Word: predictible
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Somewhere around the middle of the century, many scientists predict, technology may enter a transitional phase, a shift in the ground rules that will put what is now considered pure science fiction well within society's reach. "We're at the knee of a curve, after which all those intimations of the future may actually come true," says John Holzrichter, director of institutional research and development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Among the scenarios he and his colleagues anticipate...
...look like they came straight out of Star Wars or RoboCop: everything from hand-held laser swords to autonomous robots programmed to kill. The long-term trend, as demonstrated in the Persian Gulf last year, is toward short battles conducted at long distance by increasingly intelligent machines. Defense experts predict that the next arms race will be to develop the smartest, stealthiest and most accurate weapons and to demonstrate their superiority convincingly enough in advance to avoid risking lives and expensive hardware on the battlefield...
...generally speaking, the imponderable will of God was easier to predict than the course of human affairs. The first rule of forecasting should be that the unforeseen keeps making the future unforeseeable. In the 1890s it was widely predicted that the U.S. would be bare of trees by the 1920s -- they would all have been chopped down to provide wood for heating and cooking. Along came oil burners and the gas stove, saving the trees to be menaced instead by acid rain...
...developed that allows instantaneous intersexual communication to occur. For the first time, certain simple but formerly bewildering transactions will become clear. At the end of an evening out, when the single man of the future says to his date, "I had a nice time. I'll call you" (I predict that men will still be using this line), the woman to whom he is speaking will immediately hear in her headset: "What he means is that while he thinks you are attractive, he's concerned that you already have expectations of him that he will never be able to meet...
...medical clinic into a kind of after-hours meeting place where nervous but lonely people will be able to undergo a battery of health tests and, while awaiting the results, stop by the bar to enjoy a trendy snack with others who may have the same ailment. (I predict that honey-roasted songbirds will be the snack of choice by then because they will turn out to be the last remaining edible creature that is domestically plentiful, low in fat and still has not been made into a trendy snack item...