Cyphox Industries

Monday October 05th 2009, 11:25 am
Filed under: The Future of Science Fiction

Technological and cultural developments envisioned for the fictional year 2019 in Blade Runner as compared with a survey of current technologies in 2009 reveal the following:

videophones

Video_Call

While public videophone terminals exist, Skype has proven to become a virtually ubiquitous solution for videophoning on personal computers, and many mobile phones can also serve as videophones. This Wikipedia article sheds some light on the history of the videophone.

genetically superior humanoid androids

While the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, androids are still primarily mechanical not biological. For instance, there is an android of Philip K. Dick, the author of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep on which Blade Runner was based. Check also other advancements in humanoid robots on the android Wikipedia article.

sexual relations with artificial humans

realdoll

Much of the drama in Blade Runner centers around Deckard’s complex feelings towards the android Rachel. This documentary called Guys and Dolls is available to watch in five episodes on YouTube. It explores the lives of men who have relationships with artificial female Real Dolls (note: this link contains explicit adult content).

high resolution photo scanning and editing

While consumer grade document scanners and Adobe’s Photoshop software go above and beyond the image processing technologies in Blade Runner, research at Adobe shows promise for even further dimensionality and manipulation of traditional videos and photos:

http://www.vimeo.com/2345579 http://www.vimeo.com/5024379

flying cars

Private helicopters and jets have maintained luxury status and meanwhile Moller International claims to have created “the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing vehicle”.

media facades

Renewed interest has been taken in the concept of media facades, spurred by developments in LED technology. Consider for instance last year’s Media Facades Festival in Berlin, Germany, or this T-Mobile facade in Cologne, Germany:

off-planet colonies

Colonizing other planets is not a reality yet, however organizations like the Mars Society are dedicated to advocating exploration and settlement. Here is the Mars Society’s Dr. Robert Zubrin giving his impassioned opinion on the future of humanity in relationship to space and freedom:

We’re open for additional comments on these themes:

voice identification
motion-activated interior lighting
squats
toy robots
epic skyscrapers
photo printers
evidence of widespread Asian cultural influence
omnipresent urban garbage

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Artificial Intelligence has become an essential part of the technology industry. Still the problems of AI need a lot of developement, specially in areas like reasoning, knowledge, learning, communication, perception and learn to feel. AIBO is a artificial dog, which comes close to a dog, if we speak about the movements of one, but still is not able to feel and have an unique personality as a real dog. Now they are creating different personalities for the AIBO dogs in Japan, but it´s more like a personality chip, which can be changed and removed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKAeihiy5Ck
http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/22/0,3672,7101110,00.html?dr=1

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Comment by Momo 10.05.09 @ 6:17 pm

moving skyscrapers planned to be built in dubai. epic, even dynamic skyscrapers seem not to be a vision anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muhc_QUGcI

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Comment by nina, greta 10.05.09 @ 6:29 pm

Actroid DER-2 ist ein absolut menschen getreuer Roboter angeblich mit Spracherkennung, der in der Lage ist auf Fragen zu antworten und durch Mimik und Gestik fast als menschliches Gegenüber fungiert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egtla1kxSP8

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Comment by Lea+Lars 10.05.09 @ 6:36 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-fE9QBy0FI

Changes Are Progressive. So The Steps Are Small And We Don’t Notice Them…But We Are Constantly Advancing Towards A World Alike What You Created On That Video…

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Comment by Eva 10.05.09 @ 6:39 pm

http://www.zeit.de/campus/2009/05/china
the chinese influence really seems to grow quickly with chinas economic expansion.
now they even educate cheap academic work forces that other countries could also be interested in, because of low wages.

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Comment by nina, greta 10.05.09 @ 6:40 pm

The light motion sensor in Blade runner versus Wii MotionPlus and the iphone motion sensor.
The new technologies in this field have definitely exceeded Ridley Scotts expectations…and ours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_MotionPlus

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Comment by Tatyana & Sevgi 10.05.09 @ 6:41 pm

The advance in highly developed robots that look like humans is amazing. The robot “Geminoid” looks identical to it’s creator. He can show facial expressions and does react to physical contact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WijMCSfX0RA

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Comment by Sabine 10.05.09 @ 6:44 pm

The future City in “Blade Runner” is a dark, polluted and contaminated place. Surely not designed for a comfortable and healthy city-life. Mayby a complete plannig- failure? The site:
“Mega-Cities; Fehlentwicklung oder Modell für das 21. Jahrhundert?” gives us a look on the modern Mega-cities our time.

http://www.scinexx.de/dossier-22-1.html

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Comment by david 10.05.09 @ 6:49 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzeiUvDZog&feature=player_embedded

Much of this already exists, and we are pretty close to getting all that. But I would never accept having a watch that tells me that an appointment has been moved… that may suit business people but I want to be free and unreachable sometimes.

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Comment by Eva, Uwe 10.05.09 @ 6:54 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve0smppsyhA&feature=player_embedded

Ein Hochhaus das mit insgesamt 16.000.000 LEDs ausgestattet wurde, deren Farbe über eine Website gesteuert werden kann.

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Comment by Lea+Lars 10.05.09 @ 6:55 pm

A very special type of voice identification software for leisure purposes. Identifies Songtitles and Band just by humming, singing or whatever…
http://www.computerhilfen.de/info/melodie-vorsingen-und-song-finden-mit-musiksuchmaschine.html

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Comment by Tatyana & Sevgi 10.05.09 @ 6:59 pm

Voice Identification:

Very similar to the process of Voice Identification is the idea of recognizing and identifying music with mobile phones.

Shazam Entertainment, Ltd. was started in 2000 with the idea of providing a service that could connect people to music by recognizing music in the environment by using their mobile phones to recognize the music directly.

http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf

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Comment by Ulrike 10.09.09 @ 10:55 am

toy robots:
Das Forschungsinstitut “Technologie und Behinderung” spezialisiert sich auf Menschen mit Behinderungen. Es soll mit Roboter Technologie verbessert werden und sie besser unterstützen bzw. helfen im Alltag.

http://www.ftb-net.de/rail.html

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Comment by Nadine 11.09.09 @ 5:22 pm

Japanese Robot Dog responding on human touch.
And he play with toys, it is maybe the answer for Pets in the Future.