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It used to be that technology meant tools like the hammer and chisel, but these days if something is technical, it probably uses electronics. As computers slowly but surely take over the world, more and more gadgets are being outfitted with computers, however incongruously (does a toaster really need microchips?). Generally, the nature of the electronics has changed substantially, as has the amount of electricity, but how the technology uses electricity and how it receives charge has not. Whether you’ve got an old AM radio or an iPad, you’re going to be plugging it into a power socket on the wall (or at least into something that plugs into a power socket on the wall). No socket? No power for you!
That is now changing. There are already some devices available that charge through a passive connection – you lay down a device on a platform and it charges, without needing to plug it in. Imagine just laying your phone down on the table and it powers up. But that’s just the start. There is talk now of wireless electricity as a realistic possibility – certainly in the development stage right now, but there was a recent demonstration of wireless electricity at a limited range. Imagine what this could lead to. Power sockets might become wireless routers broadcasting electricity throughout the house, just like a WiFi hotspot. As long as you’re in range and have a receiver, you’ve got power.
Even better, what if the same kind of technology that gives people WiFi and cellular access in more and more places across the globe could be applied to delivery of electricity? Someday we might have satellites firing electrical rays down upon the Earth (apocalyptic as it sounds) and wireless electricity available everywhere – no plugs or routers needed at all. Will this happen within the current generation? Who knows? Technological advancement moves at such a furious clip that anything is possible.
