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WVhltbyFme Press. Wednesday, August 23.,1995. Page 7 Back to the future The information age - in case this bit of information escaped you - has begun. Many have also alled this the age of change. Which is why, 1 keep a cookie tin under my bed full of quarters, nickels, dimes, pennies. The loornes disappear in the hunt for coffee funds. You want change? I got it. Which brings us to, where? ight, I reember now -- polities ini the age of information and change. Forget the nickels though. What do we mean by change? Heres some for instances: .Gave your daughter a Nintendo unit for Christmas last year, eh? You knew, -of course, that it runs on a higher-performance processor than the original 1976 Cray supercomputer. In its day, Cray was accessible only to elite physicists. 'ibat greeting card you gave a co-worker last month, which chimed- 'Happy Bfrthday' when opened, contains more computing power than existed ini the world before 1950. You have more computing power on your wrist than eisted in the entire world before 1961. The .cost of computing power drops roughly 30 per cent every year, and doubles in performance every 18 months. Computing power is now 8,000 times less expensive that it was 30 years ago. If we had similar prorss in automotive technology, today you could buy a Lexus for about $2. It would travel at the speed of sound and go about 600 miles on a thimble of gas. (The above came from New Work Habits for a Radically Changing World by Price Pritchett. And ail that in the past twenty years. Given the sanie change in another twenty years, what wilI our society look like? Try this: the world of 2015: People laugh at the crude photoradar units sitting i the Automotive museuni. Each vehicle carrnes a bar code readable from satellites. Speeding or wayward vehicles are tagged from above, repeat offenders removed from the road. Welfare sops up 50 per cent of the pùblics budget. Attempts to hait this causes riots. The party that cuts back on welfare causes economnic collapse. "What's good for welfare is good for the country." Commerce and the marketplace dominate the Information Hlighway. Everything costs money. Middfle age. people look back fondly on their youth, when surfin' cost pennies a minute, and a penny wasni't worUi much. Most household items are voice activated. "Toast, two slices, medium, please." A click and whirl and the toaster starts to work. "Fiy, eggs, two, sunny side up." Voila! Your breakfast. Phones are hands free; doors open at your voice; cars run on freeway bands free. (You have. te do the p rogramining - again, by voice: "oeullen Gardens, Jeeves." And: "Hlome, James.") Ica feeder roads will require driver intervention. But only alter the car alerts you: "Just a warning, Raiph. We're approaching your exit. You may want te, take control soon. Sober jup or I won't give you the wheel." Politicai opposition slows it, but technology makes possible designer cbildren - gene-altered and corrected in the womb. Gender and characteristics may be chosen by parents. Ail children are above average in everything. N9 fHEEO W~N VU~IIE JUNCTION 0F CPR AND WfflT-PORT PERRY RAILWAY, C. 1930 This view is looking east along the Cajýadan Pacific Railway near Garden Street. The wooden tower contains the switching apparatus for the juniction. The Whitby and Port Perry Railway trackB were removed in 1941 and mold as scrap metal for munitions in the Second World War. Whltby Acidves photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, A t 21, 1985 edition of the, WluBYlair EPRESS " Witby-Gamrrd Road peewees won thie netional B lacrosse championshipat Victoria, B.C. " There hasn't been an election for mayorin Whitby sinoe 1976 because of acclamations. *Mike Ambler is the Whitby Chairman of the 1985 United Way Campagn. *Whitby Business Improvement Area has published a downtown directory. 35 YEARS AGO From the Thursday, Auguat 18, 1960 edition of the WB1TBY WirEKlY NEWS " A fire in the Nutri-Products building north of the Royal Hotel was confined to the basement, with littie damage. " Whitby's new Municipal Building at Dundas and King streets is nearing coinpletion. * A prowler caught in a Byron Street home w85 sentenoed to six monthe in the County Jail. *Apple pies seil for 39 cents each at the A and P store. Bananas are two pounds. for 29 cents. 80 YEAESl AGO From the Thursday, August 19, 1915 edition of the WHITBY GAZETTE AND CRRONICLE (This issue is missing) Fm- . - - - 1 -- , - - - -- 7=. ý- , ý- - - , - - - - --7ý Il < - , - -- - . < 1 . - ý 1 Il ý ý - 1 - > - 1 -1 1 - - - , - - , -, - . '. - , - - . - . . - -- - -um@m re W--.m- r V a ilz, z 'Z W-1 - 9 r, q ý p" e, q 0