What do kids dream about now? Like big future things. Things that make them sigh in bed at night and say to themselves, “If only I had a plutonium-powered homework eraser! That would do the trick.”
I was thinking about this as I was buying a running hydration belt that would also carry my iPhone. (Hydration belt is code for “goofy runner gets parched and needs mini-canteens on his waist.”)
Anyway, the belt needs to carry my iPhone so it will connect to my new heart rate monitor. That way I can see if my heart is still beating after I try to drink water on a long run and crash into a tree … or maybe a moving car.
Anyway, it occurred to me that all the little things that I dreamed about as a kid – super-techy watches that know your location, communicators like on “Star Trek,” devices that allow video calls, little electronic pads that tell you everything you ever wanted to know, including your vital signs – are now reality. Commonplace. They’re here and we have them and even take them for granted.
My sci-fi dreams of childhood have all come true!
So (sadly) what is there left to invent? That I might actually want? A robot who painstakingly deletes my junk email? Or cleans the gobs of toothpaste my daughter left in her sink? A device that prevents my dog from shedding? A laser ray gun that kills weeds? (It has to make a cool sound like, “pee-ew, pee-ew.”)
That’s all lame. Nothing as exciting as what we already have. No, the future should be cool and mind-blowing. Not pedestrian and utilitarian.
Is there anything left to dream about? What do kids wish for as they drift off to sleep?
So I asked my 10-year-old daughter one night at dinner: “What’s the big technology stuff you want?”
“Like my Christmas list?” she asked.
No. Bigger. Farther away. Stuff that doesn’t even exist right now, but you one day would love to have.
“Ohhh!” she said, and then rattled off her top three:
• Flying cars. (YEAH!)
• The ability to talk without talking. (That way when parents ask dumb things at the dinner table, like “how was your day?” or “what do you dream about?” you can say with your mind, “You guys are so weird! And no way I’m eating these peas!”)
• A broomstick to fly around on. (Kind of a throwback to yesteryear, but definitely worthy.)
And I got excited again. All things I would want, too! There ARE still brave new frontiers for technology. Exciting ones. COOL ones. Shoot, even the broom industry can evolve and advance and bring us revolutionary new inventions!
The future suddenly became exciting to me again. Something to anticipate. Something to crave. Something to wish for as we drift off to sleep. And way better than that hydration belt for my yesteryear iPhone. (Darn thing can’t even tell what I’m thinking!)