Back in the fifties, the year 2000 (even the year 1984) was thought to be so far into the future that it was easy for people to envision such things as personal jetpacks. We obviously don’t have those jetpacks, but we do have satellite TV and radio, cars that look like the spaceships of 1950s sci-fi cinema, portable computers, cordless telephones, wireless communications…I could go on and on and on.
So, (at the risk of starting a thread on what could very well be a tired subject to some who may feel compelled to cite a long-dead thread) what will people consider modern conveniences made available by new technological advances in the next fifty or so years?
Medical nanotechnology. Imagine a tiny machine that could identify and destroy cancer cells. Or other little machines that can remove plaque from blood vessels.
The opposition to stem cell research will be overcome, and new life-saving or life-improving therapies will be developed.
Improvements in battery technologies may lead to long-range electric cars. Meanwhile, fuel-cell vehicles will become economically feasible as economies-of-scale kick in and the infrastructures are built. New technologies will allow easier extraction of economically-important quantities of hydrogen to run the fuel cells from non-fossil sources.
NASA’s ‘Highway In The Sky’ scheme may mature to a point where personal flying becomes attractive to people who would otherwise drive a car or fly commercially. (This is a stretch, since many people don’t even consider General Aviation as an option now. It’s not that hard, folks!)
The Moller SkyCar will still be The Aircraft Of The Future. (Yeah, the distant future! )
I agree. I will take it a step furthur and say that desktop computers will, for personal use, become obsolete. Laptops will have much longer battery life and will be able to communicate wirelessly to everything that we would want to use them for. And no need for wireless hotspots to get online anymore; it will work like cell phones do today - just open it up and start surfing with a high speed connection. (I realize that you can do this already with a modem, but it will be commonplace and with a high speed connection in the future)
I also think this is true. Things that are debated heavily with regard to cloning and gene therapy today will be standard practice in 50 years (but there will be none of this human clone organ harvesting crap that people for some reason think might happen if we allow cloning).
Cars on roads will still be the common method of transportation. But they will be powered by something other than petrol for the most part.
Space travel will still not be a common practice available to most people.
The airline industry will be very similar to how it is today, just with better aircraft.
…and finally, electric crickets will be common as pets.
Integrated computing. Sort of a conglomeration of the cell phone, internet and lap top all in somtheing the size of a fist, manipulated with glasses and hand signals or something like it.
AIDS (amd a hot of other STD vaccines
Alheimers Cure
I envision space hotels by then, but still out of reach by most folks.
A moon base, probably by a consortium of Chineese and European interest.
A trip to the Asteroid Belt
I believe that car travel will be mostly be computer controlled on highways and freeways with accidents becoming rare.
Cords become rare or non-existant. Old-timers 30+ years from now will remember the tangle of cords and wires coming out of the back of computers and TVs with a mix of relief and nostalgia. Even power cords will disappear - devices will be powered wirelessly.
Important progress in medicine will be made on a fairly regular basis. Those suffering from certain conditions will have a much greater quality of life, but for the average person this will mean little. Only after 75+ years do I foresee various discoveries finally having a serious and world-changing effect on humanity. (Greatly increased life-spans; ability to largely choose the traits of a child; ability to grow organs and some other parts as replacements for those which have been damaged; etc.)
Artificial intelligence researchers develop a system that has an uncanny ability to learn much like a human child. However, inside the 50-year range this system has no practical uses and still has many flaws. Those flaws make it remarkably stupid in interesting ways, leading to a closer fusion of psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence research.
Biotech crops will quietly improve food production. Within 25 years, anyone who really cares about whether the food they eat is genetically altered will be considered charmingly eccentric.
(Just guesses, of course. I hope the SDMB is around in some form in 25+ years so we can all dig up these threads and laugh at ourselves.)
All over the world, millions of men will rush to their Prostate Specialist/Obstetricians to seize the wondrous opportunity to experience the miracle of giving birth…sans pethidine, n’est-ce pas!
An android with the sole purpose of pleasuring will be created for whatever sexual orientation. Sex on Demand or SOD, will be The Thing. STD’s and the birthrate will plummet.
Children will be conceived in a petri dish and carried to term in an artifical uterus where,when born, can be picked out by the happy new parental units via mail order based on the genetics and characteristics they are looking for.
Pets will be cloned or micro-bred for the same exact reasoning above, making many obnoxious or useless breeds extinct.
The dodo bird will be cloned.
Paris Hilton will be discovered to be an android. A SOD android.
I’m thinking there will be more computers by a long shot. Once wifi becomes the norm (as Reeder mentioned), it will become easier for electronic devices to communicate without having to be set up in an annoying fashion, so supposedly ‘ubiquitous computing’ will be the next big thing. I want to be among the first to predict that IPv6 will eventually run out of addresses.
An excellent prediction, with only two minor drawbacks…
No doubt this could be done, but for one minor flaw: People like having sex with people, and animals like having sex with animals. Even with realistic sex androids (and gynoids), there will always be a demand for human sex. Heck, we already have sex toys ranging from dildos to RealDolls, but they’ve hardly taken over the market. Some people even actually have a desire to go through the natural process of pregnancy and childbirth.
It’s even more so for pets. Sure, a lot of folks will have designer engineered pets. But when you leave Fluffy 2.0’s food dish out by the side door, the same thing will happen as happens now: A stray cat of random genetics (and there will still be strays) happens along and starts sharing the bowl, so you put out another dish for it, and the next thing you know you’re taking it in to the vet for shots and naming it. Presto, non-engineered pet.
Meanwhile, my prediction is that space travel will become economical within 50 years. The best prospect for this is the Space Elevator, but other technologies such as laser lifters or long coil guns might also fit the bill. We might also have practical fusion within that time frame, but I’m not confident on that one until we get out to about 100 years.
Well, if someone doesn’t invent it I guess I’ll have to, but fiborous membranes that contract when electricity is applied should be invented by then, if not now. I was thinking about this the other day and how much simpler robot technology could be with this little invention.
We should also have produced carbon nanotubes with enough strength to seriously consider a space elevator.
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