A2 SEMINAR 10 Futurism – ANSWER KEY Task 1 – Based on class work. Task 2 – Based on class work. Task 3 – Underlined main ideas For better or worse, the suburbs are what America came up with when presented with the chance to manufacture its ideal geography. Come 2025, people will still live in houses within close distance of their neighbors, but the cyber revolution and the environmental movement promise to alter the landscape. While computers promote a dramatic trend toward decentralization, allowing people to spread out and live or work anywhere, the green consciousness will urge a contrasting densification, to conserve open space. The reconciliation of these opposing trends will define the suburb of the future. As the vastness of cyberspace increasingly satisfies the desire for more space, the house and yard will shrink to a more supportable size. Cyberspace will, at the same time, become the arena for conspicuous consumption relieving the home and front lawn of that responsibility. Meanwhile, the physical neighborhood will be freed for parks and other community activities. The cyber revolution will have an effect inside the home as well. It will challenge the cohesiveness of the family as children become self-sufficient citizens of the virtual world. The home will continuously readjust itself to the family's needs. As cyberspace becomes the kind of space that matters, the primitive territorial need for fixed rooms will fade, and the house will be divided among specific activities rather than simply among family members. THE EXTERIOR 1. Powering Up – Homes will obtain energy from efficient neighborhood generators, thermal-mass cooling ponds and solar collectors built into the streets. 2. Energy Sources – Machinery that runs the house will be powered in part by the homeowner's manual exercise. Pedal away, and watch the dishwasher and lawn mower go! 3. Safety Features – Wheelchairs of the future will be able to climb stairs, and guard rails will be replaced with airbags to prevent falls. 4. Rooms with a View – While houses will have simplicity, their windows will become display surfaces, able to show views of deserts, jungles or urban skylines. THE INTERIOR 1. Multipurpose Space – Instead of individual rooms dedicated to specific activities such as dining or recreation, one large room will be converted as needed, with the help of movable activity units. 2. The Family Room – As a counterpoint to the individual appliance zones, the open family room will be a non-virtual space for those who wish to have an old-fashioned encounter with a relative. 3. Work, Work, Work - Most of our work will be done not in the office but in virtual workstations at home. With a computer screen and interface goggles, you'll be able to work anywhere in the house. 4. Burgers to Go – Few people will cook. Instead their food will be delivered by the home-meal industry. The small kitchen will mainly be where food is opened, micro-waved and readied for the table. 5. Waste Disposal – Household refuse will be sorted, processed and ready for recycling by a fully enclosed waste-management system, with organic bits composted and spread on the lawn during mowing. 6. Bedrooms – Bedrooms will be smaller, with a space-saving, foldout bed. Since cyberspace will be the arena for personal display, we will have fewer personal objects to store in closets and cabinets. 7. Activities and Computer Games – Instead of a garage crammed with speedboats, surfboards and assorted play gear, the home will have various fold-out recreational simulators and gaming units. 8. Look up! – Ceilings will be filled with video-conferencing devices; medical and security scanners; heating, ventilation and air-conditioning sensors; and environmental regulators. 9. The Family Car – The ELOV (Electric Low-Occupancy Vehicle) will be the pollution-free mode of transportation. Its size will allow more cars on the highway, and its light weight will reduce accidents, since cars will simply bounce off one another. When extra passenger space is needed, another ELOV unit can be attached to its side. Although technology is sure to change a great deal and influence our way of living, the most interesting thing will be to see how we harness technology to satisfy our everyday needs and highest aspirations. Viewed at http://www.time.com/time/reports/v21/live/houses_mag.html on 12.8.2010. Task 4 – Some sample notes on the following topics that are mentioned in the video. 1) Linear growth vs. exponential growth – pace of information growth; e.g. 30 linear steps reach 30, but 30 exponential steps reach about a billion 2) Trends in technology – underlying properties of IT can be measured in bits/dollar, etc. and are predictable and follow exponential trajectories 3) Longevity and overcoming death – insights to how the brain works 4) Robotic red blood cells – biological engineering; humans can be thousands of times more capable than now; 10% of changed blood cells can increase capability to surpass today’s Olympic performance level 5) Energy supplies and needs – we have 10,000 times more sunlight than we need to fulfill our energy needs; 16 years from now, solar and renewable energy will meet all our needs; fossil fuels will be obsolete 6) Nanotechnology – doubling every two years; will be able to build houses inexpensively 7) Major challenges of humanity – environment, energy, poverty, disease, the nature of life and death will change 8) “Backing up” your brain – you will be able to recreate your brain after an accident; Parkinson’s patients use high technology now as therapy 9) Ethical opposition – not only religion, but fundamentalist humanists, naturalists – “we should not change biology”; the movement opposes GMO – e.g. “golden rice” 10) Evolution as a spiritual process – technology can bring us closer to the ideal of God – “unlimited in intelligence, creativity, love, beauty”; In technological and biological evolution, entities will become more complex, knowledgeable, intelligent, beautiful, capable of higher level emotions such as love. Technology has the seeds of the solution to the problems we have, but also introduces new dangers, so we need to understand what the future could bring. Task 5 – Grammar – Future tenses – future simple / future perfect / future continuous What is the difference in meaning in the following sentences? 1 Future simple Use the future simple to say that something will happen in the future. This tense is frequently used to make a general prediction about the future. Every product the company makes will contain enough intelligence to communicate with other products. 2 Future perfect (will have + past participle) Use the future perfect to say that something will be finished or achieved by a certain point in the future. This tense is frequently used with the time expressions in (three weeks’) time and by (Saturday / next year). Note: by + a time expression = at the latest. By next month I will have done all the work. (= The work will be finished next month at the latest.) 3 Future continuous (will be + verb + -ing) Use the future continuous to say that an action will be in progress at a certain time in the future. This time next month I will be lying on the beach in the sun. Don’t phone me between 7:00 and 8:00, as we will be having dinner then. Task 6 1) By next year my parents will have lived / will have been living in the same house for thirty years. 2) Will you call us when you know what your plans are? 3) If things go as planned, this time next year I will be running my own business. 4) Will they have finished by the time he gets back? 5) Call me on Saturday – I will be working at home all weekend. 6) Have a great holiday. We will be thinking of you there lying in the sun relaxing. Task 7 – based on class discussion