May 22 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Culture Year: General Rating: 6 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
This morning as my daughter was leaving for school she asked if
she could watch the “fat, chunky” movie this weekend. I gave her a
perplexed look and replied that I’d never heard of it. I probed a
little further and although it took me a few moments to determine
what she was talking about, I eventually understood that she wanted
to know if she could watch a VHS-format
movie. 
This incident, along with another this past weekend where she
gazed unknowingly at a record player that was for sale at a garage
sale, has gotten me to thinking about what else might seem “fat and
chunky” to her in the future.
Already televisions, phones and iPods are impressively thin and
are likely to grow more so in the future. Alas, it won’t stop
there.
A few months back, I wrote about solar energy’s
long-term potential and one reason I’m so optimistic about its
potential is that I believe thin-film photovoltaics are only going
to grow more efficient and cost-effective over time. Among other
things this implies that today’s bulky silicon solar cells are
likely to fade away.
The field of nanotechnology is also leading to thinner and more
effective materials. Therefore, walls made out of aerogels; car
panels constructed of new nanocomposites; and automobile batteries
(which utilize various nanomaterials) should also become thinner.
As will lights, which will take advantage of advances in organic
light emitting diodes. (cont.)
Next, as the field of flexible electronics matures and as more
people grow comfortable reading information from such flexible
displays, there is good reason to believe that books and newspapers
will also become thinner. (In fact, they will become so “thin” that
their digital content will simply be displayed in atom-sized pixels
on the electronic substrate.)
Finally, as I highlighted last week in this piece, obesity – due to advances in genomics –
could soon be addressed. In other words, it is entirely possible
that we humans (especially Americans) will become less, well, “fat
and chunky.”
Of course, just as “boom boxes” staged a surprising
counter-trend in the late 1980’s and gigantic wearable clocks
became all the rage at about the same time, I am open to the idea
that some products might become larger in the future but, in
general, I think “thin” will definitely be “in” in the future.
(P.S. If I missed any “thinning” products or technologies, I’d
love to hear from you.)
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