cars are possible. It wasn't too long ago that solar-powered yard lights were good for only a few hours in the evening. I have some now that last until daylight the next morning. As I understand it, the problem is with converting and storing the sunlight as power, not the available amount of sunlight. Right now, much of it is never converted because of the current efficiency of the conversion process.
You could even have solar-powered street signs, mail box numbers, and so forth which would be great for highly rural areas where those would have an advantage over signs that require power lines. Add that to billboards along with RFID technology and you have a billboard that turns on as you approach or hits you with products which some marketer believes you might want.
You could even have solar-powered street signs, mail box numbers, and so forth which would be great for highly rural areas where those would have an advantage over signs that require power lines. Add that to billboards along with RFID technology and you have a billboard that turns on as you approach or hits you with products which some marketer believes you might want.
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Thought I'd do a bit of math to see if this could work. Maybe, but it would have quite a few complications that might make for interesting problems for your characters.
On a good day, a solar car would have around one kilowatt per square meter of energy to use. Suppose it carried around a 5 meter by 3 meter solar array that it could always point at the sun - an array equal to the size of a fair-sized car. This could pull in around 15 kW, or around 20 hp, if it were 100% efficient.
Ok, maybe this could work with decent batteries. If the car had onboard batteries and 50% efficient cells (a lot better than most modern cells) and captured energy for 12 hours, it would have 90 kW-hours. That could put out 240 hp (less motor efficiency losses) for 30 minutes. Ok, so that's a bit more pedal-to-the-metal driving than a normal driver would do. Still, I'd also want some sort of plug-in mode for it rather than all-solar, as a couple days of driving on cloudy days could drain it to the point where it would only have 5 hp trickling in from the solar panels.
On a good day, a solar car would have around one kilowatt per square meter of energy to use. Suppose it carried around a 5 meter by 3 meter solar array that it could always point at the sun - an array equal to the size of a fair-sized car. This could pull in around 15 kW, or around 20 hp, if it were 100% efficient.
Ok, maybe this could work with decent batteries. If the car had onboard batteries and 50% efficient cells (a lot better than most modern cells) and captured energy for 12 hours, it would have 90 kW-hours. That could put out 240 hp (less motor efficiency losses) for 30 minutes. Ok, so that's a bit more pedal-to-the-metal driving than a normal driver would do. Still, I'd also want some sort of plug-in mode for it rather than all-solar, as a couple days of driving on cloudy days could drain it to the point where it would only have 5 hp trickling in from the solar panels.
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Am I missing something? In the link you provide, it says:
Mother Nature solved it by engineering plants...and cows...and people with minds to use bows and arrows to catch the cows to eat 'em to stay warm.
In Larry Niven's Destiny's Road, he describes a woven material "Begley cloth" that stores solar energy and delivers it as needed. Pretty cool stuff. I want clothes made of Begley cloth. Put 'em in the "decharger" when you get home, have enough power to run the TV till the Letterman show.
If it runs out during Letterman, no big loss.
The emphasis is mine. When you factor in time, there is more power in sunlight than in a Honda Civic. (math: 800 watt-seconds = 2,880,000 watt-hours) Dave's comment about being able to store it efficiently is the big problem.
Mother Nature solved it by engineering plants...and cows...and people with minds to use bows and arrows to catch the cows to eat 'em to stay warm.
In Larry Niven's Destiny's Road, he describes a woven material "Begley cloth" that stores solar energy and delivers it as needed. Pretty cool stuff. I want clothes made of Begley cloth. Put 'em in the "decharger" when you get home, have enough power to run the TV till the Letterman show.
If it runs out during Letterman, no big loss.
Some interesting posts about solar energy here. Thanks, guys.
This is post-apocalyptic stuff, so I don't know how many places the guys will find to plug in their vehicles.
The current concept is to have some solar-powered vehicles, but they're more expensive and harder to find than your average car, fueled by gas.
This is mainly adventure fiction in a future setting, so I don't know how technical I have to get. I'm sure no matter how much research I do, someone will ***** about something. But I'm more interested in character development, scary creatures and explosions.
This is post-apocalyptic stuff, so I don't know how many places the guys will find to plug in their vehicles.
The current concept is to have some solar-powered vehicles, but they're more expensive and harder to find than your average car, fueled by gas.
This is mainly adventure fiction in a future setting, so I don't know how technical I have to get. I'm sure no matter how much research I do, someone will ***** about something.
But I'm more interested in character development, scary creatures and explosions.
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Sorry, Pthom - I'd accidentally dropped "kilo" from watts in my post. The rest of my math - the solar collector only generating 20 hp at 100% efficiency on a good day - was correct.
Post-apocalyptic & 35 years from now...? Gas prices will be so high that solar-power vehicles will be much cheaper comparatively. Solar is cheap after the initial cost, & if it's in general use, it shouldn't be as expensive as it is now for the initial cost either. You don't necessarily need to to plug it in. In 35ish years from now, the bugs discussed here will be worked out... if you say they aredtwilbanks said:Some interesting posts about solar energy here. Thanks, guys.
This is post-apocalyptic stuff, so I don't know how many places the guys will find to plug in their vehicles.
The current concept is to have some solar-powered vehicles, but they're more expensive and harder to find than your average car, fueled by gas.
This is mainly adventure fiction in a future setting, so I don't know how technical I have to get. I'm sure no matter how much research I do, someone will ***** about something.
Won't a lot of the advancement depend upon when your apocalypse happens, and also just how devastating it is? If civilization goes boom there's going to be a period of time afterward when people are scraping for simple survival and won't be able to advance science. If you're proposing to set your story in the 2040's, will your civilization have enough time to change from what's here now?
Maybe the way this almost exact situation was handled in the "Mad Max" movies (and others) would work. Seems to me that in just about any post-apocalyptic scenario, refined petroleum fuels will be very dear indeed.dtwilbanks said:
Only as technical as is necessary to suspend the disbelief of your readers.
Indeed. There are always some people who can't be satisfied no matter how good your science. If it gets so good as to be flawless, the chances are excellent your story suffers. I think it's better to have your science and technology as accurate as is necessary (not full of glaring holes, anyway), and ensure the story is so exciting that the pickers forget about the nits.I'm sure no matter how much research I do, someone will ***** about something.
I wouldn't worry about nitpicking anyway. Since your readers will probably still be alive in the 2040s, you can't worry about nitpicking, since there is very little possibility that you will get that time period exactly right (& might not even be close).
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