What will the world look like 50 years from now? What technology will we have, what will the economy be like, and what will the geopolitical organization look like?
An invitation to speculate. Nice.1) all new cars will be electric. You will be able to get gasoline for your antique Ford Festiva, but it will be difficult to come by and you will have to plan ahead. It will be similar to what happened to vacuum tubes in the middle of the 1900's. 2) self- driving cars will be ubiquitous. It will be similar to what happened to the elevator industry in the early 1900's. 3) home and work charging will be ubiquitous. It will be similar to what happened to the movie theater industry with the advent of TV and VCRs. Highway travel plazas will be repurposed as DC fast charging stations and have more amenities pecs use people will be spending 30 to 40 minutes there. But that's okay, because:4) battery capacity will triple, at least. That means that a car like a Tesla Model S will have a range of 600 miles. Far beyond the bladder range of most people. It will be similar to what happened to the smart phone industry over the past 10 years. 5) with less complexity in the drive train, there will be less need for auto repair facilities. Car dealer networks will have to either change their business models radically or die. It will be similar to what happened to the TV repair industry in the last part of the 1900's. 6) solar energy will be ubiquitous. Most homes and public buildings will have solar panels and storage batteries for overnight. The central grid will not go away, but it will reduce the need for new fossil burning plants. It will be similar to what happened with the telecommunications industry over the past 40 years. 7) having a driver license will be about as useful as having a pilot license is now.
Do you think that there will be a Y3K bug in 85.5 years from now in 3000? Do you think that people will be warned about it in 2099?
In 2099 it would be 901 years until so called "Y3K."
I'm scared of the future technology?
I'm really scared of the future. Realizing that I'm only 13 and a human has approximately 80 years of lifespan, the technology would be more and more advance as the year comes. I know that this year, there is no mandatory microchip implant... yet, but maybe in the future it would become mandatory and soon we will be forced, maybe even outside america (I'm asian), to take the chip! And I believe in the Bible's prediction of the mark of the beast. I'm really scared.
What technological and/or environmental issue of the next 80 years do you fear most? Why?
The number of cars/trucks in the whole world in 1960: 126,888The number of cars/trucks in the whole world in 1990: 582,982The number of cars/trucks in the whole world in 2014: 1,208,005I don’t have 2018 numbers but I’m guessing we’re over 1.5 billion cars and trucks now. I’m 34, it’s hard to believe when I was a kid there were 1/3rd as many vehicles in the world and when my dad was a kid there were less than 1/10th.Even the recent “explosion” of electric cars being manufactured is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of regular internal combustion engine cars out there and most have been built in the last decade or so and still have a long usable lifespan.While I don’t think we’re going to run out of oil today or tomorrow. I can imagine it getting very expensive as the proverbial “low hanging fruit” is used up. Our economies are basically completely based on oil being cheap and plentiful. High oil prices would bring our global economy to a screeching halt similar, to what happened in 2008. Remember $147/barrel?
What year will humans become immortal through technology?
Becoming immortal is impossible, because to be immortal means living forever and forever can never be reached, thus if you live 1,000 you still are not immortal, if you live 1,000,000 years you still are not immortal, if you live 1,000,000,000 years you still are not immortal.Now, living an open-ended life span is something else. When Human’s will be able to do this is unknown because until enough time has passed for us to prove it, we won’t know when it began. People alive today may have already begun to live open-ended life spans, because they have not died yet and before they do die, medical technology extends their life 10 years, then before that 10 years is up medical technology extends their life an additional 20 years, then before that 20 years is up medical technology extends their life an additional 40 years, then before that 40 years is up medical technology extends their life an additional 80 years, etc.At some point when we have people who are a hundred or two hundred years old while being in perfect health like a 25 years old, we should be able to objectively declare people are living open-ended life spans and we can then look at who the oldest of these people are and record when it began.
Which technologies now considered science fiction will exist in 200 years or less?
Mass consumer genetic body modification is going to be the commercial and racist frontier in about 70 years. This will be triggered by the combination of low expense genetic editing of living tissue, and the licensing of this technology to the fashion and apparel industries.A portion of society will fully embrace radical body modification, while another portion will violently oppose it. What is a human anymore when people are genetically mixing their bodies with animal forms to grow real working wings, unicorn horns, finally be the Furry of their dreams, or some type of Cronenberg body form? Those who require conformancy for their sense of security will have their minds blown by these social developments, and they will be on full attack against what they believe is the end of the human race. Meanwhile, a culture of creatively self actualizing consumers will be one-upping one another with the freedom to create any body form they desire.
Why are the innovations and leaps in the technology happening now in the last 80 years if the humans have been around on Earth for a millennia?
Over the ages there have always been some sort of inventions , progress and passion like in bronze age, iron age, renaissance age during a period of time where there plenty of learning , culture and great painters and now in the modern times after invention of electricity we have electronic age.It is due in one part to the discovery and applications in using petroleum products which modern world is so dependent on. Though petrol and gas was within this earth for millions of years its applications were just about non existent till recently.Once a basic platform and foundation is laid , products start to evolve and take momentum rapidly in R & D.So from now on it would also include space age of exploration.It is simply due to progressive thinking of human mind.