draliman on life

Daily Prompt: The Next Big Thing – What will the next must-have technological innovation be? Jetpacks? Hoverboards? Wind-powered calculators?

An ant – or a mobile quantum computing device?
Photo – Fir0002/Flagstaffotos (see below for full details)

It’s going to be quite boring, is what it’s going to be. It’ll make a big difference to us, but we won’t care about the technology. I’m thinking quantum computing and storage or some such thing. We’ll have ultra fast computing with thousands of terabytes of storage in a computer the size of an ant, but we’ll just view it as “the next generation of computer – about time it arrived, what are those scientists thinking, taking so long?”. Hey, we could mount these new computers in an ant for computing on the move.

What about the examples in the Prompt? Jetpacks? Dated. Tried it, didn’t work, move on. Hoverboards? Very “Back to the Future”. Wind-powered calculators? Ooh, yes, I want one of those. Please? Pleeeease?

How about the “next big thing we really want” instead? Or to be more specific, what I really want.

Molecular transporters. There’s the thing. Beam me up! Forget hours standing in airports. We can spend hours queuing for an international beaming instead. London to New York in 3 seconds (please arrive 3 hours prior to departure, check-in closes 1 hour before). Marvellous!

Now we’ve got travel sorted out, how about entertainment? Some sort of “deck” using “holograms”. We’ll call it… a “Holodeck”! Yes, what an idea!

We’ll also be needing to explore the universe, find new planets to live on. We’ll be wanting to “boldly go where no man has gone before”. We’ll need something to “warp” space so that we can get to new planets quickly. Let’s call it “warp drive”! Yes! We’re really cooking now!

All that’s left now is something to defend ourselves with while we’re out exploring. Lasers are all very well, but we really need something which will allow us to “stun” our foes. After all, we can’t be known around the universe as a bunch of killers, can we? I’m thinking some sort of “phased” energy. We could call the device a, a, a “phaser”! Yes! We now have all the ingredients we need for a better tomorrow!

The technology might not be there yet, but it would make a damn fine TV show. Maybe I should propose it to a TV production company? There could be some money in this. I have created…

… hang on a minute. It’s Star Trek isn’t it? I’ve just reinvented Star Trek.

Arse.

“Holodeck” by DraliDoodles (TM). See below for apology.
Is this me on an alien planet? No, I’ve beamed onto a holodeck on a warp spaceship with my phaser!

An apology by the DraliDoodles (TM) team: DraliDoodles recently borrowed a drawing tablet from work in an attempt to make DraliDoodles (TM) appear more professional. It appears to have had the opposite effect. Apparently if you can’t draw to start with, a tablet only makes it worse. Sorry. [We’re going to go with the “it was drawn by a six-year-old” cover story, people.]

Photo – “Meat eater ant queen excavating hole”, from WikiMedia by “Fir0002/Flagstaffotos”, non-commercial distribution  (CC BY-NC)