Later in this chapter we’ll discuss the atmospheric, topographical, and climatic circumstances that will make all the difference in the world, so to speak, in the second half of the century and essentially leave it up to us just how quickly the end of days will come.
No later than 2015 all newly built houses will be solar powered and prefabricated, made of stone or flame-retardant synthetic wood over reinforced steel, with roofs of ceramic tile and solar panels that are both shatterproof and fireproof. Standard in each home will be a sophisticated security system, including steel-core exterior doors and unbreakable windows that can be opened only by the home’s central computer, in an emergency triggered by an alarm that simultaneously alerts the fire and police departments, and by the homeowner through a scan of their “eyeprint.” The eyeprint will be a configuration of the cornea and iris, as distinctive as a fingerprint, much like we discussed regarding the iris “fingerprint” database. All access points of the house will include a peephole, which the residents and authorized guests will look into so that the central computer can scan the eyeprint and allow entry.
That same central computer can be programmed to play music, turn TVs and other home computers on and off, control appliances and lighting, and completely manage the phone system—making voice-activated calls, blocking calls, selectively answering calls, and providing a crystal-clear, hands-free conversation in any room or rooms of the house.
Building codes for every home, and public building, for that matter, will mandate powerful, well-concealed air purifiers, eliminating virtually all airborne viruses and sources of allergies and asthma attacks.
And another common fixture in most upscale homes by 2015 will be highly functional and incredibly convenient robots. They’ll be available to the general public by 2019 and will respond to more than five hundred complicated voice commands, from cooking to cleaning to pet care to reading bedtime stories to helping children with their homework to teaching computer skills.
Last but certainly not least, it will be a very rare private home that by 2040 won’t be equipped with a retractable roof to allow the family hovercrafts to come and go as routinely as the family cars currently come and go from our garages.
Protecting ourselves from terrorists and unsafe air will become an increasingly urgent priority as technology advances, with the result that by the late 2020s some of us will be living in domed cities.
The concept of domed cities will be developed by an international collaboration of experts. The first of these cities will appear in the United States. Germany, England, and Japan will follow immediately, with India, the Middle East, and the Far East being the last to participate. Eventually there will be domed cities on every continent, made of a composite of three- ply synthetic glass and plastic that’s infinitely more durable than anything in existence today. It will be tinted for UV protection but still high enough and clear enough to be virtually undetectable to the population thriving beneath it, and it will open and close to allow, or deny, air travel. The air will be purified, the temperature will be regulated, and all conditions in general will be scientifically controlled for maximum health.
Ironically, the downside of domed cities will be their desirability. The more ideal they become, the more crowded they’ll become, and the more crowded they become, the more stressful they’ll become. It will take only a couple of decades for the population of domed cities to be “weeded out” as the wealthy take over and the poor are excluded.
That inequity will be solved to some extent by the appearance of several domed rural regions throughout the world. Communal societies will form there and become very successful organic agricultural centers.
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