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

special, you think to yourself. “Molly, send Karen a polite message, asking her if she is available this weekend. There’s a new restaurant that just opened that I want to try.”
    Molly then sends Karen your profile in a video mail.
    That night, you relax by having some of your coworkers come over for beer and to watch some football. Your friends could have watched the game by appearing in your living room via holographic images, but somehow, cheering for the home team is more enjoyable with your friends joining in the excitement in person. You smile, imagining that this is probably how it was thousands of years ago, when cavemen had to bond with one another.
    Suddenly, the entire living room is illuminated, and it appears as if you are right on the football field, at the 50-yard line. As the quarterback makes a forward pass, you stand right next to him. The game is being played all around you.
    During halftime, you and your friends begin sizing up the players. Over beer and popcorn, you hotly debate who trains the most, practices the hardest, has the best coaches, and has the best gene therapist. Your home team, you all agree, has the best geneticist in the league, with the best genes that money can buy.
    After your friends have left, you still are too excited to go to sleep. So you decide to play a quick game of poker before turning in.
    “Molly,” you ask, “it’s late, but I want to set up a game of poker. I’m feeling lucky. Someone must be awake in England, China, India, or Russia who might want to play a few hands right now.”
    “No problem,” says Molly. A number of promising faces appear on the screen. As the 3-D images of each player materialize in your living room, you relish the idea of seeing who can bluff the best. It’s funny, you say to yourself, that you are more familiar with people in distant countries, thousands of miles away, than with your next-door neighbors. National boundaries don’t mean much these days.
    Finally, just before you finally turn in, Molly interrupts you again, appearing in the bathroom mirror.
    “John, Karen accepted your invitation. Everything is set for this weekend. I will make a reservation at that new restaurant. Do you want to see the profile that she wrote about herself? Do you want me to scan the Internet to verify the accuracy of her profile? People have been known to … ah … lie about their profiles.”
    “No,” you say. “Let’s keep it a surprise for the weekend.” After that poker game, you feel lucky again.
    THE WEEKEND
    It’s the weekend now, and time to go shopping and buy a present for Kevin. “Molly, put the mall on the screen.”
    The mall suddenly appears on the wall screen. You wave your arms and fingers, and the image on the wall screen traces a path through the mall. You take a virtual tour until you arrive at the image of the toy store. Yes, they have exactly the toy robot pets you want. You telepathically order the car to take you to the mall. (You could have ordered the toy online. Or you could have had the blueprints e-mailed to you, and then had your fabricator materialize the toy at home from scratch using programmable matter. But it’s always good to get out of the apartment and shop once in a while.)
    Cruising in your magnetic car, you look outside and see people taking a walk. It’s such a nice day. You also see robots of all sorts. Robots to walk the dog. Robot clerks, cooks, receptionists, and pets. It seems that every task that is dangerous, repetitive, or requires only the simplest human interaction is being duplicated by robots. In fact, robots are now big business. Allaround you, you see ads for anyone who can repair, service, upgrade, or build robots. Anyone in the field of robotics has a bright future. The robot business is bigger than the automobile industry of the last century. And most of the robots, you realize, are hidden from view, silently repairing the city’s infrastructure and maintaining essential services.
    When you reach the toy store, a robot clerk greets you at the entrance. “Can I help you,” it says.
    “Yes, I want to buy a robot dog.”
    You look over the latest robot dogs. Amazing what these pet robots can do, you say to yourself. They can play, run, fetch, do anything a dog can do. Everything but pee on the carpet. Maybe that’s why parents buy them for their kids, you muse.
    Then you say to the robot clerk, “I’m buying a robot pet for my six-year-old nephew. He’s a very