Introduction to Techri-La: How Will Technology Transform the Human Landscape?

When I was younger, I used to love going to my grandparents' house and picking up their copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. My favorite parts of the magazines were the product pages that showed all the new technological gadgets being released that year. Now, I'm an avid follower of blogs like Slashdot, Engadget, Gizmodo, and Coolest Gadgets. Although I enjoy these blogs very much, I feel like gadget blogs are missing a critical component, which is the possibility that the diffusion of these technologies into our marketplace might significantly change our lives, in the same way that electricity or nuclear energy has significantly changed our lives. This gap has been somewhat bridged by what I would call lifestyle blogs, like Ecogeek and Inhabitat (which I also enjoy), but I hope to accomplish a slightly different goal, which is to invite conversation from you, the reader, about the ways that technology is changing your life. Techri-La is named for the mythical city of Shangri-La, because I think many of us hope that through our inventions, humanity may someday cross a technological threshold to achieve utopian society. The reality, for today at least, is that sometimes technologies improve our quality of life, and sometimes they are bent to make people more wealthy, or more powerful. We'll talk about all of that. Transportation, medicine, career, agriculture, social interaction, and leisure--these will be the topics of the conversation, with a focus on how the gadgets of the future (or the present) will influence day-to-day living for you, or for your friends and family. Welcome to Techri-La!