More columns
written by Norm:

My Family Album - 2030

Your comments about this column are welcome ~ e-mail Norm at

         I was making a photo album of a family vacation for our great grandchildren. I got to wondering what they might think of what they open it in the year 2030. I looked back at some of my old family albums. It was fun to read the newspaper clippings and see the sepia pictures of people in really old fashioned looking clothes.
        The year jumps forward to 2030.
        “Oh, look, great grandpa made this album for us. It looks really old. This round plastic disk must be part of it and what is this little black tab that looks like half a stick of chewing gum? They must contain some of data or digital information. I wonder how to use them. They don’t fit into my wrist computer or our floating information screen on the wall. Maybe if I put them on my viewing table they will activate.”
        By 2020 we will most likely store all information in a “cloud”, somewhere far away and mysterious. We will have a password to instantly download everything. For the news we will be able to hear a voice read to us or a video appear on our glasses or portable screen. Desktops and even laptops will be antiques. The TV that now sits in our media cabinet will have been recycled years ago.
        What a shame! There will be no yellowing newspaper reports of marriages or deaths. Taking a picture will be as easy as pointing a finger and the final product will be automatically adjusted for color and cropping. Photoshop will be seen only in museums, which incidentally aren’t in buildings anymore but in virtual space.
        All this “progress” will excite my great-grandchildren. They will take it for granted and probably not miss the pleasure of opening a carefully assembled photo album of snapshots and printed articles. I hope they take the time to look at the recordings I made of our vacation and the photographs that reside on that digital disk. And I hope they will look back at my time as interesting and informative. I hope I can watch them from that “cloud” floating somewhere in space with all the world’s information just waiting to be downloaded.

The Spectator

founded 2004 by ron cruger

A place for intelligent writers
A place for intelligent readers