Star Trek flip phones are old hat. We're all about Star Trek pads computers today.
We've got Minority Report gesture interfaces with our Xbox.
I'm considering buying a Star Wars binocular range finder, but may have to save up for the Predator heat vision. Both available, now.
We are a little behind in Star Wars holograms. Still quite expensive.
Sexbots should be up to Cherry 2000 specs within a decade. Serenity spec sexbots are available today, in Japan.
After all, the 2001 A Space Odyssey Hal is in your phone.....
But we're WAY behind in space stations and lunar colonies.
Neuromancer hackers are still using keyboards, but the plug in stuff is in development.
Big Brother is everywhere, and we bought our own cameras.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a SHIELD.
If you want full tactile on the holodeck you're going to have to wait a while. The walk through holograms are a few years off. You can have full tactile now, but that'd be custom and very expensive. If you'll take just gloves & sex toys, that's available now, with a phone app.
I'm not joking about the phone sex toys. The most advanced I've seen advertised on Touch Of Modern has a male and female accessory, ( bluetooth, of course ) that sends motion & pressure to each other. in real time. with video chat.
Science is Awesome!
Edit, Correction, I don't think it comes with video chat.
This is factual. I've done papers on Roman climate change.
There's a reason the time of Justinian is used as a starting point in Climate Con graphics. Cherry picking start & end dates is an easy way to lie with numbers.
If the Arctic was ice free the result is not warmer weather. It's massive increase in snow fall in the northern hemisphere. The open water feeds the precipitation cycle.
My skepticism for the Climate Con comes not from science deficient pundits like Rush. It comes from repeated outright lies by the Con minions.
First & foremost was "hot weather leads to severe weather". Nope. The exact opposite. Cold times equal stormy planet.
"Naked ice cap leads to hot..." no.... the exact opposite. "Ignorance is freedom" Go f $#@ yourself.
If the Arctic was ice free the result is not warmer weather. It's massive increase in snow fall in the northern hemisphere. The open water feeds the precipitation cycle.
Which of course, leads to more sun light reflected away from the surface, which leads to cooling. It actually represents a fairly stable climate system that will fluctuate withing certain bounds for a very long time. Pretty much exactly what we seem to have on this rock floating through space. How do they get their computer models so wrong?
The answer to that, of course, is that the computers models show exactly what they want them to show. What they don't show, is a representation of reality.
Cold times also equal avalanche conditions. More stable snow packs come from warmer trends (relatively speaking). Man I need to get back into skiing.
I'd love to go to antarctica. The population density would suit me nicely, as well as the eternal winter wonderland. "Never Summer" for real. That may be my "go-to-hell point" for when the muslims and russians and Chinese invade. I'll just need to commandeer an aircraft... Court, what would you charge to fly me to the south pole?
The over water portion of that flight is over a part of the planet famous for waves that build around the entire world & winds to match. Ships of every size just vanish. Hammered under so fast there's no time for a May day.
The over land portion is over an environment that aside from barely breathable atmosphere, is arguably more hostile than Mars.
My Uncle Rusty was a Sea Bee who helped build the first South Pole base. It's moved and is being crushed by the ice. You go outside to start your bulldozer with a blow torch to melt the oil first. In 24/7 darkness.... for months. Every drop of fuel is brought in by airplane. Sometimes they can't take off again, and get buried in the snow.
There are still expeditions missing. I wouldn't call it a winter wonderland. Fimbulwinter, the preview, maybe.
Sir Edmund Hillary seemed to have a good time down there (i read a book on him while I was in Nepal). Fimbul winter... Now I want to go more than ever!
Well it's settled, i'm going to create a hidden ice fortress and start recruiting folks to join me at the Jotunheim Ski Resort and Fortress. When the US, Russia, China, and the Muslims burn eachother to the ground, we'll be safe and sound in my winter wonderland.
If the earth is going to see "another" ice age, we may as well start adapting now (i don't believe it will, but that will be my recruiting tool).
"Winter is coming, lean forward. Bring your guns, skis and experience, and come join the Confederates of Everwinter in Jotunheim". That should fetch an interesting sect of society.
