7-1-I-Search-Amanda

= How would a persons lifestyle be in New York City in the future? = by Amanda media type="custom" key="786979"

**Introduction**
 **"** Wow!" I thought to myself. It all began when I was younger and I was always curious about the future in general and the movies I've watched about the future, such as //Back to the Future// series, //The Matrix, I-Robot //, etc. The more I saw these movies the more I got interested about our future lifestyle. They showed robots living in everyone's houses and being part of their household and and acting like artificial machines that can think for themselves. I couldn't believe it at first, so I just couldn't stop re-watching these movies. The devices and the homes, schools, fashion were all different from ours in the movie. I thought they were fascinating! So, I filled my mind with more information based upon this subject, I was a mad scientist looking for answers. I read books, magazines, and researched websites on our future living. Will we have robots in our future homes? Will our transportation become faster? From the 1900's through the 21st century many products and objects have changed, the earth was getting more digital. As I flipped through the channels on my T.V. I came across the news and heard that by February 17, 2009 all T.V. broadcasts will change how we watch our television programming. T.V.'s that receive over-the-air programming will need to be changed to a digital T.V, such as a satellite or cable T.V. However, if you have an old T.V. that uses "rabbit antennas" or roof-top antennas you can buy a DTV converter box or convert it to a satellite or cable T.V. This was outrageous, I couldn't believe what they were trying to do, but I was also happy that I had a cable T.V. and nothing had to be switched. Ever since that news broadcast I was even more curious about our future lifestyle. Since our T.V.'s were acting upon the future I wanted to know more about our future. How will our food look like? Will there be any changes in the food we eat? In addition, I wanted to know more about how our future living will look like in New York City. Our future homes, devices, foods, etc. I can explain the different changes of how our future devices are changing throughout the years, similar to how our T.V.'s are. Our lives are changing and I want to know how.

**Search**
  I've learned through my recent studies that during the 1940's and 1990's New York City was creating new ideas and devices. Our idea of the future "back then" wasn't thought much highly as it is now. T.V.'s were just beginning to be made. For a continuous amount of years T.V.'s were just black and white, but slowly started to be made in color. Instead of using horses or boats as a tool for transportation cars were also starting to be made and beginning to work. All these digital devices were beginning to be made. A person's lifestyle in New York City, would be eat, drink, work, and sleep. New York City has its nickname for a reason-"the city that never sleeps", it's a very busy city which makes it hard to find transportation and get to work on time, trains are running slowly, school will still be called "boring", and our homes will be plain and simple. With so much cars roaming the streets our environment starts polluting and Global Warming starts to take over and still is. Fast-foods or cravings for chocolate are hard to stop eating and are taking over the bodies of thousands and even millions of New Yorkers, especially me. Even after all the dieting you've tried, it's just so hard to not resist and maintain it. This would and is a New York City's lifestyle now, but that soon will all change. As I was investigating more answers for my research question I found a book in my bookcase that laid there and caught my attention. This book was called "Future" and it was bold and large enough to see from a distance. The title was all I needed to know that this book was filled with ideas based upon future lifestyles. I borrowed this book from my Technology teacher, it contained a lot of ideas. As I kept reading on I learned that cars are one of the major problems from the continuation of Global Warming because the smoke and fuel pollutes our air. To stop this I learned that transportation manufacturers are trying to make a car that's light-weight so it can require less fuel. The book contains different sections in each page of different future lifestyle objects. I was amazed by the section called Future Foods, it stated that many fat-calorie treats will be less fattening. For instance, since its so hard to resist chocolate cake or chocolate in general, in the future you can eat as much chocolate without having the fat. I was shocked...no more cravings? No more fat? I know that now everyone will be eating as much chocolate as they want. With that piece of information, I couldn't wait to read on. According to the book, our future homes will have glass walls that are being made to control our weather climates inside our houses. I thought that was utterly impossible, but I kept reading on to learn that these glass walls maintain heat in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer. Even plants can be grown inside the house. I thought about my mom's garden outside and how it will be transported inside the house.

