Gizmodo Australia » futurism

The Future Of Tourism Is…Robot Sex?

Danny Allen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:00:57 +0000

At Australia’s Tourism Futures conference, futurologist Ian Yeoman (of New Zealand’s University of Wellington) forecast artificial resorts with robot staff, and yep, even robot prostitutes could become a reality.

“But you’re talking about extreme futures,” he admitted.

Dr Yeoman’s talk centred on what the world might be like in 2050. He explained that indoor tourism could be the next big thing due to global warming, an older population, plus food, water and jet fuel problems. He imagines indoor resorts with artificial ski centres and recreated landscapes; even giant sea-faring cruise ships. He also predicts rooms with chemical wallpapers that can change colour to suit a guest’s mood.

“Robotics will become important, because you’re going to have labour shortages in the future,” he said…Even robot “prostitutes” that would not pass on diseases such as HIV could make an appearance.”

[via News.com.au]

Our Augmented Reality Future

Jack Loftus — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

io9 was busy this weekend detailing detailing how the future might look as “augmented reality” takes off in the next decade or so. Personally, I can’t wait for the information overload. It’s just too bad spam will follow us into 2020. [io9]

According Popular Science Magazine, We Should All Drive Humongous Wheels By Now

John Herrman — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:07:08 +0000

Scouring the recently-posted PopSci archives on Google Books, reader Wesley Treat has put together a collection documenting the magazine’s odd, decades-long obsession with the idea of a personal monowheel.

Just as vague questions of cosmology and consciousness make up just about every other cover of New Scientist today, fantastical futurist gadgets were at one point the safe default for the covers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Like lots of the other cover staples, the monowheel has to some degree come to pass, but hardly to the extent that you might have been led to believe it might in 1917. Or 1923. Or 1938. You get the idea. [RoadsideResort]