Isaac Asimov predicted reading ebooks on an iPhone

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

There is a glass that I've seen in bathrooms that is either clear or completely frosted at the flick of a switch. With no electricity running through it is clear, but for privacy you can flip the switch on.

This sounds like something I saw in a restaurant in Philly years ago - the bathroom had walls that would get opaque when you went in and locked the door. When no one was in it you could see in. I decided I really didn't need to go that badly - with my luck it would have decided to malfunction.

Hey, Chester Gould author of the Dick Tracy comic strip came up with some accurate predictions also. He was wrong about that moon maid that ended up marrying Junior though.

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by afv011

Well, I remember being told during my studies that "video calls will never happen because the bandwidth demand is too large". What would you know...

Scaling of telecom and computing might have come as surprise to some... Development of packet based networks has been crazy. But, I don't really think that moving bits and natural laws are comparable.

I don't know when you were studying and if anyone really did any plotting of data transfer rates...

Maybe largest problem is underestimating how much computing power is needed to reach human like intelligence. The raw numeric computing power and storage space we have in almost any device is unbelievable if you start to think about it...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I thought the first step was to determine the target market and if it would be more profitable than what the current market is using.

Always a smartaleck in the group ain't there...

[guanaco]

I would love to have this

Gadgetry will continue to relieve mankind of tedious jobs. Kitchen units will be devised that will prepare "automeals," heating water and converting it to coffee; toasting bread; frying, poaching or scrambling eggs, grilling bacon, and so on. Breakfasts will be "ordered" the night before to be ready by a specified hour the next morning. Complete lunches and dinners, with the food semiprepared, will be stored in the freezer until ready for processing.

[kennyc]

My Kitchen does that, your's doesn't?

[QuantumIguana]

The kitchen stuff is not that far off. We have coffee makers and bread baking machines that can be programmed to have ready for us hot coffee and fresh bread when we wake up in the morning. We don't have machines that make our eggs or cook our bacon for us - it's possible to do, but no one really wants it. We can, however, grab our breakfast from the freezer, and put it in the microwave or toaster. We do have semi-prepared frozen meals. There are bags of frozen pasta and vegetables that are intended for you to add your own chicken. Frozen food has come a long way in the last 50 years.

As far as lighting goes, he's wrong in imagining windows would go out of style, people like large windows with lots of natural light. While we don't use the panels that he imagined, we do have a lot more lighting options than we had 50 years ago, and you can buy windows where the tint can be adjusted. He talks about lights in whatever color you want, and you can do that, there's just not a lot of demand for colored lights.

[crich70]

And another science fiction writer of the old days predicted the internet.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

.....and put it in the microwave or toaster.....

What???? He didn't predict the microwave! ????

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by kennyc

What???? He didn't predict the microwave! ????

He didn't need to, it already existed. The microwave oven went on the market in 1955, although the countertop microwave didn't go onto the market until 1967. The TV dinner had been on the market since 1953, but he didn't predict the improvement in quality of frozen food, instead imagining that we would have machines cooking our bacon and eggs. So, instead of bacon and eggs cooked by a machine, we get Hot Pockets. I sort of miss the aluminum tray from TV dinners.

The idea of heating food with with microwaves was discovered by accident 1945 when an engineer who had a candy bar in his pocket discovered that it was melted after working on the radar. Incidentally, the first food intentionally cooked by microwave was popcorn.

[kennyc]

Oh, that's true.

Well, he should have!

[crich70]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

He didn't need to, it already existed. The microwave oven went on the market in 1955, although the countertop microwave didn't go onto the market until 1967. The TV dinner had been on the market since 1953, but he didn't predict the improvement in quality of frozen food, instead imagining that we would have machines cooking our bacon and eggs. So, instead of bacon and eggs cooked by a machine, we get Hot Pockets. I sort of miss the aluminum tray from TV dinners.

The idea of heating food with with microwaves was discovered by accident 1945 when an engineer who had a candy bar in his pocket discovered that it was melted after working on the radar. Incidentally, the first food intentionally cooked by microwave was popcorn.

Yep, though I understand they had quite some trouble finding the proper packaging and coating for the popcorn so that it wouldn't burn. Incidentally another thing we use today for food also was used on the radar. Smaller radar units were harder for the Germans to find in order to attack (so they couldn't warn the British during the blitz) but they needed something to insulate part of the system that was out of doors and they found the answer in what we now know as cling wrap.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

The TV dinner had been on the market since 1953, but he didn't predict the improvement in quality of frozen food, instead imagining that we would have machines cooking our bacon and eggs. So, instead of bacon and eggs cooked by a machine, we get Hot Pockets. I sort of miss the aluminum tray from TV dinners.

[kennyc]

Mmmmmm!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Mmmmmm!

That dinner looked like it had real turkey slices in it; as opposed to the chopped, pressed, and formed stuff they use these days.