Introducing: News from the Future

Editor's note: As Richard Hay wrote earlier today, if you watch the conversations people have, you can figure out the coming trends in tech. And I believe if you watch the news of now, you can see how the future's shaping up. It's my pleasure to introduce Michelle Threadgould and a new Friday feature, News from the Future. Each week, Michelle will be telling us what's happening now that will likely shape our world a few months -- or years -- from now. -- Lisa Schmeiser

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Archive Your Ex: How to Hold Onto Your Ex Forever

Nirvana’s “Heart-shaped Box” was inspired by Kurt Cobain discovering love letters written by Billy Corgan to his wife Courtney Love. But if you didn't balk at this story but instead empathized because have difficulty throwing away meaningful memorabilia from past relationships and currently stalk your ex’s social media accounts, Shryne is here to help you electronically craft your own heart-shaped box.

According to WIRED:

“The app collects data from your social media and email and other accounts and creates something akin to a digital scrapbook. Rather than letting you stumble upon these things in your Facebook feed or Gmail history, Shryne encourages you to seek them out so it can label and organize them. It’s like a beautiful filing system for your digital past, a box for everyone in your life.”

While Shryne isn’t specifically designed to help you keep tabs on your ex, it isn’t much of a jump to assume that this is how it will be used. According to a study by Western University, 88% of us use Facebook to stalk an ex, 64% re-read messages we’ve sent our exes, and 74% of us have used social media to creep on the social media accounts of our ex’s current partner. So keep calm, and keep creeping on!

Experience what it’s like to be 75 with an Insta-Aging Exoskeleton

Last week, the Atlantic’s baby-faced health editor, Dr. James Hamblin experienced what it was like to be in his 70’s by wearing an exoskeleton suit designed by Genworth Financial. Bran Ferren is the inventor of this suit, which adds 40 pounds of weight to your body, is outfitted with high definition image processing cameras that temporarily deteriorate your vision, and has a head covering that also affects your hearing ability.

Bran Ferren says, “The same technology that we’re using to make you (feel) older will be the technology of the future to make you (feel) younger.”  So, exoskeletons could be worn in the future to correct curving spines, restore balance to people with failing vestibular systems, correct vision, and make the aging process less physically painful.

With longer life expectancies and an estimated 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 a day until the year 2050, this technology will help shape the quality of life for a significant segment of our population and change what it means for us to age now and in the future.

Implanting an arm chip to hack your way into offices

Why have keys, passwords, and codes to memorize when you could just implant an arm chip to literally open doors and gateways for you? Such was the thinking of Alex Smith, the researcher from Assurance and the owner of the biohacking company Cyberise.Me. He’s hacked into his own body using four RFID chips that he injected himself.

As a result, he can store cloned smart card to unlock his Android Phone, use the chips to open office doors, and store/collect data from his laptop for access anywhere that he can connect to any device. Smith’s biohack is being closely monitored to see how companies with private and confidential information can keep their information secure, and safe from biohacks in the future.

Downloadable Medicine thanks to 3-D Printing

The Ohio-based pharmaceutical company Aprecia has created a new drug to control seizures brought on by epilepsy. It uses “ZipDose” technology, which creates a more porous pill from 3-D printing. In the future, 3-D printing of medication could lead to pills being custom-ordered and based on specific patient needs, thus allowing for hospitals to adjust doses for individual patients, something is currently too cost-prohibitive to implement.