Relics are a thing of the past

One thing I can't stand is a museum. Museums are full of old, musty stuff from the past. I think it's a real waste of money to try and preserve old things - it's all going to disappear eventually isn't it? You can't preserve things forever can you?

Advances in medical science have allowed us to see inside the human body, and modern medical techniques have been used to see inside the bodies of long dead mummies too. Why not use modern technology to map out artifacts that we find, and then store the data for posterity in the digital domain? You could then allow scientists from all around the world to examine artifacts by duplicating the digital copy.

Old buildings also suffer from expensive upkeep. Why not just grind down old buildings and their contents, and use the rubble as a foundation for brand new high-rise flats that will help deal with the housing shortages that we currently suffer from? If you want to visit the past, all you'll need to do is plug your brain into the internet, and download into your mind the items that were scanned in for posterity.

A chip in my shoulder

I read today that Mexico's attorney general will have a chip implanted in his body for the purposes of access control, and tracking in the event of kidnap. This truly shows the way ahead for the human race as a breed of part machine, part organic beings. Those who watched the tv series "The 6 million dollar man" may have thought that the story was pure science fiction, but I think the news today shows that we are far, far closer to having a Colonel Steve Austin today than we ever were.

I confidently predict that within 10 years, you will be able to buy bionic upgrades that will enable you to perform everyday tasks with immense power or speed, perhaps even fly. Humans will be equipped with additional arm sockets into which we can attach household appliances which integrate directly with the nervous system.

Shopping backwards

I was standing in the checkout of my local superstore yesterday, when I realised what a colossal waste of time it all was. Having to travel to my local superstore, select the goods, travel through the checkout, present my payment card, and then transport them back home and put them in my fridge. And I only came to the supermarket to buy a cream cake.

Why not use the Internet you might say? Many stores will ship goods to your doorstep if they were ordered using their web site. Alas, until they use retinal credit card authentication, I'm not trusting the security on these web sites. Even if I do order through a web site, I still have to order a weeks worth to make it worthwhile, and I have to wait for the delivery. I'd rather shop for individual items as and when I need them.

Modern technology can predict the weather accurately two days in advance, why not put those massive clusters of supercomputers to better use and use them to predict when I'll next desire a cream cake? Supermarkets already use computers to predict general trends in cream cake consumption, why not take the next logical step, and wire my brain up to the internet and predict an individual requirement for an individual item?

This probably all sounds like science fiction, but I predict that this will be commonplace within 10 years. You will simply desire a cream cake, and that desire would have been predicted based on your behavior patterns in the proceeding days by the CCTV system in your house, and the tracking chip embedded in your brain. Analysis of your stool will have shown any vitamin deficiencies that can be corrected by altering the constituent ingredients of the cream cake. The cake will be transported to you via a series of underground conveyor belts.

Supermarkets will be quite happy to pay for such large infrastructure developments, as they will no longer have waste cream cakes to dispose of. Alas, until the supermarkets see this massive opportunity, I have to stand in line at the supermarket queue where I am unnecessarily exposed to the public.