What Will Be...Readers forecast futuristic facts, fictions and fantasies
What Will Be...Readers forecast futuristic facts, fictions and fantasies
Life in New York City
"If New York City keeps going the way it is, it will be more crowded, with more traffic, worse air, more litter, less open, green spaces. Bridges and subways will be even older and need repair or replacement. We need to learn to take care of the environment, reuse, recycle and compost, so we have less garbage. Put more money into NYC budgets to maintain our parks, playgrounds and beaches. New Yorkers need to respect and love their city - not vandalize and litter it." - Linda Sarkadi, age 11
"I think the future will be cool. When the weather is not good, all you need to do is push a button and your house would be up above the clouds. All the schools would have computers. And whenever you want to go somewhere you'll have a flying board to take you there. Also, when your house is messy, you just call your maid, Rose." - Dorian Flores, age 8"I think that if we all rode on bikes right now, we could limit all the pollution that is in the world. Then our descendants could live in a safe environment. They wouldn't have to suffer like their ancestors before them did. Another thing we could do to make the future better is to teach people that fighting doesn't solve any problems. This lesson will be passed down from generation to generation and the children of the future won't have to be scared of doing anything. They will know that peace has finally come." - Riddhi Shah, age 10
"In the year 2020, my city, New York, will be the ideal living place. It will have high, tall, the sky-is-not-the-limit, building and homes. Many people will have gone to space colonization camps to prepare for space living. But until then, New York is still the place to be. The libraries will have computers that will have access to books around the glove. All movie theaters will have room-filling screens. The restaurants will have robot waiters and waitresses. Schools will have teachers living in France to teach you French and teachers from Ancient cities to teach you Social Studies. With the help of televisions and computers, transportations will be quick and on time. If you wanted to go to Africa, it will only be a matter of 2 hours with air tunnels for airplanes. Houses will be heated in a different way. Large solar panels swill collect the sun's rays and spread them around your house, that way less energy will be used. In short, the future will transform the way people live." - Suprina Balasubramanian, age 12
"In the year 2020, there will be many modern things. One thing is having a car run by the stars We will have a computer disk called I.Q. 6000. We will have cars, phones and beepers that are run off batteries. Everybody will have cable." - Jimit Shah, age 8
The Future of Schools
"Computers and CDRoms will change the future of education because the CDRom will be like a textbook stored on a disk. So instead of carrying loads of heavy textbooks, you carry a couple of disks that you can read the material from. Learning would be made easier and less of a burden." - Riddhi Shah, age 10
"Schools will be different. Instead of carrying a bookbag, you will carry a Disk Reader-Typer. This is the same as a computer except it runs with stickers and folds up and fits into your pocket." - Jimit Shah, age 8
"I think electronic gadgets will help schools. One example would be not needing to buy a new set of encyclopedias every year, because the school could just buy a few sets of multi-media software and that would be enough for the whole school, because most computers can install multi-media." - Naomi Chen, age 10
"Education is continually changing to keep up with new inventions. 10 years ago, people learned to use the typewriter, now it's the computer. I learned to use a computer in 5th grade at P.S. 116. My teacher used movies, xeroxes, tape recorders, TVs and VCRs to teach us. You can take courses on TV without a classroom teacher. Technology is the future for schools and jobs." - Linda Sarkadi, age 11
"In the future, if you are sick, you can still learn your classwork by plugging your computer into the school channel." - Lauren Ortiz, age 9
Space Neighbors - Is there intelligent life out there?
An overwhelming majority of readers agreed that we will discover the existence of life on other planets.
"Yes, I think there will be discoveries of life on other planets. Scientists have the evidence to support it." - Naomi Chen, age 10
"For a long time, people have thought about life on other planets and imagined strange places and beings, like Martians. Now that we can travel to space, perhaps someday life on other planets will be discovered. I would like to travel on a spaceship to outer space and take my 3 hamsters with me." - Linda Sarkadi, age 11
"No, I don't think they will discover life on other planets because there is not any oxygen on any other planet except earth. And even if life was discovered on another planet, it wouldn't stay there very long because there is hardly any gravity in outer space to keep any form of life on a surface. So it would probably end up travelling in orbit!" - Riddhi Shah, age 9
"Yes, but not right now. Maybe much later in the future, much later, who knows? I hope one day in my lifetime. Maybe life on other planets can help us understand our life on earth." - Barbara Ann Tricario, age 8
Favorite Sci-Fi Movies & Books
"My most favorite science fiction movie is the movie about a scientist who shrinks his kids. This movie is called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! The movie has a very happy ending because the scientist finds his kids and enlarges them to normal size. I liked this movie a lot because it was very interesting." - Imee Harsuvanakit, age 12
"One of my favorite science fiction novels is A Wrinkle in Time by Madelaine L'Engle. My fave characters in the book are the girl and her brother who travel into the fifth dimension, called a tesseract, to rescue their long-lost father. Another one of my faves is The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron. The cool characters in this book are: David, Chuck, and Mr. Tyco Bass. David and Chuck go on a space mission prompted by Tyco to a planet called Basidum X. What follows is a great deal of fun combined with a conclusion of much relief. Don't miss the sequel! It's titled Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet." - Naomi Chen, age 10
"I like the TV show, Star Trek: The Next Generation because of all the stars on that show. One who stands out is Captain Picard. The crew looks up sto him for his help and wisdom. He is one man that people listen to when he talks. And to be a captain of a starship, you have to know what you are doing. That's why I like Captain Picard." - Barbara Ann Tricario, age 8
- originally published in the Spring 1995 issue of ZuZu
Artwork from top: trains by Daigu Matsubara, age 17; rocket by Victor Quinones, age 8; stop guy by Antonio Pesce, age 8; heads by Daigu; hamsters by Linda Sarkadi, age 11.
