It is often said that children are our future. As the father of an 8 year-old daughter and a six year-old son, I couldn’t agree more. Yesterday, however, I came across two interesting news items that put a slightly different spin on this notion of children being our future.
The first item was sent to me as a news release touting that Corgi International, one of the world’s leading toy-makers, had launched the H2GO—a wickedly cool fuel-cell powered toy car. (The picture is on the top right.)
Now, I understand that fuel cell technology has been over-hyped since about the year 2000, but the creation of this toy is great news for the long beleagued hydrogen industry. If Corgi can successfully get the H2GO into the hands of millions of kids (and I hope to start with my own), I think it is entirely plausible that by the time those kids begin getting their drivers license many of them will want to be cruising around in real fuel-cell powered automobiles which emit no carbon dioxide.
The second item I came across was this article in the Wall Street Journal touting Ugobe’s new realistic robotic dinosaur, Pleo. Unlike so other other past robots, Pleo is very life-like. And just as H2GO offers a glimpse into the future of hydrogen fuel cells, I believe Pleo offers us a glimpse into the future of robotics. As kids grow up playing—and getting comfortable with—robots, there is every reason to think they will want to continue this habit later in life—especially if those robots can also clean their dishes and take care of their ailing parents.
Interestingly, the review of Pleo was quite positive except for compliants about the length of its battery. (It only lasts an hour.) In the future, however, my guess is that this problem will be easily overcome as a result of continued advances in fuel-cell technology. Just imagine if Pleo could keep itself juiced just by fetching itself a drink of water whenever it felt its energy level dropping! Now, you might still need to worry about Pleo relieving itself on your carpet, but you could at least take comfort in knowing that its pee would only be pure water. (Alternatively, I guess, you could also tranform Pleo it into a dragon-like creature and have it blow out its waste product in the form of steam.)
Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
