By Dick Pelletier
A new higher-speed Internet2, now under development in labs
around the world, will one day offer holographic images
indiscernible from reality, providing an array of applications that
we can only dream of today. 
With digital video resolution four times finer than today’s
HDTV, and haptic technologies that
provide a realistic sense of touch, researchers can create
holograph images of people filmed thousands of miles away enabling
lifelike virtual interaction indiscernible from reality. The system
uses cameras that capture live images of people from two or more
places, merges the data, and feeds it back to all locations.
We could organize a meeting with friends or relatives from
cities scattered around the world without anyone actually
traveling. People will kiss, hug and reminisce as if they were in
the same room. And our senses will convince us that they are there.
We could even meet with a simulation of a favorite celebrity.
(cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
Many forward-thinkers see a bright future ahead as we begin our
21st century trek. The following timeline takes a positive look at
how the future could unfold:
Promises
2010-2019 – The biotech revolution picks up steam;
cloning tissues and organs are routine healthcare procedures now
and are covered by most insurance companies. Cancer, diabetes; most
heart diseases now treatable; patient records include complete
personal genomes available at around $100. Humanoid robots form 10%
of world population. “Big-Brother” surveillance prevents
crimes.
2020-2029 – Medical ‘nanobots’ maintain health 24/7, all
diseases now treatable. Star Trek-like replicators provide food,
clothing, and other essentials at little cost. Driverless
‘air-cars’ whisk us about. The space elevator slashed launch fees
enabling cheap vacations at orbiting hotels. A third-world nation
revealed capacity to wield nano-weapons, which prompted the U.S.,
EU, and China to join forces and create a world-wide defense
against the threat.
2030-2049 – Visionaries saw it coming: “machines would
one day out-think humans”. This revolution encouraged the merger of
minds and bodies with non-biological creations built with
‘immortal’ parts and powered by supercomputer intelligence. Living
in these new ‘indestructible’ bodies that can shape-shift into
different forms on command and never suffer an unwanted death has
given everyone an exhilarating sense of comfort, security, and
well-being. (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier 
An impending danger threatens the world – bioviolence. Although
no nation state admits to having a biological weapons program,
according to a recent DePaul University report, US intelligence
officials assert that as many as 10 countries might have active
programs, including North Korea, Iran, and Syria.
The report, authored by DePaul Law Professor Barry Kellman, also
states that Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups
have expressed interest in acquiring biological weapons. Most
nations see a moral problem with using bioweapons, but terrorists
feel no such restrictions.
According to a lengthy fatwa commissioned by Osama bin Laden,
jihadists are entitled to use weapons of mass destruction against
infidels, even if it means killing innocent women, children, and
Muslims. And bioviolence is perhaps the most dire, easiest means to
expose millions to sure death.
Kellman believes it would be relatively easy to launch a
bio-attack. An offender could infect himself with a deadly disease
that has been genetically altered for a slow infection process. He
would sneak into a crowded city before his symptoms ever became
apparent and infect unsuspecting victims, turning each one into
carriers who would then infect others.
A recent simulation created at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies revealed that a single carrier of smallpox,
for example, could infect 10 to 20 people, creating wave after wave
of outbreaks. The number of cases projected by the end of the
fourth wave was 3 million, with a third of the victims dying – one
million deaths caused by a single terrorist act. (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
Imagine playing basketball at age 200 with your
great-great-great grandchildren, or flying a spaceship to
Alpha Centauri in
the next millennium. If life extension scientists achieve their
goals, regardless of age, your “rejuvenated” body of the future
will always remain in perfect health, allowing you to experience
the many wonders predicted for this century and beyond. 
A growing number of researchers from around the world believe
that eternal health and youth will soon be realized. Aging is a
destructive biochemical event, scientists say, and we are on the
brink of understanding its life-destroying processes.
In a 60 Minutes interview, anti-aging guru Aubrey de Grey
said that science will soon develop the means to create indefinite
lifespans. “First generation therapies will give us maybe thirty
extra years of healthy living,” de Grey said; “new therapies will
then add another thirty years; always keeping us one step ahead of
the grim reaper.”
Futurist Ray Kurzweil, in a
recent C-Span2 broadcast confirmed that we are in early stages of
profound revolutions in anti-aging technologies. “Soon,” Kurzweil
says, “biotech upgrades will add more than one year of life
expectancy to our lives each year.”
British Telecom’s Ian Pearson makes an
even bolder prediction. This futurologist believes that advances in
the next three decades will be sufficient for us to make a
realistic stab at ending death. “Unless one is unfortunate enough
to die from accident or disease, many alive today have a good
chance of not dying at all,” Pearson says. (cont.)
Continue Reading
By Dick Pelletier
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Time Portal. In a few
moments we will beam your minds all the way back to the year 2008,
where you will each live a day in the life of your early 21st
century self. Although your bodies remain here in the year 2110,
your minds will travel back in time and merge with your younger
self. We hope you enjoy this unique learning experience. 
The above scenario is fiction of course, but researchers at the
new CERN Particle Accelerator in Switzerland believe
their machine can recreate conditions like the “big bang” which
brought time and space into existence, and create baby black holes
and wormholes; elements that many believe offer the best chance to
validate or dispute the concept of traveling backwards in time.
Princeton University’s Richard Gott
describes wormholes as shortcuts through space and time that
connect two distant points, like a worm tunnel through an apple.
“You jump into the wormhole and instantly pop out on Alpha
Centauri; you’ve gone through a tunnel that connects two places in
spacetime.”
Although today’s laws of physics cannot rule out time travel,
the idea is laden with problems. Say we travel back in time and
stop our parents from getting together. This would prevent us from
being born; we could not exist and our journey in time couldn’t
happen – scientists call this a paradox. We created a past
different from the one that already exists.
