Here are some things you’re not likely to see this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but would be nice if we did…

10. Free Kindle book download when you purchase a physical book through Amazon. Touchscreen and color screen Kindle with the capability of using a Stylus like pen to highlight and write notes in the margins.

9. Kindle notes and highlights syncing with Evernote.  Also, Livescribe Pen syncing with Evernote.

8. Livescribe Pen with a quality and smooth roller ball pen tip instead of the cheap ball point. It’s an expensive pen – I’d like a good writing experience please.

7. 3D TV’s and Monitors that don’t require glasses.  There must be a way. Let’s make it happen.

6. 3D Wii Nintendo video games. Wow, that’s going to be cool!

5. Pleo available for $50. A Pleo relative – a lifelike and indestructible robotic dog that will play and entertain my real dog.

4. Large OLED networked digital frame to display photographic art that turns off automatically at bedtime when the lights are turned off.

3. iTablet connectivity with a new Apple TV, and Apple TV available with a monthly subscription for unlimited viewing instead of nickel and diming me with every download. Also, Slingbox functionality, so I can view media on the iTablet while traveling.

2. Got to plug Boxee. Boxee’s big play should be to offer live TV (goodbye Comcast). It’s in the networks’ interest to expand access to live content, so make it happen Fred Wilson.

1. A ruggedized and waterproof iphone or nexus one phone with much slimmer form factor with directional sound (and mic) capabilities, a technology that concentrates acoustic sound into a narrow beam that can be projected, so I don’t have to mess with bluetooth accessories.

What are your short-term technology wishes?

The pace of technological change is accelerating and there is more reason for optimism now than at any point in history.  Within 100 years, the world will have ubiquitous and free energy, healthcare and education. Poverty will be wiped out, sickness and disease will be rare, and world peace will prevail.

A retrospective from 21-10.

By Matt Jaunich.

When a baby is born, he or she is allocated shares in an index fund of multinational equities, which pays monthly dividends, to support a modest lifestyle for life. These annuities, coupled with automated production, enable the pursuit of creative and innovative lives filled with meaning and significance. The arts are flourishing, and churches booming, as people seek meaning and face to face community in an age defined by virtual and intellibot (artificially intelligent bots) relationships. Life expectancy is now well beyond 150 quality years thanks to effective wellness promotion, the ability to manufacture human organs, and other tissue and genetic therapy breakthroughs achieved by the likes of Aubrey de Grey and Ray Kurzweil.

A major factor for wellness and longevity improvement was the shift to naturally derived products, materials and fibers from the toxic ingredients widely used in production during the past century, including poisonous chemicals used in food production, formaldehyde infused building products, synthetic and chemically treated carpeting, VOC paints, and fire retardant chemicals used in bedding. Natural and organic ingredients are also vital for a virtuous cradle to cradle product life-cycle, so production is a regenerative and not a destructive force (God’s Model was a major catalyst in enrolling more than a billion Christians worldwide in committing to this reality).

Landfills remain a vestige of the past century’s unsustainable industrial complex, and we are still working to cleanup waste disposal sites to prevent toxins from further poisoning ground water and wildlife ecosystems.  Many day-to-day supplies are simply manufactured on demand in home printing stations with materials that decompose and fertilize urban food structures.  And, Amazon’s VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) robotic delivery vehicles ensure the guaranteed delivery of other goods in under three hours anywhere within the continental United States.

The transformation to a clean energy economy did more than save consumers trillions of dollars, and have wellness and environmental benefits resulting from clean air and water. The primary funding source of Islamic terrorist extremists was cutoff, which paves the way for a new Marshall Plan for the broken Islamic World that had been ravaged by war and instability.  The “Safe and Free Zones,” with Vulture Defense biometric security systems, succeeded in providing a clear choice throughout the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan between economic prosperity, security and freedom, and subsisting under the tyrannical rule of terrorists, which nearly eliminates Islamic extremism.

Peace on earth prevails, as economic opportunity extends to everyone, and abundant fresh water (primarily from desalinization, which also conveniently counters the threat of rising oceans) and free energy (sourced from a mix of ambient air, sun, geo-thermal, wind and the ocean energies) curtails violent struggles over resources. The huge militaries of China and the United States are dismantled and replaced by small and agile IPU’s (Intelligence Policing Units) that protect humanity from the remaining fringe fanatics.

