This research will yield better materials for artificial limbs and polymeric lattices to heal broken bones more quickly. Better materials will also be designed for specific uses such as breast implants. Robotic surgery is a future technology that could allow doctors on one continent to help patients on another. The medical profession also anticipates the development of better diagnostic tools, and Strawn suggests that years from now, computers will offer such realistic simulations of humans that medical testing will be performed on machines to determine human reactions to medical procedures. In addition, medical data will be stored in new ways.
Wireless technology is another area that has great promise.
Many believe the first decade of the next century will bring great advances in wireless technologies. Perhaps even Post-It notes outfitted with global positioning technologies could help users track possessions electronically, Strawn suggests. Information appliances will be part of daily life. At the low end, diminutive computers will literally be embedded in every facet of life, Strawn says, and will appear not only in cars, but also on clothes and in household items. At the high end, supercomputers will be enhanced by at least a factor of 1,000 each decade, Strawn predicts.