Before I begin, let me tell you where I gleaned much of this information. I have been reading futurist books, scanning the Web site of http://www.abcnews.com, reading Wired magazine, and other technological and future-oriented publications. None, however, matched the information I gathered from a recent article entitled "21 Ideas For The 21st Century" from the American publication, Business Week (August 30, 1999 double issue). I felt the material reported in that issue was vital. I have encapsulated many of the more interesting parts here so that we could look at the information in a new way, through the filter of astrology. Business Week editors felt, as I do, that the future expands in non-linear fashion, so using the present in order to leap forward into the future doesn't always work. Technology offers myriad options -- some evil, some wonderful -- but it will be up to us to control technology and use new inventions wisely. This is certainly a something mankind is capable of doing!

Computers, Computers

Computers are already ubiquitous and they will become an even greater part of our lives. No surprise there, but what will stun us is how computers will effect everything we do. Scientists are now predicting that the Internet will form a kind of "earth's skin", creating the kind of environment that was represented in the recent movie called The Truman Show. Computers will run millions of wireless electronic devices, working in concert with one another. These devices will go anywhere and record and measure anything from water level to traffic flow, pollution or conversations of people on the street. There will be cameras, microphones, gauges, sensors, EKGs and electroencephalographs watching each city and its citizens, our environment, our bodies, our actions and our reactions. This isn't going to happen as a result of any group's decree but it will evolve simply because of the sheer proliferation of these devises. This environment will evolve naturally around us.

"Imagine our ecosystem," write the editors of Business Week, "with a million intelligent software agents that are much more potent than the agents or 'bots we have now on the Net to help us search for things. Add the voices of digital pets, electronic companions and Internet caretakers, stretch out a sensory telemetric fabric -- what you have is an electronic skin." This "skin" presupposes these new supercomputers have both feeling and self-awareness, just like we do ourselves.

Humans And Machines Will Be Symbiotic

Now and probably for several years to come there will be no central intelligence to manage this organically grown network of computers. Futurists at Ernst & Young consulting suggest that there will be 10,000 telemetric devices for every human on the planet by 2010. Although there is no central intelligence on the Internet now, scientists think that eventually a certain self-awareness will emerge once the Net is enhanced with sensuality. This will allow it to act the same way as a human brain. A symbiosis of human and machine will evolve.

But while that may seem a little scary, it will also allow millions of users at their computers to work in concert with workers around the world. Experts think that by 2010, discrete, small microprocessors could be strung together like pearls on a necklace. The terminals could be embedded in devices like cell phones, and palmcorders, for we will not need tools like the big, bulky laptop computers we have now. The Internet will begin to function as neurons do in the human brain.

In an experiment going on now, hundreds of computer users are collaborating to help track the possible existence of life on other planets by downloading software from a central research lab and "listening" to deep space. This is a process that would be too big and too expensive for any one university or facility to accomplish with the same thoroughness on its own, but with many computer volunteers switching to a certain frequency around the world over a number of years, it becomes do-able. The one person who might pick up intelligent life "out there" will be immortalized in the annals of history, and although that might not be enough compensation for some people, apparently it is enough for the hundreds of others who chose to help these scientists.

The comparison of a vast telemetric network to a kind of electronic "skin" is a good one, because skin not only senses things but also protects and regulates our bodily functions. In this case, the earth's electronic skin will help protect and regulate our environment. In as little as ten years, trillions of telemetric systems will keep us continually in touch and "speaking" to one another more quickly than we can react or think right now. Ironically, if you look up the words "sensitive skin" in a book of astrological keywords, the sign of Aquarius comes up as the ruler. (See The Rulership Book by Rex Bills, published by the American Federation of Astrologers in Tempe, AZ USA). As ever, astrology is right on point!

Satellites will circle the earth and be able to track neighborhood crime through digital photography, too. During the O.J. Simpson trial satellite digital photography of Los Angeles was examined by police to see if they could find out where Simpson's white Bronco van was on the night of the crime. Technology was not yet ready to provide answers like these, but could in years ahead. Right now in New York City, in an effort to ticket drivers who run red lights in certain "high risk" Manhattan intersections, cars (and their license plates) are automatically photographed as they slip through red lights. The photographs are used as evidence and have proven very effective in stopping speeding and running red lights. In the future, robot photographers will be more prevalent, simply because this kind of photography is an effective crime preventative.