Freedom also reigns supreme. Oppressive regimes can’t survive in a transparent world, where censorship and propaganda is undermined by instantaneous and free access to news and information through universal worldwide Internet provided by Google’s next-generation Global-Max service. The world community is also enlightened by the capability to freely travel throughout the world, and communicate seamlessly in any language.  In real time, mind reading technology listens to the little voice in your head that says what you want to say, and then generates the words in any language with a digital replication of your voice.

And, because airplanes are fueled by hydrogen generated from free energy, and security risks have been marginalized, the consumer cost to travel collapses to 0, while the airlines are more profitable than ever via advertising and other premium services.  Supersonic flight and sub-orbital flights mean it only takes less than 2 hours to get from San Francisco to Shanghai. And, when you arrive at the airport an autonomous Taxi vehicle takes you where you want for free (also supported by video advertising, a snack and mini bar, and other premium information services). Instantaneous teleporting and time travel have been demonstrated within research labs, and it’s looking promising that these technologies will be commercialized within the next 100 years.

Governments are a tiny fraction of the size they once were.  Blundering bureaucracies, and the ballooning government debt-bomb explosion enabled robust free-market solutions to education, healthcare, and transportation to thrive. The need for policing and emergency units and other public welfare expenses only requires a corporate flat tax of 2%.  The budget for operating the Internal Revenue Service has shrunk from $11 billion in 2009 ($10.5 trillion in today’s dollars) to $5 million today. The tax code, which in 2009 was more than 5.6 million words and 30,000 pages with single-spaced 12 pt font, is now simply half a page.

Transparency and probability management destroys the need for bloated bureaucracy and growth stifling regulation and is an inherently combatting force to corruption, dishonesty, and greed. Total transparency is achieved largely through mandated universal adoption of probability management and a networked, real-time, global Monte Carlo simulation engine, which illuminates the future in powerful ways, to inform optimal decision making in the present (accessed through WarpDrive’s Dashboard, a WarpShare company).  This technology also ensures stable economic growth, so another economic calamity like the busts of 1929, 1999, 2008 and 2016 doesn’t happen again.

The largest boon to the economic growth and prosperity the Earth enjoys today is a result of affordable and universal education offered through computing devices and BrainJump Innovation Centers. The thrust of education is to identify and develop a person’s unique gifts and passions, so life is productive and significant. Personalized learning paths within immersive 3 dimensional virtual spaces are based on students’ individual aptitudes and interests. Learning is also an active experience, rather than the archaic passive and regurgitative experience it once was. Education revolves around innovation, and is fun, collaborative, and individually-paced. And, because learning is connected to real-world problem solving, students no longer ask, “Why do I have to learn this?” Online education is also the great equalizer, as students anywhere in the world have the same access to world-class teaching resources.

Quality of life is dramatically improved by the literal greening of cities, where buildings are living, breathing organisms that complement natural habitats and ecosystems. Smart urban design also promotes health and wellness through social interaction, improved productivity, and supporting a positive state of mind. Most significantly, the use of personal transportation vehicles like Segways, and raised monorail systems, eliminates traffic in and around dense urban centers. In this world, crime is rare, because people are authentically happy. Research has proven that mental health directly impacts overall health and wellness more than any other factor, and advanced monitoring and sensor systems track health metrics, including mental health. Therapies are administered via meBOOST in real time, so people can achieve their full potential.

* bold connotes initiatives I’m developing

The Case for Optimism: Supporting Evidence for the Thesis

The Bush proposal for the partial privatization of social security is prescient of this prediction.

Aubrey de Grey TED talk

Essential reading on transforming how we design and make things – Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart –

God’s Model

Mercury levels in fish is rising as a result of increased greenhouse gasses.

Bisphenol A is one of many contaminants found in plastic food packaging.

The safety of chemicals is “the question of the hour for the early 21st Century.” – David Rosner, Professor of history and public health at Columbia University.

3D Object Printing from home

Urban Farms and plastic packaging alternatives -

The transition is already happening via Fair Trade (organic) certification, which is extending beyond food products to clothing. Building products are similarly rated and evaluated by LEED and others. Appliances are rated for energy efficiency.

Bloom Energy a Kleiner Perkins investment, is developing technology to produce energy from ambient air

Solar Cells are getting more and more efficient

Hydrogen Fuel and clean energy carrier

Safe Zones and the U.S. Iraq exit Strategy

Ryanair foreshadows this prediction, as it offers free tickets to 1/4 of its passengers

The DARPA Grand Challenge: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp has already produced autonomous vehicles capable of navigating an urban setting. Several cars already currently have self-breaking and lane assist technologies and can even parallel park This means that vehicles will be able to safely travel on highways at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour, while passengers watch television and drink cold beer with their feet up.

