Hopefully, night vision devices will have surpassed flashlights as the main way for people to see in the dark. Not likely, but that’d be way cool.
Internet referendums will be used as a routine method of deciding governmental policy (coupled with a requirement to qualify to vote by showing a minimum intelligence and grasp of politics).
Well, re-reading the OP, I can see that predictions for the next 50 years were asked for. So, I’ll see if I can think of some which might actually happen.
At least some extent of neural interface with computers, maybe to artificially increase memory capacity.
Manipulation of DNA to treat genetic diseases, possibly using engineered viruses.
Hydrogen will replace oil as the main source of energy, particularly for transport. this will be coupled with a greatly increased use of renewable energy sources. (If governments have any sense, that is.)
Forget hover cars and hydrogen. Natural gas is gonna disappear, ditto oil, and with that the suburbs will cease to exist. Townhouses and dense, walkable cities will become the norm.
As a plus, there’s going to be much more farm land close to cities as farms take over the 'burbs. Enjoy those bike rides in the countryside folks!
If anything’s gonna replace oil as a mobile combustible fuel source, it’ll be alcohol. Unless someone ponies up a lot of money for fusion, which looks mighty unlikely. Commuting (and air travel) are likely to be much more expensive than they are now. Goodbye island tourism.
We are going to see more farmed fish and shrimp, and the elimination of wild seafood. Sorry tuna, it was nice to know you.
I don’t think we’ll see a lot of cures for diseases, because there’s no money in it. We will see public research gunning for cures, but we’re more likely to have private treatments that’ll bleed you almost dry.
Stupid people will be forcibly sterilized, causing the world’s birthrate to sink to a cool negative number. Entire cities will be abandoned and the intelligent will rule the world.
Oh, sorry, this was predictions, not utopian fantasies.
Barbarian - You grossly underestimate the power of Mother Nature.
I live on a coastal town, every year the government restricts our quotas and every year they come back…we’ll never overcome mother nature…
If I could have one utopian invention come to pass, it would be smart paper. A computer with the size, shape, portability, and user interface of a sheet (or possibly a pad) of paper. I want calculus students of the future to be able to do their homework on the computer in freehand and e-mail it directly to my “pad”, and I want to be able to correct it, freehand, on the computer and e-mail it back, while having the grade that I write in the upper-right corner of the first page automatically copied onto a spreadsheet. I want to be able to continue my habit of writing down whatever mathematical scribbling comes into my head whenever and wherever without accumulating a stack of notebooks, and be able to index and catalogue those notes on the fly. I want my T-4 forms to automatically copy their data into the appropriate places on my tax forms, and I want the equivalent of a AAA Map’n’Go CD in the same size and shape as a folded paper map.
We’re getting closer with those new tablet PC’s (drool…), but the interface (namely, Windows) need to be way more transparent and the hardware needs to, if possible, even thinner and lighter. Still, I’m hopeful. I think it’s not unreasonable that our children will see such a thing.
I envision being able to buy bottles of a liquid called “Watch”, containing trillions of molecules of microcircuitry. You put on drop of it on your hand, spread the liquid into a blot, and as it dries it forms a digital time display powered by ambient light or your body heat. Washes off with soap and water. You set the time with buttons on the bottle that transmit programming signals to the microcircuits.
In the not too distant future, data storage will grow to the point where it will be possible to have a “Lifecam”: a small wearable video recorder with enough storage to record every moment of a 100 year lifespan. Sort of the ultimate diary.
Some form of beam weapon will be practical for military use.
In future wars, soldiers’ primary job will be to oversee robotic weapons, which will have about the intelligence of a trained guard dog.
Chameleon-ism: the ability to change your skin color (in specific areas) through DNA engineering. The latest in skin art/body modification. Safe and easy, and reversible/changeable. Full color, or spots.
Or logos. People will wander around with signs saying ‘rent me’. Local ads will copy themselves to the rentee’s skin, and a small fee will enter their bank account.
There was an SF book recently (by Robert J Sawyer, but I don’t remember the title) that had the shocking skin treatment of 2020 or so: transparency. Kids went around with the muscle and bone of half their face showing.
I think the real changes are going to come from the biological arts…
People will wander around with signs saying ‘rent me’. Local ads will copy themselves to the rentee’s skin, and a small fee will enter their bank account.