Future? Here

Stephen's Lighthouse highlighted this ages ago, but I only finally got around to looking at it.

It's a 1972 book called 2010: Living in the Future (Geoffrey Hoyle), which has been carefully photographed and placed online for our edification by Daniel Sinker, who also includes some interesting commentary.

Of special interest are the pages about the libraries of the future--I mean, the now.

It basically predicts that there will be no print books anymore, and that all library materials will be online, accessible either from within the library or offsite. The wording is a little different from how I just put it ("To select the book you wish to read, you dial the book’s number. The first page appears on your screen. You can turn the pages backward or forward by using buttons on the vision phone"), but I think the basic idea is pretty much there.

The 'vision phone,' mentioned elsewhere in the book as well, is totally a computer screen!

And while the e-only prediction isn't quite true (Cushing Academy aside), electronic resources are certainly huge in a lot of libraries, including the one where I work.

Nice work, Geoffrey Hoyle in 1972.

He also predicted free public transportation and electric cars that you could order in the morning and have delivered by afternoon.

I can't wait! Surely this will be available later this year.

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Now That's Technology

Improving on my idea of having cell phones beam nutrients into our bodies (also my recent momentary belief that life has a search bar), Emily Lloyd's Shelf Check presents the thought that we could have RSS feeds pumped straight into our veins.

Oh, baby. 

I've been a little lax about my feeds lately, usually only fully catching up with posts on weekends when I have a couple of hours to devote to reading. Having updates sent directly to my veins would save a lot of time. 

I'm assuming here that the veins in question would then transport the information to my brain, because otherwise I have this alarming image of gradually becoming imprinted all over with text as updates get trapped under the skin, without my ever actually reading them...but I'm pretty sure Emily Lloyd's futuristic technology will account for this. 

I'm trying to take a few minutes on a regular basis to keep up with the journals at work, and the library/health blogs I read could probably go into this same category of professional education, but then there are all the less relevant ones that I can't exactly not read if I see they've updated, can I?

Well, yes, I can. I have them separated into folders, and I can leave the non-work-related folders alone at work. Fine, shoot down my own argument why don't I.

Regardless, I'll be signing up for that RSS-to-vein technology when it comes out.