Is your TV connected to the Internet? What about your chair,or your fridge? Probably they are not. But in the future, most things in your home may be connected, thanks to the so-called “Internet of things”.

The Internet of things may be coming sooner than you think. Earlier this year, A Samsung CEO spent a lot of time talking about the Internet things. He said that five years from now,every Samsung product will be part of the Internet of things,no matter whether it's a remote control or a washing machine.

So, how do household(家用的) objects that are part of the Internet of things work? Well,think of a common chair. When connected to the Internet, the chair warms up when it knows the user has just walked into the room and is feeling cold.

An Internet-connected camera could help people feel safer in their homes. It can know people's faces and has an infrared sensor(红外传感器),so even if it's dark it can see when someone passes by and send you a message on your smartphone to let you know who's there. If the person is someone you don't know,it can tell you that ,too.

But according to MIT Technology Roview, whether companies are connecting dog food bowls or security systems to the Internet, there may be some problems. For example, many early connected-home objects don't have much built-in security, which means they could be hacked(被黑客攻击). Morever, it could be difficult to get these new machines to work together especially when they are made by different companies. To fight this ,many companies have joined the Open Interconnect Consortium, which had 45 menbers by late 2014.

So, picture this: you enter your home.The temperature changes to make you feel comfortable. Your favorite music starts playing for you. Do you think that this would be a good thing? It may happen sooner than you think.

    What will man be like in the future — in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make a guess, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today. For man is slowly changing all the time.

Let us take an example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on the average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is a relatively (相对地) short period of time, so we may suppose that man will continue to grow taller.

    Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity (容量.) As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more and finally we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring about a physical change too. The head, especially the forehead, will grow larger.

    Nowadays our eyes are being used too much. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger.                      

    On the other hand, we tend (有…的趋势) to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive (敏感的) because they are used a great deal in modern life.

    What about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both men and women are probably to be hairless!

    Perhaps, all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive (有吸引力的) person to look at! This may well be true. All the same, besides these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and feelings similar to our own.

    The world is not hungry, but it is thirsty. It seems strange that nearly 3/4 of the Earth is covered with water while we say we are short of（短缺）water. Why? Because about 97% of water on the Earth is sea water which we can't drink or use for watering plants directly(直接地）. Man can only drink and use the 3%-the water that comes from rivers and lakes. And we can't even use all of that, because some of it has been polluted(污染）.

    Now more water is needed. The problem is Can we avoid（避免）a serious water shortage later on? First, we should all learn how to save water. Secondly, we should find out the ways to reuse it. Scientists have always been researching in the field. Today, in most large cities water is used only once and then runs to the seas or rivers. But it can be used again. Even if(即使）every large city reused its water, there would not be enough. What can people turn to next?

    The seas seem to have the best answer. There is a lot of water in the seas. All that needs to be done is get the salt out of the sea water. This is expensive, but it's already used in many parts of the world. Scientists are trying to find a cheaper way of doing it. So you see, if we can find a way out, we'll be in no danger of drying up.

    Thanks to software like Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, it's easier than ever to do something on our phone or computer. All we have to do is "talk", and our favorite song starts playing a few seconds later. But in the neat" future, asking our phone to play a song by using our voice will seem as old--fashioned. That's because US tech company Microsoft recently applied for a patent* for a "brain control interface"(BCI): meaning that soon, we may be able to control our phone and computer with our thoughts.

    BCI technology works by changing brain signals into computer commands. This technology isn't brand new, however. Last year, for example, it was reported that scientists were able to help a disabled man from the US, 53-year-old Bill Kochevar, to move again. To do this, Kochevar was fitted with BCI technology, as well as equipment to make his muscles move. After a few weeks of getting used to it, Kochevar was able to use his thoughts to "tell" the BCI to move his muscles, meaning he was able to feed himself for the first time in years.

    Apart from helping disabled people, it's hoped that BCI technology will improve the daily lives of other people too. US social networking platform Facebook announced last year that it was working off BCI technology to help people type by using their brain. By 2020, the company hopes to have created a system that will allow people to type up to 100 words per minute just by thinking about them.

    However, many people are worried that technology that tan read our thoughts will create privacy problems, especially if social media companies are included. But Facebook researcher Regina Dugan said at a meeting last year that the company has no interest in reading people's private thoughts. "That might be more than any of us care to "know. And it's not something any of us should have a right to know," she said.

    If you look at the top of your phone, you'll usually see a lite symbol that says 3G or 4G. The "G" is the generation(代)" of your mobile network (移动网络). But these symbols will become things of the past after 5G networks fully arrive.

    On March 30, 2019, Shanghai vice mayor (副市长) Wu Qing made the first SG video call on a Huawei Mate x smartphone, CGTN reported. Shanghai has also become the first city in China to start testing 5G networks.

    About 100 times faster than 4G networks, 5G will let people download (下载) and upload data (数据) faster than ever before. But 5G won't just bring faster mobile internet. People can use it for many other things as well.

    For example, 5G will help to make self-driving cars safer. Today's self-driving test cars have one problem-lag (延迟). When the car "sees" an obstacle (障碍物), it sends this information to a data center and receives instructions (指令).

    However, it takes time to send and receive this information. With this kind of lag, the cars might hit each other because they don't receive instructions in time. With 5G, this lag will be greatly lowered (降低), making the cars safer, according to CNN. 5G could also be used to help the internet of things (IoT,物联网). IoT is a large online network that connects all things and people. Fast internet speed will be the key to developing this technology. The IoT could be used in a lot of ways. For example, with IoT, your refrigerator could automatically (自动地) place an order online for eggs when it finds that there are no eggs left inside.