Editing 1623: 2016 Conversation Guide
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
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As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!'' | As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!'' | ||
This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...) The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. This topic was discussed before in [[864: Flying Cars]], where [[Megan]] suggests that the real advances in futuristic technology are in computers and electronics, rather than methods of flying. | This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...) The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. This topic was discussed before in [[864: Flying Cars]], where [[Megan]] suggests that the real advances in futuristic technology are in computers and electronics, rather than methods of flying. | ||
− | + | "Where's my {{w|jet pack}}?" is one of the {{tvtropes|IWantMyJetPack|tropes}} addressed here, and has actually been developed in a somewhat workable fashions and {{w|Astronaut propulsion unit|analogues}}, but is dismissed as being too personally dangerous to have a {{w|The_Jetsons|Jetson}}-like ubiquity. | |
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− | + | Similarly, various forms of {{w|Flying_car_(aircraft)|flying car}} have had varying {{w|AVE_Mizar|degrees}} of {{w|Moller_M400_Skycar|success}} (although it's debatable whether these examples are actually cars or just small airplanes), but the comic points out that the regular {{w|helicopter}} is as close as most of us would ever get to levitating personal vehicles. | |
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− | + | The {{w|Hoverboard|levitating Hoverboard}} has been popularised by the {{w|Back_to_the_Future_Part_II|''Back To The Future'' franchise}} of films, with several attempts to fully emulate such a device with air-blast or magnetic levitation, but the ''term'' "Hoverboard" has ended up being applied to a {{w|Segway}}-like {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board|personal transport system}} that has at least become a mass-produced device (albeit with a number of {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board#Safety|safety concerns}}) even if it doesn't fly or levitate. The very concept of the hoverboard is therefore predicted to be reduced mostly to arguments between opposing camps of opinions; and then, in the title-text, the conclusion that giving up and resorting to old-fashioned walking is inferior to ''any'' of the possible alternatives. | |
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− | + | A much bigger challenge in levitation is the 'sky city', with various forms from fiction (e.g. {{w|Bespin}}, {{w|Mortal Engines Quartet}}). In reality, this seems highly unlikely to ever come to pass while there is perfectly good ground to lay the buildings down upon, due to the sheer mass. | |
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− | + | It might be considered more reasonable to build a {{w|Space:_1999|settlement of some kind}} on the Moon. The basic {{w|Apollo_program|engineering}} {{w|International Space Station|exists}}, but the comic blames financial pressures for it not yet having come into existence. Arguably political pressures, or perhaps the lack of them, are also a factor. | |
− | + | From the fields of automation, the {{w|Autonomous car|self-driving car}} has had a lot of recent development put into it, with many and varied prototypes being tried out, and may actually end up featuring in our immediate future, even if not in 2016. Google has built a very good prototype but it needs improvement. | |
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− | + | Meanwhile, the long-held science-fantasy aim to create a {{w|Robby the Robot|robot that can do odd tasks}} has been {{w|Roomba|limited}} or {{w|Ask.com|differently implemented}}. The ''fully'' [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Omnicapable omnicapable] version is probably almost as far out of reach as it always was considered to be. "Jeeves" as a less than superb robot butler presumably refers to the early search site {{w|Ask Jeeves}}, and may be a reference to the robot of that name that can be "built" by characters in the popular {{w|Massively multiplayer online role-playing game}} {{w|World of Warcraft}}. "Jeeves" as a stereotyped butler name goes back to {{w|P.G. Wodehouse}} in 1915. | |
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− | + | Self-driving cars has become a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd and they were mentioned again already in the title text of [[1625: Substitutions 2]] just two comics after this one. | |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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[[Category:Robots]] | [[Category:Robots]] | ||
[[Category:Self-driving cars]] | [[Category:Self-driving cars]] | ||
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