Will Computers Gang Up And Pit Man Against Machine? Possibly.

Can this electronic skin become a kind of nightmare? Maybe. In early simulation experiments where software agents acted as communication nodes in networks, scientists found that the nodes assembled into clans. Sometimes those clans acted out in mischievous or destructive ways. Clans could even work in ways that are at cross-purposes to one another. Yet Aquarius is a sign that is socially responsible, so we should not be overly concerned about some kind of social insurrection. As the director of Sony Corporations Digital Creatures Lab stated in the Business Week article, "We will carefully design the machines so that it will help human beings, not harm them." Networks will have some of the resilience and self-healing qualities that the human body does, too. When a computer on the Internet sees danger, like an approaching hurricane, earthquake or troublesome pattern in the world's financial markets, it will alert people on the Net and suggest solutions.

A New Internet

There is more evidence of advanced communications between computers and computer networks. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California is about to unveil a version of the Internet that will link the moon, Mars, asteroids and comets to the earth's expanding nervous system in a network they call InterPlaNet. Right now, the communication is quite expensive between earth and unmanned probes. But through InterPlaNet those costs would drop and citizens of planet earth will be engaged and informed more effectively. Aquarius is a communicative and objective sign, so it is not surprising that the Age of Aquarius will expand our understanding of what is a network and how far our "phone lines" can reach. With InterPlaNet, even ET could phone home and not worry about the bill!

Quantum Computers

There are other interesting developments involving computers on the horizon. Computers we have today are quite linear in their logic, and rather plodding in their ability to search thorough large batches of data. Quantum computers, available in about 20 years, will be able to work with probability algorithms to find answers to complex problems quickly, rather than in the (comparitively) slow, step-by-step way they do now. Today, computers can only see a listing which contains a 1 or a 0. However, a quantum computer can check all listings at once, using what scientist's call "golf balls" in place of switches to build complex probability models. Will this make it easier for hackers to get into a system? Yes, that is one of the downsides of this type of system. Even so, the advantages of quantum computers far outweigh their drawbacks. Engineers will have to figure out ways to build enough barbed wire to keep those hackers out.

Using The Internet For Hardware Downloads -- Not Just Software!

These days, the Internet provides us with an easy way to acquire software, but get this, in the future, we will be able to download hardware too! Nanotechnology, the science of construction of technology smaller than a billionth of a meter, will make this a reality. In twenty years, you may be able to download a blueprint for a personal computer, cell phone, beeper, or even a semi conductor. You could then use these plans to create products out of molecules by yourself, or the products themselves could actually be so tiny and microscopic, that they are downloadable directly into your "nanobox." At that point matter will become software, too. This gives a whole new meaning to manufacturing and will have a huge impact on the economy, when not as many factories are needed.

Uranus And Product Customization

Uranus, the planet ruling Aquarius is considered "the great synthesizer" because it combines elements of what we already know to create something we've never seen before. It does this by using intuition and wisdom. For that reason, Uranus is considered "the higher octave of Mercury. Mercury is the planet of thinking, but Uranus is the planet of innovation. Uranus likes customization too, and customization is a key word for the next century as you already know. Even now you are able to buy jeans that have been custom made to your precise measurements, as recorded in your department store's computer. In the future, far more will be customized, from furniture to shoes to textbooks. Retailers will be able to keep less in stock and so have less money tied up in their inventory. Selling on the Internet lowers overhead costs, so printers who publish on the Internet can avoid spending money on ink and paper. This should be a real boon to the economy. Computers may widely replace telephone customer service representatives and be quite helpful, thanks to artificial intelligence. It may become hard to tell if one is on the phone with a human or not. This may inspire some people to be rude in an attempt to make the representative angry. If these attempts are successful, the customer will know if the "person" on the other end of the phone is man or machine! Having been on hold all day today myself, I don't doubt people will be driven to distraction.

How About Implanting A Chip In Your Brain?

