ROGER'S RUMINATIONS

After all, tomorrow is another day. By Roger Wheeler

We all had a yesterday, but tomorrow? Nobody knows. We can make an ‘educated’ guess but in fact we haven’t a clue. We can just hope that it will be fine and for most of us it will be, Brexit and viruses notwithstanding, there will be plenty of other disasters for us to worry about.

Making predictions is a fool’s game so all we can do is fantasise. Technology is one area that we can really be optimistic about, it will get bigger and better. Our current mobile phones in a few years’ time will look like museum pieces, we will then have communicators. The internet, which no one had heard of 40 or so years ago, will by 2040 be unrecognisable by today’s standards. Trains will be running on induction loops, planes will be flying at twice the speed of sound, all cars will be driverless and electric. We will be taking trips to the Moon and probably Mars. All these things we know are going to be possible given the rate of technological progress. Moon base Artemis will be established in a few years and men (and women) will be walking on Mars. Sadly, it is unlikely that we will meet any Vulcans or speak Klingon, but there may well be phasers already set to ‘stun’.

Space travel will be available, at a price, and not uncommon by about 2040, if Richard Branson and Elon Musk have their way. We will possibly find ‘intelligent’ life on other planets – there isn’t much here on Earth anymore. It is unlikely that any of us will be around to meet any of ET’s friends; it’s my one big regret. Neither will Captain American be around to save us – that is a pity. Nor will Spiderman or even Superman; they would be worth meeting.

Our physical health will no doubt be better; there will be few diseases that medical science can’t cure, even with new viruses and pandemics. In many ways the technology of Star Trek, which seemed bizarre 30 or so years ago, will be commonplace. Most of the world’s population will have their DNA sequenced. There may even be holographic doctors, there are already operations carried out by robots. Tomorrow’s world is here already. What’s more, it’s predicted that there will be no more poverty, but that’s pure fantasy.

We don’t need to start stockpiling loo rolls; the world isn’t going to end on January 1, 2030, even if we don’t meet the forecast climate change catastrophe. The Americans are planning on building lots of tiny nuclear reactors so will save the world.

But let’s face it, the future is unknowable, all these prophesies may seem incredible but if science and human endeavour has taught us anything, then anything is possible, eventually. So yes there is a lot to be optimistic about, you know the sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun.

Happy New Year