From a very early age, I was taught that the original Star Wars was the greatest movie ever made.

You see, my dad has a thing for science fiction movies and a love of the genre which he instilled in me from the time he deemed me old enough to watch Terminator (I think I was 6).

Whether it’s the Matrix trilogy, Terminator 2 or Sigourney Weaver in the various Alien sequels, my father and I have a tradition of seeing just about every futuristic, space-age wonderland movie that makes it to the big screen.

We love the predictions and foresight these movies have to offer, no matter how far-fetched they seem. Seeing how others think the future may unfold - the “pitfalls and the possibilities” as Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future would say - always seems to fascinate us, especially the technology that will change the very nature of humanity.

Being at CES was like taking all of those far out ideas and grounding them in the present, in effect, making the future seem real and like it could arrive next week. For a young man who counts Cube and Total Recall amongst his favourite films, covering CES was a week-long voyage into the collective imagination of the electronics world.

It becomes readily apparent as you wander the floor at CES that technology is changing the way we live, the way we interact and our expectations of the world around us.

The days of uber-connectivity have arrived. From cell phones with email functionality to GPS devices that can tell you where to find the cheapest loaf of bread, we are soon all going to know exactly where we are all the time and what’s around us, and so will everyone else.

Parents will be able to know just where their teens are going in the family car, how fast they are driving and when and where they are stopping. It’s going to be a lot harder to lie to your parents about where you were when you missed curfew. These aren’t frills parents are going to find fun to play with, these are things parents are going to demand come standard in new cars within a few years.

I can remember a time when I was growing up that you could tell who the drug dealers were at my high school, because they were the only ones who carried pagers and cell phones. Now just about everyone I know carries a phone of some kind and most of them either are voracious texters or use mobile email. The new frontier of cell phones includes the explosion of the mobile internet and the ability to watch and listen to new media anytime you want, at reasonable prices (eventually).

But connectivity is just one of the themes running rampant at CES this year. Most people still interact with the internet and the social applications it has to offer via their PC, seated in front of a screen, typing on a keyboard and maneuvering with a mouse. But that kind of interface is not really all that fluid, or human for that matter.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just tell your computer what you want it to do verbally or point at what you want to read using your finger rather than a white arrow on a screen?

Technology companies sure think so. Whether it’s Panasonic’s so-called “Life Wall” which instantly recognizes your face and responds to your verbal commands or Microsoft’s visual recognition device prototype which can recognize objects and provide relevant information on them by way of a high-tech camera, the future of computing is changing to a more natural, user-friendly experience. Apple may be leading the charge when it comes to the hippest touchscreen devices on the market - and MacWorld starts this weekend, so who knows what else we’re going to see coming out of that - but this kind of technology is part of a bigger bandwagon everyone is running to jump on.

Our homes are going to go increasingly digital. The family whiteboard on the refrigerator will become a touchscreen computer where moms and dads can leave messages for the kids and each other about where Greame’s hockey game or Kelly’s recital is taking place. Temperature controls will kick in when people come home from work and change at pre-set times. When you start a DVD movie the lights will dim automatically and the drapes will close creating the perfect mood. Again, many of these things are available now at a premium, but it is the dramatic cost reductions of many of these products which will astound you. We’re not talking about a few homes here and there that have these technologies, everyone will have them.

If the LifeWare Nextgen Home Experience model home of the future at CES is any indication, everything from our beds to our drapes will be customizable, digital and hands-free. Beds will have side-specific temperature controls in case one partner is always too hot or too cold - something my girlfriend will enjoy - they will automatically adjust to suit your mood and do just about everything except make themselves. Drapes will alter their length throughout the day to make sure your couches and pillows don’t fade from too much sun and every appliance in your house will have a touchscreen LCD monitor on it.

Maybe it has something to do with C-3PO and R2-D2 blowing my mind as a child - “how cool would it be to have a robot for a friend?!” - or my exposure to Futurama as a teen, but the idea of robots playing an increasingly larger role in our lives is terribly exciting. You’ve seen the robots that walk and dance on the news. But electronics companies are working hard to make the human-robot experience more interactive, creating better responses and laying the groundwork for better and more sophisticated artificial intelligence. Robots are going to be a part of our home security systems, will help out with the babysitting and will be able to go where we can’t or shouldn’t.

One thing I was expecting to see more of at CES was the promotion of green technology. While there certainly were some manufacturers touting the environmental benefits of some of their products while other green-specific companies championed their offerings, the whole environmental awareness thing seemed like a bit of a side show. As consumer technology quickens its pace towards the future, more thought and attention needs to be paid to the toll all this innovation takes on the environment in this reporter’s opinion.

A few more quick thoughts about CES before I forget:

• Everyone makes TVs, and lots of them. This is clear to anyone who has stepped inside an electronics store recently, but when you see just how many TVs each of the big manufacturers had on display, it’s truly incredible.
• There were so many iPod accessories at CES you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple was a sponsor. Docking stations, speaker accessories, gel covers and cleaning solution were all on display, and yet MacWorld doesn’t get underway until this weekend.
  I saw the speaker guy from the MTV car show Pimp My Ride walking the floor at CES, and to the auto enthusiasts there, that man is a god.
• Toshiba isn’t out of this whole Blu-Ray vs HD DVD battle just yet, but if they’re going to pull a rabbit out of their hat, it should probably happen sooner rather than later.
• Mark my words, when it comes to in car technology, we haven’t even begun to see what’s up the sleeves of those driving the industry.
• “Booth bunnies” - as one PR person described them to me - are a strange phenomenon. These are women hired to help out at the booths, showing products, explaining how things work or just standing around looking beautiful while handing out flyers. I suppose similar hired hands appear at all trade shows, and they’re all terribly friendly - even if they’re not all that knowledgeable about whatever it is they’re shilling - but the whole set up still strikes me as a bit weird.

In case you couldn’t tell from some of my more saucer-eyed posts, not only was this my first appearance at CES, but it was also my first visit to Las Vegas. So you might say I was a bit overstimulated for the five days I spent in the desert.
If you've never been to Las Vegas, it's hard to describe.

Chances are you've seen CSI or Robert DeNiro in the film Casino or even Fergie's boytoy Josh Duhamel in the popular TV show named for the city, but unless you've actually been to Vegas and seen it with your own eyes it just doesn't seem real. But as you walk through the casino floors where overfed Americans sit pumping quarters into slot machines and women in low-cut shirts with flashing lights sell cigarettes to drunk conventioneers wearing cowboy hats and ill fitting blue suit jackets, the place takes on a weird other-worldly feel.

You get to thinking, is this really it? A lot of senior citizens gambling, people handing you flyers advertising escorts on street corners and a Barry Manilow gift shop?

Apparently that is what Vegas is. Don’t get me wrong, there are so many shows here it would take you a month to see them all and some of the most amazing restaurants in the world. The locals are very friendly and everyone generally seems to be in a good mood, which may have something to do with the place stripping away your inhibitions.

As CES wraps up tomorrow and the crowds thin out a little and everyone goes back to their real jobs leaving the bright lights of the strip far behind things in Vegas will return to normal, or at least as normal as a city with a Hooters hotel will get.

As one cab driver told me, if I thought CES was wild, then I should have stuck around until tomorrow when the Adult Entertainment Expo gets underway.