What do kids dream about now? Like big future things. Things that make them sigh in bed at night and say to themselves, \u201cIf only I had a plutonium-powered homework eraser! That would do the trick.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was thinking about this as I was buying a running hydration belt that would also carry my iPhone. (Hydration belt is code for \u201cgoofy runner gets parched and needs mini-canteens on his waist.\u201d)<\/p>\n
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 \u2026 or maybe a moving car. <\/p>\n
Anyway, it occurred to me that all the little things that I dreamed about as a kid \u2013 super-techy watches that know your location, communicators like on \u201cStar Trek,\u201d devices that allow video calls, little electronic pads that tell you everything you ever wanted to know, including your vital signs \u2013 are now reality. Commonplace. They\u2019re here and we have them and even take them for granted.
\n<\/p>\n
My sci-fi dreams of childhood have all come true! <\/p>\n
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, \u201cpee-ew, pee-ew.\u201d) <\/p>\n
That\u2019s all lame. Nothing as exciting as what we already have. No, the future should be cool and mind-blowing. Not pedestrian and utilitarian. <\/p>\n
Is there anything left to dream about? What do kids wish for as they drift off to sleep? <\/p>\n
So I asked my 10-year-old daughter one night at dinner: \u201cWhat\u2019s the big technology stuff you want?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLike my Christmas list?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
No. Bigger. Farther away. Stuff that doesn\u2019t even exist right now, but you one day would love to have. <\/p>\n
\u201cOhhh!\u201d she said, and then rattled off her top three: <\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Flying cars. (YEAH!)<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The ability to talk without talking. (That way when parents ask dumb things at the dinner table, like \u201chow was your day?\u201d or \u201cwhat do you dream about?\u201d you can say with your mind, \u201cYou guys are so weird! And no way I\u2019m eating these peas!\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A broomstick to fly around on. (Kind of a throwback to yesteryear, but definitely worthy.)<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
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\u2019t even tell what I\u2019m thinking!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do kids dream about now? Like big future things. Things that make them sigh in bed at night and say to themselves, \u201cIf only I had a plutonium-powered homework eraser! That would do the trick.\u201d I was thinking about this as I was buying a running hydration belt that would also carry my iPhone. (Hydration belt is code for \u201cgoofy runner gets parched and needs mini-canteens on his waist.\u201d) 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 \u2026 or maybe a moving car. Anyway, it occurred to me that all the little things that I dreamed about as a kid \u2013 super-techy watches that know your location, communicators like on \u201cStar Trek,\u201d devices that allow video calls, little electronic pads that tell you everything you ever wanted to know, including your vital signs \u2013 are now reality. Commonplace. They\u2019re here and we have them and even take them for granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554,562,8,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-nutshells","category-childhood","category-parenthoodandchildren","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}