We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

—Roy Amara, researcher and futurist

We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.

—Peter Thiel, entrepreneur

1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

—Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

This chapter is gadget-driven. It is completely free from mind-staggering questions of existence or galactic origins. Here it's just cool technology. We might not have flying cars, but as you've seen from the examples throughout this book, we aren't doing too shabby. Yes, instead of flying cars, the wish of the 1950s, we got the internet. I can live with that.

THE LASER

Before becoming a plaything of scientists and either tools or weapons in endless science fiction stories, it was an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser spits out energetic coherent photons (quantum light particles) focused on a tight spot.

Think of it as light amplified via a crystal and focused rather than scattered. Remember that light is also a wave, and the term coherent is a fancy way to say that all the peaks and valleys of light waves are lined up. This also means they are all the same color. If they were solid, they could be nicely stacked on top of each other. This is called being in-phase.

The first lasers were built in the 1960s. They are used in computers (in optical disk drives), printers, surgery, cutting tools, tools to measure distances between objects in carpentry, and really destructive weapons in science fiction.

POPULAR NAMES FOR LIGHT-ENERGY WEAPONS IN SCIENCE FICTION

Laser (go with what you know)

Heat ray (The War of the Worlds)

Ray gun (used in early science fiction, generally before lasers were invented)

Death Ray (the 1930s’ Nikola Tesla idea for directed energy weapons)

Phaser (short for phased array pulsed energy projectile weapon in the Star Trek universe)

Pulse rifle (science fiction outside of the Star Trek universe)

Blaster (Star Wars)

Lasgun (Warhammer 40,000)

Plasma gun (not a laser; learn all about plasma in the third interlude to find out why)

3-D PRINTING

Although not quite a Federation replicator from the Star Trek universe, the nonfiction 3-D printer comes close. It is capable of printing out physical objects from an inputted digital model. The printing is an additive process that creates copies by laying down successive layers of material.

I'll let you
I'll let you know
I'll let you know when I have
I'll let you know when I have finished
I'll let you know when I have finished making a
I'll let you know when I have finished making a 3-D-printing joke.

If you have the necessary materials, the only limit on what you can print is your imagination. Of course, you need the correct materials to load your printer. I'm pretty sure plastic polymers might not make the best mug of beer.

One of the most fascinating and practical things about 3D printing is medical applications. Print up some organs for drug testing. No more mice needed. All you have to do is take a scan of the patient, which creates instructions (a digital model) for the printer. These instructions are sent to the printer's nozzles, which spew out a gel-like mixture composed of mature tissue cells, stem cells, and polymers designed to mimic real tissue consistency. The organ is printed in a layered lattice, leavings channels throughout that will act as blood vessels so that nutrients can circulate.1

3-D-printed body parts have been implanted in test animals.² The Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing (ITOP) system begins by printing layers of biodegradable materials into the form of the desired tissue. This scaffolding is then filled with gels containing living cells that develop into functional tissue. Implanted materials in the scaffolding can encourage bone growth so that the scaffold can be removed.

Although it will be a while before personalized organs are available for transplants, biologists are getting closer. In 2001, the human bladder became the first bioprinted organ successfully implanted into a human.3

And now for a feel-good proof of concept. In 2011, when Kaiba Gionfriddo was six weeks old, he started turning blue. He was having difficulty breathing because one of his bronchial tubes had collapsed. In early 2012, a 3-D-printed windpipe was used to hold the airway open.⁴ It dissolved a few years later, allowing his bronchus time to grow strong enough for normal breathing.

HOW ABOUT A TECHNOLOGY COMBO MEAL WITH A 3-D PRINTER?

Here is a combination of the tech ideas (all real) described in this book that we can use to create some solid science fiction…that might actually become our future. It all starts with a 3-D printer, and it ends with colonization.

First our engineers, using some of the rocketry technology from chapter 17, transport 3-D printers to a marginally inhabitable exoplanet, perhaps Proxima b (chapter 12). Once planet-side, robots (chapter 14) are rolled out to use the printer technology to create a habitable base for future human colonists.

GREAT TOOL, BUT ARE THERE ETHICAL ISSUES WITH 3-D PRINTING?

I'm sure you can think up a lot of medical issues, but there are a few that might not be as obvious, at least not right away. Such as making a gun in your back den, or a neighbor producing cocaine, or a terrorist manufacturing ricin. Sorry for bringing you down. If you like to dress up, the next section will hopefully cheer you back up.

WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY

Wearable technology is so much easier than having to lug around equipment. It is also much sneakier if you have nefarious intentions. I'm sure you have seen this in science fiction. Yes, I know the Fitbit is great for your health, and augmented reality glasses like Google Glass dumping information on you is all great and interesting. But I want to describe wearable things you might not know about such as the Bluetooth dress by Sony Ericsson. This cocktail dress lights up when the wearer gets an incoming call.5 Is it going to change the world? I don't know, but it is fun.

How cool would a computer tattoo be? The technology is getting close. Scientists at the University of Tokyo have built a prototype of a computer screen that can be worn on your skin.⁶ The two-micrometers-thick polymer LED is equipped with organic photodetectors connected to a sensor. The whole contraption is attached to the volunteer with material very similar to plastic food wrap. Its job is to measure blood oxygen levels. It doesn't sound like much right now, but think of it as the first step in a journey that will eventually attach your e-mail to your wrist.

If you aren't into tattoos, how about a bracelet? There is one that can analyze chemicals from a drop of sweat. Then it sends the data to your smartphone.⁷ Someday it might even be able to detect molecules linked to depression.

CAMERA TECHNOLOGY

Imagine how cool it would be to have a camera that takes photographs around corners. You might actually be able to buy such a camera in your lifetime. A proof of concept device already exists at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where researchers modeled bats using a form of echolocation to build a specialized camera.⁸ Similar to how a bat may use sound (echolocation) to map its surroundings, these researchers bounced laser light off the floor and scattered it in all directions. Their camera was able to detect the light echoes as it smacked a test object around a corner.

COMPUTER IDENTIFICATION

Computers that recognize who you are as soon as you walk into a room. I'm not talking about the weak AI of your web browser that has collected information so it can flash a banner ad for products you might like, or your social media platform of choice predicting the political party you favor from what you post and who you follow. I'm talking about computers that know you for you.

It is very nearly possible with today's technology that when you walk into your smart home, the Wi-Fi system will identify you. A human body partially blocks the radio waves between router and computer. Members of a family tend to come in different shapes and sizes, and they even walk differently. This builds a pattern that is sent to the family computer via Wi-Fi.

As of this writing, scientists have built an algorithm that is 95 percent accurate at distinguishing two adults and 89 percent accurate with six adults in the same room.9 A system like that could identify you and tailor heat and light settings to your preference without asking. Mix in a bit of science fiction and it could detect your emotional state and cue up appropriate music, perhaps even mix a drink for you after a particularly trying day negotiating trade agreements with one of the outer colonies.

MACHINE MIND CONTROL

Today's best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem.

—Phillip Alvelda, manager for DARPA's Neural Engineering System Design program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants humans to be able to control machines with their minds. This is not such a far-fetched idea for either good fiction or reality. Their wetware project, called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD),¹⁰ implants a small disc into the brain. This device is measured in millimeters and converts the brain's chemical signals into a digital pulse.

This idea isn't particularly new, but NESD can connect up to a million individual neurons, which makes it easy to think your electronic tools into being more productive. You wouldn't have to leave the couch. Best of all, people with prosthetic limbs would have a lot more control.

PARTING COMMENTS

The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

—Sid Caesar