l see skies of blue, And clouds of white. The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.
The lyrics from a song recorded by one of greatest singer, composer, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in 1967. Indeed what a wonderful world it was then almost 50 years ago. Things were very much different then… there was no internet, smart phones, tablets and all the accompanying paraphernalia like whatsapp, twitter, facebook… Who would have imagined the onset of technology within a few mere decades that revolutionised our lives altogether.
What was it like in the 60’s…well to begin with Housing Board was in its infancy having started only in 1960 and public housing moved into Toa Payoh in 1964 as the second largest satellite town (the first was Queenstown).
Work started only in December 1964 and tenders for the first building contract of 840 one-room housing units in Toa Payoh were called. The estate was to be home to 35,000 units providing a roof to some 250,000 people, with 40% of the flats to be built as one-room rental flats, and the rest as three- or four-room flats.
Today, a look out of the balcony from any of the high-rise blocks and one cannot imagine the transformation. What will it be like in the next two, three or five years?
Certainly with the Smart Nation master-plan, we will have ultra-high speed, pervasive, intelligent and trusted infocomm infrastructure. For a start, what it may also mean would be that possibly there would be more audio or voice recognition security. As it is the banks are working on this so that instead of the lengthy questioning by a tele-centre staff for verification purposes, perhaps through voice recognition this process can be carried out with less fuss. And, perhaps could this be used to get access into the lift to take you to your home? It will be an added security for residents.
Another is the use of smart technology to remotely turn on or off the lights in our homes, or activate the air-conditioners for example. A few new private condominiums are adopting smart home technologies in their new launches. Already residents are able to remotely view on their smart phones their home or office security cameras to see what’s going on.
Also in the pipeline for the Executive Condominiums is The Visionaire, at Canberra Link in Sembawang. To be completed in 2019, it will have smart lock system complete with cameras. This will allow the EC residents to monitor visitors and control access to their homes through these smart devices. Residents will also be able to control household appliances from air conditioners to washing machines remotely using their mobile phones or tablets under the smart home system.
Then of course we already have the auto vacuum cleaner or robot vacuum cleaner which can go about to clean your apartment on its own. It’s still quite expensive but hopefully prices would be lowered when demand rises.
Prototypes of robots which can iron your clothes are already in the making. So this together with the washing machine and the robot vacuum cleaner would in fact take out the bulk of a typical Singa- porean household chore. So, do we still have to clamour for foreign domestic helpers? Maybe not?
What about drones? Now they dominate the skies at the war zones but drones can offer a lot of opportunities, especially for homes with open balconies. Who knows it may well replace the delivery man who takes the pizza to your flat. And, if they can do this, there’s a lot more that the drones can deliver to your door, or balcony.
On a more personal basis, on-line shopping has become the norm. Already brick-and-motor shops are turning to the on-line shoppers, from NTUC Fairprice to Cold Storage, and even pharmaceuticals like Guardian. And in time the on-line system may be so smart that when you key in your profile, it will accurately select the items that are most likely to be of interest to your weekly shopping.
Would the letter boxes at the void decks make way for bicycle racks instead? If everyone uses the email, cloud storage and other online services, then the snail mail would be a thing of the past. Bicycles as a mode of transport may be the next in thing, with the emphasis on clean energy and environmental conservation, coupled with the rising cost of trans- port. Indeed with the government promoting cy- cling as a way of life, who knows, we may just rank alongside Denmark, The Netherlands, or even China or Japan as one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world.
Fancy yourself cycling to school, to the cinema, or the office or to watch the National Day Parade…. Won’t it be so hassle free…. rrrr..ring, ring? What a wonderful world it will still be.
– This article first appeared in a newsletter for Bishan-Toa Payoh residents
