It's Friday morning in the year of 2050, and you're running late. You got carried away watching the music video that is playing in the corner of your bathroom mirror while you were brushing your teeth. How will you get to your office at Mega Giga Industries on time?
A quick check of your Internet-connected refrigerator tells you your train is a bit behind schedule, too. So you decide to drive your environmentally hydrogen fuel (环保氢燃料) car instead—or rather, let your car drive you. It's programmed to know the way and it will get you there without getting lost.
Settling into your office chair, which changes color to match what you're wearing, you pick up yesterday morning's newspaper. Printed on reusable electronic paper, it rewrites itself. Now it's time for your big meeting. Uh-oh! You've left your handwritten notes at home. No problem. The smart pen you used has stored an electronic copy of what you wrote.
Your wristwatch videophone (可视电话) suddenly rings. Your best friend's face pops up on the screen asking what you're doing this weekend. Will you play virtual soccer with the U. S. Olympic team? No, no. Your friend says, so you have to take the new elevator (made of microscopic fibers many times stronger than steel) 60 000 miles into space.
Could this scene really take place in just a couple of decades? The researchers who are now developing all these things think so. These high-tech products (高科技产品) may be as common in 30 years as cell phones today.
