We've been on a roller-coaster of optimism and pessimism when it's come to our future prospects, but constant striving for more and compulsive acquisition of material goods has continued unabated. Industrialization and globalization have even made much of what we've wanted cheaper and more plentiful. But energy is only getting more expensive, and many of us realize that natural resources are finite. A growing number of homeowners are waking up to these realities, and demanding more energy-efficient homes that make more careful use of natural resources and use fewer harmful chemicals in their components.
Futurists of the 60s and 70s would be a little disappointed at our progress in this regard. Today's homes, by and large, do not have solar panels, nor do they rely on passive solar heating by orienting large windows to the south. They still use a lot of virgin materials and rely on cheap, short-lived flooring and roofing that are replaced often and not recycled. Luxury homes often use tropical hardwoods from bulldozed Amazon rainforests and other old-growth timber. Our homes are built using a lot of vinyl, which contributes to pollution, particle board, which emits formaldehyde, and various solvents, paints, and glues that emit volatile organic compounds.
But all is not lost. A wide array of new materials and methods are available to make stronger, warmer, healthier homes using fewer natural resources. Structural Insulated Panels, pre-fabricated wall sections built of thick sheets of foam bonded to composite wood sheets, and Insulated Concrete Forms, foam blocks assembled and filled with concrete, are proven technologies in wide use today that create stronger, more energy-efficient structures. Much of the lumber that used to be sawn from large, mature trees, is now made of composites of bits and pieces from five-year-old trees grown on farms. Recyclable, reusable, steel studs are now in common use, especially in commercial construction.
Tight, double-pane windows with coatings that block heat radiation are now commonplace, Heating and A/C systems are available today that are extremely efficient (some even use the constant temperature of the earth in conjunction with a heat pump to both heat and cool the house), though most production homebuilders prefer cheaper models, since the builders don't have to pay the heating bills. Heat Recovery Ventilators allow fresh, filtered air to be exchanged for stuffy inside air, with minimal heat loss. And solar panels to heat water and generate electricity are better and cheaper than ever. Toilets, dishwashers, clothes washers, and showers today use less water than ever. Low energy light fixtures are cheap and plentiful, and now required by code in California. Certification programs such as Energy Star allow homeowners to know that the homes and appliances they're buying stand up to rigorous efficiency standards.
Conclusion
So where to we go from here? Well, we're still making "house of the future" predictions on TV shows and in magazines, but they seem remarkably more conservative than the ones fifty years ago, usually pushing the horizon out only a decade at the outside. Science fiction movies always try to give us a glimpse of the world-to-be. It seems to me they've been a bit more bold, with holographically-projected entertainment, recognition of home occupants, regular medical screenings available at home, and of course, domestic robots and flying cars.
Contemporary science fiction has also predicted more pernicious aspects of our future home lives: police and government being able to literally see into our homes and monitor our communications, overpopulated cities with people stuffed into warren-like cubicles, the wonders of online life (including simulations of sex and other ecstasies) so appealing in comparison to drab reality that a whole generation never leaves home at all, and sits in cramped apartments, wasting away (kind of like today, with World of Warcraft), and our most common pop culture future-fear: domestic robots turning on their masters and running amok.
Here's hoping we get our flying cars and our (non-homicidal) robotic servants in our lifetimes.
