The NWR Welwyn Group met at the Red Lion pub just outside Welwyn Village for our February meeting. As expected, the discussion topic yielded some serious suggestions and some not so serious suggestions! But they all got us thinking about what impact the suggestions would have on our lives.
One problem encountered when trying to think of what we’d like the human race to do was that a lot of things have already been invented, however, this also led us to wish that all these wonderful inventions would work consistently, accessibly and with ease.
One wonderful idea was for scientists to be able to ‘turn on’ the kindness gene in everyone, which led us to ponder the impact of nature vs nurture in behaviour. Wouldn’t it be useful if we had a gadget that allowed us to analyse someone’s traits – are they trustworthy? Well meaning? And along the same lines, how about a machine that helps people empathise with others? Helping people to interact and connect.
The ability to make calorie free puddings and cheese proved popular, as did non-alcoholic wine that tastes like the real thing.
Probably most important of all, we want the human race to put the planet first and stop climate change. In order for this to happen, perhaps we’ll need to isolate the ‘sensible’ gene and give it to the word’s policitians…
We finished the discussion by hearing about inventions that are around today that were inspired by science fiction.
- Voice control gadgets like R2D2 in Star Wars
- Automatic doors were mentioned in HG Wells 1899 serialised story ‘When the sleeper woke’
- Smart watches were first used by comic character Dick Tracey
- Mobile phones were seen in Star Trek
- The internet was first visualised in 1898 by Mark Twain in his serialised book ‘From the London Times’ in which he described a phone system that had been created to share information over a world wide network
- In Frankenstein organ transplants took place as well as the use of a defibrillator.
We then had plenty of time for a general chat to get to know one another!