What I Want In 2005
After the success of my "Most Important People of 2004" list, I've decided to make a list of the things that I hope to see in 2005. Many of these are unlikely to happen, even though most or all of the technology for these things already exists. This is subject to updates and revisions, and may re recycled into a "What I Want In 2006" post if few or none of these things are done.
1: my cellphone to do everything that wireless networks allow. I'm not talking about better "calling areas", or whatever those can call/can't call zone restrictions are named. I am talking about listening to the radio on my phone, watching TV on the phone, and attaching my phone to a laptop via a USB port to access a WiFi (wireless internet) network – or even have 56k+ internet access directly from the cellphone network. For this to happen, phone companies simply need to shape up and fix their networks, and add a headphone jack, radio antenna, USB port, WiFi signal thing, TV antenna (if they can be made fairly small but still good. If not, I want TV to come from the wireless network), and a bigger and better screen. Actually, make that 2 or 3 USB ports, because I want to attach a keyboard, mouse, and LCD screen of a good size to the phone. If you only have space for two ports, make keyboards that have two USB ports (Apple keyboards were, and maybe still are, made like this).
Additionally, if an iPod can hold 60 gigabytes, why can't a cellphone hold 5 or 10 gigabytes, rather than the few megabytes they seem to have now? With complete and quality internet access from the wireless networks, I want a cellphone to have the capabilities of an iPod, though they don't need as much harddrive space, in order to decrease costs.
And, here's the part that the industry should be ashamed for abusing: I don't want to pay $100 more for a phone that doesn't look ugly. MAKE EVERY PHONE LOOK NICE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY COST, YOU MORONS! Price should be based on functionality, not cosmetics, because cosmetics are cheap, but people like to have a phone that looks nice, rather than like a 20th century relic.
And that's not all. I want to put AA (commonly called "double A") batteries into my cellphone. These AA's aren’t to be the main power source for the phone; they are to recharge the phone's better (hopefully), internal battery. If my phone runs low on power, I don't want to turn it off or run to the car to plug it into the recharger, which would mean that I can no longer use the phone to access a WiFi network. I want to buy a pack of Duracells, plug one or two batteries into the phone (one would be fine, to save some space and keep the phone small), and recharge the phone. In fact, I'd like to keep a fresh AA battery in the phone to work with the permanent battery, and be able to replace that AA easily. And, you should be able to recharge the AA batteries along with the cell phone, when the phone is plugged into a car or home recharger thing. Or, just use AAA batteries, which are smaller, if you are determined to keep a tiny cellphone.
2: cameras and computers in every streetlight. This is not to catch speeders or people who disobey traffic signals; rather, it is to eliminate the desire to disobey traffic signals entirely. When I stop at a red light, and I am the only person at the intersection, there is no reason for me to wait for the light to turn green. The lights are meant to control traffic; when there is no other traffic, the dictations of the light should either be ignorable or adapt to the current situation (make the light green as I approach it, if there are no other cars at the intersection). Traffic light were originally made for safety, or at least that's what people have told me, so they should be upgraded with modern technology to allow for both safety and speed. And, there is one beautiful thing about this idea: it should severely reduce the number of people driving through a red light, because the light would be green under the conditions that many people would drive right through it. And, if the light stays red, the driver will know that another car is approaching the light from a different lane, so they should be more likely to stop than if they saw a red light but no other cars near it (in which case they may incorrectly assume/take the chance that no other cars are approaching).
This system wouldn't simply change depending on whether or not cars are approaching or waiting, it should change based on how many cars are approaching or waiting. The lights should follow some principle of "the shortest wait for the greatest number of people", with some adjustments so a single person does not wait for 20 minutes while a long line of cars goes through another lane.
Additionally, the lights should be interconnected. On one of the streets I often drive through, congestion is usually caused by the traffic lights (placed about every 100 feet), because they do not work in sync. In other words, your light turns green when the next light is still red, and a line of cars extends from that light to your light. In other words, you still can't go, because you would be stuck in the middle of the intersection.
And that's not all. If here is a crash ahead of you in your lane, maybe the lights in that lane should blink red to warn you, and tell you to take a detour. Of course, you could just add a little sign that says "detour" with an arrow pointing in the recommended direction (based on the amount of traffic in the alternate routes), but that improvement might be more expensive, and used only infrequently. Most private companies could probably add the sign and arrow cheaply, but the government would find some way to make it cost a ton.
