2130s milestones in on-person gear and life-styles

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CONTENTS of 2082 AD-2183 AD: The virtual telepathy of the shush net emerges; active electro-chemical mind alteration is becoming common; heavy commercialization of space is proceeding; historical stress levels on average citizens (as well as mass species extinctions due to growing human numbers squeezing out other lifeforms) are both peaking now

This page last updated on or about 10-19-05
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2130s milestones in on person gear and life styles

The average 'elite' or 'high-middle-class' citizen of the most highly developed states has at minimum a 60% chance of enjoying these items:

(1) one to seven mobile and intelligent robotic aides or helpers, which often accompany the individual wherever they go, to act as 'third hands', light sources, body guards, companions, etc.

(2) significantly augmented physical strength and stamina, due to several different elements: a much improved 'second skin' or 2-skin, which now includes an instantaneous and versatile (scalable) 'bubble-wrap'/micro-air bags effect to protect against violent impacts, 'on-the-fly' porosity and transparency/tinting changes, all new tensile strength functionality (which amounts to an amplification of the normal tensile stresses the wearer's biological form could withstand without injury; e.g., a wearer could act as an effective 'tow strap' between two 20th century-size and mass automobiles without tensile distress), a new functionality (when of water-proofed and airtight porosity) of balancing out body heat-- actively transferring excess heat from unwanted hot spots to cooler spots on the body-- which can allow someone to use a blow torch on a 2-skin wearer's chest and the wearer will not burn but merely feel a bit warmer all over as the heat is transferred automatically. 2-skin today routinely draws the power it needs to function from the normal physical motions of the wearer, as well as a minute amount of their normal body heat, or heat obtained from external sources (the blow torch example above would be a powerful energy source for a 2-skin-- actually offering much more than it could use).

Porous "nanobubblepack" materials could provide all manner of second-skin related materials and applications, from on-person nanotech airbag shock protection to transparent metal shields or lenses for the eyes. They could also increase still further the insulating power of a second skin-- pehaps making such insulation scalable-- that is, lessening or increasing as desired by the wearer. The insulation could protect against heat, cold, and electrical or physical shock.
-- Porous "Nanobubblepack" Materials Discovered ["http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/psu-pnm020599.html"] 11 FEBRUARY 1999 Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy science@psu.edu 814-863-4682 Penn State

-- "Scientists Clone a Goat" By Patrick White (or was "Canada Firm Clones Goat Triplets To Make Spider Silk" the headline? My saved notes are unclear here), Yahoo! News Science Headlines April 27, 1999, Reuters Limited

The 2-skin's decontamination gel molecule secretions are also more highly optimized than before; now pressure alone no longer triggers secretions; at least one known marker for substances dangerous to the wearer must also be present to trigger secretions. Plus, many of the infectious and/or nerve agents the 2-skin once protected against in decades past are no longer handled by the gel, but allowed to exist untreated-- as the wearer now typically enjoys much better defenses for those beyond the 2-skin itself (such as highly optimized internal auto-immune system elements).

Note that today's 2-skin (with some attention to detail) is practically a fully functional light duty space suit in itself. It can protect against decompression in a vacuum, maintain airtightness, shield from a reasonably wide range of nominal radiations, and insulate against extremes of hot and cold and low to mid-range electrical voltages. Though you'd have to add some sort of head gear and an air supply to make it completely spaceworthy, after that a freshly and properly applied 2-skin could keep the wearer alive and in relatively good shape in vacuum until help arrived or the wearer's air supply gave out-- or they died of thirst or starvation.

Note too that such 2-skins enjoy extensive use in undersea communities by virtue of these same attributes-- the on-the-fly malleability of the 2-skin's micro-texture allows it to optimize the wearer's effective outer skin texture for maximum swimming performance, among other things ('fish-skin' capacities). Take a 2-skin shower in the morning and you're already halfway prepared for a deep sea excursion or space walk in the 2130s.

A somewhat modified version of the 2-skin is these days becoming a popular head dress among many. Today the long time trend towards permanent body hair removal is culminating in permanent eradication of scalp hair as well. Again, this is occuring for reasons both cosmetic and functional. The 2-skin makes the various environmental protections of natural hair redundant, while also offering much greater flexibility in personal styling.

Too, natural hair often interferes with or reduces the effectiveness of various technological interfaces many citizens prefer with their head gear at present. Ergo, not only have the majority of people in the developed nations permanently removed all body hair by now, but they are in the process of ridding themselves of the last bit atop their heads too-- replacing it with all manner of other alternatives, from nothing at all (but standard 2-skin), to skull caps, to astonishing animated wigs, to sleek helmets highly reminiscent of sci fi illustrations from two centuries before. Note that those types of 'hair' styles which offer great surface area compared to volume may also greatly increase the overall heat dissipation power of the entire 2-skin body envelope for the wearer. I.e., the use of certain 2-skin 'hair' configurations could permit the user to withstand far greater exposure to heat and flame than others. Such high energy dissipation capacities help those who carry especially high-powered weaponry, defenses, or computing resources on-person too.

(3) significant augmentation of intellectual capacities by way of an advanced version of the earlier "aVizor" now being surgically implanted into the person's physical body

(4) a commercial broadcast tap, allowing the host to sell directly to others the vicarious thrills of experiencing their personal life much the same as the host does

(5) direct electro-chemical transfers of memory for training, educational, or recreational purposes

(6) a limited but significant capacity for changing one's appearance on-the-fly

(7) general functional fluency in nearly any language known to man, machine, or animal

(8) enhanced diagnosis, healing, and recovery capacities from injuries

-- Molecular-scale chips by CHARLES PILLER, Nando Media/Los Angeles Times Syndicate, December 4, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com

-- "$2.5 Million Initiative To Develop Chameleon-Like Nanoshells", Source: Rice University (http://www.rice.edu), 4/19/99, http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/reno/Newsrel/1999/19990414_nanoshell.s html, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/04/990419095117.htm, ScienceDaily Magazine

(9) limited stasis capabilities to enhance survival prospects in times of severe injury or accident, until help can arrive

(10) the capability to hand over remote control of oneself to others in emergencies (i.e., imagine today having to land a plane but not having the training-- wouldn't it be nice to allow an expert pilot a hundred miles away to take over for you?)

(11) both realistic and unrealistic robotic sexual partners (by unrealistic I refer to the popular practice nowadays of partners based on fantasy characters from various contemporary and historical fictions, composed of chimera (part human, part animal), aliens, or characters from much cruder animated films and video games of many decades past).

(12) a sensory bandwidth much expanded over natural human abilities-- i.e., infrared vision and more

(13) scenario rooms: special environments which complement the resources listed above to produce a fluid reality, where literally anything can be experienced, very similar to the holodeck on the 1990s TV series Star Trek the Next Generation, only here using a mix of virtual reality and a thin, breathable liquid medium to bring trillions of micromachine units into physical contact with the individual to provide the physical component of what is experienced in the virtual scene-- making things about as real as can be.

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