Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

probability that something wrong will happen. In this case, go berserk.”
    You slump back into your chair, overwhelmed by the news.
    HOME AGAIN
    It has been a very long day, first organizing the robot repair crew to fix the leak, and then helping to deactivate all experimental robots that use quantum computers, at least until this issue is finally resolved. You finally arrive back home again. You are exhausted. Just as you sink comfortably into your sofa, Molly appears on the wall screen. “John, you have an important message from Dr. Brown.”
    Dr. Brown? What does your robot doctor have to say?
    “Put him on screen,” you say to Molly. Your doctor appears on the wall screen. “Dr. Brown” is so realistic that you sometimes forget that he is just a software program.
    “Sorry to bother you, John, but there is something I have to bring to your attention. Remember your skiing accident last year, the one that almost killed you?”
    How could you forget? You still cringe when you remember how you plowed into a tree while skiing in what is left of the Alps. Since most of the Alpine snow has already melted, you had to choose an unfamiliar resort at a very high altitude. Unaccustomed to the terrain, you accidentally tumbled down the slope and slammed into a bunch of trees at forty miles per hour. Ouch!
    Dr. Brown continues, “My records show that you were knocked unconscious,suffering a concussion and massive internal injuries, but your clothes saved your life.”
    Although you were unconscious, your clothes automatically called for an ambulance, uploaded your medical history, and located your precise coordinates. Then at the hospital robots performed microsurgery to stop the bleeding, sew up tiny ruptured blood vessels, and patch up other damage.
    “Your stomach, liver, and intestines were damaged beyond repair,” Dr. Brown reminds you. “Luckily, we could grow a new set of organs for you just in time.”
    Suddenly, you feel a little bit like a robot yourself, with so much of your body made from organs grown in a tissue factory.
    “You know, John, my records also show that you could have replaced your shattered arm with a fully mechanical one. The latest robot arm would have increased the strength in your arm by a factor of five. But you declined.”
    “Yes,” you reply, “I guess I’m still an old-fashioned guy. I’ll take flesh over steel any day,” you say.
    “John, we have to do a periodic checkup on your new organs. Pick up your MRI scanner and slowly pass it over your stomach area.”
    You go to the bathroom and pick up a small device, about the size of cell phone, and slowly pass it over your organs. Immediately on the wall screen, you can see the 3-D image of your internal organs lighting up.
    “John, we are going to analyze these images to see how your body is healing. By the way, this morning the DNA sensors in your bathroom detected cancer growing in your pancreas.”
    “Cancer?” You suddenly straighten up. You are puzzled. “But I thought cancer was cured years ago. No one even talks about it much anymore. How can I have cancer?”
    “Actually, scientists never cured cancer. Let’s just say that we are in a truce with cancer, a stalemate. There are too many kinds of cancer. Like the common cold. We never cured that, either. We simply keep it at bay. I’ve ordered some nanoparticles to zap those cancer cells. There are only a few hundred of them. Just routine. But without this intervention, you would probably die in about seven years,” he deadpans.
    “Oh, that’s a relief,” you say to yourself.
    “Yes, today we can spot cancer years before a tumor forms,” says Dr. Brown.
    “Tumor? What’s that?”
    “Oh, that’s an old-fashioned word for a type of advanced cancer. It’s pretty much disappeared from the langauge. We never see them anymore,” adds Dr. Brown.
    Then you realize that in all this excitement, you forgot that your sister threatened to set you up with someone. You call up Molly again.
    “Molly, I am not doing anything this weekend, so can you find a date for me? You know the kind of person I like.”
    “Yes, your preferences are programmed in my memory. Wait a minute while I scan the Internet.” After a minute, Molly displays the profiles of promising candidates who are also sitting in front of their wall screens, asking the same question.
    After scanning the candidates, you finally select one who appeals to you. This person, called Karen, somehow looks