Treading in the Sea of New Technology

Our family’s first transistor radio was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I didn’t know what a transistor was but this radio had six of them so it had to be good.

My folks got it for free when they bought some furniture at a store in Bloomington. An airport runway now occupies that spot. I listened in bed to late night Twins games on the radio’s single earphone. It ran on a nine-volt battery that I would test by licking the contacts. If you felt a strong buzz, it was still good. No buzz meant it was time to replace it.

I never imagined that one day I’d hold a small rectangle-shaped device called a smart phone that is also a radio, a camera and hundreds of other things. And the battery is easily rechargeable. I also have a watch that would make the watches used by Dick Tracy and Jimmy Olsen look silly today.

How far we’ve advanced. Almost every day we encounter something new that seems both impossible and fascinating at the same time. And then we want one. Sometimes they are truly life-changing, such as the smart phone. Other times they are just improvements on things we already have.

An instant pot is an improved pressure cooker. An air fryer is a new version  of a convection oven. We have a battery-powered can opener that cuts lids off, leaving no sharp edges. Where has that been all my life?

On a recent Sunday I was channel surfing and got introduced to “DRL Drone Racing.” It looked like a video game but to the contestants it was the real thing – small identical drones (four-prop helicopters known as quadcopters) that they were flying through a real obstacle course. Viewers were provided alternating observations of the drones flying the actual course and from the point of view of a pilot through his onboard camera. It’s scary fast, approaching 90 miles per hour, and each race lasts about one minute. No long attention span required.

DRL stands for Drone Racing League. It’s a very intense and exacting sport. Watch out NASCAR and Formula One. These racers might become the new sports heroes. You can buy a drone racing simulator program to learn the skills needed for real racing. And the simulator drone survives crashes.

Some aspects of the internet are expected to morph into an environment called the metaverse where we can experience working and socializing in a different reality just by donning a special headset. Imagine escaping the realities of real life for a virtual life where you can interact with others while floating in outer space or sitting on a beach. Stay tuned. You will see many references to metaverse. The fact that Facebook is now part of a newly formed company called Meta is not a coincidence.

Then there’s Replika, an app that lets you create a friend that learns about you through various conversations, eventually becoming a confidant of sorts. Imagine having a virtual friend that you see and talk to, who understands you and can offer advice. In a sense you are talking to yourself. I’ll wait on this. I talk to myself a lot already.

Of more immediate relevance to most of us are all the new and confusing computerized safety improvements to cars. The latest AARP Smart Driver course materials reference many of them. They even suggest paying attention to the evolving self-driving vehicles that could provide an alternate form of public and private transportation. Are you ready to tell your car where you want to go and then sit back to watch the scenery? You will soon see trucks on the highway with no driver.

Artificial intelligence and computer graphics have evolved so well that some day real teams could be replaced by virtual teams. Already with some virtual reality goggles you can watch YouTube videos and some streaming TV shows in which you are fully surrounded by the action.

You may someday be able to virtually attend weddings, graduations, concerts. You can choose your seat and it won’t matter if everyone wants that same seat. And don’t think this is just some wishful thinking. It’s already happening, admittedly at an early stage, but progressing faster than you imagine. What did you think when you first heard about the possibility of electric cars? They are everywhere now.

The annual Computer Electronics Show is greatly anticipated by throngs of tech enthusiasts. The recent one was downsized because of Covid but still managed to introduce the world to new and advanced TVs, smart phones, electric cars, health care monitoring devices and much more. How about a pair of smart glasses that let you watch a movie on the equivalent of a 140-inch TV?

But wait, there’s more. And it isn’t all just computerized stuff.

We have cultured meat, a manufactured meat already on the market. We are also starting to hear about non-dairy milk products created in a lab. We now have vaccines based on genetics. Need a new kidney? You’ll someday be able to order one matched to your body. And like it or not, modifying our DNA is here to stay.

Much of this may seem strange. But humans are inventors and it is what they do best.

It’s at least a diversion from what we do worst.