Which decades-old document will finally be revealed to the public?
What does the future hold for robots?
Find out as we look at 11 Surprising Things That Will Happen By 2050.
#11 Elvis Unveiled The foundation of the entertainment industry
was shook in August of 1977 when headlines everywhere announced The King of Rock and
Roll’s passing.
Elvis Presley had met his untimely end at the relatively young age of 42.
While an initial report cited a heart attack as the cause, a toxicology report would later
come out reporting high levels of multiple narcotics in his system.
Upon this second report, Presley’s father Vernon had the autopsy sealed from the public.
But in 2027, the full report will be unsealed and open to the public, granting the iconic
rockstar’s fan base some sense of closure.
#10 Robo Love Hundreds of romance novels in bookstores across
the world feature science fictional tales of erotic encounters with androids, cyborgs,
and robots.
While this may sound like an unrealistic fantasy, modern technology is actually much closer
to delivering this strange experience than you might realize.
Engineers have been developing interactive robots purposed for romantic encounters for
the past decade and the latest results are astounding...as well as a bit strange.
Various manufacturers have created human-esque machines capable of casually conversing, memorization,
and even philosophical discussion.
These robots also serve a physical purpose, aiming to please adults in more ways than
one.
As artificial intelligence develops, so too will the level of intimacy between people
and their high-tech love instruments.
It’s only a matter of time until humans begin relationships reminiscent of the 2013
film “Her”, the film in which a lonely writer falls head over heels for his operating
system.
And when this occurs, it brings with it a whole new slew of moral questions and ethical
dilemmas.
#9 America Dethroned The future brings many changes, but not all
of them are bound to be necessarily new.
Afterall, history repeats itself.
Such was the basis for author and historian Jacques Attali when he wrote the 2009 international
best seller “A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the 21st
Century”.
In this book, Attali outlines a number of ways he believes the world will change based
on the ways the world has evolved in the past.
Chief among these predictions is the fall of the planet’s most powerful empire: the
United States of America.
Globalization, ecological threats, and the swelling financial and political strength
of corporations are the main culprits he cites in eventually uprooting America from their
seat of power.
“Financially and politically exhausted, like all other empires before it, the United
States will cease to run the world, “ Attali wrote.
He’s not alone in thinking this as many financial experts believe the economies of
China and India to quickly pass the US in coming years.
Similarly, emerging technologies and changes in international expanse are predicted to
challenge America’s military strength, eventually displacing it as the strongest on the planet.
#8 Ten Billion More than 7.7 billion people currently populate
the Earth.
The modern size of the human race is cited often for being one of the major contributions
to the planets degenerating ecosystem.
High carbon emissions, natural habitat destruction, overconsumption, and growing waste problems
have all come from a combination of a lack of oversight, irresponsible corporations,
and overpopulation.
The world has yet to reach its apex though as experts working with the United Nations
have predicted that nearly 10 billion individuals will be roaming the globe by 2050!
This expansion in our society is chiefly due to the gradual betterment of living conditions,
health services and technology, and all around longer average lifespan of human beings.
By that same year, life expectancy at birth is believed to have surpassed 76 years with
22 percent of individuals being over the age of 60.
Perhaps with so much wisdom in the world, experts will have come up with a means of
correcting these problematic issues facing our future.
#7 Transcontinental Highway Separating the westernmost point of Alaska
and the Chukotka Peninsula of Russia is the narrow water pass known as the Bering Strait.
For more than a century, individuals and companies have proposed connecting the two landmasses
by way of a bridge or tunnel in hopes that it would assist in growing both economies.
The latest proposal came in 2015 when the president of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakutin,
unveiled a plan to construct a trans-Siberian highway that would link Russia with the US.
Titled the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development, this project would look to go past simply
connecting the nations as part of the plan incorporates the construction of a road that
would allow for a road trip from England to America!
The proposed highway would stretch from London across Europe, through Russia and over the
Bering Strait, into Alaska then Canada, and eventually leading all the way to New York
City.
The multi-trillion dollar project would require cooperation by many countries, thus its thought
by many to only be a pipe dream.
But with Yakutin potentially poised to take a position of leadership in Russia, it may
just become a reality by 2050.
#6 Automated Athletes Sports are one of the most popular, and profitable,
forms of entertainment on the planet.
Such highly physical competitions, especially when fueled to continuously outdo one another
by monetary interests, often lead to physical degradation in athletes.
Thousands sacrifice their bodies, or more, for glory, entertainment, and riches.
