Future of learning golf

Nanobots are tiny programmed robots close to the microscopic scale of a nanometer, and they're on the cutting edge of medical research. A human hair is 100,000 nanometers in diameter, so bots are small. The journal Nature Materials estimated five years ago that 130 nanotech-based drugs and delivery systems were being developed worldwide, so there are already applications available. But this is just a scratch of the surface.

Some futurologists believe that by 2030 nanobots injected into the blood stream will end up in the brain, where they'll create virtual-reality environments. The nanobots will block normal electrical signals coming from your real senses and replace them with signals coming from the nanobots' software. You will be able to "been there, done that" without having been there or done that at all.

By 2030 perhaps you'll buy a nanobot of Ricky Fowler's swing (he'll be 42 then), swallow it and in a few hours your muscles would be responding in a perfect virtual golf swing. You could then swallow another bot, play Pebble Beach or Winged Foot and never leave the house.

In his book "The Singularity Is Near," Ray Kurzweil predicts that in another 10 years (2040) there will be brain scans that upload our mental and physical history into a computer. As Kurzweil describes it, "This process would capture a person's entire personality, memory, skills and history." You could be Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great or Hanna Montana -- maybe all three at once.

Of course, no golf teachers, equipment or actual golf courses would be necessary to enjoy the game. Well, maybe a couple of the old courses would be carried over just so you could appreciate how the ancients did it way back in 2011.

It sounds weird and perhaps it is, but 30 years ago in 1980 there were no cellphones, no laptop computers and no email. It must have been very peaceful back then.