Yorrike

You may have a favourite coffee cup at work or home. One you always reach for when you’re set on having a serious coffee at a serious moment.

I use an insulated travel cup because I can take an hour or two to sip my way through a coffee. I can’t slam coffee back fast enough to outrun cooling through convection and radiation.

And this is my Zojirushi coffee cup. I one-click-purchased it by mistake. I’ve used it 1–4 times a day for almost 30 months (including taking it to cafés so they can fill it up). It’s met concrete at speed many times. It’s dented, scratched and gouged. I’ve lost it, and found it again. I’ve frequently scrubbed the inside with criminal force.

And it’s still going strong. It’s the best coffee cup I’ve ever owned. The top still flips open with a satisfying click. The lock still keeps the lid closed when required.

Unlike the 3 Contigo cups I went through prior, it doesn’t leak. I’d happily throw this cup, full of hot coffee, into a bag filled with things I care about. It’s that reliable.

If you’re after something similar, I highly recommend these cups. I hope mine lasts another 30, 60 or 120 months because I’m going to be upset when my caffeine-delivering companion breaks for good. Until I insta-buy a new one, intentionally.

So we have:

• Star Trek
• Star Trek the Next Generation (named after the generation)
• Star Trek Deep Space Nine (station)
• Star Trek Voyager (ship)
• Star Trek Enterprise (ship)
• Star Trek Discovery (ship)
• Star Trek Picard (captain)

They can’t call the Pike Enterprise show Star Trek Enterprise, and Star Trek Pike won’t work because the show won’t be only about Pike. Star Trek the Last Generation would surely refer to Star Trek Enterprise. And Star Trek Phase Zero or some such is too deep a cut for a general audience.

Thoughts, fellow trekkies?

We live in a glorious age of technological convergence. There’s very little your phone, or rather pocket computer, can’t do. It’s the pinnacle of technological convergence. Almost.

Here’s my estimate and ideals for what I’ll be carrying around over the next decade. From what I’m carrying today to what I want to carry (pretty much nothing). I carry everything in my pockets.

Firstly, today.

These are my normal daily carrying setups. Either a thin wallet to carry my money card and drivers license, or a wallet case for my iPhone XR, plus my house key and car dongle, sunglasses, and airpods. It’s not too much to carry, really. But the clutter in my pockets and the number of items I have to keep track of is annoying.

This is what I expect in the next few years. I’d have ditched my cards already if I could use a digital version of my drivers license and paywave was more readily available in New Zealand (it’s an issue that’ll hopefully change soon). Ideally all I’ll need in a few years will be my phone (seen here as iPhone 4-sized, because smaller is better), my sunglasses, my airpods and my watch. I don’t see this as too wild an advance.

The key and house keys are a bit more speculative. Firstly, I’d need a car that had the ability to be driven and unlocked with just my phone or watch present. Smart locks for house doors have, so far as I’ve researched, more downsides than upsides (they recommend you still take a physical key, they need batteries or to be wired, if power goes who knows what’ll happen), so this may be a little too optimistic.

Now we’re in dreamland. A 2025-2030 setup. This is almost as converged as I could hope for. Augmented reality glasses (rumoured here) taking over the function of the phone, watch and sunglasses. Airpods, pro or otherwise, with noise cancellling features, to cut off annoying outside sound. However, imagine the glasses also feature bone-conduction headphones built-in.