I don\u2019t know how the topic came up at dinner the other night,\nbut somehow I asked my 14-year-old daughter what the future looked like to her.\nBecause she already has handheld phones that display video calls from friends.\nShe can pay for things with a phone or play virtual reality games with it. All\nsorts of futuristic things that can turn her brain to mush are within her grasp.\nYou know, cool stuff I dreamed about as a kid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you have it all, what\u2019s next? Where do we go from\nhere? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she didn’t know. She had no idea, and that was the\nproblem. It seemed like all the \u201cfuturistic\u201d stuff had been invented already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides, she never wanted to look back like other\ngenerations and say, “You know, I remember way back in the olden days when\nI used to hold a phone up in front of my face to see a friend I was talking to.\nIt was like the stone ages!” She is living the future, and it\u2019s pretty awesome.\nWhy have it go out of style or become old-fashioned? Why have it become old,\nantiquated technology that we look back on as the toys of Neanderthals who\ndidn\u2019t know any better? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interesting perspective from a child of the future \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But anyway, the point is she had no idea what the next big inventions\nwould look like. What her future technology would be. Even, what she wanted.\nThese buggers kind of have it all. Which means we ALL kind of have it all.\nWe\u2019re a bit tapped out. We\u2019ve outrun our supply lines. Caught up to our Buck\nRogers future. Made all the stuff we dreamed about as kids, and as soon as we\nget laser guns and teleportation, we\u2019re done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what IS next for the future? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw something the other day that really kind of scared me.\nAn article that showed me a glimpse of what MAY be next. A future not so dazzling\nand mind-bending for its revolutionary ultra-coolness or techno-fantastic-ness.\nBut rather, far-more pedestrian and utilitarian. Boring, even. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story\u2019s headline read: \u201cWhy America is losing the toilet\nrace.\u201d And for some reason, I just had to click on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It told the tale of Japanese toilets that are so advanced\nand so technologically revolutionary that they have heated seats, remote\ncontrols, relaxing sounds and even perfume the air. They are customizable and\ncome equipped with all kinds of buttons and entertainment options. One will\neven give you career advice or help you organize your thoughts. A particularly\ntop-of-the-line porcelain wonder sells for more than $17,000. (I bit my tongue\nfor all the inappropriate puns that would work here.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it pained me to read it. Has the future come to this?\nHave we no other technological marvels to conquer that we must retire to the\nlavatory? Are all the other frontiers settled? All the low-hanging fruit of\ntechnology plucked? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now we must turn to the trusty toilet?!? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already we\u2019re adapting our everyday appliances to be\ntechnologically advanced. Our toaster can text us when the toast is burning. Our\nrefrigerators can show us on a screen what\u2019s in there so we don\u2019t have to open\nthe door. Have we run out of big dreams!?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe we’ve done all the advancing we can. We\u2019ve exhausted things\nwe can improve and wire and hook up to WIFI. It\u2019s up to the age-old toilet now\nto lead the way. Is that what the future holds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope not. I would just as soon America lose the toilet\nrace and instead find somewhere else to lead the revolution of technology-next.\nI have no idea what it will be. What dreams today\u2019s kids are cooking up. But I sure\ndo hope it involves laser guns and teleporting me somewhere \u2013 anywhere! \u2013 except\nthe bathroom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t know how the topic came up at dinner the other night, but somehow I asked my 14-year-old daughter what the future looked like to her. Because she already has handheld phones that display video calls from friends. She can pay for things with a phone or play virtual reality games with it. All sorts of futuristic things that can turn her brain to mush are within her grasp. You know, cool stuff I dreamed about as a kid. <\/p>\n
But if you have it all, what\u2019s next? Where do we go from here? <\/p>\n
She said she didn’t know. She had no idea, and that was the problem. It seemed like all the \u201cfuturistic\u201d stuff had been invented already. <\/p>\n
Besides, she never wanted to look back like other generations and say, “You know, I remember way back in the olden days when I used to hold a phone up in front of my face to see a friend I was talking to. It was like the stone ages!” She is living the future, and it\u2019s pretty awesome. Why have it go out of style or become old-fashioned? Why have it become old, antiquated technology that we look back on as the toys of Neanderthals who didn\u2019t know any better? <\/p>\n
Interesting perspective from a child of the future \u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-nutshells","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","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=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}