A Look Into The Future… What Can We Expect?

    I assume I’m not the only one in this group that wants to see the distant future simply because of all the amazing new things that I assume will happen in it, to us and to the world around us.  It’s something I think about often…what will life be like?…what new technologies will come into existence?…what diseases will be cured?…what will the societal conventions we live by today look like in 100, 1000, 10,000 years and beyond?…And although there is no real answer to most of these questions there are reasonable assumptions made based on data and other things that give us somewhat of a perspective on what truly could come to be.  All I know is that if I asked my parents 80 years ago what they thought the world might be like today, they probably could have answered with some degree of specificity and perspective.  But when people ask me that question today, I really don’t know what to say because at the speed we are evolving as a global civilization it’s getting harder and harder to imagine (which is why it’s so exciting!)

One resource I love to read from time to time is called www.futuretimeline.net.   The site was launched in 2008 by London-based futurist William James Fox.  The site quickly gained traction and has quickly evolved into one of the largest online communities of futurists around the world today.  This post will be a list-style post highlighting some of the predictions that I personally find most interesting (there are many more on the site than those I list in this article).  I hope that these will get some of you excited and motivate you to take a look at the site yourself in greater detail as well as perhaps share your thoughts on this and other future-related topics in the comments section.  With that, let’s get started.

2020-2029

• At some point during this period, the United States is struck by the most devastating earthquake in its history 
• The first stem cell therapy for congestive heart failure 

2021

• Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide 
• Five-year survival rates for breast cancer are approaching 100% 
• Male birth control pills are entering the market 
• The world’s first artificial kidney

2022

• Water is becoming a weapon of war 

2023-2027

• A tipping point for block chain

2023

• Driverless high-speed trains begin operating in France 

2024

• Open-source, 3D printed clothes at near-zero cost 

2025-2035

• Mouse revival from cryopreservation

2025

• A billion human genomes have been sequenced
• Human brain simulations are becoming possible 
• 3D-printed human organs

2026

• 3-D printed electronic membranes to prevent heart attacks
• Robotic hands matching human capabilities 

2028

• China builds the world’s largest particle accelerator 
• Resurrection of several extinct species has been achieved 

2029

• Human-like AI is becoming a reality 

2030

• Global population is reaching crisis point 
• The entire ocean floor is mapped 

2031

• Stem cell pharmacies are commonplace 

2032

• Terabit internet speeds are commonplace

2033

• Five-year survival rates for kidney cancer are approaching 100% 

2034

• Service robots number a billion worldwide

2035-2045

• The first definitive evidence of life beyond Earth
• Swarm robotics are reaching the nanometre scale 

2035

• Self-driving vehicles dominate the roads
• Holographic recreations of dead people 

2036-2040

• Transhuman sports competitors

2036

• Alzheimer’s disease is fully curable 

2038

• Teleportation of complex organic molecules
• The space industry exceeds $1tn worldwide

2039

• Full immersion virtual reality 
• Five-year survival rates for leukaemia are approaching 100% 

2040

• Virtual telepathy is dominating personal communications 
• Tobacco has been largely eradicated

2041

• Annual deaths from cardiovascular disease have reached negligible levels in the U.S.

2042

• White people are a minority in the USA 

2044

• A transglobal highway and rail network has emerged
• Five-year survival rates for bowel cancer are approaching 100% 

2045

• Humans are becoming intimately merged with machines
• Air accident fatalities have been eliminated 

2048

• Bionic eyes are perfected

2053

• Genetically engineered “designer babies” for the rich 
• Australia becomes the first country to eliminate cervical cancer

2055

• The vast majority of countries have achieved democracy

2057

• Handheld MRI scanners 

2058

• A billion human brains can be simulated in real time

2059

• Mars has a permanent human presence by now

2065

• Longevity treatments able to halt aging
• Self-assembling buildings made 100% from nanotech 

2067

• The first generation of antimatter-powered spacecraft is emerging

2069

• Underground habitats are commonplace 

2070

• Five-year survival rates for liver cancer are approaching 100% 
• Fully automated homes

2072

• Advanced nanotech clothing

2073

• The number of trillionaires in the world now exceeds 10 

2075-2080

• The first space elevator is becoming operational 

2078

• Advances in space travel and tourism

2080

• Some humans are more non-biological than biological 

2083

• Hyper-intelligent computers

2085

• Five-year survival rates for brain tumours are reaching 100%

2100

• Nomadic floating cities are roaming the oceans

2110

• Force fields are in military use

2120

• Mind uploading enters mainstream society 

2130

• Large-scale civilian settlement of the Moon is underway

2150

• Hi-tech, automated cities 

2160

• The world’s first bicentenarians

2200

• Traditional employment is becoming obsolete 

2230

• Antimatter-fueled starships 

2250

• Humanity is a Type 1 civilisation on the Kardashev scale 

2300

• Superhuman powers are available to common citizenry

2500

• Mars has been terraformed

2700

• Venus has been terraformed

3000

• Purely biological humans are typically 7ft tall now, with lifespans of 120+

3100

• Humanity is becoming a Type 2 civilisation on the Kardashev scale

4000

• Computer science is reaching its ultimate potential

1,000,000

• Planet-sized computers dominate the Local Group; humanity’s descendants are a Type 3 civilisation on the Kardashev scale

10,000,000

• Earth is being threatened by lethal levels of gamma radiation 

50,000,000

• Africa merges with Europe, forming a new mountain range to rival the Himalayas

1,000,000,000

• Earth is becoming too hot to support liquid water 

100,000,000,000,000

• The end of the stellar era

10100

• The black hole era of the universe 

SOURCES1 – www.futuretimeline.net.