Everyone dislikes traffic, even me but as I kept reading on the book I learned that cars are going to be hung on top of a side rail in opposite directions of-what they called the "beam"-over 12,000 passengers can fit. My jaw fell open, I re-read the sentence again. Is this true? I thought to myself. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I thought this was similar to a roller coaster ride and I couldn't wait to ride it. With this much information I wanted to keep reading on. What can be a new way to learn? Instead of going to school every day,I learned that you can possibly take classes right in your home on a hologram. That was very interesting and very useful because I don't have to wake up early in the morning everyday. With so much information on the "Future" book, I found another astonishing book in my Technology teachers library. I looked through the book "The works: Anatomy of a City," thinking it didn't have any information about our future New York, as I was flipping through the book I got frustrated that I couldn't find anything about the future, even thought it had a lot of other good information. Suddenly, as I flipped the page it hit me. A whole section was called the "Future." I thought this was too good to be true and kept on reading on with amazement. This book also contained sections of different lifestyle topics about the future. As the last book had a lot of useful information about the future, this book has quite a bit too. This book doesn't contain as much information about the future lifestyles as the other book did, but otherwise it focused on only New York and future devices that are being made there.

That was useful for my topic as I was directing it to New York. The book explained future transportation's in our local airports and bridges, thus explaining about the better use of E-Z Passes, larger tunnels, and longer bridges so people an get to their location faster. The book also explained our future power, enough for 200 houses at one peak to have more power that will be built under the surface of the river. "That's extraordinary" I thought because it will be first tested here in New York. Along with this new "under-sea power energy" I learned that new communication systems are being built. This was going to be a new building more bigger than the Empire State Building, it will be the world's tallest building called "Freedom Tower Broadcasting." This will help New Yorkers broadcast television and communicate based on telephones more frequently and better. I like to talk a lot, so I know I will be looking forward for this to happen! The picture of the building amazed me more because of the super-striking antenna that rises for better broadcasting. As I kept digging for more information I found in another section it explained the new ways of how our city will be kept clean. With so much pollution in our city, I was anxious to know these new ways. I learned different ideas of storing water underground to minimize droughts, building a water filtration plant under the Golf Course in Bronx to filter out cleaner water, and containerized Garbage so there can be more waste disposal. The two books contained enormous amount of future information about New York cities future lifestyles. For more opinions and information about my topic and I-Search question I planned on interviewing a City Planner. There aren't many people who know about the future of New York, so I decided to interview a city planner.

I wasn't sure which City Planner to interview when my Technology teacher suggested to interview the writer of the book I used to write more information on my I-Search topic, "The Works:Anatomy of a city." I thought that was a grand idea and tried looking up her website for an e-mail address. There was no sign of one so my teacher helped and told me if she has a New York company e-mail address then her e-mail would start with her first name initial and her last name (kascher@nyc.gov), so she send her an e-mail. All I had to do was wait for a response to figure out if she's the right Kate Ascher I'm looking for. As I opened up my e-mail I found an automatic failed message stating that the message failed to deliver because the e-mail address is not a real one. I was stunned...I was finally happy that I found someone to interview and now I can't because that isn't her e-mail address. I couldn't find any evidence of what her e-mail address was so I e-mailed my Technology teacher to inform her about my sad news. I didn't know what to do and I panicked. I thought of interviewing a regular adult, but the directions said I needed to interview an expert or someone close to being an expert for my topic. A day later I opened up my e-mail address and found a response from my Technology teacher. She had informed me that since I couldn't find anyone else to interview I can interview an adult about what they think about our future lifestyles and predicting how the future will be. I was safe I knew exactly who I wanted to interview. I thought of interviewing my mother's co-worker, Jessie Erlanger. I e-mailed her and asked her if she was available throughout spring break or any time at all before that so I can have the time to interview her. I waited for her to reply, but I saw nothing in by inbox for about ten minutes. Finally, after what seemed like forever she e-mailed me back. I opened up the e-mail, once I did my face fell! Boo Hoo! She was going away on Thursday and all through spring break and she didn't have the time to be interviewed now. I grew sad, but thanked her anyway. I thought hard of who I should interview, and then it hit me! I know one of my mother's friend that I use to stay with when I was little. He was really good with using gadgets and fixing devices. I called my mother to ask for his e-mail, she gave it to me and I got right to the computer. His name is Fadil Hodge and when I recently spoke to him he worked for the Jet Blue company, but that was long ago. I e-mailed him and asked him if he also was available and I told him what I will be interviewing him for. I waited for a response and I finally got a reply. I didn't get my hopes up this time because I was rejected from the last two people. "YES!" I shouted. Jackpot, I had found someone to interview he said he was available and love to be interviewed. We set up a schedule: Tomorrow, April 18 after school I will be able to interview him. He gave me his number so we can interview each other by phone. I couldn't wait to!

