My grandpa, before he died in 1979, talked about being born before cars became commonplace. We used to laugh endlessly. Imagine, no car? What an old guy! Laugh laugh laugh. “Grandpa!”

The best that I can do for my future grandchildren is this:”I was born before microwaves and color TV.” I can hear it now: “No color TV grandma? You sure are old”.

My son could say later that he was born before Windows 95, the graphical computer interface that changed the world. Most likely his grandchildren would respond, “What’s that grandpa?”

Technological development and scientific discovery continue to astound me. I love the possibilities presented by 3-D printing, which gets more savvy every year. Other technologies we will see very soon, include:

• Integration of robots into our daily lives
• Augmented reality
• Terahertz imaging to detect tiny explosive particles
• Refrigerators that can let you know, through the Internet, if your food is going bad.

Recent scientific discoveries include:

• Advanced gene editing, to reverse mutations that cause blindness, stop growth of some cancers, and make cells impervious to AIDS
• Cancer-detecting blood test, using only a drop of blood
• Changing leukemia cells to immune cells
• A new antibiotic, found in the soil
• A black hole that is 12 billion times bigger than our sun
• An artificial, microscopic machine that can travel inside a living being and deliver a medical payload
• Manipulation of stem cells to grow human hair

Most of these are magnificent! Most will enhance life around the world and others may help to save the planet. I can live without a few. For example, in the upcoming Internet of Things, I really don’t need appliances that talk to me. Does anyone? Sometimes technology is about excess nothingness.

What else lies ahead? We will find out soon enough. In the meantime, if a genie appeared and said you could have one type of technology developed just for you, what would it be?  Hmmmmm.

I would choose a “vehicle” like the one Rey used in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” I would love to follow rivers and ridgelines, getting views like those in IMAX nature films. I could track grizzlies from the air and land on beautiful islands in the Alaska Rockies, all on the same day. Ahhhh, to glide over the earth in a hover craft made from newer parts than Rey had available.