Life, the universe and everything (but more specifically- just the future)

This is quite a boring blog as it is a collection of a few of the unlinked and peculiar musings that I have had in the past few days and tried to link into a sort of cohesive mess. But the question I am asking today is…When is the future going to happen? I have a bit of a passion for sci-fi, always have and blame my Dad for passing down the sci-fi books of his youth and a latent geek gene. If asked the question “would you rather travel the entire world for 2 years or go into space for 20 minutes?” I would definitely choose the space option. Can you imagine not being on the planet? It blows my mind and I have hopes of developing some sort of pop group and earning enough money that I can afford to train and go into space (a la Lance from N*Sync- On a small aside what is it with old pop groups and inappropriate spelling/punctuation? 5ive, N*Sync, P!nk, B*witched. It makes the word look like it was offensive and have been bleeped out. It upsets me. Anyway back to the point) but this is unlikely due to my non-existent singing abilities. I realise that there probably aren’t aliens out there that we could communicate with/ever meet but I really really really hope there are. I think I would be excellent in a meeting aliens scenario.I am really good at not blinking much and breathing very shallowly in case the movements of my eyes and occasional nostril flareage worried them. Did you know that on some of the deep space probes NASA have launched they have included plaques with details about what mankind(a word I truly love, it makes me feel all warm and patriotic about being human as it is only included in the best speeches.) looks like, where Earth is and some other sciencey stuff? They have also chosen some music and poems to include on there. I know this blog is really highlighting the nerdy side of my nature that I try so hard to keep undercover but I just think that is unbelievably cool. Imagine aliens finding the probe millions of years from now and galaxies away and listening to music we’ve listened to. The mind boggles. Well mine does and if yours doesn’t you probably have a shit imagination.(this is a copy of one of the plaques- the thing actually sounds more glamorous than it looks as it turns out...)

Anyway I went to see the new Star Trek film this weekend. It. Was. AWESOME. Best film I have seen in ages. Includes all the things I require from a film. End of the world scenarios, fancy future technology (a subject I will return to soon), cocky fly by the seat of their pants action hero types and lots of explosions and a bit of flirting and romance thrown in for good measure. All in all, excellent stuff that I think anyone would enjoy. By the end of it though I became a little despondent after I realised that I will probably never live to see all the exciting things the future is supposed to offer us. For example:

-Jet packs (that work)

-Hover crafts (that work by some mystical power and not just air)

-Time machines (Either Dolorian based or of the H.G.Wells variety)

-Mutants (I long to discover I have latent amazing abilities. Telekinesis would be my favourite. I think it may unveil itself in a near death experience but I am too much of a hypochondriac and actually slightly sensible person to try and test the theroy)

-Simulation room type things, where nothing is real but it looks it.

-Regular space travel (Think of all the traveling to Uranus puns that would be possible)

-Food that starts off small and is magically made bigger (Like in Back to the Future)

-Proper 3D TV or computer screens (but the new Sony motion thingy screen thing is sort of like this an makes everything look sort of 3D and basically amazing)

It disappoints me that if any of this happens it probably won’t be in our lifetimes and if it does happen we will be too old to enjoy it.

I will mention one amazing future type thing that I learnt about in lectures a year or so ago that we may see or at least hear of. Scientists have taken out the genes from spiders that give the instructions for how to make the proteins that their web is made from and put them inside goats. The goats make these proteins inside their milk and they can then be filtered out and put together. This web protein stuff is ridiculously strong. Some of it made into a rope the thickness of a thumb would be enough to hold the weight of a jumbo jet. It’s stronger than Kevlar and could be used to make awesome body armour type stuff or the hulls of boats etc as its really light. Or maybe spiderman could wear it.

Basically all the future scientific developments are going to be mind-blowing and I wish that I could be around hundreds of years from now to see them. But in good news, an important NASA bloke reckons that we will contact aliens in 25 years (or at least pick up transmissions of their radio shows) So maybe if I get down to the gym and eat a bit healthier I can still be sprightly enough for a Hitchhikers’ guide to the Galaxy type adventure.

I will keep my towel at the ready.