Transportation of the future

TRANSPORTATION OF THE FUTURE

by Jessica E. Subject

While some members of my family are fascinated by automobiles and other vehicles of the past, I prefer to look to the future, especially concept vehicles from car companies, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Both my previous and upcoming series take place in a part of the universe far from here. And transportation is far more advanced than what we have on Earth. There are hovercraft that run on batteries the way of electric vehicles on this planet. These vehicles cannot leave the planet they are on. In fact, they don't fly any higher than a couple hundred feet off the ground. The space racing jets fly higher in the atmosphere, using hydrogen and ion power cells. While they have the power to leave the atmosphere, they usually don't hold enough power to reach another planet, especially after a race. Then there are the space shuttles, which fly between various planets in the quadrants of my fictional universe.

But what's ahead for the future of vehicles here on Earth?

A couple years ago, when I was writing my Shifter Towers series, I learned about the Hyundai Prophecy Concept EV. And while the company has since redesigned and released it as the Ioniq 6, maintaining the streamlined look that I love, there were features in the Prophecy that I was really looking forward to seeing in a vehicle that weren't included in the Ioniq 6. The most notable being the twin joysticks used to steer the vehicle, taking the place of the steering wheel. Many construction vehicles are already steered in the same way, as well as some helicopters and jets. I think it will be interesting when this way of steering can be found in everyday vehicles.

And last month, I watched a video from NASA about the future of aircraft. Right now, they are working on developing different types of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) working to deliver packages and fight fires to being used as taxis and ambulances. And they are also in the process of building more supersonic aircraft while developing more complex air traffic control systems and collision avoidance systems.

Speaking of supersonic aircraft, startup company, Boom Technology has already received approval to test their XB-1 supersonic jet over the Mojave desert. The XB-1 is designed to travel at Mach 2.2, which is 2.2 times the speed of sound.

Also, did you hear about the office chair that Volkswagen designed? While not destined for production, the electric-motored drivable chair is heated, has LED headlights, storage compartments, and an infotainment system. If it hovered, it would be like the chairs people spent their days in from the movie Wall-E.

So, while we don't know for sure what the future holds (Why aren't hoverboards like in Back to the Future 2 a thing already?), I am excited to see all the different concepts the various companies and organizations are working on.

What kind of vehicles would you like to see in the future?

Read more about the vehicles in my futuristic universe in the Kaddim Brothers series, and my upcoming release, 4 UNITED, the first book in my Romance Tales from the Quadrants series.

  

#Mothers and the Future by Diane Burton

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers and to all the mothers you know!

Mothers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. There are mothers who gave birth and mothers of the heart. I’m fortunate to have had a wonderful mother and a terrific mother-in-law. I’m doubly fortunate to be mother to two great adult children and to their spouses who call me Mom.

I’m sure we all know couples who long for children but physically cannot have them. Some will go through expensive procedures to have a child from in vitro fertilization to surrogate motherhood. Some couples adopt.

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. Starting with conception, we have worries and physical pain. The older we are the higher the risks. Two of my grandchildren were lost in miscarriages. The emotional pain expectant mothers go through upon that loss is immeasurable. Childbirth is no picnic, either. In my mother’s day, doctors slapped chloroform on a woman, and the next thing she knew she had a baby. I come from the generation that wanted everything natural. No drugs. We were tough. 😊 And, of course, the father would be in the delivery room instead of pacing the waiting room or off fishing.

Giving birth does not equal motherhood. Raising a child is a lifelong occupation. It’s a good thing we didn’t realize what we were in for when we longed for a child. Worry didn’t end with the pregnancy but exploded as the child grew. And let’s not even go into the expense of raising that child.

Advances in medicine (and attitude) are growing all the time. Think about the advances in your lifetime. What about the future? As a science fiction writer, my imagination can come up with many scenarios. My colleagues imagine even more. We writers play the “what if” game.

What if everyone who wanted a child could have one? What if a woman didn’t have to carry her child? Extend fertilization outside the mother’s body so the whole gestational period was also outside. No inconvenience of frequent trips to the bathroom, gestational diabetes, exhaustion, plus the expense of a new wardrobe. You carried on with your life and popped into the lab occasionally to watch the fetus mature. No waiting for an ultrasound to show what s/he looked like. Also, no pain of childbirth. No drugs, either. You get a call from the lab saying your baby is ready to be picked up. Sort of like a car from the dealership.

Whatever the future brings, our future as humans depends on mothers. 

Motherhood is my greatest accomplishment, my greatest pleasure. Grandmotherhood is even better. 😊

Transportation: Then, Now, and the Future

My grandmother was born in 1896. The only means of transportation then was horse and carriage/wagon, a bicycle, a train, or boats. The automobile hadn’t hit it big yet, and the airplane was yet to come. When she died in 1980, she’d seen the advent of passenger planes and man walking on the moon.

Today, we have so many options to travel from one place to another. Hubs and I prefer driving to air travel. We like the slower pace, the luxury of stopping where and when we want. But, if we need to get somewhere in a hurry, we’re willing to take advantage of air travel. Sure, it can be a pain with the limits on luggage and the thorough searching of passengers and their carry-ons. Still, I’m glad those restrictions and searches are in place to protect all of us.

I’ve been fascinated by space travel ever since I was in grade school. Satellites and rockets. Alan Shepard and John Glenn were my heroes, followed closely by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Some nights, we can even see the International Space Station. And Space X will be offering trips into space for civilians.

When my two-year-old granddaughter is an adult, the options will be phenomenal. If so much changed in my grandmother’s lifetime and mine, imagine what Toddler Girl will experience. Will she travel to a settlement on the moon or Mars? Will scientists discover wormholes that can take her out of our solar system? Better yet, will they invent teleportation and she’ll get beamed from one side of our country to another?

Imagining the possibilities is why I write science fiction. My belief in love and happy ever after is why I include romance.

What possibilities do you see (or want to see) for your grandchildren?