By mid-century, humans will have the option to expand the capability of their minds by having silicon chips implanted in their brains. Don't laugh -- this is almost a sure thing! Scientists speak of imbedding chips in the human body to build super-human athletic ability too. Even food and eating could be simulated, so that you will be able to "eat" your favorite foods over and over without gaining weight! Virtual reality will be developed so smartly that it will be indistinguishable from actual reality. It will become less important to travel physically, whether for meetings, your college reunion, or for the pleasure of experiencing a new place, like the Great Wall of China or on a tour of the White House. You will have the choice between going to the real thing and taking a look at it "virtually". If your presence is required in an actual place, holograms could make your attendance possible, making your companions feel like you've just "beamed down" from the Star Ship Enterprise!

Some scientists feel that eventually (around 2099) only a small percentage of us will choose to "keep" our bodies, preferring instead to transfer our minds into circuit boards and attain immortality. Yes, that's right. By 2050 people will have the option to leave our physical bodies permanently in order to convert ourselves (specifically, our souls) to a silicon chip that can run forever. It is true that some of these developments mimic Sci-Fi movies to an eerie degree. Is leaving your body forever and imbedding yourself into a chip a tad too radical for your taste? No problem, there are alternatives to consider.

The movie Strange Days came out a few years ago starring Ralph Fiennes. In this movie, the characters could experience the emotions of others by using a special headset that jacked in to tapes that recorded specific emotional situations that people had actually gone through. They could experience someone else's love affair, exhilaration, or even fear. Through this device the characters could go on "trips" and live the memories and actions of other people. When I saw the movie a few years ago, I thought it was an intriguing idea, but still pretty fantastic. That's how much I knew. In the future, you will be able to document everything you feel, experience, think, say, hear, read, write or do for posterity. Technology will allow you to track every single minute of your life. A machine that tracks your nervous system's electrical activity would collect the data patterns that comprise your thoughts and emotions. A computer will automatically index your life's experiences and make them into a searchable data file that becomes the story of your life.

If you think this is too far-fetched, check out the work of ET Laboratories PLC in England. These scientists call their special computer the "Soul Catcher." To accomplish the data entry, you must wear a computer all over your body. Electrodes will even be embedded in your head under your hair, on your hands, legs and so forth. According to Business Week editors (and this is a direct quote concerning the Soul Catcher): "Researchers can only wonder what it will be like to wake up one day and find yourself alive inside a machine."

Does your spine tingle and are you shifting in your chair, uneasy at the thought of this? Me too. Let's look at other developments in the Age of Aquarius. This one might please you much more. In 1997, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created what they call "Synthetic Interviews." The first "interview" they have gotten ready to present is with Albert Einstein. In order to learn about Einstein's life and theories, you start (what appears to be) an interactive video interview with the great scientist. On the hard drive of the computer is a bank of 500 recorded interviews with Albert Einstein from which the computer draws a portion of one interview to answer your question. The operations to accomplish this are so transparent that you feel like you can actually have a conversation with Albert Einstein one-on-one. Software that digitizes your speech will help the computer understand your question and a powerful search engine will select (and rank) the results. The technology isn't quite complete yet, but artificial intelligence like this is advancing by leaps and bounds. Don't be surprised when AI shows up in your neighborhood in a few decades from now. If we are able to ask Albert Einstein questions now, your great grandchildren will be able to do the same with you long after you've passed on to a better place.

People Like Machines And Machines Like People

If people are destined to become more like machines, make no mistake, machines are rapidly becoming more like people. Aquarius is a sign known to turns things upside down and inside out. Just when you thought you knew what was coming, this sign throws you a curve -- a new brainstorm. Perhaps one of the most exciting kinds of computers to be developed to date is the supercomputer, a machine so intelligent that it will surpass the ability of the human brain. Problems beyond the ability of our most brilliant scientists will someday be tackled and solved by machines. This will empower humanity and give us a big edge as we try and meet our greatest challenges. This is very good news!

While some scientists fear that the megacomputers they create could become hostile to their creators -- an actual Frankenstein monster -- other scientists believe that these computers can be programmed to respect human life. These optimists point out that the machines aren't human, and thus won't have any of the hidden agendas and political instincts that some humans possess. Robot technology will go much further. In only twenty-five years, farms and factories will replace human workers with these computerized workers, freeing up their human workers for more interesting tasks. Some factories and farms have already done this on a large scale.