Clearly, mischievous time travelers cannot change the present.
People are not suddenly disappearing because a rerun of events has
prevented their birth. Therefore, something is stopping time
travelers from changing our present, and physicists Stephen
Hawking, Michio Kaku, and others believe they know what it is –
parallel universes. (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
You enter the supermarket, grab an electronic shopping cart that
recognizes you from your touch, and begin tossing items into
pre-opened bags. The monitor on your “smart cart” not only displays
each item, its price, and total amount spent; but also subtracts
items returned to the shelf. Hold an item in your hand briefly and
its description appears on the monitor. 
When finished shopping, simply tap a “chipped” finger indicating
which credit or debit card to use, or tap thumb for cash pay, which
directs you to an automated cash machine – then out the door. On
exit, select a security option to deactivate or encrypt all product
chips, preventing evildoers from tracking you or your
merchandise.
Though this futuristic scenario may still be a few years away,
Albertson’s
Chicago and Dallas area stores are experimenting with “Shop ‘n
Scan”, a wireless scanner shoppers use to ring up groceries as they
take them off the shelf. Eventually, Albertson’s wants to integrate
this with other services that could one day become the precursor to
a scenario like the one described above.
Milwaukee futurist David Zach envisions a bright future for
RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification). “Chipped”
tickets to local Miller Park sporting
events, for example, allows management to recognize customers. Move
to a more expensive seat during the game, and the system debits
your account for the higher priced seat. (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
The world faces an estimated 70 percent chance of a nuclear,
biological or chemical attack in the next decade, according to
national security analysts surveyed for a recent Senate Foreign
Relations Committee study. 
More than half of the 85 analysts contacted believed one or two
new countries would acquire nuclear weapons within five years, and
five more will obtain them in ten. They counted technology sharing
between terrorist groups among activities that posed the greatest
dangers, and attacks by terrorists as more likely than those posed
by rogue states.
Committee Chair Senator Richard Lugar said that though the U.S.
may be successful in building new democracies, we are not safe from
small, fanatical terrorist cells that could possibly get their
hands on nuclear materials.
How great is this risk? During the Cold War, the possibility of
a nuclear war that could kill every American made it imperative to
do anything possible to avoid conflict. Today, the consequence of
even a single nuclear weapon exploding in a U.S. city is almost
beyond imagination.
Terrorist’s armed with one nuclear bomb could murder a million
people – killing in one day nearly twice as many Americans as died
in both twentieth century World Wars combined.
A WMD attack on the U.S. would have
catastrophic consequences for other countries too. Researchers at
RAND, a government think tank, estimated
that a nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach in California
would cause immediate indirect costs worldwide of more than $3
trillion and, the shutting down of U.S. ports would cut world trade
by 10 percent. (cont.)
Continue Reading
By Dick Pelletier 
The late Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced
technology is virtually indistinguishable from magic.” Enter
humanity’s newest plunge into magic – nanotechnology.
Imagine a world with billions of desktop-size machines that can
create almost anything – clothing, furniture, electronics, and more
– in just minutes. Today, such devices are not available, but one
day soon, a small nano-factory will sit on your kitchen counter and
let you order nearly anything you desire at little or no cost.
…“Computer, make me ham and eggs, home fries, wheat toast, and
coffee.”… Although this may sound like something out of Star Trek,
according to futurist Ray Kurzweil, nano-factories could be
providing you and your family with meals, medicines, and most
essentials by as early as mid-2020s.
Nano-factories operate similar to the way life creates its
miracles. A plant grabs atoms from dirt, water, and air, and
transforms them into a juicy red strawberry. Our bodies rearrange
atoms in the food we eat to create new blood cells. And in similar
fashion, nano-factories collect raw atoms from something as
inexpensive as dirt, air, or seawater and produce clothes, food,
medicine, or even another nano-factory. (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
Much decorated entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil sums up
how new technologies might play out over the next two decades with
the following futuristic claim: “If you can remain in good health
for 20 more years, you may never die.” 
Kurzweil looks at today’s technology trends to piece together a
convincing picture of what science hopes to accomplish in the
decades ahead. He believes we will eliminate all disease, pain, and
forgetfulness; even most unwanted deaths. “If you live well for the
next 20 years,” Kurzweil says, “you may be able to live in perfect
health for as long as you want.”
Though accidents, crime, wars, and terrorism could still cause
death in this future time, nobody will die from heart disease,
cancer, AIDS, malnutrition, or any of
today’s illnesses.
This future is not so surprising considering the current speed
of medical innovations. Almost daily, we hear researchers make new
discoveries, or begin clinical trials for a new therapy; and during
the next 20 years, experts say, healthcare breakthroughs will occur
at even faster rates.
In Nanomedicine, author Robert Freitas talks of developing tiny
nanorobots that roam through our bodies, repairing any cell damage
they discover. “The hard part is building the first one,” Freitas
says. “Although the road ahead may be difficult, in the end, living
in perfect health indefinitely will be possible.” (cont.)
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By Dick Pelletier
For years, entrepreneurs have been trying to create robots to
perform life’s physical drudgeries. Building mechanical bodies has
been easy, but creating artificial minds to control those bodies
has been frustrating. 
After countless commercial failures though, things are beginning
to change. Computer power now provides enough thinking ability for
robots to become financially viable.
With the ability to program more intelligence into robots,
tomorrow’s silicon creatures will be able to provide adequate home
maintenance and care for family members when needed. But here’s the
concern; these futuristic ‘bots may be required to make decisions
that could affect our lives, and experts predict that people will
place more trust in robots that express human consciousness than
those that simply act like machines.
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