1) Nanoterror in the Skies

Flying sucks already. If it's snowing, you're flight's going to be late. If it's raining, you're flight's going to be late. If there's a bunch of babies, you're flight's going to be late. You can't bring food and drinks from out of the airport (how are we supposed to enjoy the in-flight movie without movie popcorn and whiskey?), and the airport food price is jacked up PLUS McDonald’s doesn't have the 2-for-1 Apple Pie deal. There are never enough electrical outlets. Don't even start with the seats. No more peanuts. Criminal. But it's only 2009! With enough time I could think of a Declaration of Independence style doctrine about how much suck will be tasted in airports within ten years, but I don't know where to print stuff on hemp paper so I'm just going to focus on one thing: nano-terrorism.

I don't know what people are waiting for. Maybe our government doesn't think terrorists will ever be able to buy nanotech (obviously haven't seen 24, Season 14). Maybe someone's waiting for a scifi movie about it. Or maybe the people who make decisions don't want to pay to set up safety precautions until it's too late. Whatever it is, public air travel is not at all ready for nanobot attacks.

Once somebody figures out how to fill their body with flesh eating nanobots, or exploding ones, or mess-with-your-controls ones, the perfect form of plane sabotage will be achieved. Metal detectors won't pickup on silicon (or whatever material the bots will be made of) and there aren't any X-Rays, motion sensors, heat sensors . . . any kind of sensor that will pick up nanobots floating around in someone's blood stream, womb, or spleen.

So I've come up with a list that hopefully someone with important decision making clearance will read:
   1) This one will be pretty uncomfortable but it might work: Force everyone to drink some kind of nanobot sensor liquid before flying. Something like that goop you have to drink before you go into that machine so that your organs light up.. whatever it's called.. but it will work to either outline nanobots by not lighting them up, or light only the bots up. I actually have no idea how this stuff works, I'm just holding a “What would Phillip K. Dick do?” ball and it's telling me to write these words down.
   2) Create a nanobot sensor that can be installed at every airport security check in the world and won't impede the already mega-slow speed it takes to go through security. Hahaha! Funny.
   3) Don't fly. Considering that lack of actually useful alternate fuels, the death of personal cars and rise of government funded, public transportation, and advances in superconducting bullet trains, the increasing cost of flight tickets, airplanes will be as outdated as 128MB flash drives.

That's this issue of How Much The Future Will Suck! Have fun living in the past!