Crystal Ball Reports From 2025-2033
Crystal Ball: 2033
Finally in the year 2033, the last of the sperm banks closed down because of a lack of both donors and buyers. The vast majority of people had realized that the best way to raise a child was by first forming a couple. After meeting in the same way that men and women had done for generations: at random, genetics gave them the interesting option of selecting genes from the pool of the couple itself. Because so many traits were controlled by the interaction of many genes and countless environmental factors, a thug and a hooker could potentially give birth to an artist, provided that as a starting point the best within each mate was selected. This was not eugenics. Couples were choosing their destiny. No group or individual was singled out as being superior. As an example, a couple could choose to combine those genes in themselves that, with a proper diet, would lead to an offspring who would grow to have only a 5-10% chance of heart disease at age 60. If, on a more trivial level, they had genes that could lead to green eyes and happened to like the prospect of green-eyed offspring, they could make it a reality. Nothing was artificial: they had simply selected a potential that already existed within themselves.
Crystal Ball: 2032
By the year 2032, the world of advertising had crumbled. After a century of "slavery to brand-names", people became fed up with paying $100 for a pair of shoes that cost $2 to manufacture but $20 to promote. As long as the quality of goods was improved, total sales did not suffer dramatically because of Third World demand. With public opinion behind them, governments were then able to pressure manufacturers in meeting durability and environmental standards, which were funded by capital that in the past had gone into running shoe contracts.
Crystal Ball: 2031
Education in the year 2031 had become the responsibility of government, industry, parents and teachers alike. No one's basic education took place in school anymore. The majority of parents either took turns to stay at home with their children or took advantage of the on-site daycare-education centers at work. In the former case, parents supervised the home-schooling of their children who took advantage of online connections to access tutors around the world and who visited community resource centers to use labs, theaters and other resources not available at home. Since industry had finally developed a social conscience, parents had no reason to question the objectivity of industrial education centers that offered practical training for young teenagers who desired it.
Crystal Ball: 2030
Strangely the average consumer did not have access to 200 channels in the year 2030. New technology and selective viewing eliminated the need for most television stations. News and sports events were still broadcasted live. But all recorded programming now available within a week was available at any second. Thus, each station, with its 105 or so weekly programs accessible at any moment had become the equivalent of that number of channels.
Of the 10 remaining channels, 8 were affiliated with public television. All talk shows and game shows had disappeared. One golfless sports channel remained along with 1 classic sitcom and drama station.
In general, viewers had become less passive. While programs were being broadcasted, remote control allowed them to download relevant information. If, for example, a report on China was on the evening news, one could place it in context by downloading historical accounts of the nation. In other words, whereas the WW web in its infancy stage had provided an already image-overloaded world with little more than jpegs, it was now supplementing a visual medium with the written word.
Crystal Ball: 2029
Not too long ago, the crystal ball of science gave us a glimpse of the year 2029. For most of the twentieth century, thanks to chemical pigments in photographs and to fluorescent materials in TV screens, electromagnetic waves from inanimate materials could resemble those bouncing off the people we loved thousands of miles away. Similarly the waves from their voices could be made to disturb the crystal patterns of tiny fragments of iron, which later led to the regeneration of so very similar disturbances on the cardboard of a speaker. But smells and tactile impressions, so unlike sights and sounds in that they involved direct interaction with matter and not energy, could not, for the longest time, be recorded. In 2029 a dream specialist, after understanding the way the brain uses memory to recreate physical feelings and smells in dreams, recorded the perfume and velvety texture of a rose and induced its impressions in the consciousness of a computer operator who had not smelled a flower in 22 years.
Crystal Ball: 2028
This month, the crystal ball of science gave us a glimpse of the year 2028. Disneyland had a different look. Mickey Mouse was now nicknamed Mickey Molecule. There was a little "O" on his nose, and little "H" s were tattooed in his ears. The park's hosts smiled just as much and were environmentally-friendly, encouraging children to learn and care for their water resources. '20 000 Leagues Under the Sea ' was a virtual submarine ride through real underwater life. Still the park's most popular attraction, the 'Haunted Mansion' was a gruesome reminder of what negligent third world cities near the U.S.- Mexico border were like.
Crystal Ball: 2027
This month, the crystal ball of science gave us a glimpse of the year 2027. Only hydrogen and electric cars motored through the streets of Honolulu .There were no tourists parading on their scooters without a helmet. In fact, the streets of Waikiki were relatively quiet. Most tourists came to Oahu to study the geology of the island or to appreciate the interaction of light and water. Only birds slept in Kapiolani Park. The hydrogen-generating plant in Pearl Harbor had rehabilitated and hired all of the city's homeless people.
Crystal Ball: 2026
This month, the crystal ball of science gave us a glimpse of the year 2026. Most states had adopted Vermont's no billboard law on their highways.Within urban centers, the only billboards found ( and there were never more than 2 per acre ) were those containing useful information such as atomic masses and physical constants
At every major intersection, along with a 911 terminal,there was a 912 terminal, an emergency computer hot line for students stuck on homework problems.
Crystal Ball: 2025
We saw a haze over L.A. that slowly but surely dissipated, suggesting that for the first time in 75 years, less than 1000 compounds diffused into its atmosphere. And there were quiet motorcycle gangs wearing T-shirts with elemental symbols on their backs. Street gangs had traded their guns in for periodic tables, and they spent their nights helping little old ladies understand moles and molecules.
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Created: 7/4/96; Updated:Feb/03/2001