• From the possible colonisation of other worlds to clothes that will automatically
clean themselves when you step into sunlight, we count 15 technological advances predicted
by wise minds for the future of our species within the next 50 years or so
15 - Autonomous Robots, • This is one that could go very well, or
destroy human life as we know it - robots capable of performing independent functions
to help mankind • We already have this technology to a small
degree in missiles and helicopters that can automatically fly themselves, and despite
wide protest to stop the development of machines that can fight wars for us Skynet-style, it's
highly possible we may turn to this technology to prevent human lives being wasted on the
battlefield • Just imagine an arms race producing death
robots of greater and greater magnitude, stronger and smarter than human beings with each passing
model 14 - Moon Colonisation,
• You might turn around to say, well, what's the point of building a moon-base when there's
nothing on it and no point being there?
• In 2009 the LCROSS probe discovered ice that can be melted down into water near the
lunar south pole, catapulting the possibility and opportunities of a permanent expedition
to the Moon • An international group of companies and
governments are already building concept plans for a moon base that'll use resources of the
moon to expand the sphere of human influence, and though it'll take time, you can almost
guarantee we'll have a permanent human prescience on the Moon just as we do in space with the
International Space Station 13 - Replicators,
• Sure we already have 3D printers and we can already create a vast number of useful
things, but in the next 10 years alone you're going to start to see them create things like
a Star Trek replicator • Soon they'll be as inexpensive as a HDTV,
one in every home, download blueprints from the internet to create a birthday cake or
a Rolex watch - even car parts providing you need them
• It even has uses in practical medicines - imagine the day when you can download and
print organs you need to replace, or even sooner than that, build prescription medicine
using a basic formula from inside your own home
12 - Longer Life, • In the last 50 years alone, the average
life expectancy has gone up from 65 to 75 with dramatic rises as you look back further
to the beginning of basic medicine • With nanotechnology, little robots swimming
through your bloodstream fixing problems before they arise, that average could easily exceed
110, 50 years from today • Parents could choose their children's
traits before they're even born, eliminate biological defects, but with longer life come
social implications - if your life expectancy has doubled, what does it mean for a career,
retirement, marriage - bearing children?
Will people even WANT to stay in a single relationship for a hundred years anymore?
11 - Batteries, • Right now it's a massive problem in the
industry that phone and laptop batteries can only last one or two days used frequently,
but there's been some progress • Soon you'll be able to throw your phone
in a bowl when you get home from work and it'll wirelessly charge it - you'll also find
flexible batteries used for wearable wrist screens
• But most importantly, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy Oak Ridge National
Laboratory has started testing batteries that could last well over 50 years with one charge
- not only a revolution for smartphones, but also pacemakers, removing the need for surgery
every 10 years and instead allow it to last an entire lifetime
• The best part?
This technology isn't even that far off, you'll start hearing about it in the next 10 years
10 - Drinkable Ocean Water, • Of course, this won't mean our oceans
will be transformed into desalted drinking water - that'd kill a huge amount of underwater
species • But the ability to build solar power plants
that can strip the salt from ocean water using residual heat en masse, providing drinkable
water for regions of the world currently experiencing droughts without running out because, well,
you have the entire ocean to work with • You might even see this technology come
out in 20-30 years, and though it won't solve hunger problems at least it'll quench our
thirsts till 3D printers can cook us up a roast ham using sawdust and toothpicks
9 - Self-Cleaning Clothes, • Engineers in China have already developed
a coating for clothes that will eliminate stains and odour-producing bacteria, and all
you have to do is step into the sun • In South Korea they've eliminated the
need to use detergent, by instead getting you to dunk your clothes into a tank filled
with robotic fish who clean them for you • The fish robots are able to detect dirt
and grime on clothes using sensors, whereupon they will suck the grime from your clothes
and squirt jelly to absorb dirt, which also prevents oxidation and discolouration
8 - Fat Pill, • It's possible in the next 10 to 20 years
