Use your imagination!

Hello there. I thought it might be interesting to speculate on the future with the following observation. The time line between the Wright brothers flight at Kittyhawk and the first commercial jet flight carrying paying passengers was only about fifty years. The time line between the introduction of the IBM personal computer and the first smart phone (1981 to 1994) was only about 13 years with advances leapfrogging over one another every year since then so that with today's smart phones you have more power in your hand than the ENIAC computer where AI was first demonstrated and can run circles around any and all of the first personal computers. Rather remarkable if you start to think about it.

Taking that acceleration in technology into account and forgetting the challenges we already face that might make things fall apart before then, what would you imagine life to be like in 50 years time. I won't be around to see but I was watching a rather limp 2017 documentary series from National Geographic called Year Million in which they were speculating on life far in the future. Things have always happened faster than we expect and it is getting harder and harder to postulate/predict the future. Mostly everyone gets the time span wrong. I mean look at some older SF media, everyone should already be driving flying cars by now according to some (i.e. the Jetsons ).

I am going to limit the time frame to keep things manageable. What do you think daily life would be like in 2072. Given the advancements happening everywhere (seen any of the images from the James Webb Space telescope?), what are some thoughts about what we might see. There are already AI robots, albeit still rather primitive by human standards but some are interesting., and god help us we already have those damnable AI answering bots that drive everyone crazy. Perhaps there will come a time when you will not be able to tell if you are talking to an actual human being and I believe that may happen long before fifty years have passed.

Does anyone care to speculate? Use your Imagination.

50 years is not very long for this, but I hope and wish we are in contact with another form of life by 2072. Communication would be tenuous at this point, but perhaps we have started to trade sounds and images through the galaxy.

Since this is an exercise in imagination, in my mind it is a peaceful and wondrous interaction of learning, where we flawed humans on earth are exposed to a much more advanced and successful society that is not driven by ego and capital. These beings that we meet would be great, compassionate teachers and sages for us, and they could teach us how to use much more than ~10% of our brains. After that? whole new world…

Brain devices to share memories in a new way of social media. People will share memories.

There will be a world goverment, and the country vs country stuff will be something os the past.

A just one children per couple will be a law to decrease our population.

Africa will be the country to go for oportunities.

Cats will rule the world goverment.

Dogs will start the resistance, to disconect humans from their brain devices.

In fifty years time I envision water wars and mass migrations, even in the US. The American Southwest and California will be losing its forests as desertification takes hold. As other regions attempt to steal the massive water resources of the Great Lakes, there will be guerilla actions by residents of Great Lakes states to destroy infrastructure that would allow such theft. As crop zones move inexorably northward, yields will decline and the first deaths through starvation will be underway in the US. The abandonment of Southern Florida will be well underway as saltwater intrusion through porous bedrock becomes unmanageable.

Some things progress rather slowly. Other things are subject to converging technologies, economic inflection points, etc. that result in exponential curves (personal computers, cell phones, solar and wind power, electric cars, e-commerce, and so on). Money is often the primary driver,...big companies with economies of scale,...and their lobbyists to push the political agenda and policies. We like to blame our politicians and special interest groups,...but these are often global initiatives with trillions of dollars at stake,...we just need to take our "blinders" off and look around at what is also happening in other countries. If you want to predict the future,...look at the financial markets,...seriously. If the financial "fat cats" are putting their money into something, that industry will continue to grow, and will change our future.

I can only look at trends and try to predict what will happen in 10-20 years,...and hopefully try to make some money of my own by making some smart financial investments.

Atrapa Almas said:

Brain devices to share memories in a new way of social media. People will share memories.

There will be a world goverment, and the country vs country stuff will be something os the past.

A just one children per couple will be a law to decrease our population.

Africa will be the country to go for oportunities.

Cats will rule the world goverment.

Dogs will start the resistance, to disconect humans from their brain devices.

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I honestly believe that if there were to be a world government, there would be even more inequality than today (and oppression). More centralized power- less people in power, with even more influence and completely detached from the general population (with less motivation to do good for the people).
Now, 2nd option- AI controlled world government- I don't even want to imagine it.
We'd become slaves...

I'm awaiting the invention of hoverbikes and cars. I'm not into engineering and don't know if it's possible, but I would love to see it.

Aneka said:

I honestly believe that if there were to be a world government, there would be even more inequality than today (and oppression). More centralized power- less people in power, with even more influence and completely detached from the general population (with less motivation to do good for the people).
Now, 2nd option- AI controlled world government- I don't even want to imagine it.
We'd become slaves...

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Dont worry, Cats will control AI that will control humans.

I envision giant bugs and flamethrowers. Seriously bummed I won't be able to participate.

Tom said:

I envision giant bugs and flamethrowers. Seriously bummed I won't be able to participate.

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Ya gotta get the Brainbug.

I don't mean to be so optimistic (lol), but I only see humans being around for 20-30 years max before something catastrophic and unforeseen happens. I don't think I'm going to get to live out my natural life before nuclear warfare, global warming or something else (hopefully aliens, at least that one is fun) kills us off.

I will say though, I think the sentient robots will at least be here within the next 10 years or so!

Gerald Wilgus said:

Ya gotta get the Brainbug.

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I'm on it! As soon as I finish running away.

Silhouette Mirage said:

I will say though, I think the sentient robots will at least be here within the next 10 years or so!

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It that happened we could say that all the destruction we have caused in the world served to a higher purpose. If we can create a true sentient intelligence that can improve itsel, can life forever, can see everything and being everywhere, then god will be born.

After thousands of years imagining and worshiping ethereal gods. Living, killing, and dying in the name of those shared imaginations ... To be able to create one, would be worth the very existence of mankind.

But the cat version is more cute.

The way I envision 2072 is there are flying cars, computers are now projections from eyewear and you can control them by swiping in front of you, Pokemon is still a thing, Nintendo is still around, Cher is immortal thanks to plastic surgery, and Disney controls 95% of all form of media and technology companies.

Just a little story you might like.

When I was 11 I was just old enough to realise how old Granny Carter really was, I said to her one day "Gran, you were born in 1880." She said "That's right." I said "You saw the first steam train." She said "We rode on it!" and told me a story about how her father took the whole family to Edinburgh to see the train, there was only 6 miles of track. Her father didn't have much money and they could only afford a one way ticket and they had to walk the 6 miles back.

I said "Gran, you saw it all. The first steam train, the electric light, motor cars, photographs, radio, moving pictures, aeroplanes, television, and man on the moon. Out of all of that which was best?" and she asked me "How do you mean?". I asked her "Which one made life best for people?".

She thought about it for a few minutes and said "I've seen six Kings and Queens ascend the throne." I was confused, "Why was that best?" She said "Take your motor car for example, you can get places a lot quicker now, can't you? But now you're expected to be there quicker, you're no better off."

Atrapa Almas said:

Dont worry, Cats will control AI that will control humans.

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Or they will be used to protect humans. Read, The Game of Rat and Dragon, by Cordwainer Smith. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Game of Rat and Dragon, by Cordwainer Smith Nobody has ever written SciFi like him. One can catch echos of the Chinese influence.

I spent my life developing award-winning prototypes, but there is a very big gap between what technology can produce and what we might be able to buy. I also don't bother speculating on what might happen if the environment and politics were not going into chaos.