Its 4/18/08 4:50 p.m I called Fadil, I giggled happily when the phone started ringing. "Hello" someone answer. "Is this Fadil?" I asked and it was! I first asked him what he worked for, I've heard rumors that he changed his job. He told me he works in Human Resources for the government. Hmm..I thought that was interesting. Well, the government does know a lot about the future, so I asked him what experiences has he learned from working in Human Resources. He said "I've learned a lot about people, their backgrounds and cultures. Oh, and I help recruit someone as a member or worker in an organization." Now, I was getting a long to the topic of future: "Have you dealt with any devices or seen any devices, if so how has these devices change?" I asked. He told me that he's dealt with many computers over the years and that now its fascinating that a few years ago the computers use to run very slow and he and his workers always had problems working in them. However, he told me now there more efficient and faster, it's a lot easier for everyone to work. His response was just what I wanted to hear, he was leading on to the future of New York City, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't mind or have any difficulties with the next questions. In my next question I asked him what he thinks about the term future or what comes in mind? He told me a simple but well explained answer. He said that he believes the term "future" means a time ahead of the present. For my next question I asked him it was leading on to New York City and future lifestyles. Do you feel our lifestyles need to be changed, why? "No, not at all because I think its fine the way it is. Everyone is fine the way they are and the city is running smoothly. I am content with my lifestyle and happy with my current lifestyle. There's a lot of opportunities for everyone, jobs, apartments, food, etc." Fadil explained his thoughts very well on the phone and it was easier for me to see his point of view of New York City and the future. He was like a mind-reader, always knowing what I'll ask next, so it was no surprise to him what I asked next. With so many "digital" changes in New York City what do you predict our future lifestyles in N.Y.C will look like? He told me that he thinks our future lifestyles would be extremely different than how it is now, meaning that he predicts everything will be computerized and cars will start to drive themselves. He said he predicted that when using the elevator or any other object that you have to push a button to activate you will just need to use your voice and command which floor you need to go on or command what you need. This was a pretty good idea, I've never heard someone say that before. His prediction was tremendously useful for New York City since we do use cars a lot and elevators.

I went on and asked him, What do you predict of how our future homes, foods, and cars/traffic will be like? He thought for a moment before responding, "well, I believe our homes in the future won't have any keys to open your door with, instead it will have a camera and thumb print touch and recognize who you are and open itself. I also predict that everyone will be working at home because they will have some sort of hologram or screen for everyone to see each other and get right to work, well I personally would enjoy that-I laughed that was a great idea. I think our food in the future will only have you eat tablets that you can pop in your mouth instead of eating a whole meal. Lastly, I also think that cars will run on water instead of gasoline and not only will they drive themselves but they can fly and sail in water too, so less traffic could be made. Speaking of traffic I asked him what he thought of having no traffic in N.Y.C, will it change a persons lifestyle? He politely responded and told me that there must be a reason why there isn't any traffic anymore, right? He said that of course it will change a persons lifestyle people will be walking more and when people start to walk more they become more healthier and skinnier. He told me that it will also lead to a healthier lifestyle, the air will be more fresh and no one would have to worry about Global Warming. I thought that was very true and went on with his brilliant ideas. How do you think our future housework tools will look like? I asked him. "That's a good one, I think our future housework tools will have...Robots! You won't have to worry about cleaning the house you can just command your Robot what to do such as-"Robot clean the kitchen"- and in a jiffy it will clean it up for you. It will be spotless, no one would have to do any work." That response led me to another question, do you think a robot will affect a persons lifestyle? He said, "Oh absolutely! Many people will not clean after themselves and will rely on their Robots to do it for them. In some way people will start to grow lazy and do nothing at all because they think their Robot will do all for them, but if your a busy person like me and when your not cleaning the housework there will be less stress for that person because you won't have to worry about cooking dinner for the kids, or cleaning the bathroom, or cleaning your room. Some people can start to relax more and take their time with other extracurricular activities." "Wow!" I thought that response was very convincing.

