The Future that never was

No fuss, no muss: A 1950 edition of 'Popular Mechanics' predicted that housewives will be cleaning house with water hose in the year 2000 - AP



Flying cars. Waterproof living rooms that you clean with a hose. A pool on every rooftop.

Many of the old dreams and schemes about daily life in the 21st century didn't come true — at least not yet. Author Gregory Benford has gathered them — along with more successful predictions — in a book, "The Wonderful Future that Never Was" (Hearst, 2012). Some of the imaginative ideas just weren't imaginative enough, he says.

"Failures usually assumed that bigger would always be better — vast domed cities, floating airports, personal helicopters, tunnels across continents," Benford says.

Forecasters didn't realize that being able to invent something wasn't enough.

"Just because high-tech change is possible doesn't mean we always want it," says James B. Meigs, editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics magazine, noting the slow-food and handmade-crafts movements as high-tech counterpoints. "Sometimes affluence gives us the options to choose more traditional things. We choose clothing out of wool rather than synthetics."

Two well-known failures: flying cars and jet packs. George Jetson kissed his wife then flew his car to work in the TV cartoon series launched in the 1960s, while TV's Buck Rogers thrilled kids of the 1950s by fighting evil invaders wearing a jet pack.

Such depictions created a hunger for personal flying devices, but that wasn't enough to make them a reality.

"People have produced (both) those," says Benford. "It's just that neither is particularly good at being a plane or a car."

A physics professor at the University of California at Irvine and a science fiction writer, Benford culled scientists' predictions from the early 1900s through the late 1960s from Popular Mechanics for this and another book, "The Amazing Weapons that Never Were" (Hearst, 2012).

"In the year 1900, everyone knew that technology drove their world and would drive the future even harder," Benford writes. "That was the single most prescient 'prediction' of the 20th century."

At mid-century, plastics seemed to offer all kinds of possibilities: Take the magazine's 1950 prediction that housewives in the year 2000 would clean house with a hose. Everything — rugs, drapes, furniture — would be waterproof, and the water would run down a drain in the floor.

Among the idea's many drawbacks, which include how uncomfortable such decor would be, forecasters forgot one vital detail: Electricity powers our homes, and it doesn't mix well with water.

Remember how we used to think we'd have robots cleaning clean our homes, cooking our food, tending to our children? Sadly, that one doesn't look promising, Meigs contends.

Robots do fine on an automated factory line with one, simple task, but the home environment requires an adaptability that robots can't muster.

"Getting someone to do the dishes, butter toast, organize the shoes in your closet. Those are doable but really tricky for a robot," says Meigs. "They have to improvise, and you know if humans are involved, you'll open the refrigerator and the butter won't be in the same place."

Yet 50 percent of the predictions that Benford unearthed in the magazine have come true, at least in part.

The "picture phone" was predicted in 1956, for example; see today's Skype calls on the Internet.

And those rooftop pools? They were proposed in 1928 as a way to cool homes. Air-conditioning later proved them unnecessary, but Meigs says the theory behind them exists in practice: as evaporative coolers on home and office rooftops.

What are these experts' own predictions?

Benford says smart homes and self-driving cars are in the future; the technology exists for both. Smart homes, for instance, will respond to human presence in a room by turning on lights and adjusting the temperature, making them energy-efficient, he says. With Internet access, homeowners also will be able to lock and unlock their homes and turn on or check appliances remotely, says Meigs. (We won't worry about whether we left the coffee pot on.)

"That stuff will seem pretty routine, at least in new houses in the next 10 to 15 years," he predicts.

He also thinks we'll have three-dimensional, hologram TVs in 20 or more years.

Benford says human relations could be transformed by Google glass — a computer worn like eyeglasses that thousands of early adapters were trying out this summer; future models will have facial recognition software, he predicts. "It means you can walk around a cocktail party and know who everyone is, never mind those nametags," Benford says. "Two people will be wired so they can exchange information — phone numbers, email . You will have a digital record of who you talked to at the party."

Meigs says it'll go farther: We'll have the functions of Google glass without the device — they'll be imbedded in our heads.

"It sounds like crazy science fiction but the neural interfacing is coming along," he says.- AP

Politically mixed education Malaysia

I REFER to the editorial “We can’t move forward with suspicious minds” (Sunday Star, July 21- appended below) and feel that our political masters must take heed of the issues raised for they can become a racial time bomb.

It is sad that after 56 years of independence, we are caught in Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds.

This has a lot to do with the education system and politics of the day.

Righteous, progressive and open-minded citizens are the result of a balanced education system where they are given all the opportunities to develop themselves and to understand others.

The knowledge society from such a system can stand the test of time against typecasting, stereotyping and any form of suspicious minds.

The GE13 results is indicative of what lies ahead. The popular vote reflects that all is not well on the ground.

For example, the proliferation of international schools using English as a medium of instruction shows that parents with money prefer not to send their children to national schools.

English as a universal language cannot be denied as the best vehicle to bridge racial polarisation and reduce any “suspicious minds”.

English language citizens have a greater tendency to read books, any kind of books, thereby opening up their minds to prejudices.

Another factor that contributes to “suspicious minds” is the heavy dose of politicking along racial lines.

Every issue that crops up is seen from a racial perspective. It gets worse by the day, going by the media coverage.

We have not reached the stage where we can proudly call ourselves Malaysians.

Ironically, we are becoming less Malaysian by the day if we care to analyse the situation carefully.

This was even pointed out by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Has our education system failed? What happenned to the various initiatives like “Rukunegara”, “Rukun Tetangga” and “1Malaysia”.

