In the future satellites will be listening in on human activity and when a strong-armed robbery takes place and a gun is fired the satellite will pick up that sound and relay that information to the police. In doing so the satellite will also zoom in on the target and begin tracking them.

Resistance is futile and the robbers will be caught and we will have a safer society. Of course you can already see the ACLU calling foul to this concept, as it is an invasion of privacy and just way too "Orwellian" for them to handle. Yet you can also see that many who are in fear of crime would be very interested in seeing such a concept come to fruition by 2024. And we currently have all the technology to do this and many have written articles on this and they have appeared in Science Magazines, so we know there are researchers currently looking into these things right now.

Besides the 1984 privacy issues we must also consider the positive aspects too. If there was a car accident the satellite would alert the first responder robotic teams to the rescue and guide them using GPS and on-board anti-collision systems and they would be on the scene to rescue the crash victims within minutes of the accident.

No dispatcher, no cell phone observer call ins and absolutely no hesitation unless of course you call the half-second delay to and from the satellite to the first responding teams hesitation. In other words we must also weigh in the advantages of such a system, before we poo poo all the loss of privacy. And indeed the loss of our right to have fireworks on various holidays, which might trigger an incorrect alert from the satellite. So think on this in 2006.