Thanksgiving 2033: enjoy life in a high-tech wonderworld

By Dick Pelletier

      

    No one knows for sure how the future will unfold in 25 years, but by projecting present-day knowledge with expected technology breakthroughs, we can make plausible guesses about what life might be like in the year 2033.

    Advancing technologies promise that in 25 years we will meet business associates and loved ones via Internet-delivered holograms, enjoy pampering from caring household robots, live in ageless, healthy bodies, and expand our presence in space.

    Thanksgiving 2033 still includes sharing with family and friends, both live and virtual. Wall-size screens display interactive 3D-hologram videos created by high-definition Internet cameras that bring friends and families together from anywhere in the world, in virtual environments indiscernible from reality. As participants touch, hug, or kiss a hologram image, their brain convinces them that the encounter is real.

    Turkey dinner still remains our favorite, but nanofactories, available since 2025, have put an end to messy food preparation. This countertop appliance provides food, clothing, and gadgets at little or no cost. Mom replicates the perfect holiday dinner with all the trimmings, which is then served by the family robot voicing its often-humorous attempts at making conversation.

    Robots have become the most important acquisition in our homes. Priced at $10,000-to-$30,000 in 2030s dollars, these loyal creatures understand and respond to our every need. They watch over each family member keeping them out of harms way, and help manage technologies, such as medical nanobots that keep us forever healthy, and virtual simulations that whisk us away to entertainment dreamland.

    Science has radically changed the ways that we supply nutrition to our bodies. Trillions of tiny nanobots housed in a special belt deliver nutrients, produced inexpensively by the family replicator, direct to each cell in the body. This revolutionary system eliminates the need for eating food, and most important, it keeps us trim and forever healthy.

    But gourmet enthusiasts do not want to give up their eating pleasures, so researchers have created a special digestive tract that receives real food, but prevents those nutrients from entering the blood stream. Nanobots break down this food, then route it into a disposable ‘nutrient belt’. Food lovers can now eat anything their heart desires without fears of gaining weight.

    Interest in space exploration has skyrocketed. Astronauts returned to the moon in 2020 and built a self-sustaining colony that now boasts over 1,000 residents, most of whom are construction workers mining asteroids, or beaming solar energy back to Earth.

    In 2030, the Space Elevator lifted its first pay-load into orbit reducing launch costs from $10,000 per-pound to $100. And in 2031, NASA successfully landed men on Mars, and plans to build a self-sustaining colony on the red planet by 2040. Star Trek fantasies are finally becoming reality.

    Religions still flourish in 2033. Much different from their 2008 versions, most churches now recognize that humans have the right to improve their bodies through stem cell and genetic therapies, and that indefinite lifespans are a real possibility, and a worthwhile goal to achieve.

    As we enter this 'magical future' time, many await the challenges that still lie ahead: to develop unlimited energy, tame Earth’s dangerous weather, and scatter our populations to the stars.

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.