Posted on 08/25/2021 10:22:06 AM PDT by sodpoodle
Change is part of human life. Our world is constantly changing and evolving to fit our needs and to keep up with technology. In years past, we have seen the typewriter replaced by the computer and the clothes line replaced by dryers. Not everything has been completely replaced though; many things have been updated such as a wooden box camera to a digital camera. Those who adapt to the change will be the ones to thrive in the changing world. All others will be left behind. Here are 10 guesses on the things that will disappear in our lifetime:
1. 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. The result of this means less mail traffic and the post office will suffer.
2. 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-mails and companies like Fed Ex and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. 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.
4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages, but you will. 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. Another convenience is not lugging around a stack of heavy books.
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. For the extra service, you’re paying double. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for free.
6. Corporate Music
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. Opportunities on the Internet such as online radios and websites like Pandora allow people to listen for free and reach the masses directly without a company.
7. Network 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. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes. People will choose what they want to watch online and through companies like Netflix.
8. Personal Files
Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD, and you can always re-install it if need be. 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. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device.
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. “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. You know who “they” are!
10. Fax Machine
Ever since the introduction of e-mail, the fax machine has not been needed or used as much. The only things the fax machine is still used for are when a scanner is not available to e-mail a document somewhere, secure documents that need to reach a location quickly, or when a signature is required. In the future, everyone will relay documents through their smart phones. Eventually, people may even teleport and then people will no longer need to send documents, but just hand them over.
>> Can’t hack a fax machine.<<
As someone who sent millions of faxes on behalf of others so it looked like it was coming from their phone numbers, I’m not sure what you mean by this. Because what I did was authorized by the sender and therefore legal, it’s not hacking, but the distinction wasn’t in the technology.
Poor health?
Michael Moore 😁
Kathy Griffith 😁
Joy Bahar 😁
Dignity is certainly on the decline.
Yep.
Although I didn’t see cash on the list.
5.56mm
12. Free and fair elections
12) united states of america...
Books won’t disappear at my house.
The Bill of Rights (Freedom of religion, privacy, expression and association)
Poor health
Keith Richards and Willie Nelson will still be with us.
Must you be so bulgar?
“Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. <<
What about the Slovaks?...............”
I see what you did there. :)
The newspaper is rapidly disappearing. They’re being replaced by electronic editions. There will still be “land line” phones, but they will be connected to the same connection used for Internet service to the home, namely cable TV lines and fiber optic lines.
That's not the only thing that can be ruined by excessive taxation. The population of NY is being eliminated due to high taxes, another thing to disappear, people in NY.
“7. Network 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”
I prefer the nostalgia stuff (TV shows and movies) to the woke nonsense of today. And what would one give to be able to travel back in time to when the networks trashed or reused the videotapes of a lot of their programming from the 1950s to the very early 1970s as that would give the nostalgia networks even more material.
2. Post Office - tremendous infrastructure in semirural and rural America. Could be privatized.
3. Newspaper - nearly already gone. Free papers have taken over local ads.
4. Book - nope. What Amazon giveth, Amazon can taketh away, and already have in the 1984 incident. If you're not backing their stuff up offline you're at risk of a purge.
5. Land line - probably gone, but land lines work when towers go down, which they do.
6. Corporate music - similar to books, if you don't have local backup you won't have music if somebody at streaming corporate decides not.
7. Network television - if only. When, Lord, oh, when?
8. Personal files - these will still be out there in another location, and the same caution applies - if you don't have it backed up locally somebody (coughcoughAmazonWebServices) can simply decide you're not worthy anymore.
9. Privacy - gone.
10. Fax machines - that functionality is easily and cheaply added to popular consumer printers. It won't be going out via land line anymore (see above) but there's a place for scanned images.
There's a theme here: is the new corporation any more trustworthy than the old ones? The answer is almost certainly not. Lord Acton said "power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Big companies would rather “pay the vig” to credit card companies than have their employees steal cash. Sad.
If they manage to illuminate cash in America be prepared for people to start paying for things with foreign currency and metal ingots.
Jane Fonda, Hilary Clinton, JOe Biden and a list
of others a mile long.
Common sense is the first one. No wait. It already has.
They left out scheduled entertainment - that is shows that are on the same time every week, night, etc.
Except for live events all shows will be on demand.
Chances are good, you can include satellite and cable video services although those media may continue to exist to carry the internet.
ALSO:
Manual stick shifts in the USA and Canada. I don’t think they will disappear in Mexico and developing countries in the next 40 years.
>>Actors will eventually be replaced with CGI artificial characters that you cannot tell from the real thing. Even reanimate the great dead actors from long ago..............<<
It is coming damn close. Even the last and awful SW movies had a LOT of humans portrayed as CGI.
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