"We are the Sons of Winter and Stars We've come from far beyond time Forever the fire burns in our hearts Our world shall never die"
You can hunt seal, penguin, sea lion, and whales. If you want sporting, I suggest scuba gear and speargun.
Also have a rope securing you to shore so they can pull the frozen corpse out, if you remain uneaten. You've only got a few minutes before you freeze to death.
So if you really want meat, I suggest a harpoon gun w/line and a serious boat. Frigate size or better. Better Yet, Amazon Prime.
There's pretty much no land life except the birds. And most of what lurks underwater ranks as peak predator. ( meaning they eat everything else ) A few miles from the coast the ONLY life are humans in an artificial environment.
You'd be much better off on the other side of the planet. There's plenty of game around that ocean. And Polar Bears. Another peak predator. ( Killer Whales seem to be the apex )
We'll have to run fishing and whaling routes. I wonder how seal and penguin taste. Maybe a greenhouse operation for greens. Or trade with Chile or Argentina... except we won't have anything to trade except blubber and ice.... Antarctica is even more barren than I realized.
The Robot "Asimov's Laws" question has been a topic in Science fiction, and robotics/AI for many years, and unless you know what "Asimov's Laws of Robotics" is, you've been wandering blind into the new world.
Back before most of you were born Issac Asimov proposed the "3 laws of robotics", mostly to act as a prop for logic puzzle stories, but also to raise the moral questions as Science Fiction often does, taking a Human or Political topic and placing it in a different context to rob it of it's emotional impact... or amplify that impact, depending on the Author's intent.
In real life if you could actually program AI to Asimov's 3 Laws, the robots would never let us risk our lives. No more gymnastics, almost all winter sports, Football, etc. You'd be forced to spend all day at home watching CGI only stunts and movies ( can't risk a human stunt man in Mission Impossible 17 )
So what?
We now have Robots. Driving CARS!!! Deadly weapons that in the hands of inferior humans slaughter thousands every year.
And humans have to make choices. Do I slam on the brakes to avoid the Deer ( which could come through the wind shield on my sloped hood eco-friendly car, killing me ) risking the idiot behind me's life when he plows into the back of my car?
Do I swerve to avoid the mother with baby stroller and go off the cliff to my doom?
Uncomfortable. yes. How we program our robots to kill us wasn't in the description of the robotics course, eh?
Now this is just a small fraction of decision trees you need to program. most don't involve a death or death choice. Mostly you can just choose "don't hit the orphans" and be done with it.
But "hit the orphans or suicide" is a real thing in a complex world.
Pilots have to keep this in mind. How many times have you heard praise for a fighter pilot who rode his crashing plane away from the school, sometimes to his doom, delaying ejection to save others? This happens more often than you'd think and not just with kerosene laden supersonic military craft.
There are well known cases where a plane had to make an emergency landing, and was doing fine, then turned into the trees to avoid hitting a school bus.
Humans make these decisions.
Humans will make the decision for your future driverless ride well ahead of time.
Built into the car will be it's choice to kill you or the people in your path.
I find it amusing, in a sick way, that Mercedes has the opinion that it's customers would prefer to kill the orphans.
And her minions here show you how to lie in detail.
It's especially important to cast anyone who points out your lies as an evil awful person who hates & is racist & wants to kill children.
Aka The Alinsky way to lie to power.
When a group preaches hate with the same tactics, using the same hand book as the greatest mass murdering folk in human history. .... you can bet it's the same group with a different name.
Mercedes corrects completely correct impression they will design rich folk's cars to kill the poor first.
One real problem I see for getting the majority of cars automated, as people learn that the car (which is paying much better attention to the road than a typical driver) will go to great lengths to avoid killing a pedestrian, will become much more willing to step out in front of that car. It's already a problem in areas of Chicago, even when there's little guarantee that the driver will see the pedestrian. An automated car could easily be brought to a standstill by the rush hour pedestrian traffic that will care little about holding up the occupant for a few seconds. Of course when you multiply those few seconds by the number of pedestrians walking across the street at most intersections, you will never push your way through.
I wonder about automated stopping on cars. When a mob of rioters decides to stop traffic and molest drivers because all it takes to stop them is to walk in front of the car, will the manufacturer of the car be at fault?