2010: Living In the Future | the book

It is good to arrive home after a busy afternoon, to relax and...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0500

It is good to arrive home after a busy afternoon, to relax and share your adventures with your family, practice your guitar, or read a book.

However different the world is in the year 2010, some things will stay just the same as they are today.

Note: However different the world is in the year 2010, some thing will stay just the same as they are today. It’s true.

That’s the end of the content of the book. A few last pages before the end, but this is the end of Geoffrey Hoyle’s amazing tale of the future we all now live in.

I have found Geoffrey Hoyle! I was able to track him down through an e-mail address at a site dedicated to his father’s work. How does he feel our 2010 compares to his 2010? I hope we get to find out.

At the town depot there are also other pipes—giant pipes...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:06:00 -0500

At the town depot there are also other pipes—giant pipes that run the length and breadth of the country. This is a clean, efficient way to ship anything from a box of nails to a crane.

If someone buys a new electric car, this is the way it is delivered. The car is wrapped at the factory and dropped into the pipe full of liquid. Large pumps along the pipe keep the liquid flowing. Detectors at the pumping stations make sure there are no blockages and that the goods arrive at the right place.

When the car reaches the town’s main depot, it is lifted from the pipe, unwrapped, and delivered.

This is a very fast way of shipping goods. If you buy a car in the morning it will be delivered the same day.

Note: When Senator Ted Stevens described the Internet as “a series of tubes,” I’m pretty sure this is exactly what he was envisioning. Personally, I love the little car in a bubble beging hoisted by the crane.

So we’re almost done here folks. Just one more spread of content, and a few miscellaneous pages at the back of the book.

~~Join in the search for Geoffrey Hoyle so we can thank him for this wonderful book and his marvelous predictions, and perhaps find out how his 2010 stacks up to, well, his 2010.~~

Update: Geoffrey Hoyle has been found. The Facebook group set up to aide in the search still exists, and will be updated when there’s news.

The restaurant kitchen serves thousands of people every day. It...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:17:00 -0500

The restaurant kitchen serves thousands of people every day. It would take hundreds of deliveries by electric trucks to keep the refrigerators and deep freezers of the kitchen full. So the supplies are piped to it each day.

Whatever is needed in the restaurant is packed in special wrappers at a depot in the town. Everything is then placed in the pipe, which is filled with a special liquid, and pumped to the restaurant on the roof. The liquid allows packages of different weights to float. Otherwise small packages would float while large packages would sink and bang against the bottom of the pipe. When the packages reach the restaurant they are taken from the pipe, unwrapped, and put into the right containers.

The food is cooked the same way it is at home and sent along the conveyor belts to the customers.

Note: OK, there’s plenty I could say here, but I’ll simply say this isn’t the last you’ll see of these liquid filled pipes.

The main thing I want to say is this: Let’s find Geoffrey Hoyle. Really! His Wikipedia entry has him still alive. Various other threads here and there that I’ve followed have him in England, possibly in London. His father was a knighted astrophysicist, Sir Fred Hoyle. If we all take to our vision phones and our vision desks, I am convinced that we can track him down.

Why find Geoffrey Hoyle? Because his vision is so unique and parts of it so spot-on, that I think it would be wonderful in the literal sense of the word (full of wonder) to find out what he’s doing now, and how he thinks the real 2010 stacks up to his 2010.

To facilitate group discussion and information sharing, I have set up a Facebook Group called Get out your vision phones: Let’s find Geoffrey Hoyle. Clearly, we want to approach this in as respectful a way as possible. But I believe we can find him, and I believe he would be touched that we did.

Update: Geoffrey Hoyle has been found. The Facebook group set up to aide in the search still exists, and will be updated when there’s news.

A large restaurant on the roof of the Sports and Social Center...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:12:39 -0500

A large restaurant on the roof of the Sports and Social Center covers the roof and looks more like a garden than a restaurant.

It is sometimes hard to find people in this big area. So, to help you, there is a map at the entrance with all the sitting places marked on it. Look carefully and you can see where your family have marked their place.

At the table it is easy to order. You type what you want on the control panel fixed to the table. A few minutes later the tray comes along the conveyor belt close to the table. You can see that it is your tray because there is a flag stuck to it with your table number on it.

It is interesting to see how the food arrives in the giant kitchen. The kitchen is at the far end of the roof. Like the kitchen at home, it works by computer.

Note: We’re approaching the end of the book now, just two great predictions left. Here’s a hint: they involve a series of tubes.

Or you could go to Africa, and see all the wild game roaming...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:20:44 -0500

Or you could go to Africa, and see all the wild game roaming around the national parks.

It is very easy and cheap to travel by air. The airplanes are very small and very fast. They seat thirty people and fly them through the sky at over 4,000 miles per hour.

Seats are not reserved in advance. You just climb aboard. It is just like the town bus service.

As the afternoon draws to a close, you might like to meet your family for dinner before you go home.

