I just answered a question that had been posted
online. It asked, what does the future look like according to you? Since the beginning of time, I could imagine
that man often pondered this question. From
the Mayans to the cold war era “The Jetsons” view of the future, it’s a
fascinating subject. I’m not one to believe
in the “doom and gloom” versions of the future, people have been predicting “the
end” for quite some time, and history has shown they are batting at .000.
My view of the future is based on some pretty obvious stuff: The population will grow as people will live
longer and the life expectancies in currently developing countries will be much
longer. The need for resources for this
growing population will drive innovation.
Energy will play a huge role in the future. An important x-factor will be
transportation. In less than 100 years,
humans went from wood and canvas flying machines to supersonic jets, rockets,
and space shuttles. The next 100 years
will see transportation technology that will make the current means human
travel seem ancient.
So what exactly would I see in the future? I would look into the future and see the end
of institutional religion as we know them.
I’m personally not an atheist or agnostic, but a large amount of people
on this planet are simply not mature and rational enough to see religion as a
means of peace and education, not a means to hate others for not agreeing with
your religion. Therefore, moderate and
rational people will place less time, passion, and effort into these religions,
and they will eventually lose influences over the masses, and then die off as a
result. Once the power of institutional
religion is gone, we will see a future of unprecedented scientific, social, and
technological progress. The future man
will be a spiritual person, not a religious one, as he had in the past.
I see a future where most humans will be racially ambiguous
due to generations of mixing of different races. A mixture of dominant genes from several
races will dictate the physical appearance of future humans. As mentioned, scientific and medical advances will take
place and people will ultimately live longer; A lot longer. This means the living population on earth
will ultimately expand even more. First,
technology will allow humans, who at some point will have exhausted most of the
space on “suitable” land; to figure out how to live comfortably in deserts
and arctic areas. Then humans; since
2/3s of the planet is under water, will build self-contained and self sufficient cities under water;
first in bays or off shore, then in the middle of the oceans. Eventually, humans will colonize habitable
planets within the our galaxy or possibly solar system, facilitated by spacecraft using advanced propulsion technology able to travel at sub-light speeds, will be able to send groups of
people to the edges of our solar system within months.
The struggle for energy will be a thing of the past. Tesla’s theories of electric currents in the
atmosphere and in space, and the safe transfer of wireless energy, will eventually
be proven true, and wireless energy will be collected from space to be used to
power man’s machines and cities on the earth.
There will be no need for power plants, fossil fuels, generators, or
even nuclear reactors. Automobiles will
largely be electric and with the perfection of safe, wireless electric
transmission; expensive, heavy, and toxic batteries will go away. Water will be a sought after resource, and
therefore desalination technology of the future will facilitate supplying not only
a large population with potable drinking water, but irrigation for agriculture in
places where there were not previously agriculture helping to feed this larger
population.
Advances in communication will also be dramatic. Gone will be the days of laptops, computers,
keyboards, computer mice, and even smart phones. Small, button-less, screen-less, voice (or
fingerprint) activated electronic devices, little bigger than a modern credit
card will be able to act as a phone, a TV, a radio, an internet browser, a book
reader, a navigation system, a computer, and a house key. It will be used to stream in holographic images
of TV shows, the news, movies, the internet, and make video calls from anywhere
without the need for impractical and expensive audio/visual equipment or even
an internal power source.
The military of the future will also be a different place as
civilization will grow weary of casualties in conflict. However, a few will still conduct war. In the future, unmanned fighter craft and
bombers will eventually replace humans in the cockpits. Naval warships will also be notably absent of
human sailors. Advances in robotics
will also lead to more ground armies made up of autonomous or remote controlled
machines capable of moving on all known land terrain, without the logistical
needs required for a human foot soldier. It may be very feasible that in the future, the
outcome of wars will be decided on whose machines inflict the most damage on
the on their opponents machines without a single human war casualty. Conventional weapons technology of the future
will also be so devastating and frightening, that most countries will rarely
conduct warfare at all.
This is what I would expect to see in the future based not simply
of me guessing, but based on the past innovations that started in the industrial
revolution and the historically constant needs of humans. Very few people 150 years ago could have
predicted how life would be today. So I don’t
think my predictions are really that far out there.
