As I described here, I ultimately found my time machine, i.e. Cryonics. In the meantime I joined the German Society for Applied Biostasis, to work with them to make this dream come true.
Consequently my quest for a time machine is over. This will propably be the last entry. Thanks for reading.
The vacuum cleaner of the future surely will be a robot – letting you do the more interesting things in life. Some very early specimens are:
My current favourite is the one from LG, because it comes with a HEPA. I like the idea of the device disarming particulate matter.
Energy prices are permanently increasing, and our houses consume a lot of it. A house of the future might bring more energy than it consumes. Therefore our houses may generate a monthly income.
Unlikely? These houses do already exist today. They are called energy-plus-houses. About 60 of them have been built in Freiburg (Germany). Have a look at Solarsiedlung.de.
What does a bike of the future look like? I think two things will change: Bikes will become faster and much more comfortable – including weather protection. The Aerorider, the go-one, and the Versatile give an idea of the future of bicycles.
By the way: the bike you can see me riding on the photo is an AnthroTech Trike.
What does a car of the future look like? The Acabion might be an answer. It consumes only 2.5 liters on 100 km and has a maximum speed of 600 km/h (373 mph). The manufacturer currently restricts its speed to 450 km/h (280 mph). The Acabion costs several million dollars. I guess 200 years will cut the price quite a bit :)
Unfortunately the Acabion does not come with a flux capacitor. So it does not help much with time travel ;)
I can time travel using very low temperatures – in theory! But how can I put this into practice?
Alcor – recentily featured on the NBC Arizona nightly news – claims to be the “world leader in cryonics” (greek: kryos = cold). They offer to store people in liquid nitrogen. Nitrogen has a boiling point of −195.79 °C (−320.42 °F). So this should really be cold enough. Even though Alcor is a nonprofit organisation, such a time travel still costs $80,000–$150,000.
The cryonics procedure is not trivial at all. It's much more than just storing people in liquid nitrogen. Remember frozen strawberries taste different than fresh strawberries? This is because water forms ice crystals when becoming solid. Those ice crystals damage the cells of the strawberries. Alcor applies vitrification to avoid ice crystal formation. This means liquids are transformed into a glass-like solid.
Sounds like science fiction? Have a look at “Scientists’ Open Letter on Cryonics”.
So time travel seems possible, but isn’t cheap. Maybe the advertising on this website will help me finance my time travel ;) We'll see …
The Arrhenius equation describes how fast chemical reactions happen – dependent on the temperature. If a person’s body is temporarily stored at −150 °C (−238 °F), the person’s chemical reactions, which normally happen in about one second, now need 200 years to proceed. 200 years go by on earth, but only one second for that person.
So the third time machine I found is a very cold temperature. I will examine this one in greater detail later on.
All of a sudden, Keptn Future gets a lot of feedback :) No wonder, Rocketboom – the most popular vlog on the Net – just reported about Keptn’s Blog. Thank you! Joanne Colan was really lovely ...
I thank all of you for the great feedback! I will try to answer all of your emails.
One issue: Please drop me a line if you find any errors (or just bad style) in my blog. English is not my native language …
Gerontologist Aubrey de Grey expects that future life expectancy will be 1000 years and more. He even has a plan – called SENS – describing quite exactly what kind of research has to be done to achieve this goal.
Well, such an extreme high life expectancy would make it almost easy to reach the 23rd century.
So the second time machine I found is a very high life expectancy. Please consider supporting the “Methuselah Mouse Prize” which tries to pave the way for SENS.
Einstein’s theory of relativity implies an effect called time dilation – which describes that time runs slower for moving objects. For a person who travels nearly at the speed of light, years on earth go by – while he only drinks a cup of tea.
So the first time machine I found is an extremely fast spaceship. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who owns such a craft ;) Apart from that, such a spaceship would presumably consume an incredible amount of energy. Thus the search for a time machine goes on …
What will the future be like? The “Future of Humanity Institute” at Oxford University is interested in that question as well. Its director Nick Bostrom describes a possible future where people love their lives in every second. His “Letter from Utopia” sounds promising.
Why search for a time machine? Good question to start with :) I really love the Star Trek universe. They have nice tools, great medicine, and excellent entertainment technology. I would like to try out a holodeck and other funky stuff. But is the future really like that? Is it even better? Let’s find out.