Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (7 page)

The rapid rise of computer power by the year 2100 will give us power like that of the gods of mythology we once worshipped, enabling us to control the world around us by sheer thought. Like the gods of mythology, who could move objects and reshape life with a simple wave of the hand or nod of the head, we too will be able to control the world around us with the power of our minds. We will be in constant mental contact with chips scattered in our environment that will then silently carry out our commands.

I remember once watching an episode from
Star Trek
in which the crew of the starship
Enterprise
came across a planet inhabited by the Greek gods. Standing in front of them was the towering god Apollo, a giant figure who could dazzle and overwhelm the crew with godlike feats. Twenty-third-century science was powerless to spar with a god who ruled the heavens thousands of years ago in ancient Greece. But once the crew recovered from the shock of encountering the Greek gods, they soon realized that there must be a source of this power, that Apollo must simply be in mental contact with a central computer and power plant, which then executed his wishes. Once the crew located and destroyed the power supply, Apollo was reduced to an ordinary mortal.

This was just a Hollywood tale. However, by extending the radical discoveries now being made in the laboratory, scientists can envision the day when we, too, may use telepathic control over computers to give us the power of this Apollo.

Today, we can communicate with the Internet via our computers and cell phones. But in the future, the Internet will be everywhere—in wall screens, furniture, on billboards, and even in our glasses and contact lenses. When we blink, we will go online.

There are several ways we can put the Internet on a lens. The image can be flashed from our glasses directly through the lens of our eyes and onto our retinas. The image could also be projected onto the lens, which would act as a screen. Or it might be attached to the frame of the glasses, like a small jeweler’s lens. As we peer into the glasses, we see the Internet, as if looking at a movie screen. We can then manipulate it with a handheld device that controls the computer via a wireless connection. We could also simply move our fingers in the air to control the image, since the computer recognizes the position of our fingers as we wave them.

For example, since 1991, scientists at the University of Washington have worked to perfect the virtual retinal display (VRD) in which red, green, and blue laser light are shone directly onto the retina. With a 120-degree field of view and a resolution of 1600 × 1,200 pixels, the VRD display can produce a brilliant, lifelike image that is comparable to that seen in a motion picture theater. The image can be generated using a helmet, goggles, or glasses.

Back in the 1990s, I had a chance to try out these Internet glasses. It was an early version created by the scientists at the Media Lab at MIT. It looked like an ordinary pair of glasses, except there was a cylindrical lens about ½ inch long, attached to the right-hand corner of the lens. I could look through the glasses without any problem. But if I tapped the glasses, then the tiny lens dropped in front of my eye. Peering into the lens, I could clearly make out an entire computer screen, seemingly only a bit smaller than a standard PC screen. I was surprised how clear it was, almost as if the screen were staring me in the face. Then I held a device, about the size of a cell phone, with buttons on it. By pressing the buttons, I could control the cursor on the screen and even type instructions.

In 2010, for a Science Channel special I hosted, I journeyed down to Fort Benning, Georgia, to check out the U.S. Army’s latest “Internet for the battlefield,” called the Land Warrior. I put on a special helmet with a miniature screen attached to its side. When I flipped the screen over my eyes, suddenly I could see a startling image: the entire battlefield with X’s marking the location of friendly and enemy troops. Remarkably, the “fog of war” was lifted, with GPS sensors accurately locating the position of all troops, tanks, and buildings. By clicking a button, the image would rapidly change, putting the Internet at my disposal on the battlefield, with information concerning the weather, disposition of friendly and enemy forces, and strategy and tactics.

A much more advanced version would have the Internet flashed directly through our contact lenses by inserting a chip and LCD display into the plastic. Babak A. Parviz and his group at the University of Washington in Seattle are laying the groundwork for the Internet contact lens, designing prototypes that may eventually change the way we access the Internet.

He foresees that one immediate application of this technology might be to help diabetics regulate their glucose levels. The lens will display an immediate readout of the conditions within their body. But this is just the beginning. Eventually, Parviz envisions the day when we will be able to download any movie, song, Web site, or piece of information off the Internet into our contact lens. We will have a complete home entertainment system in our lens as we lie back and enjoy feature-length movies. We can also use it to connect directly to our office computer via our lens, then manipulate the files that flash before us. From the comfort of the beach, we will be able to teleconference to the office by blinking.

By inserting some pattern-recognition software into these Internet glasses, they will also recognize objects and even some people’s faces. Already, some software programs can recognize preprogrammed faces with better than 90 percent accuracy. Not just the name, but the biography of the person you are talking to may flash before you as you speak. At a meeting this will end the embarrassment of bumping into someone you know whose name you can’t remember. This may also serve an important function at a cocktail party, where there are many strangers, some of whom are very important, but you don’t know who they are. In the future, you will be able to identify strangers and know their backgrounds, even as you speak to them. (This is somewhat like the world as seen through robotic eyes in
The Terminator.
)

This may alter the educational system. In the future, students taking a final exam will be able to silently scan the Internet via their contact lens for the answers to the questions, which would pose an obvious problem for teachers who often rely on rote memorization. This means that educators will have to stress thinking and reasoning ability instead.

Your glasses may also have a tiny video camera in the frame, so it can film your surroundings and then broadcast the images directly onto the Internet. People around the world may be able to share in your experiences as they happen. Whatever you are watching, thousands of others will be able to see it as well. Parents will know what their children are doing. Lovers may share experiences when separated. People at concerts will be able to communicate their excitement to fans around the world. Inspectors will visit faraway factories and then beam the live images directly to the contact lens of the boss. (Or one spouse may do the shopping, while the other makes comments about what to buy.)

