The Future Ain't So Bright After All

The future is supposed to be better than this!

As a child of the 80’s I grew up in an era where thinking about the future was at its peak. Personal computers just become available for the masses. Technology advancement was experiencing a renaissance of its own in this decade. As a result we have plenty of movies trying to portray how the future might look like.

In Back to the Future we have future where we have real 3D holograms ,cars would fly and hoverboards whizzing on the sidewalks.In Blade Runner we see a future where we have androids living amongst us. Unlike BTTF, the future depicted in Blade Runner is rather bleak. Same goes to Total Recall, Mad Max and Terminator. The future is often depicted as apocalyptic.

As mush as I like these movies my all time favourite futuristic show then is Beyond 2000 (now called Beyond Tomorrow on Discovery Science). As the title suggests, this show showcase technologies that might be readily available in the year 2000. I remember watching a segment about solar powered cars. The inventor believes that by the year 2000 solar cars will be available commercially in car dealership all over the world. This was back in 1988. Eleven years on sadly his prediction didn’t come true. In fact solar cells are still expensive now as it was then. The only car with built-in solar panels today is the Toyota Prius Hybrid. The solar panels are integrated into the roof of the car and would charge the car battery if an electric outlet isn’t available. This is still a far cry from the utopia of seeing cars that can move indefinitely without any need for charging. In fact hybrid cars are still rare on our roads. As for fully solar-powered cars, they are none available commercially. They can only be found during the World Solar Challenge competition. Surprisingly solar cars are still in their research phase 20 years later. One of the reason is solar cells are super sensitive. They just couldn’t hold up to the rough and tumble of everyday use. They can rupture easily. This rule out seeing fully solar powered cars for the foreseeable future.

But by far the most interesting invention featured in the show was the application of nano technology (nanotech). They showed a small working cog assembly next to a dust mite. The size of the entire assembly is only a few microns wide. That is how small it is. As usual they postulate that in the future micro engines can be made using these nanotech gears to power miniature machines that would swim inside our body. These mini robots would help unclog our arteries or mend internal bleeding without the need for intrusive surgeries.

Sadly 20 years on none of this came to reality yet. Instead of seeing nanobots swimming in our veins the only real application of nanotech we have today is this!

Would u Pay RM2100 for this? I rather spend RM1800 on a PS3!

Nanofilters! Yes dear reader, this is the lame reality of nano technology. Despite all the hoopla back in the 80’s the only real practical day to day use of this mind-blowing technology is as water filters sold by MLM companies. If you watch enough TV I am sure you have seen the incredibly cringe worthy TV advert. That advert is just marginally better than AC Mizal's Edumium shit we afew years back.Want to know the sad part about all this?

Water filtered using nanofilters are not really healthy as claimed by these MLM companies. Due to the effective filtration capabilities of nanofilters, even the nutrients inside the water are filtered out. What you get is incredibly clean water with no nutritious value what so ever. In Africa where these filter are first widely used, (to combat cholera and drinkable water in remote places) the WHO had to provide supplemental nutrients into the water post filtration. If these nutrients are not supplemented, the children of Africa who drinks the water would not be getting their recommended daily nutrient intake. Imagine that! But look what I found in the website for this expensive piece of shit (RM 2K for a filter? come on man... who are you kidding?. This is SYN LAMPE BERGER price hiking method all over again)

I don’t remember any of the nanofilter sellers in Malaysia disclosing this little fact to their customers (there are quite a few nanofilter system in the market today.. just google it. ALL BS!) . Instead they claim that their nanotech filters can;

a) Provide Bio-Aura energy - WTF is bio aura energy? never learn this in physics class
b) Cure diabetes
c) Filter contaminant while maintaining the nutrients <-- ok this one is half LEGIT. nutrients are not maintained when filtered using Nanofilters
d) Provide healthy and safe drinking water <--minum air dimasak dari paip pun sihat jugak! e) Creating Nano components which helps in construction of cells <--note to manufacturer - water molecules are smaller than NANO size (water melecule is 3x10^-10 M. Nano is only 10^-9M) how can a NANO component help in a cellular level anyway? WHAT IS THIS SHIT?

The machine just filter your tap water. It is not magical as claimed by them. All the "benefits" listed are not backed up with scientific research or approval from reputed sources.

So tell me about the futuristic technology that failed to live up to your high expectation. Would love to hear it from you guys. Comments below as usual! Have a great weekend

p/s : ...I was under the impression that we'd already purchased ourselves a verdict.

PICTURE CREDIT

Sandia National Laboratories/SUMMiT Technologies
Toyota
Hai-o Bio Aura