Did you watch the Jetsons when you were younger? I read an article about the inventions imagined in the Jetsons (back in 1962) about what life would look like in 2062. Like many people, I feel like we are all waiting with bated breath for the people mover and the jetpack. Especially the jetpack after watching The Mandalorian!
The funny thing that my co-author Ken and I noticed is that when we were trying to forecast into 2108 for Cold War: Alien Storm, we found that many of the things we imagined in that “near future” were being invented even as we were drafting the story. We could hardly keep up. Things that seemed futuristic when we were drafting in late 2016 and early 2017 about drones and AI were actually showing up in 2018!
I just came back from Disneyland last week and the VR experiences are really incredible. (My dream is to be riding on my little stationary bicycle at home but wearing VR goggles that take me to West Maui for my bike ride.) After experiencing VR at rides like Soaring (where they pipe in fragrance to heighten the experience), and the Star Wars VR adventure at The Void, I see that the future is much less tactical than imagined by the Jetsons and Star Wars, and much more one of the mind and tricking the brain to believe you are somewhere different.
Instead of a people mover to take you over places, you will be logging in and perceive you are at an office or at school. Instead of turning nobs and dials in a space ship, you will be using voice command and haptics to control the ship. The future is much more Ready Player One.
If you haven’t listened to this audiobook, it is a real treat. I listened to it once on my own and a second time with my teenaged son–still fantastic the second time around. Wil Wheaton does a wonderful job.
In reflecting back on 2019, one of my favorite segments on the Tim Ferriss podcast is when he asks the guests what their favorite purchase under $100 has been. It’s made me think about my purchasing decisions much more and in 2019 the winning purchase was any skirt or leggings with pockets that fit my phone. So much so that I got rid of anything I had that didn’t have pockets. A small thing, but surprisingly handy rule for reducing friction in my life. When I looked at my husband’s purchasing, it turned out his favorite thing he bought all year were hiking pants that repelled water. He has to walk a mile from the train to his office and during a rainy spring this this year, he found himself stocking up on those hiking pants. The other thing that made my life much easier this year–Vitamin D sublingual spray. Apparently I was hugely Vitamin D deficient, and not really vigilant about taking that in pill form. Switched to the spray and somehow it became that much easier and my blood test results came back that my Vitamin D levels were rebounding from Zombie to Almost Human.
By the numbers: I signed up for Pilates in February and stuck with it all year. That means I ended up taking somewhere in the range of 25+ classes this year. That’s 1,250 minutes of ab workouts that I did more of in 2019 than I did in the prior 3 years. Also dropped two clothing sizes this year, time traveling back to my 2017 body. I look forward to building on these small successes in 2020. Happy New Year.
