Scientific Predictions From University Experts Resembles Old Sci-Fi Movies

VANCOUVER (CP) – Do you remember the old futuristic science-fiction B movies, where life was found on another planet, robots and computers took over menial tasks and mad scientists grew a brain in a jar?

Well, that future is here but it has just enough dissimilarities not to send us screaming into the streets.

“I would say the majority of astronomers believe there is life elsewhere, and the best place to find it would be on a planet that has conditions like the Earth,” said Jaymie Matthews of the University of British Columbia’s department of physics and astronomy.

He said techniques used by the world’s “planet hunters” are just on the verge of being able to find those kinds of worlds.

“There may be life that’s completely different than we understand,” said Matthews, who was asked along with a number of other experts at UBC to make predictions for 2006 and beyond.

With the power of computers nearly doubling every year, it’s no wonder Alan Mackworth can foresee intelligent vehicles getting you to a destination with just a voice command.

“You could imagine a wheelchair that was semi-autonomous where it could figure out what’s in the local environment, where the furniture is, where the cat is, and navigate from the living room to the kitchen,” said the computer science professor.

He said that technology will likely be fostered by the auto industry.

“What you’re going to see is more and more sensors in cars, so they’re more aware of their environment and combining those sensors into intelligent decision-making.”

One of the most obvious areas where the rapid advance of technology is being used is in the health sector, where scientists are working on gene therapy for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

At the university’s centre for blood research, doctors say crisis-driven blood donor drives could be a thing of the past as the research grows into artificial blood platelets.

In the psychology department, Prof. Stanley Coren predicts health care will soon be going to the dogs –prescription dogs.

“Some physicians nowadays are going to say pet a puppy twice and call me in the morning, as a prescription for a whole lot of problems,” Coren said.

He noted research has clearly proven the benefits of owning and looking after a dog for the elderly or those recovering from an injury or medical problem.

Coren said prescribing a dog also saves health-care costs.

“You keep a person from getting clinically depressed. You save a lot of money in psychiatric fees and that sort of thing.”

While some may scoff at the idea of a doctor prescribing a pet, he has no doubt a dog can be medicinal.

“It’s medicine for the mind. That’s the way you have to look at it.”

Of all these predictions, looking for life on another planet seems like it is still in the fiction realm.

But Matthews is convinced advancing techniques will lead to the discovery of an Earth-like planet within a decade.

But he’s also just as sure that they won’t find any B-movie little green men.

“The odds that the first Earth-like planets that we find have any kinds of advanced-intelligent life are, if you’ll forgive the phrase, astronomical.”

Source: Brandon Sun Online