Note: A little context. In 1972 the Concorde airplane had been around for three years. It was traveled at 1,400 mph and carried less than 100 passengers. It doesn’t seem like a crazy extrapolation at all to think that speed would increase 4x over the subsequent 38 years. Of course, it didn’t. The last Concorde flew in 2003, and in 2010 the average speed of a 757 is 609 mph.

A separate prediction of Hoyle’s, that air travel was going to be “just like the town bus service,” did come true. In all the worst possible ways.

To select the book you wish to read, you dial the book’s...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:51:04 -0500

To select the book you wish to read, you dial the book’s number. The first page appears on your screen. You can turn the pages backward or forward by using buttons on the vision phone.

If you are halfway through a book and you have to leave, there is no reason why you can’t finish it when you get home. You can dial the library and the book number from home and go on with your reading.

While you are in the library, you might look at some travel film, to help you decide where to go for your summer vacation.

How about Australia? It seems a long way away, but it doesn’t take so long by airplane. You will find sandy beaches, blue skies, and endless sunshine along the Great Barrier Reef.

There are glass-bottomed boats through which you could watch the tropical fish.

Note: I love the digression here. Here we are, talking in detail about how electronic bookmarks would work (and do work—anyone who has read a Kindle book on the e-reader then their iPhone, and then their PC knows that Hoyle gives a good description of how it works), and suddenly half the page is devoted to how beautiful Australia is.

Up next: How could a writer in England say that it “doesn’t take so long” to get to Australia? The plane! The plane!

The halls and rooms on the upper floors are for hobbies. Here...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:41:39 -0500

The halls and rooms on the upper floors are for hobbies. Here people make pottery, draw and paint pictures, build model airplanes, or play musical instruments. There are teachers to help you with every hobby.

A very popular room is the library. There are no books. The floor is shaped into tables and benches. Built into these tables are hundreds of vision phones. The books, films, and newspapers are all stored in the library computer.

First you dial the library index. This file contains all the books that have ever been written. It does not matter whether they were first written in Chinese or French. They will be here, translated into English. There is also an index of films and newspapers. You could spend all day watching comics, but it wouldn’t be a good idea.

Note: You want to understand the central issue of the modern era? Every single thing described here—perhaps with the exception of making pottery and building model airplanes—is a product offered by Google. And the main reason for that is because they’re the only ones rich enough to fight the copyright battles to make these things accessible. Libraries are stuck in the past in part because they can’t break copyright law to do exactly what Hoyle suggests: store these digital copies on their own servers and make them available to everyone. Google can. Thusly, you don’t have your Sports and Social Centers because the information that was once vital to a library is now available on your vision desk at home.

Inside, there are halls, stadiums, and swimming pools. The main...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:42:50 -0500

Inside, there are halls, stadiums, and swimming pools. The main stadium is so large that it can seat 500,000 people. The giant swimming pools can hold 4,000 people all swimming at the same time and still have room for more.

If you walked around the Center you would wear your shoes out. So all traveling inside the building is done with elevators, moving stairs, and whole moving floors. Some of these are one-way, so it is important to remember which way you want to go.

Note: for a little context, I looked into stadium sizes. The largest stadium in the world is in Pyongyang, North Korea and seats 150,000. The largest in the US (#3 worldwide) is in State College, Pennsylvania and seats 107,282. So the stadium size proposed here is close to five times the size of this.

I’m unable to find how many people would fit in the world’s largest swimming pool, but based on the pictures, 4,000 doesn’t sound entirely off to me. It is incredibly enormous.

All public transportation within the town is free. You have to...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:56:32 -0500

All public transportation within the town is free. You have to pay only when you travel from one town to another.

The bus stops in front of a large group of buildings, surrounded by beautiful country. The Center and grounds are so big it would take weeks to walk around them.

Every afternoon professional games are played somewhere in the grounds. You can watch football, tennis, swimming, basketball, or play games yourself with your friends.

There are also places in the grounds where you can get away from the crowds and go fishing, horseback riding, climbing, or just walking.

Note: This pretty accurately describes Chicago’s Grant Park and Lincoln Park (which are connected). Though it wouldn’t take you weeks to walk around them—it would take days though.

Your school classes finish every day at one o’clock....

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:47:30 -0500

Your school classes finish every day at one o’clock. After lunch it is time to meet friends at the Sports and Social Center. You can travel by electric car or in a bus.

The bus services are very good and run twenty-four hours a day. You can go anywhere in the town and know there will always be a bus back. With very little traffic on the roads it is safe for children to travel by themselves.

There is no fare to pay on the bus.

Note: OK, so not only does this 2010 offer three-day work weeks, school lets out by 1:00? Reality is so unfair.

At one time, late in the twentieth century, millions of people...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:03:30 -0500

At one time, late in the twentieth century, millions of people fought their way to school and work every morning. Thick fumes lay over the streets, making people cough and cry. There were just too many people trying to get into too small a space all at the same time.

