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

is a mysterious field that pervades the galaxy and unleashes the mental powers of the Jedi knights, allowing them to control objects with their mind. Lightsabers, ray guns, and even entire starships can be levitated using the power of the Force—and to control the actions of others.
    But we won’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to harness this power. By 2100, when we walk into a room, we will be able to mentally control a computer that in turn will control things around us. Moving heavy furniture, rearranging our desk, making repairs, etc., may be possible by thinking about it. This could be quite useful for workers, fire crews, astronauts, and soldiers who have to operate machinery requiring more than two hands. It could also change the way we interact with the world. We would be able to ride a bike, drive a car, play golf or baseball or elaborate games just by thinking about them.
    Moving objects by thought may become possible by exploiting something called superconductors, which we shall explain in more detail in Chapter 4 . By the end of this century, physicists may be able to create superconductors that can operate at room temperature, thereby allowing us to create huge magnetic fields that require little power. In the same way that the twentieth century was the age of electricity, the future may bring us room-temperature superconductors that will give us the age of magnetism.
    Powerful magnetic fields are presently expensive to create but may become almost free in the future. This will allow us to reduce friction in our trains and trucks, revolutionizing transportation, and eliminate losses in electrical transmission. This will also allow us to move objects by sheer thought. With tiny supermagnets placed inside different objects, we will be able to move them around almost at will.
    In the near future, we will assume that everything has a tiny chip in it, making it intelligent. In the far future, we will assume that everything has a tiny superconductor inside it that can generate bursts of magnetic energy, sufficient to move it across a room. Assume, for example, that a table has a superconductor in it. Normally, this superconductor carries no current. But when a tiny electrical current is added, it can create a powerful magnetic field, capable of sending it across the room. By thinking, we should be able to activate the supermagnet embedded within an object and thereby make it move.
    In the
X-Men
movies, for example, the evil mutants are led by Magneto, who can move enormous objects by manipulating their magnetic properties. In one scene, he even moves the Golden Gate Bridge via the power of his mind. But there are limits to this power. For example, it is difficult to move an object like plastic or paper that has no magnetic properties. (At the end of the first
X-Men
movie, Magneto is confined in a jail made completely of plastic.)
    In the future, room-temperature superconductors may be hidden inside common items, even nonmagnetic ones. If a current is turned on within the object, it will become magnetic and hence it can be moved by an external magnetic field that is controlled by your thoughts.
    We will also have the power to manipulate robots and avatars by thinking. This means that, as in the movies
Surrogates
and
Avatar,
we might be able to control the motions of our substitutes and even feel pain and pressure. This might prove useful if we need a superhuman body to make repairs in outer space or rescue people in emergencies. Perhaps one day, our astronauts may be safely on earth, controlling superhuman robotic bodies as they move on the moon. We will discuss this more in the next chapter.
    We should also point out that possessing this telekinetic power is not without risks. As I mentioned before, in the movie
Forbidden Planet,
an ancient civilization millions of years ahead of ours attains its ultimatedream, the ability to control anything with the power of their minds. As one trivial example of their technology, they created a machine that can turn your thoughts into a 3-D image. You put the device on your head, imagine something, and a 3-D image materializes inside the machine. Although this device seemed impossibly advanced for movie audiences back in the 1950s, this device will be available in the coming decades. Also, in the movie, there was a device that harnessed your mental energy to lift a heavy object. But as we know, we don’t have to wait millions of years for this