Futuristic Lipstick
Bruce Sterling has won a Hugo Award for his science-fiction writing. In an interview by an online journalist he discusses the fascinating concept of design fiction. The best example given of this, is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the whole ship is controlled by a tablet like creation, almost exactly that of the modern day iPad. How is it that people can create of these seemingly absurd ideas of technology and then have it exist 50 years later?
This got me thinking on the subject in general. How in movies set in the future, made only 15 years ago contain cards with an individuals complete set of information on them, used to swipe into buildings, trains and homes. These things exist today, with buttons to start a car, cards on public transport (though I bet they thought it would run smoother than Mykis), and cards used as employee keys, and even at RMIT for room access. The fictional ideas projected by people in the past, are reality today.
Does this then mean that things that I casually dream up will be invented for public use in a couple of decades? How unrealistic are our dreams, if others have done the same in the past, only to see it achieved half a century later?
I would like a cure for cancer, and maybe even famine if I dare to dream. I would like to have a green public transport system, that ran on time, flawlessly computerised and safe. I would like lipstick that stayed on until you wanted it to be wiped clean.
Who knows what’s possible, given enough time in a futuristic mind.
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