Note: After this spread, we get back to our regularly-scheduled futurist dreaming.

With few people traveling to work there are no morning or...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:36:42 -0500

With few people traveling to work there are no morning or evening rush hours—no streets crowded with cars, buses, and people. Gone are the oily smells and fumes of traffic. When people travel, they go by electric car, bus, or train.

In 2010 people can live and breathe in clean, fresh surroundings, but it was not always like this.

Note: Heavy-handed moralizing ahead!

While you are at school in one room, your parents may be at...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:22:22 -0500

While you are at school in one room, your parents may be at work in another. People who do office work do it at home. To keep in close touch with other people in their office they use the vision phone. The viision desk is connected to their firm’s computer, which stores all the office files. With this close contact betwen everybody in the office, it is easy to work from home.

Wherever people work—in a factory or at home, or whatever else their job might be—they will work for only three days a week. The rest of the week they can do what they like. They can play football, learn a language, or train for a new job.

Note: Is there a single thing in these two pages that you don’t wish were true?

The computer can also be used for recording homework. Once the...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:58:28 -0500

The computer can also be used for recording homework. Once the work is done, your teacher marks it by calling the computer.

You can always find out how well you have done by calling the computer before school begins.

To look at your past school work you dial the school computer. It takes the computer only a few seconds to find the work.

To find what you want you use two buttons on the control panel. Press one button and the pages move forward; press the other, and the pages move backward.

Note: I love the guy in the foreground on the left hand page. It’s like he’s carrying the sacrement.

The vision desk is more complicated than the phone and can do...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:00:00 -0500

The vision desk is more complicated than the phone and can do different jobs. It also contains a camera and a screen. The glass on top of the screen is made in a special way so that when you write on it, the camera can photograph what you write.

School work would be impossible without the vision desk. When the teacher writes a sum on the blackboard, the figures are shown on the desk.

To answer the question you take your electronic pen and start writing on the desk.

If the teacher sees that you are going wrong, he or she can correct you.

All the school work that is done on the vision desk is recorded on a giant school computer.

Note: Just wait until you see just how giant that school computer is.

Even if you are at home by yourself, you can still talk to your...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:27:42 -0500

Even if you are at home by yourself, you can still talk to your friends during class time. You dial a friend’s number and his face appears in a corner of your screen.

The vision phone and vision desk are electronic marvels of the twenty-first century.

The vision phone is a telephone that allows you to see the person you are talking to. He or she can see you, too.

A small camera and screen are placed in front of the phone. The camera takes the pictures and the screen shows them to you.

Note: Shrink it down about 80% and that’s a pretty good drawing of my MacBook.

At nine o’clock it is time for school. Inside a large...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:43:40 -0500

At nine o’clock it is time for school. Inside a large closet in your bedroom there is a vision phone and vision desk. As soon as you dial your school number, the screen lights up, and there is your teacher.

In 2010 your home is your classroom. The teacher’s classroom is in his or her home. In the teacher’s room there are many vision screens connected to the vision phone. On these screens the teacher can see all the children in the class.

Opposite the screens there is a blackboard. Whatever the teacher writers on the board can be seen on the children’s vision desks.

Note: In the classes that I teach, I bring guest speakers in via Skype. Every time I do it, I actually think of this little “vision phone” section. Because to me, even though I’ve done it a few dozen times at this point, it still feels like living in exactly the future we were promised.

When you have bought your groceries, you must pay for them. The...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:41:13 -0500

When you have bought your groceries, you must pay for them. The bill appears on the vision desk below the vision phone. It is important to check the bill because computers can make mistakes.

When you are satisfied the bill is correct, you dial your bank number. It is printed on the bill at once. You sign the bill by placing your thumb on the vision desk alongside the bank number. An electronic thumbprint is taken and transferred onto the bill.

Signing bills in this way stops anyone else from using your bank number. No two people have the same thumbprint.

The bill is finally sent to the bank which pays the shop the money owned.

Note: Sounds like a good system to me!

You never need to go shopping for the weekly groceries. You...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:49:42 -0500

You never need to go shopping for the weekly groceries. You just dial the supermarket on their vision phone. A list of departments and their numbers appears on the screen.

When you dial the food department, you will see a picture of it. The picture shows all the different food and their prices.

You give your order over the phone and it is recorded at the supermarket by a tape recorder. Later the same day the electric delivery truck arrives with your order.

Note: The devil’s in the details of course, but essentially this describes Peapod exactly.

When you have finished, you take your plate, cup, knife, fork,...

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:10:33 -0500

When you have finished, you take your plate, cup, knife, fork, and spoon and drop them down the waste disposer. They are ground up and washed away into the sewers.

All the food and drink are delivered right into the kitchen from the supermarket. They come in an electric truck. The delivery man opens the refrigerators, deep freezers, and cold-storage units from outside the house and places his load in the right containers.

Note: Can anyone explain why grinding up plates, cups, and cutlery makes any sense? Because I’m at a loss.