3: cars to park themselves. You can buy those electronic measuring things that use sound waves to measure very accurately for something like $25 at a local hardware store. And, some cars already have 'collision detectors', or whatever they are called, to warn the driver when they are about to back into another car. I think this technology ought to be used so that a car can determine the surroundings and park itself properly; i.e. perfectly aligned between other cars. This would solve the problem of idiots parking 2 inches from the driver side of your car, while another idiot did the same on another side, thus forcing you to enter your car through the trunk. And, you can only enter through the trunk if you have an SUV or minivan, because many of the coupes/compact cars do not have a trunk that you can crawl into the backseat from. Now, you may think that buying a motorcycle would circumvent this problem, but you'd be wrong; the idiots would drive over your motorcycle. So, combine sensors with a computer that can drive the car a few feet into the parking space, and cars will start parking perfectly.
If this technology got really good, cars might be able to remove themselves from a parking space, when the driver simply presses a button on the automatic lock thing on the keychain.
4: nuclear power. It's safe, clean, cheap, and relatively easy to use. Nuclear power plants don't put out much waste, no matter what environmentalist protestors claim, and that waste is actually quite easy to dispose of and not very harmful, again, despite what environmentalist protestors claim. Depleted uranium is a very strong material, the US military actually uses it on tanks to protect them from RPG's, and it will not break up. An area may be contaminated by uranium when the uranium breaks into small pieces that are spread throughout the surrounding land; as depleted uranium is incredibly difficult to break into small pieces, it is very difficult for depleted uranium to contaminate an area. Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, depleted uranium is far less radioactive than normal uranium, hence the term "depleted uranium". And, uranium is a natural element; it's already in the environment in the natural, more harmful, form.
5: a big bomb to drop on the Saudi royal family. It's about time we give those assholes what they deserve. Once the Saudi royalty is dead, the US should take everything they own, and use the assets to fund the reconstruction of both Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
6: Taiwan to have some great military defenses. If China wants to annex Taiwan, then it must be willing to put up an incredible fight and suffer heavy losses. The biggest deterrent to China's desire to annex Taiwan must be the Taiwanese military, because it will use every weapon it has to the maximum effect if the nation is threatened with destruction. The US, Japan, and South Korea may put up substantial, but limited, resistance, and China would eventually win because it can outlast the US, Japan, and South Korea.
This point may be impossible, useless, and maybe even unnecessary, depending on the real actions and intentions of China. However, I would like a strong Taiwan, just to take some precautions against possible Chinese aggression and expansion.
1: my cellphone to do everything that wireless networks allow. I'm not talking about better "calling areas", or whatever those can call/can't call zone restrictions are named. I am talking about listening to the radio on my phone, watching TV on the phone, and attaching my phone to a laptop via a USB port to access a WiFi (wireless internet) network – or even have 56k+ internet access directly from the cellphone network. For this to happen, phone companies simply need to shape up and fix their networks, and add a headphone jack, radio antenna, USB port, WiFi signal thing, TV antenna (if they can be made fairly small but still good. If not, I want TV to come from the wireless network), and a bigger and better screen. Actually, make that 2 or 3 USB ports, because I want to attach a keyboard, mouse, and LCD screen of a good size to the phone. If you only have space for two ports, make keyboards that have two USB ports (Apple keyboards were, and maybe still are, made like this).
Additionally, if an iPod can hold 60 gigabytes, why can't a cellphone hold 5 or 10 gigabytes, rather than the few megabytes they seem to have now? With complete and quality internet access from the wireless networks, I want a cellphone to have the capabilities of an iPod, though they don't need as much harddrive space, in order to decrease costs.
And, here's the part that the industry should be ashamed for abusing: I don't want to pay $100 more for a phone that doesn't look ugly. MAKE EVERY PHONE LOOK NICE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY COST, YOU MORONS! Price should be based on functionality, not cosmetics, because cosmetics are cheap, but people like to have a phone that looks nice, rather than like a 20th century relic.
And that's not all. I want to put AA (commonly called "double A") batteries into my cellphone. These AA's aren’t to be the main power source for the phone; they are to recharge the phone's better (hopefully), internal battery. If my phone runs low on power, I don't want to turn it off or run to the car to plug it into the recharger, which would mean that I can no longer use the phone to access a WiFi network. I want to buy a pack of Duracells, plug one or two batteries into the phone (one would be fine, to save some space and keep the phone small), and recharge the phone. In fact, I'd like to keep a fresh AA battery in the phone to work with the permanent battery, and be able to replace that AA easily. And, you should be able to recharge the AA batteries along with the cell phone, when the phone is plugged into a car or home recharger thing. Or, just use AAA batteries, which are smaller, if you are determined to keep a tiny cellphone.