But thanks to advancements in robot engineering, this way may become a thing of the past.
For decades, engineers have been crafting robots to compete with one another and humans,
whether they be automatons designed to play chess or weapon-loaded machines built for
destruction like those seen on the television show “Battlebots.”
Lately, though, some companies have begun building robots made for more traditional
sports like hockey, skiing, ping pong, sumo wrestling, and even soccer.
There’s even an annual RoboCup for these soccer playing droids!
And some researchers think this could be the start of a whole new form of marketable entertainment,
believing that in 2050 they will have reached a point of popularity comparable to human
sports.
#5 Message In A Shuttle Planet Earth is an anomaly in the universe
due to the variables required for such a world to harbor life.
Very few other planets meet these same life-sustaining requirements, but they do exist.
The first Earth-like planet thought capable of meeting our same biological needs is Gliese
581c.
This super-Earth, at nearly 5 and half times the size of ours, is over 20 light-years away,
the equivalent of 119 trillion miles!
With such a promising intergalactic settlement on the horizon, some researchers have thought
it possible to be a possible location for intelligent, extraterrestrial life.
So before we crash their party, a group of scientists decided it best to send out a greeting.
And it’s already on the way.
Broadcast in 2008, the high-powered digital signal called A Message From Earth hopes to
deliver 501 messages to the planet by 2029.
Should the signal reach the ears of intelligent life with similar technology, than we could
hear back from the extraterrestrials by 2050, initiating the first actual conversation with
alien life in history!
#4 Faster Information Time is money, as the old saying goes, and
in the digital age that means computer processing power can be the difference between millions
and billions in revenue.
In general, computers have come a long way from the slow operating systems of the past,
and each persistent year seems to yield a further increase in the speed of modern technology.
Interpretations of this growth by experts has led many to believe processing power limitations
to double every 18 to 24 months, which would explain continuous exponential increases over
the past 45 years.
For example, the 1976 supercomputer Cray-1 was top of the line in its time with 8 megabytes
of memory and capable of processing 160 million operations per second.
But the 2008 Cray XT5 outshined it with a processing speed of more than 8.75 million
times that of its ancestor.
And since then, supercomputers have continued to grow even faster.
Some researchers have predicted that computers will run up to a thousand times faster by
2050.
And with so much money and economic stability riding on this development, this is one prediction
that will be difficult to derail from coming to fruition.
#3 Technological Singularity If movies like Terminator, The Matrix, and
even Avengers: Age of Ultron are reliable indicators, then it’s safe to say people
fear the advancement of artificial intelligence.
But how justified are these fears?
Well, according to some experts, this dread is righteously warranted.
A hypothesis commonly referred to as Technological Singularity predicts that artificial superintelligence
will open the gates to rapid technological growth outside the hands of human developers.
The idea is that a computer being in control of its own advancements and development would
lead to an exponentially fast, self-upgrading technological intelligence that would leave
humanity in the dust.
Some critics argue that computers can not attain true intelligence, motivation, or autonomy,
making these predictions unrealistic.
However, with minds like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and active Technological Singularity
proponent Raymond Kurzweil continuing to warn of the dangers in the past decade, the impending
crisis seems real as ever.
But not all look grim as researchers like Kurzweil believe the Singularity to result
in not just advanced intelligence for machines but for people as well, resulting in the most
prosperous society the universe has ever seen.
#2 Controlled Aging Aging, as defined by successful computer-engineer
and self-taught biologist Aubrey de Grey, is a “set of accumulated side effects from
metabolism that eventually” ends in fatality.
To that degree, de Grey has since made it a mission to fend off signs of physical and
mental degradation which he believes will be the key to potentially infinite life.
According to him, the first person to live to a thousand years old has already been born!
But what are the chances these beliefs cross over from theory to reality?
Many critics have been vocal with their doubt of de Grey’s research, however many more,
including the twenty-plus scientists working on his SENS Research project, contest critiques
due to a lack of understanding.
Only time will tell if aging can truly be slowed by 2050.
#1 Deteriorating Resources Global warming, overconsumption, and waste
have been threatening our planet for decades and by 2050, the Earth will be at its worst
point yet.
It’s predicted that by this time, half of the global population will be unable to access
clean drinking water.
The Amazon will be more than halfway deforested and summers will pass with no ice in the Arctic.
Many nations will have moved away from fossil fuels and coal, but these changes are nearly
unavoidable given the current, and past, way of modern life.
Which of these future events are you most looking forward to?
Which ones do you fear?
Let us know in the comments below!