Speculative fiction guidance from down under

Seamus Byrne in the Sydney Morning Herald has some insights into various technologies that spark ideas for speculative fiction. Highlights include your life support partner, automatic power shades, exoskeletons and utility fogs.

This is a broadly ranging article that touches briefly on many future possibilities. So, if you're looking for a source to spark a number of ideas for your world of tomorrow, this is a quick must-read. And Mr. Byrne has a sense of humor.

I think that the closing concept, that of the utility fog, is the most clever. Described by Byrne as "a cloud of networked nanobots running errands in the air around us, whether related to health or business," is very intriguing. I've read plenty of nanobot scenarios before -- like those prognosticated microscopic medical helpers repairing one's body -- but never thought about them performing servile functions as a team. What might this cloud actually look like? I'll leave that to you to describe.

Feel free to post a response with your imagined visual interpretation...