Looking Forward to 2006
What will 2006 bring? As I try to foresee 2006, leaning on my
educated or in reality not so educated guessing, I'll begin with
Sudoku puzzles. True, these puzzles are rooted in 2005, but one
has to step back a little to get the wider view of the horizon.
Anyhow, thanks to Sudoku puzzles, I bet, we'll all learn how to
count, especially the Democrats.
Another trend I'm counting on, based on Google's San Francisco
experiment, is the free internet; however, this will have some
drawbacks because of more spam, specifically voice and video
spam. On the positive side of this menace, the laptop industry
will prosper because many a laptop will find their demise as a
result of the cyber road rage. Then, probably our government
will step in and make internet connections a public utility.
With the advancement of internet connections, the news media
we've been accustomed to will change drastically, because there
will be millions more of bloggers, making the journalists and
newscasters face getting outflanked.
A hopeful speculation falls within the movie business. The
celebrity culture will be curtailed. Movie studios will prohibit
or hold back their actors from spewing false statements on
serious human matters with their only source of information
being their fame.
Since the smaller screens are invading the movie industry,
Hollywood, too, will have to direct their programming toward
I-pods and such, and someone will come up with special
screen-enlarging lenses or glasses to wear, as in the foregone
times when 3-D glasses were in fashion. By the end of the year,
gangs of movie watchers will surface and we'll recognize each
gang by the color of the frame of their eyeglasses.
Because U.S. companies will attempt more aggressively to lower
costs and boost profits more quickly by outsourcing work to
places like China and India, we'll all have to learn Chinese and
the way Indians speak English. We'll have to, because even to
order our tangible goods, we'll have to connect to international
storefronts.
By the end of 2006, many other gadgets will be added to our
cellphones, maybe a cutlery set, a microwave oven, and a
raincoat.
The bird flu that threatens us will stay only a threat; however,
birds will unfortunately contact the human flu and they too will
start to demolish the earth's natural resources.
As the baby boomers will be entering the retirement age soon,
long term care insurance business will become a very volatile
commodity trading activity with very high volume fluctuations.
For the future hospitals, construction will begin and these
hospitals will resemble communes for those flower children
boomers, since it is predicted, five to ten years down the line,
some of them will only remember their earlier memories due to
old age dementia.
On the more serious side, in the micro and nanotechnology areas,
important steps will be taken and possibly we will have a cure
to or at least some respite from some of the diseases; however,
flu shots will be outsourced and we'll have to travel to China
to get a flu shot.
Another big step in 2006 will be making spare parts from the
stem cells of the fat in our pouches. When this news hits the
media, there will be more couch potatoes in our homes and even
bigger and stronger furniture, houses, vehicles, and hospital
equipment will be needed. All these necessities will give rise
to new industry sections, making our economy soar sky high.
We have so much to look forward to. Happy New Year, everyone.