What Will the Super Bowl Look Like in 100 Years?

NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In his new science fiction novel, ULTRA BOWL, author I. J. Weinstock speculates that relentless technological innovation combined with the growing problem of football violence will result in profound changes to the game. The author, a former high school football player, has thought a lot about technology and the future of football while writing his futuristic novel. "If technology is transforming every area of our lives," he says, "why wouldn't it transform football, too? In one hundred years, pro football could very well be played by robots."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150126/171446

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150126/171447

According to Weinstock, the idea of robots playing football isn't as far-fetched as it seems, but rather a logical extension of many of today's technological trends. "Robots drive our cars, fly our planes, even grow our food. What won't they be doing a hundred years from now?"

He also points to the recent revelations about football violence and the long-term effects of concussions that have plagued the NFL, causing many parents to discourage their children from playing. "If computers and apps increasingly do our thinking, Google our remembering, Facebook and Twitter our socializing, and drones our fighting," Weinstock wonders, "why wouldn't we 'outsource' the violence in football to robots?"

His novel, "a fable about the dangers of our Digital Age," is about an NFL team that's "time-napped" and transported 100 years into the future where they're forced to play against robots. To make his story work, the author had to invent a plausible future. "Robot football became the perfect vehicle for Corporate America's relentless drive to sell and profit," he explains. "Where once the Super Bowl was the most prized, viewed and expensive ad space, an actual game of robots, showcasing the latest technology while competing in a world championship, would become one big ad. The game's point-spread would determine tech supremacy, stock price and ultimately market share. It would be called the Ultra Bowl because if a nation stumbled, stocks tumbled and economies crumbled." 

For Weinstock, the trend seems obvious—"The financial interests of Wall Street will combine with the political support of a growing segment of Main Street for whom football is too violent, to make robot football not only plausible, but probable."

Why should the speculations of a sci-fi author be taken seriously? Aren't they just fantasies? To such questions, Weinstock offers this response: "Science fiction writers try to imagine what tomorrow might look like, and they've often been right. Credit cards, radar, solar power, voicemail, flat-screen TVs, virtual reality, even atomic bombs were all first imagined by science fiction authors." Then he adds,  "Who knows—I may be one of them."

ULTRA BOWL is published by DreaMaster Books and available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com.

To learn more, visit www.UltraBowlBook.com

CONTACT:
Jerry Weinstock
818-430-4681
Email

SOURCE Jerry Weinstock