What Will Your Future Lifestyle Look Like?

March 13, 2008 — -- The future is just around the corner, and according to some people who make the future their business, it doesn't look drastically dissimilar from what you see around you now, but below the surface there will be differences.

Watch "World News" tonight to find out how your everyday items will evolve in the future.

"World News" in conjunction with Time Magazine spoke with some futurists — people who specialize in forecasting future events, conditions or developments — about what people's lives could be like in the not-too-distant future.

Your day will probably start the same way it does now, they say, and though the products will look pretty much the same, they will function very differently and much more effectively.

"We're not headed into a future that looks like the stage set from 'The Jetsons,' at least on the surface," technology forecaster Paul Saffo said. "But function will be dramatically different and much more capable."

Here is what some futurists say your lifestyle may look like in the future and click here for more stories about technology and the future.

Your Home of the Future

One of the places in your home where you might feel like George Jetson is the bathroom.

It will have a toilet that can test urine for sugar levels, take your blood pressure and weigh you. All that information can then be uploaded to your doctor.

Even the bathroom staple of soap will get an upgrade, futurists say. It will have sunscreen in it, which will stick to your skin.

The Future of Food

The kitchen is often the center of a home and it has the most potential for futuristic changes.

For example, a Web-enabled refrigerator will be able to talk to the manufacturer when a part wears out, so it can order a replacement without you ever knowing something was wrong.

Your fridge will also be able to tell you what's inside it, making creating a grocery list much easier. Think about all the energy you'll save not standing in front of an open refrigerator to determine what's inside.

Once you get the food you want from your high-tech fridge, your counter top will be able to suggest recipes based on what you put there.

How is this possible?

Tiny, inexpensive computer chips call RFIDs, or radio frequency identification chips, will be attached to every product in your house. The refrigerator will read the chips, and will even be able to tell you when the milk has gone bad.

The counter will be able to make dinner suggestions. Your washing machine will know how to wash your favorite linen shirt. And you will be able to call your oven from your cell phone to tell it when to start cooking the pot roast.

And if you don't have the potatoes to go with the pot roast, when you stop at your local grocery store the new high-tech cart will use GPS to help you find the potatoes, and then the cart will read the RFID chip on the bag and automatically charge your credit card. No waiting in the checkout line.

"You are basically turning those inanimate objects in your home into smartifacts, intelligent artifacts with some rudimentary capability of accounting for themselves," Saffo said.

Future Traveling

After your grocery excursion, you'll want to pack up all your smart foods and head home or wherever you next stop is. But you won't be getting into the same kind of cars we drive today. You'll quite possibly be in a driverless, robotic car.

The idea may not be as far fetched as it sounds. Futurists say robots will be a large part of life. They have already infiltrated the toy store. Pleo, a toy dinosaur, has sensors that react to touch, light and sound, and actually purrs when scratched.

Though a driverless car sounds like a crazy idea, it is built to be safer and more efficient than what is currently parked in the driveway.

Using GPS and lasers to detect everything from lane markers to stop signs to wayward soccer balls, the cars will have far better reaction time than humans.

"I think robotic cars will be much more reliable. It will be able to deal with children running on the street and pedestrians," Stanford University computer science professor Sebastian Thrun said.

Besides driving, robots will also help take care of the most basic household chores, even when your children are slacking off.

"The next generation will have arms to be able to touch things and pick them up," Thrun said. "So you leave plates on the table and the next day they're in the dish washer."

Even with all of the changes coming in the future, the human condition won't change, though, according to futurists.

At day's end, you'll still share a drink with a friend and kiss your child goodnight, because no robot can do that.