It’s Friday morning in the year 2025, and you’re running late. You got distracted watching the music video that as playing in the corner of your bathroom mirror while you were brushing your teeth. How will you get to your office at Mega Giga Industries on time?
A quick check of your Internet-connected refrigerator magnet tells you your train which travels at speeds up to 250 miles an hour as it electromagnetically hovers above its guide track—is a bit behind schedule, too. So you decide to drive your environmentally-friendly hydrogen fuel cell car instead—or rather, let your car drive you. It’s programmed to know the way, and it will get you there without speeding, getting lost, or crashing.
Settling into your office chair, which changes color to match what you’re wearing, you pick up yesterday morning’s newspaper. Printed on reusable electronic paper, it instantly rewrites itself with today’s headlines. Now it’s time for your big meeting. Uh-oh! You’ve left your handwritten notes at home. No problem. The digital ink pen you used has stored an electronic copy of what you wrote.
Your wristwatch videophone suddenly rings. Your best friend’s face pops up on the organic light-emitting diode screen asking what you’re doing this weekend. Will you slap on your 3-D contact lenses and play virtual soccer with the U.S. Olympic team? No, no. Your friend says, so you have to take the new nanotube elevator (made of microscopic fibers many times stronger than steel) 60,000 miles into space.
Could this scene really take place in just a couple of decades? The researchers who are currently developing all this stuff think so. These gadgets may be as common in 20 years as cell phones and DVD players are today.
2025年的一個(gè)星期五早上，你眼看就要遲到了。你正在盥洗室里刷牙，卻被玻璃鏡一角正放著的音樂(lè)錄像弄得分了心。你怎樣才能按時(shí)趕到米嘉-技嘉公司上班呢？
趕快查一下電冰箱上的磁貼，那是與互聯(lián)網(wǎng)鏈接的。磁貼將告訴你，你所要乘坐的時(shí)速達(dá)250英里(相當(dāng)于400公里)的磁懸浮火車(chē)正好也晚點(diǎn)了。于是，你決定開(kāi)著環(huán)保型的氫動(dòng)力車(chē)去上班，或者更確切地說(shuō)，讓你的車(chē)載著你去上班。這種車(chē)是經(jīng)過(guò)程序設(shè)計(jì)的，知道行進(jìn)方向。它可以載著你安全抵達(dá)目的地，不超速，不迷路，也不會(huì)出車(chē)禍。
你把自己舒舒服服地安頓在辦公室的椅子上（這種椅子會(huì)自動(dòng)變色，好與你的衣服顏色相配），拿出一份昨天的晨報(bào)。報(bào)紙是印在可以重復(fù)使用的電子紙上的，它立刻自動(dòng)換上了今天的新聞標(biāo)題。好啦，你該參加一個(gè)重要會(huì)議了。哦，你把手寫(xiě)筆記忘在家里了！沒(méi)問(wèn)題。你用過(guò)的數(shù)字水筆已經(jīng)儲(chǔ)存了一份相關(guān)內(nèi)容的電子文本。
突然，你手表上的可視電話響了。你最要好的朋友出現(xiàn)在有機(jī)激光顯示屏上，問(wèn)你這個(gè)周末有何打算?！跋氪魃先S隱形眼鏡，與美國(guó)奧林匹克隊(duì)進(jìn)行一場(chǎng)虛擬足球比賽嗎？”“不，不。”你朋友說(shuō)。那么，你們打算乘新型的納米電梯（用微纖維制成，強(qiáng)度比鋼高出許多倍）進(jìn)入60，000英里（相當(dāng)于96，000公里）高度的太空遨游。
再過(guò)二三十年，這一切真的會(huì)發(fā)生嗎？那些目前正在開(kāi)發(fā)這些東西的研究人員對(duì)此深信不疑。20年后，這些小玩藝兒就會(huì)像今天的手機(jī)和DVD機(jī)一樣隨處可見(jiàn)。
A quick check of your Internet-connected refrigerator magnet tells you your train which travels at speeds up to 250 miles an hour as it electromagnetically hovers above its guide track—is a bit behind schedule, too. So you decide to drive your environmentally-friendly hydrogen fuel cell car instead—or rather, let your car drive you. It’s programmed to know the way, and it will get you there without speeding, getting lost, or crashing.
Settling into your office chair, which changes color to match what you’re wearing, you pick up yesterday morning’s newspaper. Printed on reusable electronic paper, it instantly rewrites itself with today’s headlines. Now it’s time for your big meeting. Uh-oh! You’ve left your handwritten notes at home. No problem. The digital ink pen you used has stored an electronic copy of what you wrote.
Your wristwatch videophone suddenly rings. Your best friend’s face pops up on the organic light-emitting diode screen asking what you’re doing this weekend. Will you slap on your 3-D contact lenses and play virtual soccer with the U.S. Olympic team? No, no. Your friend says, so you have to take the new nanotube elevator (made of microscopic fibers many times stronger than steel) 60,000 miles into space.
Could this scene really take place in just a couple of decades? The researchers who are currently developing all this stuff think so. These gadgets may be as common in 20 years as cell phones and DVD players are today.
2025年的一個(gè)星期五早上，你眼看就要遲到了。你正在盥洗室里刷牙，卻被玻璃鏡一角正放著的音樂(lè)錄像弄得分了心。你怎樣才能按時(shí)趕到米嘉-技嘉公司上班呢？
趕快查一下電冰箱上的磁貼，那是與互聯(lián)網(wǎng)鏈接的。磁貼將告訴你，你所要乘坐的時(shí)速達(dá)250英里(相當(dāng)于400公里)的磁懸浮火車(chē)正好也晚點(diǎn)了。于是，你決定開(kāi)著環(huán)保型的氫動(dòng)力車(chē)去上班，或者更確切地說(shuō)，讓你的車(chē)載著你去上班。這種車(chē)是經(jīng)過(guò)程序設(shè)計(jì)的，知道行進(jìn)方向。它可以載著你安全抵達(dá)目的地，不超速，不迷路，也不會(huì)出車(chē)禍。
你把自己舒舒服服地安頓在辦公室的椅子上（這種椅子會(huì)自動(dòng)變色，好與你的衣服顏色相配），拿出一份昨天的晨報(bào)。報(bào)紙是印在可以重復(fù)使用的電子紙上的，它立刻自動(dòng)換上了今天的新聞標(biāo)題。好啦，你該參加一個(gè)重要會(huì)議了。哦，你把手寫(xiě)筆記忘在家里了！沒(méi)問(wèn)題。你用過(guò)的數(shù)字水筆已經(jīng)儲(chǔ)存了一份相關(guān)內(nèi)容的電子文本。
突然，你手表上的可視電話響了。你最要好的朋友出現(xiàn)在有機(jī)激光顯示屏上，問(wèn)你這個(gè)周末有何打算?！跋氪魃先S隱形眼鏡，與美國(guó)奧林匹克隊(duì)進(jìn)行一場(chǎng)虛擬足球比賽嗎？”“不，不。”你朋友說(shuō)。那么，你們打算乘新型的納米電梯（用微纖維制成，強(qiáng)度比鋼高出許多倍）進(jìn)入60，000英里（相當(dāng)于96，000公里）高度的太空遨游。
再過(guò)二三十年，這一切真的會(huì)發(fā)生嗎？那些目前正在開(kāi)發(fā)這些東西的研究人員對(duì)此深信不疑。20年后，這些小玩藝兒就會(huì)像今天的手機(jī)和DVD機(jī)一樣隨處可見(jiàn)。