Mid-century world promises healthier, smarter, safer life

By Dick Pelletier

      

    Despite today's gloom and doom headlines dominated by economical woes, nuclear threats, and terrorism; UN futurist Jerome Glenn and other forward-thinkers see a bright future ahead that many of us alive today will live to enjoy. Within four decades, Glenn says, humanity can achieve a peaceful economy and provide nearly everyone with life’s necessities. The following report describes a future that forward-thinkers believe is very attainable:

    People – By 2015, most nations move from reactive to proactive healthcare with low-cost personal genomes allowing doctors to eliminate most genetic diseases. By 2020, regenerative medicine with stem cell and genetic therapies enables doctors to replace damaged and aging tissues and organs. Cancer, heart attacks, and many other diseases are now preventable. By 2050, lower death rates ballooned world population to over ten billion.

    Nanotechnology – By 2025, in-home nano-replicators provide food, clothing, and essentials at little or no costs. By 2030, nanobots whizzing through our bodies maintain perfect health. By 2035, every disease is treatable, leaving only accidents, crime, and violence to attract the grim reaper.

    By mid-2040s, people began replacing organs, tissues, muscles, and bones with nano-materials creating a more powerful and damage-resistant body. Should a destructive accident occur, mind and memories automatically transfer into a newly-constructed body allowing life to continue. Dying has become no more disruptive than a bee sting.

    Transportation – Nearly every family owns an air-car. Backing into the driveway, these auto-drive/auto-fly vehicles rise silently and glide through the sky like birds. GPS systems monitor traffic in the air and on the ground preventing collisions. For longer trips, we hop on a maglev train or fly a scramjet to anywhere on Earth in an hour or less.

    Energy – By 2050, hydrogen fuel cells energize most vehicles. Solar and geothermal energy maintain temperatures in homes, and fusion power, the inexhaustible energy source that powers the stars is under development and could be available by the 2070s.

    Robots and Artificial Intelligence – By late 2030s, advanced robots surpassed human intelligence in what cognitive expert Steven Pinker calls the biggest science breakthrough in 50 years, significantly enhancing human reasoning. Some refer to this event as the Singularity, a time when technologies advance so fast, that it's beyond our ability to comprehend them; and these runaway technologies may produce machines so intelligent that they might one day eliminate us.

    But Nanorex founding Chief Scientist J. Storrs Hall in his book Beyond AI says not to worry. By the time machines becomes smarter than us, we will have the ability to connect our minds to these silicon brains and share their intelligence; thus always remaining in control.

    Communications – Our always-on holographic TV/phone/radio/computer feeds messages from friends, relatives, and business contacts and delivers entertainment. We can experience communications the old-fashioned way through eyes and ears, or for easier understanding, receive signals directly to our optic nerve.

    Security – By mid-century, surveillance cameras scan the entire planet, leaving nowhere for criminals to hide. Fears of "big brother" abuse were offset by worldwide crime reduction.

    Could this bold future become reality? Positive futurists believe that these events can happen, and in the timeframe mentioned. And many people alive today will live to enjoy this amazing "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.