More free time in future?

“Technological evolution can not be stopped” said Nicklas Bergman in a lecture when he presented his future theory. He also explained that before you can call a single independent invention a technological evolution you need to wait and see whether it gets established on the market to a certain point where it starts to affect peoples’ lives. His example was private cars. Before they existed, people were less movable and therefore had a stationary lifestyle. Once the private cars become affordable, it led to an increase of the sales of country houses, since people now could easily transport between the cities and the suburbs.

In other words Nicklas meant that every innovation can be a single independent invention, but doesn’t necessary have to become a technological evolution.

A few weeks later I was watching “Beyond Tomorrow” on Discovery Science Channel, where they as usually presented the latest inventions from all around the world, and I started to think of what these new cool gadgets could lead to if they gradually turned into technological evolutions. All inventions presented were from different areas and therefore had various features & benefits. Although after seeing all five of them I started to see a pattern. No matter what field of application they would have, all of them had one purpose – to achieve the result quicker.

Here comes the list of them:

1. Chemical spray from US that helps you to remove the scratches on your car. You don’t have to polish you vehicle or do anything else with it, just spray on the scratches and wait, the result will show in 15-20 minutes. --> Less time-consuming
2. New video camera that helps the scientist to do their research on dingos in South Australia. The heat- and movement sensor build in the camera only reacts and starts filming when it catches a warm-blooded animal that moves and has the size that has been preselected (to film only animals of dingo-size) cuts down the time of the night film from 12 hours to just a few. --> Less time-consuming
3. Mystical berries from Japan that can make it easier for you to drop a couple of kilos if you need it. The berries are served only in one restaurant in Tokyo together with very healthy food, which does not contain a milligram of sugar. You are supposed to chew on the berries before you start eating the food, which without any sugar tastes bitter and sour. The secret is that the berries can affect your taste buds for the next hour and therefore turn any bitter or sour taste into a sweet flavor and make it taste like the best pastry you’ve ever eaten. This can actually make you want to eat healthy food and spend less time at the gym trying to lose your weight. --> Less time-consuming
4. New invention called Quin Spin developed at Loughborough University in England that can make you kick it like Beckham. By measuring the speed, spin and position of the ball that you kick, it can tell you what parts to improve and therefore help you to get the perfect kick faster. --> Less time-consuming
5. Mechanical translator from Kahrlsruhe University in Germany that can help you to communicate on the thirty most common languages spoken all over the world. The translator itself is a communication revolution. It doesn’t only immediately translates and pronouns the exact phrases you say and receive the answers, but also “reads” signs by taking pictures. The creators are also working on the translator so that it can be used on the phone by using the muscle detector, but such a progress will take some more time. As for now, the plan is to release it on the market within a couple of years, which means that you can forget all that time it takes you to learn a new language if you can afford one of these new translators. --> Less time-consuming

According to these inventions the technology development today goes in a clear direction to reach the results quicker and therefore ease the existence of humans in the future by give them more free time. The question now is though whether this kind of inventions will only remain the inventions or whether they actually will become a common part of our lives and gradually turn into the technological evolution? And if they will, will we humans have more spear time in future? And in that case, what will we spend it on? Will we find new interest and hobbies, spend more time with our friends and families or will we just choose to work more? Well, I can’t answer this question for everyone, but at least i know what my choice would be... Do you?