Ms. Hushbequiet No Longer Lives Here

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends, Love of Reading

Tags

BiblioTech, Future of Books, Information Commons Area, Libraries of the Future, Little Free Library, Local Libraries, Lori Nix, Lower Macungie Library, National Library Week, New Canaan Library, public libraries, The New Community Center

From: pkchai DepositPhoto.com

Who remembers the horn-rimmed spinster with the arctic scowl and tummy-curdling hush at public libraries of old? Removing a book from the reference section got you two to five. The libraries of my youth were colonnaded stone and brick edifices with many corners for a kid to hide. Libraries had significance in a time when books cost more than some folks made in a week, and everything was free with the coveted library card. The universal alibi for teens when asked where they’ve been: “I was at the library”. More than just a place, it was an adventure, a journey, an opportunity to peek over a weighty tome to see if Margie at the other table, noticed me.

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What’s On Your Plate In Two Hundred Years?

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Eating, F&W Magazine, Food, Food of the Future, Future Agriculture, Future Cooking, Future Trends, Malthusian, Manufactured Food, Science of Food, Writing Science Fiction

Lightsource – DepositPhotos.com

I’m a bit of a foodie, and own a sizable collection of eclectic cookbooks. My favorite cocktail hour pastime is to peruse one of many food magazine subscriptions, reading the latest recipes. The cocktail stimulates my virtual tasting acumen. I’m at a point where I can imagine how something tastes by reading the ingredients, but it’s a limited window, disproportional to the quantity of alcohol consumed.

While sifting through past issues, I stumbled across an article in the March 2013 issue of Food &Wine, The Plate Project: What We’ll Be Eating in 35 Years. What made this article unique was not gastronomical guessing by famous chefs. The project was more of a lighthearted prediction that had to be drawn, or displayed, on a paper plate. The results were as unique and original as the personalities of world famous cooks, artists, and designers. As a writer of sci-fi, it had me pondering what influences would decide what’s on our plate two-hundred years from now.

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The Face of Future Man

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Future Face, Future Man, Homo Sapian, human diversity, Human Evolution, Nickolay Lamm, Synthetic Man, Writing Science Fiction

Sergiy Tryapitsyn – DepositPhoto.com

For those of us who read and write science fiction, we’re curious how humans might look in the future. What has puzzled me for a long time is how that curiosity often trends toward a theory in which we all look the same. Is it possible, that in several thousand years, the vitality of human diversity, will meld to a singular mold?

Anthropological circles generally agree that Africa is the cradle of modern man, but a lot happened since common ancestors migrated to different continents 60,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand. Eons of environmental influence, and tight knit communities that stayed in one place, determined whether skin was light or dark, or you had eyes of blue. As geographic boundaries shrink or become non-existent, intermingling becomes more prevalent. It isn’t hard to accept that much of man’s physical diversity may shrink as well.

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How Do You Like Your SHMEAT?

17 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Future Foods, In Vitro Meat, Modified Foods, Shmeat, Synthetic Meat

La Fabrica – DepositPhoto.com

I always have an eye out for future trends, especially if we’re closing in on stuff I read about in science fiction when I was a kid. I’m a little disappointed we haven’t achieved interplanetary travel by the year 2001 like Stanley Kubrik promised in his adaptation of Clarke’s novel. Though we’re still stuck tossing expensive tin cans into orbit, we have a better record with modifying the food chain. Ever since Frederick Pole introduced the concept of cow-less beef in his fifties sci-fi novel, The Space Merchants, scientists have doggedly pursued the holy grail of future food … synthetic meat. I’m just glad they’re not investigating the Jetson’s dietary plan of everything in a pill.

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