that we might be able to swallow a pill that will stop us from getting fat based on what
we eat • Of course, it won't stop us from getting
lazy or unfit, but for those with obesity problems and eating disorders it may be a
lifesaver - genetically modified rats are already able to eat and eat and never gain
weight, it's simply a matter of transferring it to humans
• If we're able to control weight, we might use the same technology to treat or eliminate
diseases affecting our bodies 7 - Invisible Computers,
• Over the years, we've seen technology get smaller and smaller - micro SD cards sold
dirt cheap at high capacity, phones the size of a fingernail
• Eventually we'll reach the point where they'll be so small, and so powerful in terms
of computing that we won't even see them - they'll be in our clothes, inside rings, watches and
contact lenses with no need for keyboard input • We're already on the verge of a wearable
computing age, but within 50 years our lives will be so intertwined with technology that
you won't even be able to take a dump without robots being involved
6 - Memory Storage, • With Google Glass and similar products
slowly starting to appear, we're going to see a massive advance in the realm of image
and video storage • Just imagine you're watching your kid
take his first steps and you realise you didn't have time to record it, well, the tech built
into your head will have automatically done it for you
• Instead of trying to remember a thing that happened, you simply access the file
on that date and time and watch a highlight reel of it - it'll be like smartphone recording
only 10x more efficient 5 - Cancer,
• One would HOPE that cancer will be a thing of the past 50 years from now, but you can't
deny it's a pretty uphill battle with some researchers claiming it'll never be cured
because of the way humans are naturally built • But what we look to are better treatments,
less invasive medicine - which may come in the form of chemotherapy nanoparticles, mini
robots that will heavily reduce pain and side effects
• Not only that, but it'll even make the treatment more effective specifically tracking
and eliminating dangerous cells which may continue to grow in your body
4 - Reversing Climate Change, • Despite all the warning signs of climate
change running rampant the world over, society as a whole hasn't taken enough steps to prevent
permanent damage down the line • What we CAN do is manually reduce it for
ourselves by geoengineering projects to reduce carbon emissions in our atmosphere, to literally
suck the fumes we produce in our daily lives out of the sky and render them harmless
• Basic plans have already begun, which also include artificial trees and ocean fertilisation
but the projects haven't been backed on an international scale as of yet
3 - Digital Existence, • We can't anticipate what leaps and bounds
technology will undertake in the next 50 years, I mean just look at virtual reality - we thought
he had it back in 1995, but even today 20 years later we're only barely tapping the
potential • If you've watched the movie Transcendence
starring Johnny Depp, you'll understand what I mean by a digital existence where you take
the human brain and upload it to a cloud service, effectively making you immortal
• There's a hefty chance 50 years is a bit generous in discovering this technology, but
what you WILL see are the first whisperings of it - plans and tests, followed by mice
getting successfully uploaded to a cloud some time later, then monkeys, then humans, followed
by expensive procedures and eventually a wide rollout - providing we can map the quadrillion
connections between all the brain's neurons first
• Until then, get your cryogenic chambers ready - you're gonna need 'em
2 - App Doctors, • These technically already exist, but they
haven't been adopted into mainstream medicine yet - exactly what it sounds like, an app
that can detect what is wrong with you and prescribe medication
• It'll measure your heart rate, respiration, saliva and blood tests too - basic functions
that'll get more advanced as technology moves forward
• The reason they aren't used professionally is because the medical industry don't feel
they've gotten quite to the point of being officially used - you don't want to measure
someone's face and prescribe them anti-stupid pills when they're fine
1 - Dark Matter • It accounts for over 23 percent of the
universe, but we can't see what it is, but maybe within 20 years or so we'll have the
technology to unlock its secrets • The reason we know about it is because
we can see the magnetic field in space pulling everything towards it and yet we can't identify
the source • Some suggest our universe exists inside
the ring of a supermassive black hole slowly pulling us towards the center, and that multiple
realities exists when you cross the event horizon found in the center
• Whatever the answer, we'll be one step closer to discovering the mystery behind our
universe