Read Online Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku - Free Book Online
Authors: Michio Kaku
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ride on the back of a Tyrannosaurus rex, or even go right into its mouth. Then I visited the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where the U.S. military has devised the most advanced version of a holodeck. Sensors were placed on my helmet and backpack, so the computer knew exactly the position of my body. I then walked on an Omnidirectional Treadmill, a sophisticated treadmill that allows you to walk in any direction while remaining in the same place. Suddenly I was on a battlefield, dodging bullets from enemy snipers. I could run in any direction, hide in any alleyway, sprint down any street, and the 3-D images on the screen changed instantly. I could even lie flat on the floor, and the screens changed accordingly. I could imagine that, in the future, you will be able to experience total immersion, e.g. engage in dogfights with alien spaceships, flee from rampaging monsters, or frolic on a deserted island, all from the comfort of your living room.
MEDICAL CARE IN THE NEAR FUTURE
A visit to the doctor’s office will be completely changed. For a routine checkup, when you talk to the “doctor,” it will probably be a robotic softwareprogram that appears on your wall screen and that can correctly diagnose up to 95 percent of all common ailments. Your “doctor” may look like a person, but it will actually be an animated image programmed to ask certain simple questions. Your “doctor” will also have a complete record of your genes, and will recommend a course of medical treatments that takes into account all your genetic risk factors.
To diagnose a problem, the “doctor” will ask you to pass a simple probe over your body. In the original
Star Trek
TV series, the public was amazed to see a device called the tricorder that could instantly diagnose any illness and peer inside your body. But you do not have to wait until the twenty-third century for this futuristic device. Already, MRI machines, which weigh several tons and can fill up an entire room, have been miniaturized to about a foot, and will eventually be as small as a cell phone. By passing one over your body, you will be able to see inside your organs. Computers will process these 3-D images and then give you a diagnosis. This probe will also be able to determine, within minutes, the presence of a wide variety of diseases, including cancer, years before a tumor forms. This probe will contain DNA chips, silicon chips that have millions of tiny sensors that can detect the presence of the telltale DNA of many diseases.
Of course, many people hate going to the doctor. But in the future, your health will be silently and effortlessly monitored several times a day without your being aware of it. Your toilet, bathroom mirror, and clothes will have DNA chips to silently determine if you have cancer colonies of only a few hundred cells growing in your body. You will have more sensors hidden in your bathroom and clothes than are found in a modern hospital or university today. For example, simply by blowing on a mirror, the DNA for a mutated protein called p53 can be detected, which is implicated in 50 percent of all common cancers. This means that the word
tumor
will gradually disappear from the English language.
Today, if you are in a bad car accident on a lonely road, you could easily bleed to death. But in the future, your clothes and car will automatically spring into action at the first sign of trauma, calling for an ambulance, locating your car’s position, uploading your entire medical history, all while you are unconscious. In the future, it will be difficult to die alone. Your clothes will be able to sense any irregularities in your heartbeat, breathing, and even brain waves by means of tiny chips woven into the fabric. When you get dressed, you go online.
Today, it is possible to put a chip into a pill about the size of an aspirin, complete with a TV camera and radio. When you swallow it, the “smart pill” takes TV images of your gullet and intestines,
MEDICAL CARE IN THE NEAR FUTURE
A visit to the doctor’s office will be completely changed. For a routine checkup, when you talk to the “doctor,” it will probably be a robotic softwareprogram that appears on your wall screen and that can correctly diagnose up to 95 percent of all common ailments. Your “doctor” may look like a person, but it will actually be an animated image programmed to ask certain simple questions. Your “doctor” will also have a complete record of your genes, and will recommend a course of medical treatments that takes into account all your genetic risk factors.
To diagnose a problem, the “doctor” will ask you to pass a simple probe over your body. In the original
Star Trek
TV series, the public was amazed to see a device called the tricorder that could instantly diagnose any illness and peer inside your body. But you do not have to wait until the twenty-third century for this futuristic device. Already, MRI machines, which weigh several tons and can fill up an entire room, have been miniaturized to about a foot, and will eventually be as small as a cell phone. By passing one over your body, you will be able to see inside your organs. Computers will process these 3-D images and then give you a diagnosis. This probe will also be able to determine, within minutes, the presence of a wide variety of diseases, including cancer, years before a tumor forms. This probe will contain DNA chips, silicon chips that have millions of tiny sensors that can detect the presence of the telltale DNA of many diseases.
Of course, many people hate going to the doctor. But in the future, your health will be silently and effortlessly monitored several times a day without your being aware of it. Your toilet, bathroom mirror, and clothes will have DNA chips to silently determine if you have cancer colonies of only a few hundred cells growing in your body. You will have more sensors hidden in your bathroom and clothes than are found in a modern hospital or university today. For example, simply by blowing on a mirror, the DNA for a mutated protein called p53 can be detected, which is implicated in 50 percent of all common cancers. This means that the word
tumor
will gradually disappear from the English language.
Today, if you are in a bad car accident on a lonely road, you could easily bleed to death. But in the future, your clothes and car will automatically spring into action at the first sign of trauma, calling for an ambulance, locating your car’s position, uploading your entire medical history, all while you are unconscious. In the future, it will be difficult to die alone. Your clothes will be able to sense any irregularities in your heartbeat, breathing, and even brain waves by means of tiny chips woven into the fabric. When you get dressed, you go online.
Today, it is possible to put a chip into a pill about the size of an aspirin, complete with a TV camera and radio. When you swallow it, the “smart pill” takes TV images of your gullet and intestines,
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