Yesteryear Yuppies' Science Fiction, Present Day Commoner's Riveting Reality!

The technological advancements in the past three decades has an astonishing and telling effect in the way the world functions today!

I still remember in the late 90s or even in the early 2000s, had to catch a local suburban train, travel 10 km, to book a train ticket and have a dot-matrix printout of the same (😲), in one of the central government's fancy advanced computerised ticketing counters in their 10+ floors building at Chennai Central Railway Station 🚂! Even today, most of the local suburban train stations still use the dot-matrix printers (🙄). I'm sure they have a constructive rational behind that. 

But coming back to the point, today we certainly do live in a convenient era compared to the past decades, where one can:

• Book train/bus/air tickets (IRCTC, Red Bus etc.,) or pay taxes/electricity/mobile/internet bills (Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe etc).
• Buy/sell anything online (Amazon, Flipkart, Ebay, Jabong, Myntra, Big Basket etc).
• Order food and have it delivered to your home even till 5 am in the morning (Swiggy, Zomato & Uber Eats).
• Hail a taxi or auto (Ola & Uber).
• Get your household items like a/c, fridge, washing machines etc., serviced/repaired/installed or get your plumbing/electrical work done by a certified professional (Urban Clap). 
• Open a bank/demat a/c, buy/trade shares/commodities/mutual funds/insurance.
• Buy/sell/rent property online (99acres, Magicbricks, Commonfloor, Quikr etc).
• Even earn an accredited Bachelor's Degree Online from top US Educational Institutions (Harvard University, Penn State, Washington State University etc).

All of the above and even more can be done from the comfort of one's couch with a few simple touches on a technological advanced magic touchscreen that we all have in our hands today!

The present world is more connected and lively than ever before. One can instantaneously know what's happening in another corner of the world or interact/follow one's life through their shared vlogs (YouTube, Instagram etc.,) learn, exchange and appreciate one's traditions/cultures/ideas or we even have a classroom in India connect to a classroom in US, enabling the children to have a direct interesting, interactive, fun-filled sessions, exchanging ideas and projects.

Most of us are so caught up in the limbo of leading busy lives that we take things for granted, refuse to pause and appreciate the simple but important fact of how well technology has enabled us today to lead our lives or do businesses in a professional, ethical and easier way than ever before! May be the video embedded below from the year 1991, will help a few to do that! 😁

Decades ago, all these were a mere science fiction or a gimmick. Not all of those yesteryear science fictions became a reality today. Like they said we'll be having flying cars/taxis by 2020! But after the dawn of drones, even the mere present day gimmick of flying cars/taxis is already in the process of blooming into tomorrow's enjoyable personal travel with greater significance! I expect this to happen well before the end of this new born decade, as the American Aerospace company Boeing has partnered with American Ridesharing company Uber Technologies Inc, building prototypes and conducting test flights in various countries around the world already. Their final goal is to build a fully autonomous, driverless and safer flying cars/taxis! 

With the emergence and advancement of many interesting technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality Hololens, Space Tourism for all, Drones, Data Science, Hyperloop, Renewable Energy, Fully Autonomous Driverless Vehicles and many more. The future is undeniably intriguing! But for now its safe to say that Touchscreen is one of those yesteryear yuppies' science fiction has embodied into present day commoner's riveting reality and necessity!