Are we only Malaysians when we conquer Mount Everest or win the Thomas Cup?

After the euphoria is over, we withdraw into our own shell and return to our selfish ways.

Maybe, instead of learning from the Japanese or Koreans, why not learn from the Americans on how their “melting pot” is able to make a Korean, Japanese, Iranian, Mexican, Polish, German and others feel proud they are American first and foremost.

Maybe the American education system has the answer that we have been searching for. Still, we have to accept the fact that where inter-ethnic relations is concerned, a little bit of racial bias does exist.

It is the degree of biasness that is of concern to everyone.

In this respect, the various community leaders must show the way forward.

HASSAN TALIB Gombak, Selangor

We can’t move forward with suspicious minds

SUSPICIOUS minds. That seems to be the state of thinking in our country in these disquieting times. Any action, any utterance is quickly judged on whether it’s racial, religious and even gender “unfriendly”.

Granted, in a multiracial society, there is the expectation that people should know how to speak and behave so as not to cause offence.

But we know in reality, there is a tendency to typecast or stereotype ourselves and people from other communities. This is an age-old mindset but for the most part, it’s harmless. And if anything, it was and still is fodder for jokes and teasing.

In the past, we took it in our stride and rarely let off-colour jokes and remarks get to us. But of late, no thanks to social media and the Internet, any action or remark spreads like wildfire and gets mangled, misinterpreted and embellished along the way.

There seems to be a wilful desire to think the worst of “others”. It doesn’t matter the source: it can be the Government trying to introduce a compulsory subject in private colleges, or people from one community trying to scale Everest, or high scorers not getting places in their chosen courses, or two foolish young people trying to be funny in their tasteless and ill-conceived joke.

The reaction to all of the above is there is a hidden agenda, an ulterior motive to all such actions. Because of the suspicion, it leads to the desire to hit back, to accuse, to hurt, to mock or even to punish beyond the actual “crime”.

More worrisome is the almost- automatic way to look for racial and religious undertones in just about everything, which inevitably leads to people thinking along the lines of Us Against Them.

Sadly, there is a strong belief that the results of the general election on May 5 has worsened race relations. The hearts of the people have hardened against each other.

One group feels betrayed by another, that there is no sense of gratitude for or appreciation of what has been done for them nor the generous accommodation of their demands.

The other group’s response is that they have been pushed to the wall and the decades of accepting what they perceive to be biased policies and implementation has gone unacknow­ledged and finally, enough is enough.

Interestingly enough, the lyrics of Elvis Presley’s song Suspicious Minds encapsulates this Malaysian dilemma: “We’re caught in a trap, we can’t walk out ... Why can’t you see what you’re doing to me when you don’t believe a word I say? We can’t go on together with suspicious minds, and we can’t build our dreams on suspicious minds.”

When Malaysia celebrated its 50th year of Merdeka, The Economist commented about the “increasingly separate lives that Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians are leading”.

The British magazine added: “More so than at independence, it is lamented, the different races learn in separate schools, eat separately, work separately and socialise separately. Some are asking: is there really such a thing as a Malaysian?”

That was six years ago. How do we answer that now?
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- The Star Says

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Malaysia's property market still growing strongly

Malaysia's property market still has much room to grow and will benefit from the high property prices in Singapore, said founder and principal trainer of Singapore-based School of Infinite Potential, Kenny Tan (pix).

"Malaysia('s property market) still has much growth. The market here is exciting and there is a lot of potential and resources. Malaysia can become a really solid country with its hardworking people," he told SunBiz in an interview.

Tan, who is also ERA Realty Network Pte Ltd group division director and a practising real estate agent, said property prices in Singapore have driven buyers to Malaysia due to its closeness in terms of proximity and culture.

"A lot of Singaporeans buy their second home or investment properties here. There is a lot of interest here, especially in Iskandar Malaysia (Johor). There is a lot of interest from Singaporeans, but we always advise them to do research prior to investing," he said.

Tan said while Singapore's property market has gone through a few rounds of corrections, property prices in Kuala Lumpur have been constantly rising since 2004.

Although the issues in Europe and the US have resulted in expatriates pulling out and weakening the rental market, there has been a good influx of foreign interest from South Korea and Japan.

"There is still a lot of opportunities for real estate agents in this segment," he added.

Meanwhile, the cooling measures introduced by the Singapore government has also helped attract interest to Malaysia, with Malaysian property developers taking the opportunity to ramp up their marketing efforts in Singapore.

However, there is still strong demand in Singapore's properties despite the cooling measures, especially from Chinese investors, said Tan.

"(It's just that Singaporean) investors are now taking their time to buy instead of rushing in and chasing prices. There are still transactions (in Singapore properties)," he added.

On property buying trends in Malaysia, Tan said it is moving towards online buying, selling and marketing.

"Technology provides convenience and productivity, one can search for properties online at any time and anywhere. This is already happening in Singapore and we foresee that happening in Kuala Lumpur over the next two to three years.

"There is an evident trend that Malaysia is moving towards that direction with the various online forums and property portals," he said.

Tan said going online means buyers can do research before viewing properties or meeting up with agents, saving time and money. At the same time, real estate agents know the calls they get are more likely to be hot leads rather than cold calls.

"However, there is still a segment of buyers who still use newspapers to search for properties. For example, the older generation and those who are less internet-savvy.

"In Singapore, buyers who want to buy landed properties do not search online. There is still a certain type of buyer who like traditional media thus it is important to have both (mediums)," he added.

 By Eva Yeong  sunbiz@thesundaily.com

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