A few years ago, I was privileged to tour what was then a futuristic house. It had everything imaginable to include: automatic doors, intelligent kitchen cabinets and refrigerator, automatic lights and individual room temperature controls. The food inventory system fascinated me. It maintained an active inventory of the food reserves and prompted for reorder by sending a message to email, a hand-held device or a cell phone. If a local grocery store was properly equipped, the system could place a replenishment order through the Internet for same-day pickup or delivery.
As a long time stereo buff, the sound systems in each of the rooms caught my attention. A central program library stored on a disk could supply each room with the same music or individualized selections. Each room could randomly access the music library or create a separate play list. The configuration permitted answering the door intercom, room-to-room communication and hands-free talking on the phone. Of course, there were videophone terminals as well. Everything electronic in the house tied into the central computer network.
As impressive as the interior of the house was, the exterior treatments were most memorable.
The landscaping was deceptively modern. At first glance it appeared all-too-normal. As the subtleties were pointed out, I was flabbergasted.
I had some experience in selling landscaping plants and materials, so I took special interest in how utterly low maintenance the scheme was.
First the beds were 'mulched' with a material made from shredded, recycled automobile tires. The landscaping decks and timbers were of a shredded fiber that came from recycled plastic bottles and was fused together under heat, galvanizing the synthetic fibers into a stronger composite. The value of both was clear. They would last a very long time. Both the mulch and the timbers were conditioned to be a uniform gray which might at first seem lifeless but with the landscaping relying on progressive bursts of color throughout the season, the primer gray served as an effective canvas for the gardener's artistic presentation of nature's seasonal changes.
While the rest of the tour was moving onward to appreciate the balance of height and foliage density, I lingered behind. My mind drifted as I entered a euphoric state. It all made sense to me. I recalled the late humorist, George Carlin's thoughts of the subject of man's purpose in the world. He suggested mankind was intended to provide plastic to the world.
How many problems could these simple inventions solve? If the timbers could be made load bearing, they could replace wood in the frame of a house. Even if the plastic composite could not be made to bear structural weight, using the material for framing the walls of a house would substantially reduce the number of wood studs needed for building a house, sparing more trees. The rubber mulch used for the landscaping was ingenious. Not only would it retard the growth of weeds, but also it would not wash away.
When the tour rounded the corner, I hurried to catch up with them, seeing yet another example of creative recycling. It was a fountain made of plastic, but it resembled stone. As I looked at the base of the fountain, a fairly large, deep pool served as a catch basin for the rainwater from the roof and as a reservoir for the irrigation system for the ornamentals and the small lawn. Beauty and utility converged.
"You gotta see this!" another member of the tour shouted. He was right, of course. It was the reason for my being there. The universe came into harmonious order as I saw that the lawn seemed to be mowing itself. What had been a personal dream of mine finally came to fruition.
It was a technological trick. Isn't everything these days? The mower was equipped with ultra sensitive feelers and antennae that were programmed to turn the self-propelled, solar-powered deck according to pre-positioned directional signatures embedded in the landscaping materials.
Whatever the expense, it might be worth it. Then I heard just how much the special landscaping design and all the extra gizmos cost. "I guess it will be some time before I divert from the old ways," I said.
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind of any other thoughts. Someday, I might live to see such marvels. Perhaps by the time it was economical, there would be some other solution that was even better. Isn't that the way of technology? Even so, I was impressed. Except, as I walked through the freshly mowed grass I happened to step in a pile that someone's dog left behind.
Some problems are apparently more difficult than others to resolve.
Maybe someday someone somewhere will come up with a doggie pooper sensor. Whenever a dog enters the yard the position of the animal is tracked and immediately a thermal sensor is engaged to look for the remnant steamer-signature. When located a high intensity laser could be deployed to destroy the foul remnants of the neighborhood dog's trespassing.
Then again, if such a system ever malfunctioned, what remained of poor Spot might be just about all that his name suggested. It could trigger a neighborhood arms escalation, and that would do no one any good.
As a long time stereo buff, the sound systems in each of the rooms caught my attention. A central program library stored on a disk could supply each room with the same music or individualized selections. Each room could randomly access the music library or create a separate play list. The configuration permitted answering the door intercom, room-to-room communication and hands-free talking on the phone. Of course, there were videophone terminals as well. Everything electronic in the house tied into the central computer network.
As impressive as the interior of the house was, the exterior treatments were most memorable.
The landscaping was deceptively modern. At first glance it appeared all-too-normal. As the subtleties were pointed out, I was flabbergasted.
I had some experience in selling landscaping plants and materials, so I took special interest in how utterly low maintenance the scheme was.
First the beds were 'mulched' with a material made from shredded, recycled automobile tires. The landscaping decks and timbers were of a shredded fiber that came from recycled plastic bottles and was fused together under heat, galvanizing the synthetic fibers into a stronger composite. The value of both was clear. They would last a very long time. Both the mulch and the timbers were conditioned to be a uniform gray which might at first seem lifeless but with the landscaping relying on progressive bursts of color throughout the season, the primer gray served as an effective canvas for the gardener's artistic presentation of nature's seasonal changes.
While the rest of the tour was moving onward to appreciate the balance of height and foliage density, I lingered behind. My mind drifted as I entered a euphoric state. It all made sense to me. I recalled the late humorist, George Carlin's thoughts of the subject of man's purpose in the world. He suggested mankind was intended to provide plastic to the world.
How many problems could these simple inventions solve? If the timbers could be made load bearing, they could replace wood in the frame of a house. Even if the plastic composite could not be made to bear structural weight, using the material for framing the walls of a house would substantially reduce the number of wood studs needed for building a house, sparing more trees. The rubber mulch used for the landscaping was ingenious. Not only would it retard the growth of weeds, but also it would not wash away.
When the tour rounded the corner, I hurried to catch up with them, seeing yet another example of creative recycling. It was a fountain made of plastic, but it resembled stone. As I looked at the base of the fountain, a fairly large, deep pool served as a catch basin for the rainwater from the roof and as a reservoir for the irrigation system for the ornamentals and the small lawn. Beauty and utility converged.
"You gotta see this!" another member of the tour shouted. He was right, of course. It was the reason for my being there. The universe came into harmonious order as I saw that the lawn seemed to be mowing itself. What had been a personal dream of mine finally came to fruition.
It was a technological trick. Isn't everything these days? The mower was equipped with ultra sensitive feelers and antennae that were programmed to turn the self-propelled, solar-powered deck according to pre-positioned directional signatures embedded in the landscaping materials.
Whatever the expense, it might be worth it. Then I heard just how much the special landscaping design and all the extra gizmos cost. "I guess it will be some time before I divert from the old ways," I said.
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind of any other thoughts. Someday, I might live to see such marvels. Perhaps by the time it was economical, there would be some other solution that was even better. Isn't that the way of technology? Even so, I was impressed. Except, as I walked through the freshly mowed grass I happened to step in a pile that someone's dog left behind.
Some problems are apparently more difficult than others to resolve.
Maybe someday someone somewhere will come up with a doggie pooper sensor. Whenever a dog enters the yard the position of the animal is tracked and immediately a thermal sensor is engaged to look for the remnant steamer-signature. When located a high intensity laser could be deployed to destroy the foul remnants of the neighborhood dog's trespassing.
Then again, if such a system ever malfunctioned, what remained of poor Spot might be just about all that his name suggested. It could trigger a neighborhood arms escalation, and that would do no one any good.
Personal account of futuristic designs.
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