Mind Reading Technology segment on 60 Minutes

Time Travel

2057 Science Channel

The World First Time Machine

Teleportation

Probability Management

Flaw of Averages

Floating city nation states will form, as people escape oppressive taxation and economic stagnation resulting from irresponsible, misinformed, and reckless fiscal and monetary policy. These nation states will provide a model for nations around the world, to effectively eliminate stifling taxation regimes through new revenue generating business models. The Seasteading Institute

SRI International and the Department of Education have studied the efficacy of online education, which has shown to be more effective than conventional education, and online education is still in its infancy. Online programs can scale with virtually additional per user cost.

The most significant last and final threat to humanity is the chance of huge meteor hit, but thanks to the Lifeboat Foundation and their colonies on Moon and Mars, humanity should persist for the foreseeable future.  LIfeboat Foundation

In an interview with Computerworld, Intel CTO Justin Rattner said that as early as 2012, we will see the lines between human and machine intelligence begin to blur. Nanoscale chips or machines will move through our bodies, fixing deteriorating organs or unclogging arteries, he predicted. Virtual worlds will become increasingly realistic, while robots will develop enough intelligence and humanlike characteristics that they will become companions, not merely vacuum cleaners and toys, he said.

And one artificial intelligence researcher said in an interview that robotics will make such dramatic advances in the coming years that humans will be marrying robots by the year 2050. Robots will become so humanlike — having intelligent conversations, displaying emotions and responding to human emotions — that they will be very much like a new race of people, said David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher who wrote the book Love and Sex With Robots.

I first posted a link to this video in August, but am reposting, because I think it’s very inspiring and innovative. It’s a departure from 3d, extravagant graphics, and has a pen device, where what you draw becomes part of the game, a great example of mixed-reality gaming.

this is just what I need! [Link to video.]

The University of Tokyo has developed a series of robots capable of performing house-keeping jobs, including doing the dishes. With 18 sensors of five different types attached to the robot’s hand, its arm first detects dishes, carries them without crushing or dropping them and then hits the dish washer’s start button.

Created in association with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic, KAR is still a prototype. The engineers are now trying to make the robot smaller and lighter and move fast enough to be able to put away dishes in five minutes after a family of four has finished dinner.

this is an amazing glimpse into the future – beyond artificial intelligence, where devices can learn and adopt (link).

very interesting segment on the upcoming dramatic demographic shift in Japan, and the potential role of robots. link here.

Spanish researchers have published a report about robots potential impact on society – some of the abstract pasted below – click here for source:

Robots will be intelligent machines to be incorporated into both domestic and industrial life: they will help us to clean our houses, will milk cows on farms, and will be programmed to work 24 hours per day in factories without resting, with a yield equivalent to three day shifts. In addition, replacing human labour with robots will prevent workers from being exposed to dangerous, stressful or unhealthy environments, thus reducing labour-related risks.

The most striking feature of this technological revolution are social robots, machines with artificial intelligence, and with which we will have emotional and even intimate interactions. “A robot might be a more effective partner and a better person than the humans we actually have in our immediate lives: just as you can see dog owners talking to their pets today, soon we will be talking to robots,” says López Peláez – to such an extent that sexual robots are currently being designed to carry out pleasurable personal interactions. These will be equipped with the required sensorial abilities, such as touch. “Since they will be used as objects, sexual robots may be able to act as a future substitute for prostitution or pornography.”

The study also looks at the possible repercussions of incorporating robots into society. On one hand, just as with uneven access to technologies such as the Internet, they will open up a new gulf, this time a robotic one. This will result in a cultural distinction being drawn between companies and people who can afford to buy robots to help with their activities – and those who cannot. The robotic gulf will also favour more industrialised societies, potentially widening the gap between the first and third worlds, or providing greater possibilities for success in logistics and war. On the other hand, López Peláez says that “just as many Japanese people today believe that their robots are alive, we will attribute human characteristics to robots, and we may even define robots’ rights”.

Another major concern is that if robots are to carry out so many labour tasks and replace human labour, unemployment may rise just as it did in the 19th century with the invention of textile machines. The robotics experts interviewed for this study claim that factories with high robot use will retrain workers to work in other, though possibly more poorly paid, areas. However, they also point out that the situation will balance out with the development of new services involved in the design and maintenance of the robots.