Re: INTERESTING LIVES and INTERESTING FACTS
THE FUTURE!
Cashless transactions will mean the end of
“grace periods.”
Cash exchanges will gradually be
replaced by real-time “fractal” transactions—i.e., instant
automatic payment to everyone involved in a purchase,
from producer to distributor to retailer. Wireless handheld
devices will process and distribute money to all of
the recipients instantaneously, splitting the transaction
like a fractal and avoiding the delays of non-cash money
transactions such as checks and credit-card payments.
—Thomas Frey, “Fractal Transactions: Launching the Future of Money,”
Fashions:
Clothes That Make the Futurist
To prepare for any journey, we like to know what
we’ll wear. So here’s what fashionable futurists (or
future fashionistas) will be packing for the road ahead:
Outfits and accessories that are
smart, sensitive, and sweet (or stinky):
Researchers in smart fabrics and intelligent
textiles (SFIT) are working with the
fashion industry to bring us color-changing
jeans, evening wear that emits different
scents as the mood alters, undergarments that
monitor our vital signs, and built-in communications
networks that could keep us safer.
—Patrick Tucker, “Smart Fashion,”
Petroleum-free clothing: Synthetic
fabrics will be made using organic
sources such as corn, rice, sugarcane
residue, and grasses rather than
petroleum. The fabric will also
be biodegradable. —Tomorrow in Brief
Nanocosmetics: Nano-
engineered particles could pack
more punch in tomorrow’s cosmetics
bags, adding bug repellants, sunscreens,
antibacterial properties, and other useful features to
our blushes and skin creams. But critics warn that the widespread
use of carbon fullerenes (buckyballs) in such products
may pose dangerous environmental and health risks.
--World Trends & Forecasts
**Dissolvable dresses:
Fabrics made with clear polymers
that break down slowly under normal wear will dissolve
quickly when dropped into hot water. Once out of fashion,
your clothes could be liquefied rather than thrown into overflowing
and fills. **—Tomorrow in Brief
Wireless running shoes that record your steps:
The Nike+iPod has a receiver that measures your speed and distance
and plays your favorite tunes while you jog. (Be
careful, though! Someone else may be
spying on you. —World Trends & Forecasts
Wristwatch cash card:
Store a few extra bucks in a “cashless wallet” embedded
in your wristwatch. Buy a can of soda or
subway ticket with a simple wave of your hand. —Allen H. Kupetz, “Our Cashless Future,”