It was now time for me to talk about Global Warming, since it has such high priority on our city I wanted to know his opinion on it and what he predicts about it. How do you think the future will stop Global Warming ? Do you think there's any specific devices that need to be changed or created that can help stop Global Warming ? He responded right away and seemed happy to answer a topic about Global Warming because he always worries about it. "How I think the future will stop Global Warming and devices that need to be made is everything won't have to run by cars or cars will be made and won't have to run on too much fuel and Robots will be made to pick up any trash that has been thrown on the floor. In addition, factories have to use machinery that doesn’t run on oil or coal so it doesn’t pollute the air." I also asked him what he predicts our future fashion will look like. He answered and told me that he thinks our future fashion will let everyone make their own clothes with materials that can be grown at home and that are environmentally friendly. People can make their own style of clothing. I was on to my last question that I was dying to ask, but sad to be ending so soon: What are some things you've heard based on our future lifestyles that you are looking forward to happen? He seemed to know a lot about this question and said " Okay, I'm looking forward for objects not to be run on oil all the time, you can just drive cars or heat homes by using water. This will create a cleaner environment for us to live in. I also heard a lot about Robots as you may have noticed and I really looking forward for that to happen! I'm looking forward to utilize Robots in our everyday lives. For instance, drive our cars or clean our homes. I've also heard from rumors that all computers will be touch screen and I'm also looking forward for that to happen so I won't have to use any keyboards to type in or mouses to touch." When he mentioned this I thought of the I-Phone right away, its also touch screen. When I first used the I-Phone I couldn't resist giving it back, imagine if my very own computer was like that I would never stop using it! I quickly came back to reality and thanked him for all his time and help. He was very informative and had great ideas that were excellent for my I-Search paper.



**Conclusion**
 <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> After my short and remarkable search to find out how are future lifestyles in New York would change in the future and what would these new future objects be, I've learned many things that I've never learned before. The books that I've borrowed were the most effective and helped me with so much of the information. It was a whole new experience for me, I feel like a research expert already! Before the I-Search I've always been really curious about the future in general and sometimes I even researched about the future. I didn't focus specifically about the future term I was talking about, for instance future fashion, homes, foods, etc. However, after my I-Search I covered a topic that explained many categories of the future. I learned more about the future than I thought I would. Over many years many manufactures, scientists, and even regular people have been making many different devices for our future in New York. From movie-robots to real life Robots and from our pollution to the end of pollution. I also learned that instead of doing the boring old-fashioned housework, that I seem to do a lot, homes will be waterproof and you can even turn on your house and spray it all over the house. Everything will be clean. I knew that was very useful since everyone in New York does their tiring housework, this will let us have enough time to focus on other extra activities and not let the house not being clean interfere with our outside lives. We're even saving money, by not buying new supplies to help clean your house every month or two. In addition we will live in a germ free environment. Overall their won't be any brutal traffic, no more cellphones services dying in a certain area, and certainly no more Global Warming roaming our city. From the 1900's to the 22nd century, 23rd, 24th, and so on everything will change. Our future will change for the better and help make our lives more easier and less dangerous, thinking that because Global Warming our city can be destroyed any day now, but soon it won't.

More people in New York City will be able to communicate with one another even more and everywhere they go, even grocery shopping will be much easier to do, because we can all pick what we need on our T.V screen without having the trouble to look for it in the store. This is awesome news to hear because now we don't have to go out of our houses and have the trouble to get dress, put on makeup, and make sure we look good. We can grocery shop right in our home. How cool is that!? This was an exceptional journey and I enjoyed taking it. I have enough information to answer my questions I had that filled my mind. Our lives will be different and our accustomed lifestyles would be changed, we won't have to do much housework, we won't have to worry about pollution, and we don't have to worry about the cities energy power. For some school is going to become more fun! I learned that as years pass, our city evolves more and more everyday. The past is forgotten and our new life is beginning to become more digital. No longer will we have trouble cleaning our houses, worrying about the environment or gaining weight, he won't even worry about getting out the house to do your daily chores. We are relied on electronics, but during the 1900's and so forth they relied on themselves. Nothing would be the same as in the "olden days." The time period and the change of our lives is fascinating! We need to keep working on our new future plans and help make them come true! It is extraordinary news that new York City will become a safer and better place. As the saying goes "the future is in our hands!" No more worries, no more trouble! <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">I'm sure I'll keep updated on our future tools from now on! <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">

<span style="color: rgb(162, 40, 230)">**Works Cited**
Ascher, Kate.The Works: Anatomy of a City. New York: The Penguin P, 2005.

Hodge, Fadil. Interview: On phone, April 18, 2008.

Tambini, Michael. __Future__. New York: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1998.

Zondy, David. "Life in 2000 AD." __Davidszondy__. 15 Apr. 2008 <[|http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/weather.htm>.]

Image: '[|Tacoma Glass Museum Cone Zone]' www.flickr.com/photos/71401718@N00/80098386