Beyond today: my wish list #1
This is my #wishlist of shiny new stuff I would like to have in the near future in no particular order of preference.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Home humanoid robot assistant
I would love one of these, provided it has good battery life. That is very important because I don’t want to have a high electricity bill every month!
Let’s call him Bob. He cooks to a “home meal” standard. He cleans the living space, does the washing and ironing and would walk the dog if you have one. Bob is open source (running Linux, naturally) and is re-programmable and can be tweaked to preference (within sane parameters). He can hold a conversation, answer the landline phone and do everything you need him to do around the house. He can also help out when you’re working from home with basic admin like checking your e-mail and making sure your taxes are up to speed.
That’s basic Bob, the one delivered. What else can dear Bob do? Bob has AI, meaning, he can think for himself. He is capable of the above-mentioned routines but is also capable of making decisions. For example, he is capable of figuring out that if there are no ingredients in the house for the meal he has planned, then he must either obtain them from the supermarket, or substitute. Or, switch his meal plan and make another dish. He must not “hallucinate” new recipes out of thin air like these dumb-arse LLMs we have today! We are not having lasagne-filled chocolate chip muffins for dessert, thanks.
It would be cool if Bob could drive himself to the supermarket if say, there was literally nothing in the house to cook tonight. But I’m not sure this is something I will see in my lifetime. Maybe he could order his ingredients from Deliveroo and get them in time to make dinner?
Flying cars
Imagine all that re-claimed road surface area if we flew everywhere in our “cars”. We would have autonomous flying vehicles (AFVs) flying in dedicated “lanes” in the sky. Yes, I would definitely love one of these. Again, these would need to have fantastic battery life - I WOULD NOT want to get battery anxiety at 10,000 feet.
I’m imagining the commute: I could kick back and enjoy the view which would be partially blotted out by all the other flying cars around me. Or, I could read a few chapters of my book on the way to the office.
Upon arrival, the car would drop me off on the roof of my building and then go away to park itself in dedicated parking areas (likely built on repurposed roads). After work, at home time, the car collects me from the rooftop for the commute back home. Naturally, this thing can take off and land vertically, so there is no need for a second runway at Heathrow, or third, or forth. Once back home, it drops me off (gently) and parks itself in my garage. If I don’t have one, it would go spend the night in the communal flying car parking facility (CFCPF) with dedicated charging points, all offered for free and subsidised by my lovely government. All CFCPFs are built on repurposed roads.
The specs
- In-flight entertainment as standard.
- No flight attendants. Optional feature, pay extra.
- Privacy glass, configurable from “clear” to “blackout”, for those moments when you’re running late and are getting dressed in the car.
- Oh, it flies itself, so no pilot.
- Silent operation - these are not helicopters.
- Enough legroom and can comfortable sit four people (basic model, the VW of of the skies).
- The dog can travel in here but must be comfortable with not being able to loll out of the window.
- Available in “SUV” model for show-off types:
- Can sit a family of 10 quite comfortably.
- With all that legroom, you can probably fit in 20.
- Unnecessary keyless entry feature as standard.
- Sadly, this one does not pollute more; it’s just big for the sake of big.
- Bang and Olufsen audio as standard; 20,000 watts with dedicated subwoofer. Under every seat.
- This one probably can come with a flight attendant, maybe Bob? Alice!
- Still no satnav (these things fly themselves, remember?).
- More lights, more… everything!
How about freight?
Easy. Re-purpose one of the “SUV” models for freight; see above. You’d have to pull out the seats, take out the B&O sound system and repurpose Bob and Alice by providing them with other opportunities to grow and develop and re-skill.
Privacy glass
Imagine a home’s windows with no curtains, like in Extant. LED glass or whatever it’s called. Clear or blackout mode and everything in between. It can “follow the sun” and auto-dim at twilight or can be manually controlled. Or get Bob to do it.
Wafer-thin soundproofing panels
Maybe like a skin you could add to your walls, doors and spaces between floor levels to soundproof rooms. Adjustable, naturally, so you can dim the sound of the teenager’s gaming at 11:35pm. Available in a choice of colours and finishes. It is also available for windows as a transparent film and can be applied in minutes. Except for the spaces between floor levels; you might need a builder for that. Bob? Ooh, Bob the Builder!