The Jetsons are here.... I'll be Judy!



The First Modern Family

Remember George, Jane, Elroy, Judy, Astro and Rosie? It was a 60's sitcom featuring the original "modern family" based in 2062 who enjoyed all the perks and amenities that came with technology and science but experienced all the same mishaps that regular families go through.

For those of us who grew up watching the Jetsons (during the 60's 70's 80's), I think we can all agree, it was definitely a fun, eye-opening show that made us dream of possibilities we never thought would be possible in our lifetime. Well guess what, those possibilities are now here!

During the last few weeks I've been seeing so many advances being made in all areas of our lives from how we drive our cars to how we work and suddenly it dawned on me, "oh my goodness, we're living like the Jetsons!"

As bizarre as it may still sound to some of you, we will probably be driving flying cars before 2062! We already have apartments in the sky like the Jetsons, robotic house mates, voice activated homes and today there are even more advances being made than any other time in history. The Jetsons show aired at the same time as the Flinstones, another family sitcom based in prehistoric, cavemen times. This article will show you we've come a long way from the Flinstones and we are definitely going to surpass the Jetsons in our lifetime!



Baxter the Common Sense Robot

Meet Baxter the robot. For $22,000 you can now have a robot who senses your movement and responds to you with facial expressions. Robots in this environment have up until now been kept away from human beings for safety reasons but this robot senses movement and moves slower. Its the first robot to have a common sense capability which is huge.

The NY Times describes it as "not creepy, but benign, perhaps even disarmingly friendly. And that is intentional." Also saying that "it is a significant bet that robots in the future will work directly with humans in the workplace." Also a former Apple executive for IPhone/IPad calls the development of this robot "a true Macintosh moment."

Dr. Brooks who developed Baxter, predicts that "soon, robots will be mingling with humans, routinely and safely." Right now Baxter comes equipped with a big red safety button (e-stop) you can press that immediately shuts him down but the Dr. says at some point we will all get over that. It will be just as necessary as the Locomotive Acts of the 19th-century where British laws required that early automobiles be preceded by a walker waving a red flag.



Insane Stratosphere Jump

The following might be the coolest thing you or I have ever seen. It just happened last week and it blew my mind! A guy got ballooned up out of our atmoshphere and did a freefall jump from the earths stratosphere. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the second layer of the earths atmosphere. On Sunday morning Oct. 14, 2012, Felix climbed to 128,100 feet (39,045 meters) in a helium-filled balloon, AMAZING isn't it?

The guy in the picture is Felix Baumgartner and he is now the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and broke two other world records for highest freefall jump and highest manned balloon flight.

While millions of people worldwide tuned in live, they watched Felix's journey back to earth lasting 9:09 minutes(4:22 of that time in freefall). People watched the ascent and jump from their living rooms and through live stream on the Internet, reminiscent of the first walk on the moon by Neil Armstrong which was televised all over the world in black and white. To me this seemed very symbolic and curiously timely being that Neil Armstrong just passed away in August. We could almost say this jump happened during his lifetime.    

It took 5 years for Felix and his team to prepare for and was "designed to improve our scientific understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions near space."

Then we have what is probably one of, if not, the most important advancements of our time. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine which was just announced this month.


John B. Gurdon
Badass #1 circa 1962



Shinya Yamanaka
Badass #2 circa 2006



Two men from two completely different times jointly discovered "that mature, specialized cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body.

This revolutionizes our understanding of how cells and organisms develop." Textbooks have been rewritten because of it and new research fields have been established. These men have shown that specialised cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances.


And ofcourse nothing can be complete without including Google, how can we leave out a company that has revolutinized our generation so much we made it a verb.

Driving for Dummies

Google has developed a self driving car. Yes you read it right ladies, you'll be able to do your make up with both hands while driving!!! Guys you can shave on the way to work! Heck you can even catch up on your reading!

At the end of September these cars were made legal in the State of California and Google has already been testing the cars on the road in Nevada, which passed a law last year. But both Nevada and California still require the cars have a human being behind the wheel who can take control of the vehicle at any time.

Funny though, the only accident reported after testing 300,000 miles was a fender bender that took place while a human was in control of the wheel. So far, they've tested with Toyota Prius Hybrids and the Lexus RX450h crossover. Sebastian Thrun heads up the project who also co-founded Google's Street View.



Sooner than we know it, life is really going to change for us. Advancements are being made that will alter our daily lives forever. 

It will be as easy as Jane and Rosie sitting in their living room watching soaps while letting everything take care of itself.



Jane and Rosie enjoying clhores and beauty regimines

If we are not careful (actually when are we ever careful right...?) we will definitely experience repercussions when people become too lazy and complacement which reminds me of a little movie I love called Wall-E, if you haven't seen it, now would be a good time to.

These advances will change the make up of what we call normal and alter what humans need and want. It will completely change our behavior forever but if we go into this era wisely, we may just be able to optimize our performance while still keeping our own two feet planted on solid ground...