Already, Parviz has been able to miniaturize a computer chip so that it can be placed inside the polymer film of a contact lens. He has successfully placed an LED (light-emitting diode) into a contact lens, and is now working on one with an 8 × 8 array of LEDs. His contact lens can be controlled by a wireless connection. He claims, “Those components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, and photographs. Much of the hardware is semitransparent so that wearers can navigate their surroundings without crashing into them or becoming disoriented.” His ultimate goal, which is still years away, is to create a contact lens with 3,600 pixels, each one no more than 10 micrometers thick.

One advantage of Internet contact lenses is that they use so little power, only a few millionths of a watt, so they are very efficient in their energy requirements and won’t drain the battery. Another advantage is that the eye and optic nerve are, in some sense, a direct extension of the human brain, so we are gaining direct access to the human brain without having to implant electrodes. The eye and the optic nerve transmit information at a rate exceeding a high-speed Internet connection. So an Internet contact lens offers perhaps the most efficient and rapid access to the brain.

Shining an image onto the eye via the contact lens is a bit more complex than for the Internet glasses. An LED can produce a dot, or pixel, of light, but you have to add a microlens so that it focuses directly onto the retina. The final image would appear to float about two feet away from you. A more advanced design that Parviz is considering is to use microlasers to send a supersharp image directly onto the retina. With the same technology used in the chip industry to carve out tiny transistors, one can also etch tiny lasers of the same size, making the smallest lasers in the world. Lasers that are about 100 atoms across are in principle possible using this technology. Like transistors, you could conceivably pack millions of lasers onto a chip the size of your fingernail.

In the near future, you will also be able to safely surf the Web via your contact lens while driving a car. Commuting to work won’t be such an agonizing chore because cars will drive themselves. Already, driverless cars, using GPS to locate their position within a few feet, can drive over hundreds of miles. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored a contest, called the DARPA Grand Challenge, in which laboratories were invited to submit driverless cars for a race across the Mojave Desert to claim a $1 million prize. DARPA was continuing its long-standing tradition of financing risky but visionary technologies.

(Some examples of Pentagon projects include the Internet, which was originally designed to connect scientists and officials during and after a nuclear war, and the GPS system, which was originally designed to guide ICBM missiles. But both the Internet and GPS were declassified and given to the public after the end of the Cold War.)

In 2004, the contest had an embarrassing beginning, when not a single driverless car was able to travel the 150 miles of rugged terrain and cross the finish line. The robotic cars either broke down or got lost. But the next year, five cars completed an even more demanding course. They had to drive on roads that included 100 sharp turns, three narrow tunnels, and paths with sheer drop-offs on either side.

Some critics said that robotic cars might be able to travel in the desert but never in midtown traffic. So in 2007, DARPA sponsored an even more ambitious project, the Urban Challenge, in which robotic cars had to complete a grueling 60-mile course through mock-urban territory in less than six hours. The cars had to obey all traffic laws, avoid other robot cars along the course, and negotiate four-way intersections. Six teams successfully completed the Urban Challenge, with the top three claiming the $2 million, $1 million, and $500,000 prizes.

The Pentagon’s goal is to make fully one-third of the U.S. ground forces autonomous by 2015. This could prove to be a lifesaving technology, since recently most U.S. casualties have been from roadside bombs. In the future, many U.S. military vehicles will have no drivers at all. But for the consumer, it might mean cars that drive themselves at the touch of a button, allowing the driver to work, relax, admire the scenery, watch a movie, or scan the Internet.

I had a chance to drive one of these cars myself for a TV special for the Discovery Channel. It was a sleek sports car, modified by the engineers at North Carolina State University so that it became fully autonomous. Its computers had the power of eight PCs. Entering the car for me was a bit of a problem, since the interior was crammed. Everywhere inside, I could see sophisticated electronic components piled on the seats and dashboard. When I grabbed the steering wheel, I noticed that it had a special rubber cable connected to a small motor. A computer, by controlling the motor, could then turn the steering wheel.

After I turned the key, stepped on the accelerator, and steered the car onto the highway, I flicked a switch that allowed the computer to take control. I took my hands off the wheel, and the car drove itself. I had full confidence in the car, whose computer was constantly making tiny adjustments via the rubber cable on the steering wheel. At first, it was a bit eerie noticing that the steering wheel and accelerator pedal were moving by themselves. It felt like there was an invisible, ghostlike driver who had taken control, but after a while I got used to it. In fact, later it became a joy to be able to relax in a car that drove itself with superhuman accuracy and skill. I could sit back and enjoy the ride.

The heart of the driverless car was the GPS system, which allowed the computer to locate its position to within a few feet. (Sometimes, the engineers told me, the GPS system could determine the car’s position to within inches.) The GPS system itself is a marvel of modern technology. Each of the thirty-two GPS satellites orbiting the earth emits a specific radio wave, which is then picked up by the GPS receivers in my car. The signal from each satellite is slightly distorted because they are traveling in slightly different orbits. This distortion is called the Doppler shift. (Radio waves, for example, are compressed if the satellite is moving toward you, and are stretched if it moves away from you.) By analyzing the slight distortion of frequencies from three or four satellites, the car’s computer could determine my position accurately.