Robots? Flying Cars? Whatever Happened to the Future?

Ah the future. Where everyone will live on the moon and fly to work. Where robot servants will make the dinner and bring up the kids and everyone will plug into the latest virtual reality simulator for fun.

At least, that was the idea. As 2010 looms large its difficult not to feel a little cheated. Mankind still hasn’t sent more than a few probes to Mars and there hasn’t even been a man on the moon in almost 40 years!

So what happened? Well, the main thing that hasn’t happened is that mankind hasn’t discovered artificial intelligence. According to some commentators this is the key to unlocking exponential growth in technology, a phenomenon referred to as the ‘singularity’, insofar as advanced computers could be used to solve sophisticated scientific and engineering problems as well as design more advanced computers which could solve even more difficult problems etc, etc.

So how close are we to this? Even bearing in mind that AI does not need to be related to robots to be useful, we are still very far away from true artificial intelligence. While computing power continues to grow geometrically, we are beginning to reach limits to what can be achieved using conventional methods. Of course, this has given rise to newer kinds of computing such as quantum computing, which uses the principles of quantum mechanics including the idea that atoms can be in more than one place at any given point. Quantum computers are still at a very early stage of development but may be able to provide massive leaps in computing power once they are more fully developed.

Of course, this is not to say that computers aren’t already being used to solve problems from the most basic to more advanced applications. Computers are used to power stock exchanges, enable video communications across the world and predict the weather. Computers are used all around the world ton handle and process data from all kinds of sources from the humblest of spreadsheets to the massive CERN facility used to process the results of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment which seeks to discover the origins of the universe.

So where does this leave all those other cherished dreams of the future? Well, robot research and development continues to be carried out. The robot capital of the world is undoubtedly Japan. Much is made of the country’s positive view of robots in contrasts to the West’s often negative view of the destructive potential of intelligent machines.

This cultural perspective coupled with the projected decline in the Japanese population means that there is a definite market for robots and robot services. The result has been the creation of several humanoid robots including Honda’s ASIMO and the Actroid, developed by OsakaUniversity. While humanoid robots won’t be truly advanced until computing technology is sufficiently developed, there is plenty of progress being made and a lot of optimism from within the sector as to the potential of these new machines.

There are still plenty of people who never gave up the dream of the flying car becoming a reality. Some of the most prominent examples include the Skycar M400 and the Terrafugia Transition. It will be extremely interesting to see if these machines are at all practical and whether, once costs begin to decline, whether they can be operated safely without some kind of computer control system.

As for living on the moon, this still appears to some ways off. Crewed missions won’t be on the menu at NASA until at least 2020. While the Russian Space Agency has discussed plans to send a manned mission to Mars this will not be till 2016 at the earliest and will have to overcome a number of technical problems. The entry of China into the space race promises to raise the bar on what may be achieved but the Chinese have yet to send a manned mission to the moon.

Despite the fact that we don’t yet have many of the technologies that were predicted in science fiction, we can at least find some comfort in the idea that at least we don’t have to worry about robots taking over the world any time soon.