9 things that will disappear... In Our Lifetime

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mahmoudg
by mahmoudg
06-Jul-2011
 

Interesting and true. I sure don't want real books and music CDs to disappear though. I mean, don't we spend enough time staring at computers and electronic devices as it is?
9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime.......

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come:

1. The Post Office . Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. E-mail, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail everyday is junk mail and bills..

2.The Check . Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper . The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book . You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone .. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music . This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television . Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. "Things" That You Own . Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or hand held device.That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff"or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9.Privacy . If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

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Gadgets / events within 100 years - Michio Kaku - Phys of Future

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Michio Kaku, the professor of physics, in his latest book called the Physics of the Future, talks about technologies that will appear within the next 100 years.

Interview: //www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-04-2011/interview-michio-kaku.html

NY Times excerpts (//www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/books/physics-of-the-future-by-michio-kaku-review.html):

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vildemose

Global flag of

by vildemose on

Global flag of Islam??

are there a global flags of Chrisians, Buddhis, or Jews, or zoroastrians??

 


salman farsi

Dear Roozbeh

by salman farsi on

Your friendship is highly valued to me. And you are indeed a blunt and brave man. I have no wish to see you being talked about because you have dared to call me a friend. But those who deride or demonize others for such silly reasons are not worth the value of your friendship even if this friendship be just a virtual one.

As for me my good friend, I have no fear of people cursing me or calling me the worst names on earth. See the comment on my last blog.

The avatar I have chosen is the global falg of Islam. If some people like those criminal in Al-Qaeda or thier supporters have affronted Islam and abused this flag, this is their crime for which they shall be punished and persihed in hell fire. Islam is above and immune from such scums who have tried and dragged its holy name in dirt.

Always good to hear from you Roozbeh.

 For an Islamic democracy


radius-of-the-persian-cat

The Mullahs Regime deserves Top-Position on your List

by radius-of-the-persian-cat on

For most of the things on your list I would rather say that they will turn into very exclusive articles (Like vinyl records, which were also declared dead 20 years ago but see a renaissance among music afficionados). I think books, newspapers will stay, maybe they have to share readership with audiobooks or e-books and on-line newspapers.

Music will never die, it was there long before we had a music industry and it will survive the decline of music industry.

I am only wondering why you forgot my favorite No.1 candidate:

The mullahs regime in Iran.

I guess you restricted your list to items for which we might feel some sort of nostalgia when they are gone ?


Roozbeh_Gilani

welcome back my friend salman.

by Roozbeh_Gilani on

I for one have been missing your comments here.

Just a friendly note, if i might; your new avatar could remind some faint hearted readrs of the back drop to video taped head chopping ceremonies of a few years back in Iraq. You might want to consider replacing it with something else before people start talking about you (and myself indeed , for calling you a friend )

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."


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I S L A M

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10 - Believeing in GOD

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Even today some do not believe in anything. For example those who use an avatar like yours.


Anahid Hojjati

thanks for a great blog

by Anahid Hojjati on

Very close to my home, both Borders and Barnes & Noble closed few months ago. It saddened me even though I know the benefits of e-reading. I also agree with you about TV. I already notice that my teen-age daughter hardly watches any TV. Thanks for sharing.


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?

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Source?