2: cameras and computers in every streetlight. This is not to catch speeders or people who disobey traffic signals; rather, it is to eliminate the desire to disobey traffic signals entirely. When I stop at a red light, and I am the only person at the intersection, there is no reason for me to wait for the light to turn green. The lights are meant to control traffic; when there is no other traffic, the dictations of the light should either be ignorable or adapt to the current situation (make the light green as I approach it, if there are no other cars at the intersection). Traffic light were originally made for safety, or at least that's what people have told me, so they should be upgraded with modern technology to allow for both safety and speed. And, there is one beautiful thing about this idea: it should severely reduce the number of people driving through a red light, because the light would be green under the conditions that many people would drive right through it. And, if the light stays red, the driver will know that another car is approaching the light from a different lane, so they should be more likely to stop than if they saw a red light but no other cars near it (in which case they may incorrectly assume/take the chance that no other cars are approaching).
This system wouldn't simply change depending on whether or not cars are approaching or waiting, it should change based on how many cars are approaching or waiting. The lights should follow some principle of "the shortest wait for the greatest number of people", with some adjustments so a single person does not wait for 20 minutes while a long line of cars goes through another lane.
Additionally, the lights should be interconnected. On one of the streets I often drive through, congestion is usually caused by the traffic lights (placed about every 100 feet), because they do not work in sync. In other words, your light turns green when the next light is still red, and a line of cars extends from that light to your light. In other words, you still can't go, because you would be stuck in the middle of the intersection.
And that's not all. If here is a crash ahead of you in your lane, maybe the lights in that lane should blink red to warn you, and tell you to take a detour. Of course, you could just add a little sign that says "detour" with an arrow pointing in the recommended direction (based on the amount of traffic in the alternate routes), but that improvement might be more expensive, and used only infrequently. Most private companies could probably add the sign and arrow cheaply, but the government would find some way to make it cost a ton.
3: cars to park themselves. You can buy those electronic measuring things that use sound waves to measure very accurately for something like $25 at a local hardware store. And, some cars already have 'collision detectors', or whatever they are called, to warn the driver when they are about to back into another car. I think this technology ought to be used so that a car can determine the surroundings and park itself properly; i.e. perfectly aligned between other cars. This would solve the problem of idiots parking 2 inches from the driver side of your car, while another idiot did the same on another side, thus forcing you to enter your car through the trunk. And, you can only enter through the trunk if you have an SUV or minivan, because many of the coupes/compact cars do not have a trunk that you can crawl into the backseat from. Now, you may think that buying a motorcycle would circumvent this problem, but you'd be wrong; the idiots would drive over your motorcycle. So, combine sensors with a computer that can drive the car a few feet into the parking space, and cars will start parking perfectly.
If this technology got really good, cars might be able to remove themselves from a parking space, when the driver simply presses a button on the automatic lock thing on the keychain.
4: nuclear power. It's safe, clean, cheap, and relatively easy to use. Nuclear power plants don't put out much waste, no matter what environmentalist protestors claim, and that waste is actually quite easy to dispose of and not very harmful, again, despite what environmentalist protestors claim. Depleted uranium is a very strong material, the US military actually uses it on tanks to protect them from RPG's, and it will not break up. An area may be contaminated by uranium when the uranium breaks into small pieces that are spread throughout the surrounding land; as depleted uranium is incredibly difficult to break into small pieces, it is very difficult for depleted uranium to contaminate an area. Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, depleted uranium is far less radioactive than normal uranium, hence the term "depleted uranium". And, uranium is a natural element; it's already in the environment in the natural, more harmful, form.
5: a big bomb to drop on the Saudi royal family. It's about time we give those assholes what they deserve. Once the Saudi royalty is dead, the US should take everything they own, and use the assets to fund the reconstruction of both Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
6: Taiwan to have some great military defenses. If China wants to annex Taiwan, then it must be willing to put up an incredible fight and suffer heavy losses. The biggest deterrent to China's desire to annex Taiwan must be the Taiwanese military, because it will use every weapon it has to the maximum effect if the nation is threatened with destruction. The US, Japan, and South Korea may put up substantial, but limited, resistance, and China would eventually win because it can outlast the US, Japan, and South Korea.
This point may be impossible, useless, and maybe even unnecessary, depending on the real actions and intentions of China. However, I would like a strong Taiwan, just to take some precautions against possible Chinese aggression and expansion.
posted by Chris at
11:46 PM
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