So what does it mean when we say we're living in the future?
This question dawned on me when I said the phrase to someone who is less tech capable than I, he had no idea what it means. The phrase was introduced to be through a song titled "Living in the Future" by Akira the Don.
Recently he did a version 2.0 then 2.5 was the one released, those are part of the title if you search YouTube. Listening to those songs in sequence will explain it to the musical artists and enthusiasts, the rest of you will just have to keep reading this.
When I was growing up we had a lot to worry about, medicine was still primitive and technology was both unwieldy and unconnected. We took the bus to school, and lugged massive backpacks full of heavy books, and our sack lunches were in actual sacks.
By the time I graduated from high school computers became manageable, music began sounding all the same, movies lost their luster, and phones became portable … the prices became obscene.
Then the internet happened, twenty years after I was born, twenty years too late for me to truly benefit from. Now kids can miss days in school and get their homework through electronic mail, email is what we call it now.
Most kids today can get away with using a kindle or tablet PC for all their school books, weighing less than 5 lbs. for all their books. Students can safely walk to school now, there are eyes everywhere so less crime and disappearances happen.
Medicine has made us nearly immortal, and in about 26 years it may do just that. We now have access to more movies, music, games, books, art, everything, and no one can say they don't find something they like online.
We now see, hear, and read facts with the lies, online we can see what is really happening anywhere, no more censored and doctored media monopoly. Truth is more clear and everything gets tested, only empirical evidence survives this scrutiny now.
We can not only talk to anyone we want at the touch of a button, we can now see them in real time over the networks. The wool our governments and religions placed over our eyes is now cast aside and we can see everything as it is.
The future today is today, because we have no idea what's next. When I was young we predicted all of this, smart phones and world wide access to information, friends across the globe, conquering of most illnesses, and the increase in exposure giving us more safety in the physical world.
But now we have run out of predictions, we are at a point in which anything goes, tomorrow we may conquer death itself, or land a human on Mars, or find intelligent life on another world. Tomorrow we may destroy ourselves, or perfect bio technology allowing us to enhance ourselves.
We may find a manufacturing method that makes everything so inexpensive that money becomes obsolete, or we may find a new valuable resource that will drive a wedge between the rich and poor causing another revolution.
We may see peace in the Middle East, though unlikely in my lifetime it is still possible. We may see religious people become intelligent and sane, or we will see them destroy our species just to protect their delusions.
No matter what happens from here, we are living in the future, and today is the best time to be alive.
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